RGM REPORT

Recently, I attended a special Friday evening program at Murmo. Petra Kovács, music therapist and RGM instructor, presented her applied method to the interested audience.

The creator of the technique was jazz drummer Ronnie Gardiner, who experienced how many beneficial effects body drumming has on brain functioning. Therefore, he created his own therapeutic method so that everyone could share in the combined developmental effect of music and rhythm, which is due to the stimulation of the nervous system. The uniqueness of the method lies in the fact that it simultaneously applies auditory, tactile, verbal, motor, and visual stimuli, thereby strengthening memory, motor and cognitive skills, and concentration.

The method is currently applied in the therapy of children and the rehabilitation of adults, but outstanding results can also be achieved with it in education. That is precisely why Petra, together with her partners, is currently working so that regular RGM practice can get into public education, establishing with this the children’s later results.

Before the start of the lecture, the interested people slowly began to trickle in, to whom Petra’s enthusiasm quickly spread, so the presentation started with questions right away. After the questions, we learned what this method is exactly, in what areas it is applied, and why it is good. And then followed the long-awaited practical part, when we ourselves could try out the technique under Petra’s conduct. For a start, we launched with a very simple exercise, but after the umpteenth trial it became sufficiently complicated, as we had to pay attention at the same time to when we clap, when we stomp with our feet, and what’s more, all this in two voices.

After the light warm-up, sharp exercises followed, which Petra made us practice in a hundred different ways. Sometimes we clapped, sometimes we “klepped”, other times the two at the same time. Furthermore, we changed our pitch, the volume, we stood up and sat down in the meantime, and what’s more, we practiced the given task to music of different speeds and rhythms.

And after the exercises, we also received the opportunity to quiet down a bit, and process the plenty of stimuli and information to a calm music, in half-light, with closed eyes. At the very end of the lecture, each of us reported that after a long workday they arrived exhausted to Murmo, all their fatigue blew away thanks to the great “frontal lobe gymnastics”.

From now on, instead of coffee, I will pour a little RGM in the morning into my glass.