Shop Work
In those hospitals which possess an occupational therapy shop, music may be used to increase the pleasantness of the surroundings and possibly to increase the endurance and efficiency of work projects.
Music is not recommended as a background to work which requires mental concentration, even though it is used by a great many students who believe that they can do their home-work better with the radio on. If the melody is too interesting or too popular at the time, it may be distracting, but where the work is largely physical, soft music has been shown to be a desirable adjuvant. Gatewood[33] studied the effect of background music on workers in an architectural drafting room and discovered that although a minority found it distracting, most of the workers worked better and faster. They preferred familiar music and found instrumental music less distracting than vocal renditions.
More recently this subject has received the attention of many investigators who have shown its value among factory workers and have called it “Industrial Music.”[III.] Their findings and conclusions are so closely allied with the use of background music that a few excerpts from the growing literature will be mentioned.
Beckett[9] analyzed the reports made by those factories which have been broadcasting music to their employes through public address systems. There was improved morale in every plant where the music lasted for at least one hour daily. Two-thirds of the factories which played music for at least one hour on each shift claimed an increase in production of from five to ten percent. Greater efficiency results from using music to relieve the boredom of repetitive operations, to reduce nervous tension, to take the worker’s mind off himself, and in general to make the shop a more attractive place in which to work. He finds the evidence undeniable that music can increase production, but points out that this result will depend upon how the project is managed. If the acoustics or mechanical reproduction is poor, the value of music may be lost. The most important short-coming at present is the difficulty in obtaining suitable commercial recordings. Because of the noise in the average plant, the volume of the music must be slightly greater than that produced by the machines. But the average recording has such fluctuations in volume that some parts will be drowned out by the hum of the work and other sections will be too loud. Ideally, recordings for industrial music should vary only slightly in volume, from “plus or minus two decibels of tone intensity”, and these are not available in variety at present.
“The kind of music played is of paramount importance, but no one type of music can be used exclusively without becoming a bore to the listener. When request boxes are installed, it is often the young and enthusiastic ‘jive fans’ who use them to the fullest, while the more conservative music lovers usually sit back and take what comes. Sometimes this has led to the mistaken view that the whole plant desired the more raucous music. After a trial of this type of music some firms received unfavorable reports on production and lost faith in music. In some instances music was then abandoned altogether, whereupon there was such an outcry from the workers that the program was reinstated with hot swing entirely eliminated. Both extremes are bad. Giving the workers what they want is a more difficult problem than it appears at first. It requires not one but a number of questionnaires over a period of time to keep up with changing tastes.”
“Music must be played at the right time to obtain the best results. Marches create a cheerful atmosphere and should be played at the beginning of sessions, as well as at the end. The best time of the day for Strauss waltzes is at the so-called ‘fatigue periods.’ There is something about three-quarter time that is very refreshing at moments of fatigue. Besides the music is gay and light-hearted, and leads all other forms in popular appeal according to questionnaires filled in at three large plants.”
In the hospital occupational therapy shop, music may originate from the public address system, a record player, or the radio. It would seem that the most suitable in the average hospital would be the use of the radio, which the therapist can change at intervals of fifteen minutes or longer in an attempt to get unexciting music at a low volume level.