The psychological impact of Ney music

The current study investigated whether music therapy carried with the Ney (a wind instrument used in classical Turkish music) has a positive effect on decreasing people's anger and psychological symptoms. The Ney is a Turkish folk instrument and known as a great symbol of Sufi music. In Mevlana philosophy, the Ney makes people feel at ease, and make them feel closer to God. The participants were 14 university students, who were randomly assigned to two groups. This experimental group received music therapy sessions twice a week during 7 weeks, resulting in a total of 14 sessions. The control group did not receive any therapy. The research instruments were administered as a pre-test, a post-test, and a follow-up test. The findings revealed that music therapy carried with Ney music has a considerable long term effect on reducing the participants’ anger and psychological symptoms.

► Music therapy that uses Ney music has a considerable and positive effect on reducing the participants’ anger and psychological symptoms.
► Through introducing a new application of Ney music from non-western culture, the current study proposes a different method for the treatment of anger in the field of music therapy.
► The current study seems to be the first study which examined the role of music therapy on reducing anger.