Music: Tune in for mental health

A young musician from Mumbai is helping people recognise the many benefits of music therapy via an app

When 4-year-old Nirvaan Pandit joined the classes taught by his mother, a bansuri player and teacher, for three- and four-year-olds, he learned more than music. Even though he was just a little boy at the time, he saw how his mother engaged with her students, and noted that music superseded any other form of communication and helped in the mental development of the children.

Nirvaan says music has been an integral part of his life and provides many positive developmental effects, which is what he aims to do via his app

Nirvaan’s app focusses on using music to evoke cognitive, emotional and physical responses

Their in-person programme experience helped them develop more lessons and expand and now, since the onset of the pandemic, they have 30k users across 28 different countries, and two volumes of music, each with 13 songs. 

heraTunes has been running for three and a half years now, starting off as a measure for Nirvaan to compose and explore the way he could help people, and visit NGOs to study the impact of music therapy on the ground

“Many people in India don’t believe in self-help or aspects of therapy that help individuals improve themselves. Music is ingrained in the culture of India. But when people think of music they only think about entertainment, not the fact that it can help as a form of therapy,” points out Nirvaan.