Using Music to Ease Pain and Soothe Anxiety

Music therapy can help overwhelmed hospital patients relax and cope.

Published: February 19, 2026

Screen Shot 2026-02-07 at 6.51.37 PM — © John Moore | Getty Images Listening to a favorite genre of music or hearing a favorite song can lift your spirits and help relieve anxiety. Music therapists take advantage of the music’s unique abilities to help heart patients overcome their fears and cope with their illness, hospitalization and treatments. Cleveland Clinic music therapists also show patients how to continue getting a positive boost from their favorite music after discharge as an incentive to exercise or to simply to feel more hopeful about the future.

Walk through the halls of any hospital and you’ll hear monitors beeping, patients moaning, overhead pages summoning and doors opening and closing. In many Cleveland Clinic hospitals, you also may hear folk songs, “golden oldies,” country favorites and Beatles classics sung to a guitar or keyboard.