Sing a Song Sunday #1

So, TME Tuesdays are going along pretty well. I have managed to remember to post things every week for a couple of months by now. Since I'm in a TME Tuesday habit now, I am ready to expand. I think I will launch Sing a Song Sundays (I just came up with the name right now...). I'm hoping that this will also become a habit, for me and for you.

So, here is what I think I should be doing on these Sundays...

1. Find a song - any song...
2. Parse the song into musical elements - use the TME chart I developed using ideas from Deanna Hanson-Abromeit
3. Go through a decision tree to brainstorm ways that the song can be used with my students - as many as possible
4. Try it with at least one group of students to see if there are any adaptations that need to be written up in the TME format

Maybe there should be a form. (Ooh, I LOVE making forms! This is getting better and better all the time!!)

So, now it's time to get started. I think I will choose a songbook from random here near my desk...

Well, the first book that I picked was a chord dictionary for keyboard instruments, so no songs there. The second book was a bit better - Biggest Hits of 1985-1986 - oooh, the Now That's What I Call Music printed sheet music version of the 80's. The problem with this book is that most of the music printed here was thinly veiled sexual innuendo - not something that I'm going to bring into my music therapy clinic with my clients who do not have good boundaries when it comes to sexual topics. We do not play any music that would lead to negative behavior consequences if students were caught singing the lyrics, so most of the music in this book is not really appropriate, but for the purposes of this exercise, here I go...

I thought I would start with a song sung by Sheena Easton, but the comments on YouTube were specifically referring to a topic that I don't feel comfortable writing about, so off we go to another page. After some additional searching, I found a song on page 148 called, "Only the Young," words and music by Steve Perry, Neal Schon, and Jonathon Cain. I'm not sure about this song, so off to YouTube I go to find the original performance by Journey. Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEEYdKh0y7Y 

So, now I have the song, the lyrics, the sheet music. Time to start the parsing procedure...

This starts with an examination of the music and the musical elements of the song. As I have previously discussed in this blog, I have a chart that I use to organize my thoughts about these elements. It's my tool, developed around the ideas of Deanna Hanson-Abromeit. I use it in my therapeutic music experience development (TME) process and have found it to be extremely helpful when I've had to explain what I was doing to the music to make it an effective therapeutic modality for my clients.

Whew. Here is the chart for this song. I am now moving into the brainstorming part of this Sunday...

This is lots of work, but I think it will be beneficial to me in the future. What do you think?

Alright - how to use the song with my clientele...

• Introduce as dance music - limited active engagement with lyrics, focus on use of tempo, harmony, and style to encourage motor involvement. Could use as start/stop background, structured or unstructured movement framework, and/or dance team routine
• Use video as music history lesson - discuss the instruments, the style, and the time frame of the music
• Lyric analysis - my clients do not always participate in lyric analysis the way that others do, so I don't often run lyric analyses with my kids, but this could be used in a discussion about making choices in our lives. The song could act as the framework for discussion about the difference between responsible and irresponsible decisions - bring in impulse control as focus...
• There are other ways to use the song as well...

Now it is time to start practicing the song. It should be pretty easy to learn - the chord structure is simple as is the melody. There we go!

Please share any ideas or comments about this series or this song. I strongly feel that our creativity increases exponentially when we work as a collective.