TME Tuesday - From Start to Finish

Many of my best songs come and go.

I often improvise during sessions to accommodate client interests, activity levels, and immediate needs. Most of the songs that I improvise are based on client observations and match their observable behaviors, emotions, and sounds. They are often extremely effective in engaging clients, and I often think, "I need to remember this song and write it down. This is really working." When the session is over, the song is gone. I can't remember anything about it except that it was a great song!

Yesterday, I made up a song about post-Thanksgiving states. I remember the words (unusual) but not the melody that I improvised. So, now you get to go through my process of Therapeutic Music Experience (TME) development from close to the start through to the finish.

The song is called, "I Ate Too Much on Thanksgiving." Like many of my original songs, it follows a simple format - one line repeated twice, a novel line, and then the first line one more time. Then, the lyrics change to accommodate client contributions or a story.

I ate too much on Thanksgiving,

I ate too much on Thanksgiving,

The food was great, I cleaned my plate,

I ate too much on Thanksgiving.

(I often change the words to "We ate too much...")

If I remember correctly (which I don't), I used a secondary dominant in the third line to emphasize the novelty of the line. So, now it's time to compose the melody line.

My songs often arrive in my head lyrics first. Melodies and harmonies often come later, but when I improvise, they are simultaneous. Maybe that's why I can't remember them later on. Hmmm.

Anyway, melody line. My clients do best at singing a song when it has a limited tessitura - 5-7 notes maximum. So, I head to the keyboard. I can compose with the guitar, but it is easier for me to hear the melody line when I'm at the piano and not the guitar. Here I go...

Chords - I ///, V7///, I/, I7/, IV/, V/V/, V7//,I/

Melody - D M M M R D S M F F F M R L S S M M M R D F F L L S S S R M M D

Rhythm - this is the hardest part to transcribe for me... most of what I compose has syncopation in the melody - it's rarely a melody line that falls on the macro or even steady microbeats. There is almost always a skip or hesitation in my rhythmic lines. I like it that way, and my clients do too (seems to me!). Anyway, writing out the rhythm requires me to use another software program in order to figure it out. Be right back...

(Okay, I'll need a bit more time to figure out where I put my MIDI connection and get the keyboard hooked up to the computer and then progress from there. Yep, I have a MIDI connection for my keyboard (we're both very old). The MIDI connection allows me to play songs into the keyboard which then goes into my computer and records the song for me. Then, I can adjust the rhythm to make it sound right in my head. It takes some time.)

The song is now finished. It's time to start thinking about ways to use the song in a therapeutic manner. This song appears to be, on the surface, a way for students to indicate a past event (Thanksgiving) and to engage in social interaction. If used that way, it is a perfectly good song, but the song itself was not originally composed for that purpose. The topic was designed to grab the attention of a group of clients who were on the brink of getting out of control. Their signs and symptoms of overarousal were evident, and I needed their attention quickly - hence, the song. The tempo, rhythmic nature of the song, and changes in the lyrics were specifically used to match the signs and symptoms that I could see. On the surface, the song is a fluffy way to engage clients in discussion. Under the surface, the music is what makes the song effective for the clients present - the music therapist is changing the music to accommodate the needs of each client in the group. I was able to engage the attention of each client and get them calmed by using the song - we didn't have any further escalation of undesirable behaviors. SUCCESS! So, when writing up the TME plan, I may include a therapeutic elements of music chart like I do on Sing A Song Sundays. This will remind me that every piece of music that I use has the potential to assist clients in meeting their therapeutic goals.

I love that about music therapy.