Just a Song Sunday - Introduction

www.musictherapyworks.comI've been spending quite a bit of time thinking about what I want in a blog. Specifically, I've been thinking about what I want to write about in this blog, and my thoughts have been skittering around quite a bit. I used my method for brainstorming (using my bullet journal) and came up with the idea that I still like doing some things with topics, so Just a Song Sunday evolved.

One of the things that irks me is when a fellow music therapist makes a big deal about getting a song to sing to a client. "What song should I sing for a client aged 14 with such and such a diagnosis?" For me, that kind of statement makes me think that the therapist in question feels that a song is a prescription. When you find the magical song, everything that the client is working on will miraculously be accomplished.

I'm sure that that type of magical thinking isn't really happening, but that is what it seems.

I do not believe that the song is what matters, but that it is how music is used by the therapist and the client that matters in music therapy.

Is this easy to understand? I always feel that I start babbling when I start trying to explain what I mean.

Long time readers of this blog know that I have spent many of my Sunday posts working on analyzing specific songs based on their musical elements. I have worked on this idea and philosophy for a long time, but I don't think I have really clearly defined it to myself yet, so still have some difficulty explaining it to others.

So, what do I intend to do on these Sunday mornings with this topic?

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what I intend to do. I've thought about many different things and here are some of the ideas and pitfalls:
  • demonstrating how a song can be changed to accommodate clients' needs - is this giving non-music therapists some of our education and training?
  • taking a random song and making it into a TME - again, this seems like giving away ideas for free
  • refining my ideas about this idea...
In the meantime, check out the blog label (located on the left side of the page here) Synthesis Sunday and Sing A Song Sunday. You'll find some song analyses, some ideas for clients, and things I've thought about many times.

I'll be back next Sunday with something to report or display.

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