Song Conversion Sunday: Week Three - Putting It All Together

I left off on November 11 with a discussion about possible uses of the song that I randomly selected from my stacks and stacks of sheet music books. In the past two weeks, the song has continued to be in my head more than it has ever been before. I looked through my entire library and found that I did not have a copy of the recording (I have "More Songs from Dawson's Creek" but not the original soundtrack), so I purchased a copy of the song for my library.

I have learned the song pretty well as far as the theory and lyrics are concerned, so now it is time to put it into my client decision tree to see how I can use the song with my particular clients in my particular music therapy treatment. I started this process in the post on the 11th - see the post here.

This is the part that makes the use of any type of musical intervention into therapy (in my opinion) - filtering the musical elements and content of the music into what is best for my client at this particular time in my professional opinion. Learning the song is the very basic level of musicianship. Any musician can learn a song. I believe that we, as music therapists, have to go further into the music itself through the filter of client treatment plans, preferences, and goals. Without that filter, therapy does not happen.

My clients are children and adolescents with developmental/intellectual diagnoses with acute and chronic psychiatric concerns as well. They do not really have much reason to know this particular piece of music, but there are possibilities that my clients may have some extramusical associations with this song (there are always possibilities for these types of associations with any type of music). Due to that possibility, I may want to use the music as is before starting to piggyback new lyrics onto the original (thanks to Jennifer, who reminded me of the emotional link that many people have to this song). It is worth the extra time and exposure to see if my clients know of this song, and it will inform my therapeutic interventions in a way that is more efficient and appropriate for my client.

So, to introduce this song or to see if my clients have any extramusical associations with the music, I'll use it for movement music. I can see us using this music for scarves or ribbon stick movements. The music itself has clear verses and choruses, allowing for movement changes based on changes in the musical format. The music also has a good tempo for my clients - the original recording is set about 80 bpm with lots of inter-beat movement in the accompaniment figures. This song is a good one for transitioning from using the ribbons or the scarves into returning back to the music therapy group area.

For piggybacking, I like using the chorus to reinforce the concept of waiting as part of life. "I don't want to wait for the line in the cafeteria, but I know that I have to wait sometimes...etc." Some of my clients could use a song to help with a variety of situations where this song will help reinforce the need to wait for things to happen.

I don't have too many students at the moment who can really get into lyric analysis. Most of my students can identify a story to a song, but they just don't understand the "how does this relate to your life" aspect of analysis, so we don't do it very often. This is something that I can try after I test to see if clients know the music. If they do not, this may be a good song to try to unpack some concepts about trauma. 

When all is said and done, this song may not be a therapy-rich piece of music for my clients. It will be a good option for using as a background or support figure. I can change the lyrics to accommodate my clients in the moment, and I can use the music to reflect client behaviors. The piece of music may not resemble Paula Cole's original words, but it will help me to respond to my clients through music.

I think I have milked this song for everything that I can possibly find. It is time to find a new song for next week. I wonder what it will be...