Obwisana

This last week I spent much of my music therapy time engaged in a song called "Obwisana." This song was introduced to me by an intern, and I just rediscovered it in a book that I absolutely love called The Melody Book. The Melody Book was compiled by Patricia Hackett, and I happen to have found a copy of it that was published in 1983. It is prohibitively expensive ($118 marked down) on Amazon.com, but I found a VERY used copy on eBay several years ago and only spent $35 on my copy.


Anyway, I started to brainstorm ways to use the song with my students with developmental and psychiatric concerns. I made Obwisana my therapeutic music experience (also known as TME) of the week.

I often find one TME that I run with all of my groups during the week. I adapt or extend the TME to accommodate clients' levels of function, attention to task, or interests, but I use the TME in all 14 of my group sessions. This week it was time for Obwisana.


(By the way, you can find a copy of the TME plan as well as a link to a YouTube presentation on my website, www.musictherapyworks.com

Here is the complete link: http://www.musictherapyworks.com/therapeuticmusicexperie.html)


I started the week with my gathering drums and my first sensory-focused group. We sang the song and drummed together - something that is VERY difficult for us to do as a group. Other groups passed shaker eggs around the circle. Yet other groups played elimination games and became community beat keepers. It was amazing how my group members took the game idea and transformed it into something unique and amazing for themselves. Each session was a marvel for me as the "therapist" as I introduced the idea and then watched my clients make the experience their own.

By the end of 14 sessions, I had many different ways to use the same song.