A Flash!
I am very interested in how music therapists get ideas for what to do with their clients.
How do you figure out what to do with your clients? Do you use ideas from other people all the time? Do you develop your own songs and experiences? Do you enter a session with a scripted plan, or do you improvise everything?
I tend to do a combination of the questions above. I often have a sketch of a session plan in my head, along with all of my previous experiences, improvisation formats, and my equipment. I go where my clients take me, wherever that may be.
My ideas for Therapeutic Music Experiences (or TMEs as I will refer to them from now on) often come to me in a flash of creativity. The flash comes and goes, and I have learned, the hard way, that if I don't capture that flash immediately, it is just plain old gone.
The flash is an elusive thing. Sometimes I wake up in the morning singing a fully formed song - everything falls into place without effort. Other times, I get stuck in a rut, singing old songs over and over until I finally force myself to break out. I use several techniques to get my creativity going, including writing songs within very strict structures and rules, using modes, limiting the kinds of notes that I can use, and many other tricks that I have developed for my use over the years. Every time I get a flash, I try to capture it as quickly as I can. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
I have a box and a data file of all of the TMEs that I have collected and developed over the years. The ideas that have survived the first flash have made it into my TME file and have been used with generations of clients. Some of those ideas are wonderful - clients appear to enjoy them, ask for them by name, and engage in them exactly as I planned from the very beginning. Others are flops from the start. I never throw anything away, though. You never know when a flop of an idea will become fully formed and make a transition from flop to hit.
I occasionally post some of my TMEs on my website, www.musictherapyworks.com. I make sure that I only use my own original ideas and music on those posts, and you are welcome to access them at any time.
How do you figure out what to do with your clients? Do you use ideas from other people all the time? Do you develop your own songs and experiences? Do you enter a session with a scripted plan, or do you improvise everything?
I tend to do a combination of the questions above. I often have a sketch of a session plan in my head, along with all of my previous experiences, improvisation formats, and my equipment. I go where my clients take me, wherever that may be.
My ideas for Therapeutic Music Experiences (or TMEs as I will refer to them from now on) often come to me in a flash of creativity. The flash comes and goes, and I have learned, the hard way, that if I don't capture that flash immediately, it is just plain old gone.
The flash is an elusive thing. Sometimes I wake up in the morning singing a fully formed song - everything falls into place without effort. Other times, I get stuck in a rut, singing old songs over and over until I finally force myself to break out. I use several techniques to get my creativity going, including writing songs within very strict structures and rules, using modes, limiting the kinds of notes that I can use, and many other tricks that I have developed for my use over the years. Every time I get a flash, I try to capture it as quickly as I can. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
I have a box and a data file of all of the TMEs that I have collected and developed over the years. The ideas that have survived the first flash have made it into my TME file and have been used with generations of clients. Some of those ideas are wonderful - clients appear to enjoy them, ask for them by name, and engage in them exactly as I planned from the very beginning. Others are flops from the start. I never throw anything away, though. You never know when a flop of an idea will become fully formed and make a transition from flop to hit.
I occasionally post some of my TMEs on my website, www.musictherapyworks.com. I make sure that I only use my own original ideas and music on those posts, and you are welcome to access them at any time.
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