Creativity and Composition - Part One

In 6 days, I will be hosting my second ever webinar for music therapists and music therapy students. As I tend to come up with ideas about what I want to learn by looking around my life and wanting specific topics to appear in the music therapy world, this one has come out of a creativity desert. So, what did I do? I went back into my old presentations and culled out several things that helped me break out my creative rut into an increase of songwriting and creative applications I can use in my music therapy practice!

Before I get distracted, here are the details about the webinar:

Title: Composition and Creativity - Part 1
Description: A 1.5 hour seminar focusing on composing songs for use with music therapy populations. Music therapists and music therapy students welcome! Bring a pencil, some staff paper, and follow these steps to increase your creativity in music therapy sessions.
Date & Time: Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at 7:00 pm CDT
Please register for the above meeting by visiting this link:  http://MJ.enterthemeeting.com/m/42J5SNYS
Once you have registered, we will send you the information you need to join the webinar.

Any and all folks interested are welcome! Does not cost any money, so please plan on joining us!

There are so many things that I have forgotten over my years of leading therapeutic musical experiences with folks, that I have to make a special effort to review that material whenever I find myself in a creative slump. I have learned tricks to trick my creative self into making good music. Other times I cannot trick my brain into being creative.


Reviewing the techniques that I have used in the past is the best way to get myself back into a creative view. Lately, I have composed a song to go with a Therapeutic Music Experience (TME) for body part identification, creative movement, and simple enjoyment of a silly song. That TME plan, song, and visual aid will be posted on my website at:
http://www.musictherapyworks.com/ideasandexperiences.html
as soon as I get it completed. Watch for that new TME offered by www.musictherapyworks.com!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea...
Read more

Songwriting Sunday: Repetition

Image
One of the things that I find to be helpful with my client population (children, adolescents, and young adults with dual diagnoses) is repetition of phrases, lyrics, and music. As a result of 30+ years of working with this population in various iterations, I have found that my clients respond the most to songs with three repeated phrases to prime their responses with a different phrase to communicate the important part of the experience. DISCLAIMER: This is not a definite way to write music for clinical interactions. This is what seems to work well with my particular group of human beings. Don't go to your supervisors and tell them that I told you that this is the ONLY way to write music - It is NOT! You have to find what works for your clients and for their clinical goals. Since my clients respond well to this type of song, I tend to write songs in this format more than any other. What I have found is that my clients remember these songs more than the ones that I do in different f...
Read more

Being An Internship Director: On Hiatus

Image
It has been long enough since I have had an intern that I am seriously feeling like I have little to say on the subject. At the same time, I am currently writing Chapter 5 of my general internship handbook, so I am able to write about being an intern and what types of things to think about during this important time in our professional development. It is a strange place to be in, and it is one that is a bit challenging for me. Right now, I have had three vacant internship positions since the beginning of the calendar year. I will have a vacant position next month and that will be an entire year of rejected offers. In the past nine months, I have offered positions to three applicants who have declined. It is interesting how people complain that there aren't enough internship programs, but programs like mine are empty. I guess there aren't enough internship programs that pay large stipends (which mine cannot) out there. I get it. It is interesting to me how we have moved from an ...
Read more