The Library - Starting Over Again
It doesn't seem possible that I wasn't here at home a week ago. I was hurtling across the great states of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas in an attempt to get home after visiting with my family. Since I have been back, I have been busy but not overly so.
I have made an effort to get back into my reading challenge. This week's selections have included Ethical Thinking in Music Therapy (I am REALLY looking forward to this month's book club discussion) and the Therapeutic Music Experience (TME) files of my former interns. I also dove back into Baker and Wigram's text on Songwriting. I went back to work on Thursday inspired to try something a little bit differently.
One of my assignments for interns is the development of a Therapeutic Music Experience file. I require that my interns write 25 original songs for use in sessions, and I also ask them to write down 50 other things to do in sessions with clients. I have found that this file is a challenging task for my interns to complete, but I find my own file to be invaluable, especially when I am bored with what I am doing with clients. So, because of that, I make every intern start a file.
This is a holdover from my undergraduate days when I had to start my own file. My file continued during my own internship, and I have been adding to that file of ideas ever since. One of the things that I really like about having my interns write original music and share their TME files with me is that I have access to their ideas even after they graduate. I then have an opportunity to use those TMEs with clients long after my interns have graduated and moved into their professional lives away from me and my program.
I have found several songs that will augment my current lapbook projects. I will not be publishing these songs since I do not own the copyrights, but I can use them as supplementary songs to help me reinforce the lapbook theme. I firmly believe that clients respond to many different experiences centered around one theme - the more options, the better when it comes to assisting clients in accessing important (or even trivial) information.
The songs that my former interns have written are interesting to read. They are sometimes awkward, much like my own songs. Sometimes they have seeped into my music therapy practice without a conscious awareness of where the song originated. That is another reason that I keep all of their TME files forever - original source materials and proof of intellectual property. If I am using a song and another person asks me who wrote the song, I can look it up in my TME file and give them that information. Huzzah!
My concern with copyright protection and intellectual property stems from a situation where I heard someone take credit for a song that I had composed during my internship. She was presenting at a music therapy conference and had videotaped herself leading a song with a bunch of preschoolers. I was thrilled when I heard the song - I had written it during my internship. Someone asked her where she had completed her internship, and lo and behold, she was the intern that had started her program right after I had left. We were interns at the same facility, with the same supervising music therapists! After her presentation, I was standing in line with others to comment on her lecture when one of the other attendees complimented her on my song. She said, "Thank you. I wrote that song during my internship." I was dumbfounded. I actually had proof that I had written that song six months before she even started her internship! I was shell-shocked and left the line. I now try to be a fierce proponent of copyright protection.
I feel that being an ethical therapist (or professional of any type, actually) means that you protect, not only yourself, but every person who engages in creativity and product development. (Did you notice the link with Ethical Thinking in Music Therapy??) We have a responsibility to fully acknowledge the creators of all of the music that we use in sessions. We need to know that the song, Wake Up Body, was written by Mary Jane Landaker while she was in her internship at the Center for Neurodevelopmental Studies in 1992-1993. It is important that we promote the creative endeavors of our fellow artists, professionals, and therapists.
Whew - what a tangent and rant! Sorry about that. Most of what I read this week really reminded me of one of my biggest pet peeves - sloppy source work. Okay. I think I should probably stop writing now and start to focus on other things.
I have some intern-composed songs to practice. ;-)
I have made an effort to get back into my reading challenge. This week's selections have included Ethical Thinking in Music Therapy (I am REALLY looking forward to this month's book club discussion) and the Therapeutic Music Experience (TME) files of my former interns. I also dove back into Baker and Wigram's text on Songwriting. I went back to work on Thursday inspired to try something a little bit differently.
One of my assignments for interns is the development of a Therapeutic Music Experience file. I require that my interns write 25 original songs for use in sessions, and I also ask them to write down 50 other things to do in sessions with clients. I have found that this file is a challenging task for my interns to complete, but I find my own file to be invaluable, especially when I am bored with what I am doing with clients. So, because of that, I make every intern start a file.
This is a holdover from my undergraduate days when I had to start my own file. My file continued during my own internship, and I have been adding to that file of ideas ever since. One of the things that I really like about having my interns write original music and share their TME files with me is that I have access to their ideas even after they graduate. I then have an opportunity to use those TMEs with clients long after my interns have graduated and moved into their professional lives away from me and my program.
I have found several songs that will augment my current lapbook projects. I will not be publishing these songs since I do not own the copyrights, but I can use them as supplementary songs to help me reinforce the lapbook theme. I firmly believe that clients respond to many different experiences centered around one theme - the more options, the better when it comes to assisting clients in accessing important (or even trivial) information.
The songs that my former interns have written are interesting to read. They are sometimes awkward, much like my own songs. Sometimes they have seeped into my music therapy practice without a conscious awareness of where the song originated. That is another reason that I keep all of their TME files forever - original source materials and proof of intellectual property. If I am using a song and another person asks me who wrote the song, I can look it up in my TME file and give them that information. Huzzah!
My concern with copyright protection and intellectual property stems from a situation where I heard someone take credit for a song that I had composed during my internship. She was presenting at a music therapy conference and had videotaped herself leading a song with a bunch of preschoolers. I was thrilled when I heard the song - I had written it during my internship. Someone asked her where she had completed her internship, and lo and behold, she was the intern that had started her program right after I had left. We were interns at the same facility, with the same supervising music therapists! After her presentation, I was standing in line with others to comment on her lecture when one of the other attendees complimented her on my song. She said, "Thank you. I wrote that song during my internship." I was dumbfounded. I actually had proof that I had written that song six months before she even started her internship! I was shell-shocked and left the line. I now try to be a fierce proponent of copyright protection.
I feel that being an ethical therapist (or professional of any type, actually) means that you protect, not only yourself, but every person who engages in creativity and product development. (Did you notice the link with Ethical Thinking in Music Therapy??) We have a responsibility to fully acknowledge the creators of all of the music that we use in sessions. We need to know that the song, Wake Up Body, was written by Mary Jane Landaker while she was in her internship at the Center for Neurodevelopmental Studies in 1992-1993. It is important that we promote the creative endeavors of our fellow artists, professionals, and therapists.
Whew - what a tangent and rant! Sorry about that. Most of what I read this week really reminded me of one of my biggest pet peeves - sloppy source work. Okay. I think I should probably stop writing now and start to focus on other things.
I have some intern-composed songs to practice. ;-)
Comments
Post a Comment