A Music Therapy Moment
Yesterday, I was privileged to share in a music therapy moment. If you're a therapist, you know what I mean, one of those moments when everything clicks together and just works. Let me set the scene...
This was the last group of the afternoon. There were ten kids with a variety of diagnoses and interests, two staff members, my intern, and myself in the room. This group of kids is extremely diverse - some kids speak, some do not, some kids are working on academic goals, some kids are working on preacademic goals. Their goals are to improve impulse control, engage in appropriate social interactions, and increase communication skill. It was mid-afternoon, and we started the session the way we usually do - with an opening song.
Some kids sang, some sat, others just rocked during the opening song. I felt that what I had planned next wasn't quite right for us, so I changed my plan. I started with a strong alternate bass pattern on the guitar. I played the 12-bar blues progression through once and then starting singing. The words (the actual lyrics are lost forever as all improvisations tend to happen for me) were something like, "find the beat and put it in your head." Kids started to entrain to the song as indicated by moving to the beat. We spent several verses with movement and with me singing directive lyrics of thing to do. The last directive lyric was for group members to make a sound to the beat.
We started to meld into a unique musical experience. Some kids moved to the beat, sitting quietly. Some kids made sounds - one kid made an obnoxious sound and then looked at me and stated, "I'm a fire alarm!" Others sang the bass line. One young man scatted in a way that indicated to me that he had scatted before - lots of syllables and variations. Some clapped their hands.
For the next 5 minutes, we engaged, entrained, interacted, communicated, and allowed each other to be musical.
Once we had finished our improvisation, the group seemed to be ready to move on, so we did.
This was the last group of the afternoon. There were ten kids with a variety of diagnoses and interests, two staff members, my intern, and myself in the room. This group of kids is extremely diverse - some kids speak, some do not, some kids are working on academic goals, some kids are working on preacademic goals. Their goals are to improve impulse control, engage in appropriate social interactions, and increase communication skill. It was mid-afternoon, and we started the session the way we usually do - with an opening song.
Some kids sang, some sat, others just rocked during the opening song. I felt that what I had planned next wasn't quite right for us, so I changed my plan. I started with a strong alternate bass pattern on the guitar. I played the 12-bar blues progression through once and then starting singing. The words (the actual lyrics are lost forever as all improvisations tend to happen for me) were something like, "find the beat and put it in your head." Kids started to entrain to the song as indicated by moving to the beat. We spent several verses with movement and with me singing directive lyrics of thing to do. The last directive lyric was for group members to make a sound to the beat.
We started to meld into a unique musical experience. Some kids moved to the beat, sitting quietly. Some kids made sounds - one kid made an obnoxious sound and then looked at me and stated, "I'm a fire alarm!" Others sang the bass line. One young man scatted in a way that indicated to me that he had scatted before - lots of syllables and variations. Some clapped their hands.
For the next 5 minutes, we engaged, entrained, interacted, communicated, and allowed each other to be musical.
Once we had finished our improvisation, the group seemed to be ready to move on, so we did.
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