TME Tuesday - Recommended Resources for Ideas and TME Development

Well, if you came to this blog today looking for something new to do with your clients later this morning, you are probably going to be disappointed. Unfortunately, I wasn't really inspired to find a TME (actually, I had lots of them, but they are older so I would have to do lots of work to get them ready...this would not be the best day to do something like that. I feel hot, cranky, and so...). I decided instead to offer my recommendations for resources to inspire music therapy creativity.

A caveat here...

I do not get anything from anyone for mentioning things on my blog. I could probably change that, but I'm not going to. I like being completely independent when it comes to product reviews and the like. So, if you decide to look at one of these resources, please know that I offer a true opinion that is not tied to units sold or anything else.

The Resources I Use Most Often When Creating New TMES:
  1. Reader's Digest Songbooks - I love these. I have purchased mine mainly at thrift and garage sales. They offer sheet music (with both guitar and piano accompaniments), come in a variety of styles, and have a picture (most of the time) at the beginning of the song to help my nonverbal clients identify the songs that they want. They are kinda bulky, so I make it point to either transcribe music on a smaller card or I memorize the music so I don't have to lug them around. The books themselves are good to remind me of songs that I don't
  2. The Big Book of Music Games - This book has lots of wonderfully drawn games cards and visual aids just ready for game development. I use these to teach music education concepts (when I need to), but I also use them for therapy concepts as well.
  3. Wee Sing Books - any kind, any title - If you work with little kids, these songbooks are wonderful for reminding you about familiar songs that you may have forgotten and for giving you some new ideas as well.
  4. Rise Up Singing - This songbook is great if you think like a guitarist or a fake book enthusiast. There are no melody lines, but I can find most of the songs on YouTube so I can learn them easily. The book has over 1200 songs and are divided by themes and indexed as well so I can find things that talk about "work" easily.
  5. I find some resources on Amazon for FREE! You have to look and keep looking, but there are some good things there.
  6. Camp songbook websites - http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activities/camp-songs.html, http://www.flyingpigs.org.uk/song_index.shtml - I love camp songs. Always have, always will! These songbooks offer me lots and lots of songs that I know and lots that I don't know. The music is there, but the TME ideas come from me. These tend to just include words, so I have to compose music at times, but I like that challenge.
Those are my "go-to's" when I need something new or want to explore what my clients can do during music therapy. I also have lots of books written by music therapists, but I don't often use those resources. Strange.

What resources are your lifeline when you are coming up with TMEs for your clients? I'm always looking for more!!  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Therapeutic Elements of Music

In the year 2010, Dr. Deanna Hanson Abromeit, professor at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, presented A Closer Look at the Therapeutic Function of Music , a presentation at the American Music Therapy Association's Annual conference. I was unable to attend the presentation, but she was kind enough to send me a copy of the powerpoint for my files. How many of us really analyze the way we use music with our clients? How do you describe the reasons why you sing a specific song at a specific tempo for a specific client? Every so often, the music therapy listserv erupts in a discussion about the appropriateness of sharing therapeutic music experience ideas. One camp feels that we should not share ideas with one another due to the fact that it diminishes the individualization we offer to our clients. The other camp wants new ideas on how to engage clients providing them with novel and interesting experiences. I can understand the point of both groups. There is a danger in...
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