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!!  

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