Sing A Song Sunday - My Rhinoceros

This morning, I flipped straight to one of my favorite sections in Rise Up Singing, the play section. All of these songs are just plain old silly, but I know most of them and use them often. The only song I didn't know on page 174 was My Rhinoceros, so that is today's Sunday's song!

 
I was not able to find a link to the melody line for this song, but I did find quite a bit of information about Edward Lipton that wasn't available in my book.

YouTube link

Extra Verses link

Interesting pdf about the songs of Edward Lipton from the Library of Congress link

Does anybody wonder why I do these particular posts every Sunday?

One of the things that I keep seeing over and over again on my social media feeds is commenting about how to justify our jobs as music therapists. People are constantly asking for help on how to explain what we do as music therapists in contrast to what music volunteers or music practitioners do in their roles with clients. For me, the answer lies in how we use the music, but I find that many music therapists do not really know how to verbalize how we use music with our clients in a way that completely illustrates what we do.

I was trained to use music as a therapeutic medium. My undergraduate training offered me many opportunities to play music with clients, but it wasn't until my Master's degree education that I started to understand the deeper effect that music could have on my clients. I also realized that I had been lucky. Many of my clients had responded to what I was doing, but I didn't really know how to change and shape those responses into the ones that they (and I) wanted at the end of the session. My advanced training helped me realize how I actually could apply music in order to vector moods and emotions, change attitudes, and use music to help my clients reach their personal goals. But, still, when someone would ask me about how I was using music as my medium, I wasn't able to do so in a way that they understood.

I like to think that I can do a much better job of this nowadays. One of the things that has helped has been focusing on music, and how I can use it with my particular group of clients. I can talk about how I can adapt a particular piece of music for the client who is in the session. I can talk to those who make programming and budgetary decisions about the ways that I, as a music therapist, can adapt the music in the moment rather than just going in to play a list of songs. I can discuss the ways I can assist clients in engaging, relaxing, practicing, and all the other things they seek when they arrive at my clinic for music therapy.

I write these posts every Sunday so I can continue to think about my chosen medium, music, at a level of analysis that I don't always consider. I also think I need to consider this level in a purposeful manner so I can talk to others about what I do and how it differs from what others do. I hope they are helpful for others as well, either as an exercise in thinking or as a way to expand repertoire. I know that I am enjoying the process and will probably continue, even if no one out there reads the posts.

Now, I am going to get ready to practice My Rhinoceros.

See you all soon!