TME Tuesday - Developing a Song Into a TME - The Keeper

The Sing A Song Sunday post from Sunday is a song that I think I could develop into a pretty good Therapeutic Music Experience (TME - and what I call the things I do in sessions with clients), but that song isn't something I've used before. That means it is time to develop it into a TME for my file. Let's go through the process of TME development together today. Are you ready?? Here we go!

The first step in TME development (in my humble opinion) is to think about the song with an open mind.

The Keeper is a traditional English song that speaks about hunting and hints at a relationship that could be interpreted as that of apprentice and trade master. It is presented at a good clip and has a pretty easy melody that includes scalar runs and skips. The range of pitches is no more than an octave which should make it pretty easy for my clients to sing. The chorus includes a call and response section that encourages listening as well as opportunities for impulse control practice and receptive and expressive language skill development. So, I think the song could be used pretty well as the foundation for several TMEs for my students.

Now that I've thought through the song, it's time to focus on my clients. I think I'll focus on my kids who fall in the center of the functioning continuum. Most of these kids have some functional communication - they can indicate wants and needs, but they are often unable to complete a conversation. They need some help with that skill. They can match letters and are learning music notation and symbols. They are challenged by sustained attention to task for the duration of a song (any more than 3 minutes of focused attention is a challenge). Impulse control and frustration tolerance also challenge them. My next question is, "How can I address these needs in music therapy using The Keeper as the musical offering."

Time to move into brainstorming mode.

I use a TME format that I've used since I was an undergraduate way way back in the darkish ages. My main music therapy professor started me off in this format, my internship director tweaked it a bit, and I've also tweaked it many times over my career. I've added things, subtracted things, and moved things around. My TME file is an interesting archeological journey through my life as a music therapist as you can see the changes in what I felt was important to consider as I was planning interventions for use with my clients. It still changes.

Anyway, the basic form is as follows:

TITLE of TME

Therapeutic Music Experience

NAME OF THERAPIST

Purpose: Goal areas - any and everything that is covered in the TME

Source: All source material - copyright, location found, original song, etc.

Materials: What do I need to run this TME as planned? Instruments, music sources, lyric sheets, other materials??

Environment: Where do the clients need to be to participate? What needs to be in the environment to make this TME work?

Song/Chant/Words: As many of the words to the music as appropriate or legal. Re-source the material here if the music is not original

Procedure: R = Reinforcement opportunities; C = Redirection/Cue opportunities; A = Assessment

Here is where I list all the steps I have to take to make this TME work with my clients. It is not a script, but a way to plan what I'll do and what I'll look for during the TME facilitation.

Therapeutic Function of Music:

Melody	Pitch	Rhythm	Dynamics	Harmony

Form	Tempo	Timbre	Style	Lyrics

Chart adapted from Hanson-Abromeit, D. (2010). A Closer Look at the Therapeutic Function of Music. Presentation at 2010 American Music Therapy Association National Conference: Cleveland, OH.

I've written about this chart before - see Therapeutic elements of music in the topic list to the left...

Adaptations:

What do I need to shift in order to provide success for different clients or for the same clients who need further accommodations?

Extensions: 

How can I move from this idea into another skill area to change the goal focus and address more client needs?

Alright.

So, how do I start? In this case, I'm going to start from a position of client needs. We are working on music symbol and notation recognition, so I'm going to use this song as the format for an Orff arrangement. 

 

We'll be using fine motor skill (holding the mallets), gross motor skill (large upper extremity movements to hit the bars), eye-hand coordination (aiming for the correct note), letter recognition, symbol-to-letter matching, social interaction and awareness (through playing as a group and coordinating music with others), impulse control (having to wait to play as indicated by the music), and I am sure that there are others (but I'm running out of time here...) as well.

There's the purpose area filled out already.

Song is easy - I'm just going to use the chorus for this TME, so we can focus on success in playing music. So is the materials section - each student needs a sheet music copy and an Orff instrument. Environment needs some consideration - each group member should be within eyesight and hearing of the group leader. 

The procedure always takes me some time to figure out. What am I going to say and do when leading this TME? I never think of it as a script. That would be silly. The best therapists adapt their interactions as necessary to engage their clients in music therapy interventions. So, this is not a script, but things to think about and a basic strategy.

For this TME, I would start with asking clients to choose an instrument and allowing some free play while I was passing out the sheet music. I would assess whether group members were playing and also how they were playing. Then, I would cue group members to pay attention to me. I would demonstrate how to play the sheet music (prepared for them in a way that they could read) and ask them to join me. We would play, practicing our skills with me demonstrating appropriate and inappropriate frustration tolerance so they could see how to do things and to "help" me. We would continue to play until the group members started to show me signs and symptoms of disengagement or when time runs out.

The elements of music chart is presented in the small picture. I think more effectively in pictures than in prose, so I have found that I can fill things out this way and then transfer them into the chart as designed in the TME form so others can see it in a format that they can understand. It is important to think about how you learn and process information the best so you can develop your own way of thinking about music therapy interventions. 

Adaptations and extensions almost always show up after I've run the TME a couple of times. 

There you go; a glimpse into my TME development process. How do you develop your music therapy interventions? Let me know what you think!!