Song Switch Sunday - Timbre and Instrumentation
Today's post is designed to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I have to make an audition tape demonstrating my guitar, piano, and vocal skills, so I'm going to use this tape to illustrate something else that is an important musical element to consider when you are choosing music for a music therapy session - timbre!
The types of instruments that you choose for your music can affect how a client responds.
The simplest example of how timbre can affect therapeutic effectiveness comes when you work with persons who have auditory sensitivities to particular instruments. This occurs, at times, with a wide variety of people. I have some sensitivities to particular timbres - saxophones, high harmonics on string instruments, my sister's voice on the telephone in my left ear. Some of my students have timbre sensitivities as well. I have one student whose screaming increases in volume when I play rhythm patterns on the keyboard. (He actually screams all the time, not because of sound sensitivity, but because he is not in charge of what is happening in the room.) He seems to have a true sensitivity response when I play rhythm patterns on the keyboard, however.
More difficult to explain are the nuances of timbre and instrumentation on how music is perceived and interpreted by clients. I have found that if I change the way I present music, my clients do not always respond the same way. It's fascinating. Anyway, here is the video of three songs presented in three distinct manners...
Nope - it's not here yet. I tried, but none of the efforts of Sunday morning were good. I'm going to record at work using the real piano instead of my rinky-dink little keyboard and re-post this soon!
Sorry for the delay...
The types of instruments that you choose for your music can affect how a client responds.
The simplest example of how timbre can affect therapeutic effectiveness comes when you work with persons who have auditory sensitivities to particular instruments. This occurs, at times, with a wide variety of people. I have some sensitivities to particular timbres - saxophones, high harmonics on string instruments, my sister's voice on the telephone in my left ear. Some of my students have timbre sensitivities as well. I have one student whose screaming increases in volume when I play rhythm patterns on the keyboard. (He actually screams all the time, not because of sound sensitivity, but because he is not in charge of what is happening in the room.) He seems to have a true sensitivity response when I play rhythm patterns on the keyboard, however.
More difficult to explain are the nuances of timbre and instrumentation on how music is perceived and interpreted by clients. I have found that if I change the way I present music, my clients do not always respond the same way. It's fascinating. Anyway, here is the video of three songs presented in three distinct manners...
Nope - it's not here yet. I tried, but none of the efforts of Sunday morning were good. I'm going to record at work using the real piano instead of my rinky-dink little keyboard and re-post this soon!
Sorry for the delay...
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