TME Tuesday: Take a Song to TME - The Steps I Take

Here it is, Tuesday again, and I am thinking about therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) to share with you. I have some ideas about things I could share, but I think I will veer off into my "teaching" mode and share the process that I take when I am trying to develop a song into a TME.

**Just for the record - therapeutic music experiences or TMEs are what I call what I do in music therapy sessions with my clients - others call them applications, interventions, or other things - I call them TMEs. That's a personal choice, but it is good to define your terms as you are using them so that others may know what you are talking about. TME. There you go.**

Does this happen to you?

You are driving down the road, listening to the radio, and a song comes on. You start to engage with the song on a nonverbal level first, responding to the rhythm, the melody, the chord structure, and then you start hearing the words. All of a sudden, the music spurs a thought about a particular client! The song goes from something on the radio to a potential TME!! Hooray! Who doesn't love new ideas??

How do you move the song from something on the radio into a music therapy session?

Here's how I do it...


(I think visually, so charts like this help me to organize the processes that I take as a music therapist. If you don't think visually, this may be a bit overwhelming for you. Shoot me an email or make a comment below, and I can send this in prose rather than pictures.)

As I am looking over this graphic, I realize that I have missed something EXTREMELY important that always is part of my consideration about what music I use with my clients - the MUSICAL CHARACTERISTICS THEMSELVES!! I usually have this information another graphic, but it does need to be included here as well...I've never noticed until now. I'll change this graphic to include those elements as they are part of why we use the music we use with the people we use it with...

In case you've missed it, here's the song chart that I use to parse out different musical elements...


There you go. My process for developing TMEs in several graphic presentations. How do you go about composing or building experiences for your clients? Please let me know below in the comments!!

Time for me to search for some pictures to spark some improvisation later this afternoon - happy TME creation!!
 

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