TME Tuesday: Old School Cards - Original TMEs from the Card File

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 Every now and then I dive into my card boxes of TMEs. This is how I started collecting ideas for thing to do in sessions, and I still have those boxes. Some of the ideas have been transferred into electronic format, but most of them stay in their original form and format. I think I stopped doing cards on a regular basis in 2009 - that seems to be the latest date that I can find. I still use my cards for collecting my ideas in the moment, but I end up putting them into their electronic form to complete them.

 www.musictherapyworks.comI always find the act of flipping through my cards somewhat nostalgic. The TME file started in my freshman year of undergraduate education. We had to put together 25 TMEs for 5 different populations. It was a struggle to develop all of those ideas into cards. After that, I kept putting my ideas into my file - my practicum ideas, and my internship ideas as well. My internship director, Sheryl Kelly, RMT-BC, required that I had at least 50 TMEs in my file at the end of my internship. By that time, I had no problem putting my ideas onto cards. I still have session plans that I wrote for the clients on my caseload in my internship. There are lots of memories stored in that TME box.

 The TMEs on this post include some closing TMEs and some ideas for client expression. You can see my thought process - from initial idea through melody development. None of these cards include rhythms, but I know them through repetition and just singing them often. (I hate rhythm notation, and have to hear that notation replicated by someone other than me, so most of my cards don't have the rhythms on them. I love my notation software - it plays back my bad notation, and then I can fix the bad notation!!)

 These days, I spend more time with my computer than with my index cards. This time makes things better in the long run, but I miss the days of taking my cards and writing things down.

 Enjoy these songs, and have fun making your own TMEs for your own clients!!

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