The Man In Black
This week is Musician of the Month week. This is the week that I reveal the musician that has been posted on the wall for the last four weeks. I add a clue every week and refuse to confirm or deny any and all guesses during the month before.
This month's musician is Johnny Cash, the Man in Black.
I use my Musician of the Month idea to introduce my clients to music that they might not ever experience otherwise. My clients often have one genre that they identify with and don't ever waver from their belief that they like only that genre, but often find that they do enjoy a variety of music once they hear other things. They may say that they only listen to rap, but they can all sing along to many other types of songs.
I try to find a variety of musicians to be my featured performer. We've found out information about John Williams, Beyonce, Beethoven, and we will be learning about the BeeGees, Adele, and others as I find them. I try to cover a variety of musical genres and time frames. I also try to feature women composers and performers. This upcoming month should have been a female performer, but I have a friend who is retiring who loves the BeeGees, so I'm using them this month (it's my last chance [sad face emoji]). The next month will be Adele, and I'm not sure who will be featured in July - maybe Rachel Portman - ooh, I love Rachel Portman and she will be a good match with John Williams!! That planning is finished.
Every musician gets a small booklet about their lives. There is a picture and information culled from Wikipedia. Did you know that Johnny Cash had to change his name from J.R. to Johnny because of the US Air Force? After we learn a bit about our musician, we then listen to some of their music. The music is embedded in the other TMEs that we have scheduled during the session. Sometimes we sing songs, sometimes we use the music as background to stimulate specific responses, sometimes we engage in relaxation exercises using the music. I also bring the music out other times to test for information retention - they remember our featured musicians - Hooray, proof of learning!
Many of my clients do not get music education or awareness in the places where they come from. If they do, the education is not really tailored towards them or their particular ways of learning. They know the name Beethoven, but more from the dog movies than from the music. They identify specific music from the movies where the music was used rather than as something separate from the movie. While my primary job function is not music education, I do feel that my clients benefit from learning about music in our setting. Music therapy is often the first "music class" where they are actually able to engage in a way that makes sense to them (they have often told me, or their parents have told me these things), so I feel a bit of responsibility towards increasing their music awareness in a therapy environment.
The best things about this idea are a) it takes little planning time (it takes more time to figure out who I want to feature than anything else - and now I have the next THREE musicians chosen! That chore is done!); b) it doesn't interrupt my other sessions (I keep the board near the door so folks can see it during transitions); and c) even the staff members are intrigued by the hints and clues revealed each week. Best type of TME ever! The ones that take little extra time but are still engaging are the best!
It's time to go reveal the MotM to another set of students this morning. Happy Wednesday, all!
This month's musician is Johnny Cash, the Man in Black.
I use my Musician of the Month idea to introduce my clients to music that they might not ever experience otherwise. My clients often have one genre that they identify with and don't ever waver from their belief that they like only that genre, but often find that they do enjoy a variety of music once they hear other things. They may say that they only listen to rap, but they can all sing along to many other types of songs.
I try to find a variety of musicians to be my featured performer. We've found out information about John Williams, Beyonce, Beethoven, and we will be learning about the BeeGees, Adele, and others as I find them. I try to cover a variety of musical genres and time frames. I also try to feature women composers and performers. This upcoming month should have been a female performer, but I have a friend who is retiring who loves the BeeGees, so I'm using them this month (it's my last chance [sad face emoji]). The next month will be Adele, and I'm not sure who will be featured in July - maybe Rachel Portman - ooh, I love Rachel Portman and she will be a good match with John Williams!! That planning is finished.
Every musician gets a small booklet about their lives. There is a picture and information culled from Wikipedia. Did you know that Johnny Cash had to change his name from J.R. to Johnny because of the US Air Force? After we learn a bit about our musician, we then listen to some of their music. The music is embedded in the other TMEs that we have scheduled during the session. Sometimes we sing songs, sometimes we use the music as background to stimulate specific responses, sometimes we engage in relaxation exercises using the music. I also bring the music out other times to test for information retention - they remember our featured musicians - Hooray, proof of learning!
Many of my clients do not get music education or awareness in the places where they come from. If they do, the education is not really tailored towards them or their particular ways of learning. They know the name Beethoven, but more from the dog movies than from the music. They identify specific music from the movies where the music was used rather than as something separate from the movie. While my primary job function is not music education, I do feel that my clients benefit from learning about music in our setting. Music therapy is often the first "music class" where they are actually able to engage in a way that makes sense to them (they have often told me, or their parents have told me these things), so I feel a bit of responsibility towards increasing their music awareness in a therapy environment.
The best things about this idea are a) it takes little planning time (it takes more time to figure out who I want to feature than anything else - and now I have the next THREE musicians chosen! That chore is done!); b) it doesn't interrupt my other sessions (I keep the board near the door so folks can see it during transitions); and c) even the staff members are intrigued by the hints and clues revealed each week. Best type of TME ever! The ones that take little extra time but are still engaging are the best!
It's time to go reveal the MotM to another set of students this morning. Happy Wednesday, all!
Comments
Post a Comment