TME Tuesday: Look All Around - An Unfinished Idea

I am the self-declared queen of half-formed therapeutic music experiences (TMEs). Having given myself this crown, I now present to you...

An Unfinished Idea

I use 4X6 inch index cards to jot down notes, song snippets, ideas, and lyrics as they occur to me. This is a habit I started as an undergraduate, way back in the pre-home computer days (We had to use typewriters or go down to the computer lab for an hour of computer time back in those days) as part of an assignment. It's a habit that has stuck with me even though, these days, I use my computer to organize and publish TMEs - the cards are still here.

Anyway, I was looking around for a TME for today, and saw my card boxes sitting on my desk. I randomly chose a letter - L - and browsed through the cards. In that stack, I found this idea.

I've had this idea, in this stage, for a long time. I've never really fleshed it out. Maybe it's time now.

This is my stream of consciousness when I go through TME development. This is pretty much the way that all of my ideas arrive...

"Hey. I could write a song about a face.

How could it go? Hmm. How about something for Clients A, B, and C? They are working on visual tracking, peer identification, emotional expression and awareness, as well as response to an external stimulus.

How could I write something that will encompass all of those goals and still be engaging?

I know.

I'll use my typical pattern of about 8 measures, changeable lyrics, and syncopation as the foundation for this song - used as the structure for the TME.

{Composition Time}

{Followed by some trials with the notation software and my inability to write rhythms correct the first time. I eventually get to a finished product, though.}

Okay, now I have the basic song structure (That's where I am with this card, right now - I have the basic structure, but that's all...I haven't figured out the rhythm for the melody yet, so I need to go back into the composition time to get this idea into TME-ready format).

What can I do with this music?

What happens when I change the tempo? How does the music change? What happens when I change the pitch center? How does my perception of the music change? I go through all of my basic elements of music - harmonic structure, melodic form, meter, rhythm, lyrics, form, style - and I pay attention to how my perceptions change.

NOTE: When my perceptions change, I can make an assumption that my clients' perceptions/experiences/sensory inputs also change. I CANNOT assume that their experiences will be the same as mine, but there will be some sort of response to the stimulation.

Time to write the TME.

(If you are interested in more about what I include and how I actually do this, you can click on the labels "therapeutic music experiences" or "TME Tuesday" on the topic list on the left of the website to find TONS of examples, posts, and links to this topic.)

At this point, I try to get away from the idea of Clients A, B, and C and get into a mindframe of "anonymous client XXAA." This helps me brainstorm more ideas than just the ones that my clients are working on. Questions include, "What would "AC XXAA" be doing, experiencing, and/or working on during this particular TME?" The answers to this question help me write things in a more general manner than if I was writing something for Client A.

Once I write things down, I take them into the music therapy session to see what happens.

After my clients experience what happens, I go back and refine my TME plan. Sometimes the music changes, sometimes the procedures change. It is rare that everything goes just as I envision during the thought process. So, I revise.

I think it's time to see if this snippet of an idea is something to use in therapy. How would you use it? What rhythm would you put to the melody indicated above? What would you do with the idea to make it a therapeutic music experience?

Let me know in the comments.

Enjoy music therapy today!