Song Lyric Sunday

I'm going to try something new this week.

I fall in love with songs based on the entire experience - the lyrics have to match the orchestration and the timbre has to support everything else. For me, songs become favorites when I feel that all of the elements of music work together to present the thought behind the song.

As a result, I tend to fall in love with specific songs and stay in love with them forever. When I hear a song that I love, the words are what draw me into the experience but the rest keeps me there - the melody, harmony, meter, chord progressions, timbre, form, style. Without the rest, the words just sit there.

Having said all that, I am going to share some of the lyrics from a song that I love. You can find all of the lyrics here. 

The song is "What Do You Hear in These Sounds" by Dar Williams. The lyrics that strike me the most (today) are as follows:

And when I talk about therapy, I know what people think
That it only makes you selfish and in love with your shrink
But oh how I loved everybody else
When I finally got to talk so much about myself

The lyrics go through one person's experience of being in talk therapy, but it brings out things that are relevant to music therapy as well - just look at the title of the song! "What do you hear in these sounds?"

I've been in counseling before and relate to this song because of my own experiences. It is amazing how much you can figure out if you have someone to talk to about your thoughts, concerns, issues, joys, challenges. There are times when that person is for your personal benefit. There are times when that person is for your professional benefit and development.

I've never been one to seek out professional supervision as a matter of course. I simply have not been able to afford it in the past. I have participated in peer supervision with teammates and other professionals, but nothing has ever been completely formal when it comes to working out things about my clinical interactions with others. In some ways, my most formal processing procedure is my writing - this blog is a bit of it, but most of my own processing takes place in my written journals - not for public consumption. 

Processing what goes on in a therapeutic setting is as important as what actually happened in the setting itself. That's why music therapy students and interns get to talk to an experienced music therapist about sessions - a way to start finding your processing style and insights with someone who has a different perspective than you.

Take advantage of that close supervision while you can. The reality is that many music therapists do not get supervision from another music therapist during their career after their internship is finished. My supervisor has never been a music therapist or someone who has any idea what music therapy really is. I have had to find processing supervision through different channels during my career.

Find your way. Process through your own feelings and experiences. Talk to someone about challenges and solutions. Find someone who has a vested interest in you and your health as a therapist to support you in your experiences.

I love it when a song leads into deeper thought about something that starts off unrelated and then makes perfect sense.

Thank you, Dar Williams, for helping me find a way. 

If you are interested in seeing an interpretation of this song, click here for a link to a YouTube video.