Just A Song Sunday: If I Could Turn Back Time
In honor of the end of Daylight Savings Time, I am going to talk about using the song If I Could Turn Back Time as the foundation for a therapeutic music experience (TME). If you are interested, here are the links to the youtube video and the lyrics. Here's the process that I go through when I am getting a foundation piece ready.
Just so you know, "foundation piece" is the term that I've just coined for a piece of music that is the basis for a specific therapeutic experience. In this case, this song provides the focus of the TME. There may be other songs that would also exemplify this theme and idea, but this is my foundation. This is the one that makes the most sense to me at this time. (I will add any other ideas to the official TME as they occur to me.)
When I think about this song as a foundation piece for a TME, I immediately get to the idea of regret (straight from the lyrics), to the idea of changes, to the idea of making amends, and changing the lyrics to reflect something silly that we want to change.
The music is repetitive. It is easy to sing and is in an alto range. The form is verse and chorus - AB. (I would be charting this in one of my song charts, but the computer is still installing things and my original file is not easy to find at this point - I'll get there.) The original lyrics talk about wanting someone back after a breakup. It acknowledges that words can hurt feelings. The lyrics also refer to responsibility for the situation and being able to take ownership for events that occurred. The tempo is in the moderate range (my estimate? About 100 bpm). The meter is common, and there is some syncopation but not lots. I could easily learn this song on the guitar to change different musical elements and aspects.
What I can do now is start figuring out my rationale for using this song in a session with hypothetical clients. This process starts with brainstorming - I love brainstorming!!
So, by looking at the original lyrics, I can see potential for lyric analysis, word substitution to personalize the lyrics, and parody writing.
Listening to Cher perform this song, I can feel a strong, steady beat, hear a repetitive melody for both verse and chorus, and experience the rock band timbre.
When playing this song for myself, I can match the tempo to outside influences and my own preferences for pitches, tempi, and timbres. It has a simple chord progression - uses I, IV, V7, and ii chords.
Now the therapeutic music experience (TME) starts to take place.
Potential goal areas:
I'm not going to share the entire plan at this point (primarily because I haven't finished it), but I think you can start to see what I am talking about when I state that I shape music around my clients. I can find a foundation piece and then shape that piece to the client that I have in the session at that very moment.
Happy Sunday - enjoy the extra hour of sleep time, US friends!
Just so you know, "foundation piece" is the term that I've just coined for a piece of music that is the basis for a specific therapeutic experience. In this case, this song provides the focus of the TME. There may be other songs that would also exemplify this theme and idea, but this is my foundation. This is the one that makes the most sense to me at this time. (I will add any other ideas to the official TME as they occur to me.)
When I think about this song as a foundation piece for a TME, I immediately get to the idea of regret (straight from the lyrics), to the idea of changes, to the idea of making amends, and changing the lyrics to reflect something silly that we want to change.
The music is repetitive. It is easy to sing and is in an alto range. The form is verse and chorus - AB. (I would be charting this in one of my song charts, but the computer is still installing things and my original file is not easy to find at this point - I'll get there.) The original lyrics talk about wanting someone back after a breakup. It acknowledges that words can hurt feelings. The lyrics also refer to responsibility for the situation and being able to take ownership for events that occurred. The tempo is in the moderate range (my estimate? About 100 bpm). The meter is common, and there is some syncopation but not lots. I could easily learn this song on the guitar to change different musical elements and aspects.
What I can do now is start figuring out my rationale for using this song in a session with hypothetical clients. This process starts with brainstorming - I love brainstorming!!
So, by looking at the original lyrics, I can see potential for lyric analysis, word substitution to personalize the lyrics, and parody writing.
Listening to Cher perform this song, I can feel a strong, steady beat, hear a repetitive melody for both verse and chorus, and experience the rock band timbre.
When playing this song for myself, I can match the tempo to outside influences and my own preferences for pitches, tempi, and timbres. It has a simple chord progression - uses I, IV, V7, and ii chords.
Now the therapeutic music experience (TME) starts to take place.
Potential goal areas:
- Acknowledging responsibility for relationship issues
- Discussion of relationship responsibilities
- Entrainment to strong beat for motor processes - upper extremity or lower extremity
- Word substitution - Mad-Libs or personal experience word substitution
- Discussion about time changes
- Pattern awareness (indicating changes between verse structure and chorus structure)
- Group discussion or individual processing of theme
- Discussion about time changes
I'm not going to share the entire plan at this point (primarily because I haven't finished it), but I think you can start to see what I am talking about when I state that I shape music around my clients. I can find a foundation piece and then shape that piece to the client that I have in the session at that very moment.
Happy Sunday - enjoy the extra hour of sleep time, US friends!
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