Just A Song Sunday: Cues and Tools
It's time to come up with a topic for this post, and I am just sitting here, watching Bunheads, and wondering what to write about. I'm spending time lately designing CMTE course modules - thinking deeply about the songwriting process and how to reintroduce the concept to adult learners. In the rest of my "spare time," I am cutting watercolor paper into cards for a retreat I am going to in May. I am making large pieces of paper into 2 3/8 by 3 3/8 of an inch rectangles.
My life is a combination of specificity and creativity. None of this has anything to do with a post about Just a Song. So, shift, MJ, shift.
The purpose of these posts on Sundays is to discuss the importance of song in our profession, but to also illuminate the importance of musical elements with song to engage our clients in therapeutic processes. So, reset.
I find that songs are great for pulling my clients into reaction. They know that music therapy is starting when they hear one of our opening songs. The lyrics, format, and chord structure of the song function as signals to start specific strategies and behaviors. The song does that, but the music is what assists my clients in finding their strategies and behaviors.
If I start one of our opening songs at a tempo that is too fast, my clients can't sing with me. They can't move their bodies to successfully complete motor patterns. They can't settle into what I want them to do because the music won't help them. If I watch my clients and match my tempo to some of the behavior indicators that they display, I have more and more of an influence on them through the music. If I match my tempo to behaviors that they are displaying, I have a greater chance of getting them involved in the music and then using that music to help them towards therapeutic progress towards their goals.
The song is the cue, but music is the tool.
That's why I am so adamant about talking about how to use the elements of music to shape music to our clients rather than trying to fit our clients to our music.
In my head, the ability to shape a piece of music to fit a group of disparate clients is the mark of a therapist. Anyone can stand in front of a group and play a song. That's entertainment. It's only when the client, therapist, and music change to accommodate the characteristics of each other that music therapy actually occurs.
During my session planning, I plan songs and goals. I don't plan therapy. The therapy happens when the clients show up, and we start to make music together. Therapy happens when I realize that Susie isn't singing her favorite song, and I slow it down to a tempo where she can complete the movements and the lyrics. Therapy happens when the pitch changes to accommodate sensitivity of one of the group members. Therapy happens when we change the songs on the plan to songs that are different because the group members just don't seem to be engaged with the songs on the list.
The song is the plan, but music makes the therapy.
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