Just A Song Sunday: William Sears - Part One - Introduction

I am continuing my quest back into the basics of music therapy (as I was taught about them). My educational foundation is that of E. Thayer Gaston and William W. Sears - their writings in 1968 form the groundwork of what I believe to be true about music therapy. Even after 24 years of professional experience, lots of graduate coursework, and reading many many theories, outlooks, and opinions about music therapy, I still feel that Gaston and (ESPECIALLY) Sears are my bedrock of belief about music as therapeutic medium.

It's funny, but I didn't realize how many of us music therapists out there weren't exposed to these two writers during our educations. My interns have really broadened my own awareness of the differences between educational programs, and I really like to know what introductory texts they were exposed to - the decades of work have led to many more textbooks than were available when I was a student. Even with therapists my own age, many were not exposed to the same things I was exposed to during their educations.

For me, Sears was a greater influence than Gaston. Gaston really focused on sociological uses of music while Sears tended to talk more about how therapists could use music as a therapeutic medium. Sears also states that his intent is not to cover all things music therapy can and should be for all clients (I like that type of honesty). He also strove to classify the ways music was used within psychiatric treatment facilities of the 60's without using the language of any particular psychiatry school of thought.

As I go deeper into the chapter that he wrote, I find Sears' ideas resonate with my own philosophy of music and music therapy (no big surprise - was sort of brainwashed that way!). On page 31, Sears identifies four designations for music:

1. the music itself
2. listening to music
3. having music in the environment
4. making of music

He also clarifies three classifications of constructs and processes of music therapy:

1. experience within structure
2. experience in self-organization
3. experience in relating to others

My absolute favorite part of this chapter comes on page 33 where Sears provides an outline (this man thought the way I think, no wonder why I love what he wrote way back before I was born!!). The outline was the thing that I memorized when I had to be tested on these concepts - it just makes sense to me.

I don't have time to go through these concepts now, but I'll elaborate on this over the next several weeks.

For now, who are the biggest music therapy influences in your life? What did you read in your entry-level education that made you the therapist you are today? Let me know in the comments. I need some new reading!


Sears, W. W. (1968). Processes in music therapy. In E. T. Gaston (Ed.) Music in therapy (30-44). New York: MacMillan.