Just a Song Sunday: Sears and More About Experience Within Structure

It is Sunday again, which means another dip into the writing of William Sears. This outline is taking more time than I thought it would - must be because I am really thinking deeply, right?

Anyway, last week I wrote about the first part of Sears' concept that music provides experience within structure and demands time-ordered behavior. I was privileged to see an example of this during our annual Talent Show last Friday. I have a client who has severe involvement with a diagnosis. This diagnosis impacts every area of life, but is most evident when the client is asked to respond in a timely manner to an external stimulus. We're seeing some decrease in processing time in music therapy (and in other conversations with me specifically outside of the session), but there is still a significant delay between prompt and response. Not so on Friday.

On Friday, this client opted to swing dance in front of the entire school. The client was able to focus on the partner, perform the steps in time to the music, and dance without any of the symptoms of the diagnosis interfering. This was an example of time-ordered behavior at its best. It was also reality-ordered and continuous throughout the entire song. The client's school mates cheered as they watched the dance. No one knew that this client was able to dance in this way, overcoming the symptoms of the diagnosis that causes so much interruption in daily life tasks. I think it was the music!

Let me continue to refine this idea...writing it out helps me understand it a bit more.

In order to dance, you must be able to coordinate muscles with an external stimulus - the music. If you cannot coordinate those muscles to initiate movement in the time constraints put upon you by the music (tempo, rhythm, etc.), it becomes obvious that there is a processing difficulty happening. If you can coordinate, then the music becomes the primary focus for sustained participation. By attending to the stimulus (the music) you can function within the time parameters and also within the environment present.

My dancing client demonstrated all of the elements of experience within structure during the presentation. I observed "time-ordered behavior, reality-ordered behavior," and "immediately and continuously objectified behavior" within the span of one song.

Sears states that "once the individual is committed to music, his behavior becomes reality ordered" (p. 36). The ability to engage with the external stimulus of the music demands attention to the sound environment. With my dancing client, this was observed in the coordination of movements to the dance partner as well as entrainment of motions to the beat provided by the selected song. 

Sears goes on to state, "once committed to the music, the individual's behavior is no longer subjective, but becomes immediately observable or 'objectified'" (p. 36). This last statement seems to be rooted completely in behaviorism, so I am sure that therapists with different backgrounds would disagree with this statement, but, for me, it rings true. When a client is fully engaged in the music therapy experience, I can see that engagement through observable means. For example, when a client is not engaged in music therapy, I often see that client looking around them, fidgeting, moving in ways that do not coordinate with the music presented in the environment. When a client is engaged in music therapy, that client moves to the tempo of the music, engages in singing or playing, moves with me in the musical environment. I can see these behaviors, and I interpret them as the client's participation and attention to the music therapy experience.

Sears goes on to state "because the time order of music is continuous, the individual's responses must be continuous; and because the individual's responses are continuous, the appropriateness of his responses are immediately observable, moment by moment" (p. 36). When I am able to observe what I call "attention to task" or "engagement" behaviors, I have specific strategies that I use to maintain those behaviors in my clients. If I do not see those behaviors, I change my music to attempt to get that attention from the clients I serve.

My client was able to demonstrate that music was the way to organize movements and coordinate personal responses to tasks that are usually difficult to complete. I wish I could take credit for this, but I cannot. It was all based on the relationship that the client has to the music. Do you think I'll use this in future sessions? You bet!


Happy Sunday, all!


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