Just a Song Sunday: The Return of the Song
I am a music therapist.
To me, that statement means that I am immersed in music. It is something that follows me everywhere I go. It is something that I do. When it is absent, I miss it.
I spent most of the past several years with music being a job instead of something that just happened. I spent most of my days doing music with my clients, but my own musical voice was pretty silent. I wrote songs for therapeutic music experiences (TMEs), but the songs were tasks rather than spontaneous expressions. I hated it because an important piece of my life was gone. I am relieved that I am starting to interact with my world through music again.
The cat? Not so happy that I am bursting into song at any and all possible moments. Fortunately, she hasn't got to the point where she leaves the room when I walk in...yet.
I started to recover from this musical hiatus about three months ago. I started improvising with my clients again rather than doing the music I had planned to do. The need to create music became stronger than the need to sing the same old songs. This past week, however, I have returned to the constant singer of past days.
I wake up and sing to the cat. I am grabbing the instruments around me and improvising songs about things that are happening in the environment. When the students scream in the room next to the music room, I have to improvise songs to go with the screaming. (Most of the time, that's because I am getting ready for sessions and already have the guitar in my hands. I challenge myself to figure out the pitch of the screams, and then I go! I've been singing songs about life not being fair, about staying in the classroom, about leaving peers alone, and various and sundry other things.) I am interacting with the world through and in music again, and that is something that I love.
The downside to all of this? (Of course there is a downside - it's me!!)
With the return of improvised songs and constant music in my life, my composition practices are suffering. I'm making wonderful music, but I can't capture it or remember it enough to write it down. I think I should spend most of my life with a recording device attached to me, so I could capture those moments of musical fun and engagement. Oh well. At this time, I think that the music that is shooting out of me is not supposed to be fixed. I think that this music is supposed to be fleeting and not captured. Eventually I will get to the point where I can remember that music for longer than the duration of the song.
I am singing again.
For any and all reasons - a song is my way to interact with my world, and I am thankful for that.
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