Song Conversion Sunday: Lullaby - Lopalong


It is Sunday again, and that means that I will take a song, randomly chosen from my shelves of sheet music books and single copies of music, to analyze and make into something that has a therapeutic purpose for my music therapy practice. This process jumpstarts my creative interpretation of music in general by making me think about something out there in the world that doesn't have any therapeutic meaning for me to begin with and then finding that meaning through contemplation, study, and thought.

This month's song is from a book called, Musically Speaking. It was written by Roberta Wilson Dolana, published by Word Making Productions located in Salt Lake City, Utah. I can find very little information about the company or the author/composer, so I'm thinking it is a very obscure book.

Now, I got this book from the discard pile at my facility when they disbanded the employee resource library many years ago. I'm sure that I picked it up because it had music in it, but I have never used it for anything in all the years that I've had it. I can see why as I open up this book. It's very "late 60's/early 70's" in style and nature. The words to the song that I selected based on opening up to just any page are very gender-role specific - the girl plays with her dolls, singing them a lullaby, and the boy is a cowboy, lassoing his "lambie." This song would not really be one I would use with my students today - not even the little ones. It's just not a good song.

BUT...

It's the song I picked, so I am going to go through all the motions.

Here's the song chart. I spent some time analyzing the therapeutic elements of music that I like to know about, and I found that the song itself could use some updating or expanding or increased sophistication in order to make it work better for my current population of clients (children and adolescents with ID/DD diagnoses and chronic psychiatric concerns). I've noticed an error on this particular chart - there are chords indicated in the accompaniment, but I think I would like to add something other than the I, IV, V7 chords. There are places where a ii or vi chord could spice things up and make the song a bit more interesting...

So, there is the analysis of the song as it is written. Next week is the final week with this song - I'll spend some time thinking more about how to use this piece of music with my particular clients. As this song is not familiar to just about anyone in the world, I can certainly use the idea for other things. We shall see what my brain comes up with in the next seven days. 

See you next week!

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