Song Conversion Sunday: Stand By You by Rachel Platten

It is time again for me to dive into a therapeutic music experience development post. If you recall, the last time I actually wrote about music, I selected the song, Stand By You, performed by Rachel Platten, as my new focus. I then took a week off for the Online Conference for Music Therapy, and I am back to my focus.

I've been listening to this song this morning, and I find it to be an interesting piece of music. It is not complex - in fact, I think I can replicate most of it just from listening to it a couple of times. The melodies are repetitive, the rhythms are steady, and the harmony (I don't think I wrote about the harmony on the graphic below - I'll change that for next week...) is pretty unremarkable - I, IV, V chords with the occasional vi and ii thrown in for novelty. What I really like about this song is the words. This is a song that is meant to be sung to someone who is going through a rough time. It offers support, and I like that. 

This is a song that my clients would be able to play on a melodic instrument pretty easily. I also like the message that it promotes - support and being with someone even when they are not at their best. The lyrics could be easily adapted to reflect personal situations and still have that central message of support at the core of the experience.

Here's the song analysis that I did based on listening and the sheet music that I consulted...ah, the entire reason that we study music theory, encapsulated into one graphic on one blog out there...
Yep. I missed the box for harmony. Sigh.

This song will go onto my list of songs for lyric analysis, song adaptations, and "easy play" pop hits. I don't think I need to write an entirely new therapeutic music experience for this song, but it will fit into TMEs that I've already fleshed out as something else that will work within those frameworks.

I don't know when I will use this, but I am grateful to have it in my repertoire. Join me next week for another song to convert into a therapeutic music experience.

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