TME Tuesday: The Half-Finished Stack

Does anyone else have a stack of post-it notes, index cards, scrap pieces of paper with half-finished therapeutic music experience ideas on them? I've been compiling mine into one place in my home, and the amount of creative effort that has been put into that pile is staggering, and all those ideas aren't finished yet! 

I have a habit of jotting down lyrics and melodies, harmonic progressions and thoughts. I keep post-it notes in my car because many ideas come from my long commutes to and from work, so there are faded notes in my stack. I also tend to compose on index cards when I am at work, so there are small cardstock pieces in the stack as well. It is quite a colorful stack of papers, but it is more than time to make these a bit more formal.

I take my idea stack and start to put it into my therapeutic music experience format.

Purpose? - why would I do this particular TME with any client. I have a table here that helps me identify all the goal domains that can be addressed through this intervention.

Source? - Always indicate where you learned or heard about or found the music, idea, and/or anything else. As someone who has had a song stolen by another music therapist (and who heard that music therapist state that she composed the song that I composed at her internship right before her), it is important to give appropriate credit to composers, songwriters, lyricists, and fellow music therapists. I also affix a copyright date and symbol to my compositions - it may not give me lots of protection, but it can establish first composition date through the date that the file originates.

Materials? - List all the things that you will need while running the therapeutic music experience.

Environment? - How does the room/space need to be arranged so clients can complete the desired tasks/interactions? Thinking about lighting, volume, chairs, space, temperature - anything that has to be changed or at specific levels or arrangements to get things finished.

Song/Lyrics/Chant? - Here's where I put the chord symbols, the solfege, and pictures of the sheet music so I can replicate it until it is memorized.

Procedure? - This is a step-by-step directive for me. I can only write down what I can do during a session as trying to second-guess what my clients will do is futile. I try to think through every possible response and then I try to anticipate what I can do to pull clients into interaction.

The next three portions deserve their own, individual posts because there is much more to say in those sections than these sections.

So, here is how I use this format to take my ideas from the post-it notes to my database...

Therapeutic Music Experience Title: When It's Time
 
Purpose: To direct clients to sit on the carpet as requested; to signal time to transition within the session; gross motor skill development; creative movement; impulse control; social interaction through dancing and finding place with group

Source: Original composition and TME procedure development. Copyright (I usually use the symbol, but I can't find one here in my blogging platform) September 3, 2019 by Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC. All rights reserved.

Materials: None required. OPTIONAL: accompanying instrument

Environment: Space to move during movement portion of the session and clearly delineated space for sitting.

Song/Lyrics/Chant:
When it's time to jump, I can jump, jump, jump. When it's time to jump, I can jump, jump, jump! 
CHORUS: When it's time. I sit down on the carpet. It is time to sit down on the carpet. It is time to sit down, down, down.

[Here's where a picture of the sheet music would go, if I had one finished...] 

Procedure: I use a code for what I am doing at particular parts of this procedure - I'll explain that more in another post...

1. C=start singing the song, modelling movements away from the sitting space in the room.
2. A=assess whether group members are completing movements that are modelled.
3. R=reinforce group members who are completing movements as directed by song. Redirect group members who are not attending to directives within the music.
4. C=change underlined words in the verse to continue motor skill practice until all group members are engaged.
5. A=assess whether group members are attending to lyrics and modeled movements. 
6. R=reinforce group members who are completing movements as directed by song. Redirect group members who are not attending to directives within the music.
7. C=change to chorus and demonstrate sitting at the targeted place in the room.
8. A=assess whether group members complete the task contained within the lyrics
9. R=reinforce group members who are completing movements as directed by song. Redirect group members who are not attending to directives within the music.
10. Repeat steps until group members demonstrate understanding of movement and then sitting pattern, until time runs out, or until group members indicate disengagement or become disregulated.  

There's the beginning of the end of this half-finished therapeutic music experience. Eventually, the entire thing will be finished, sheet music included, and it will be ready to release to the greater music therapy community. It's not there yet, but it is getting there.

Happy TME Tuesday!