Back to Brainstorming...What Should I Do On Sundays?

First of all, SURPRISE!!

I decided to take a bit of time and change what the blog looks like these days. It is time for a change. Let me know what you think because I am open to changing it yet again, if it is not something that is easily accessible for others.

Second, I am back to needing to think about what sort of theme call out to me for my Sunday posts. I tried to start video sharing, but I am not often all that interested in sitting in front of editing software for hours on end, and then the computer takes up all my bandwidth so I can't watch television while things are uploading, and there are all sorts of other complaints that I have about all of this that really aren't worth anything at all!! Anyway, what I want is a topic that interests me and keeps me writing every Sunday morning so I can crank the posts out on a day where I am busy with one of my part-time jobs. Over the years, I have had many different Sunday themes and post series, and each of them has run its course and then been completed. Perhaps I should re-run those series...hmmm. That might be something that I can do - go into my archives and re-run those posts.

Where to start? Here is a post from 2014 - Let's revisit my therapeutic elements of music diagrams...

 

August 10, 2014

For a couple of months now, I have been posting weekly diagrams about specific songs that I randomly choose from my music library. The diagrams often look like this (click on the pictures to embiggen them [embiggen is a word coined by The Bloggess and one that I LOVE]):

I am a visual learner (among other learning styles, but primarily a visual learner). If I can see something, I can often remember it with little to no effort. This type of chart is the best way for me to work out problems, thoughts, theories, and other things - I draw them or graph them or put them into a flow chart. Once I figured out that the procedure section in Therapeutic Music Experiences was actually just a flow chart in prose, I was able to finish those assignments in college without any problem, but it took me a long time to make that realization. My professors and practicum supervisors weren't able to explain it in a way that made meaning to me - I had to do that myself. Once I figured it out, I was able to transfer that understanding and morph it into the assignments that my academic folks wanted. Success! So, if you're wondering why I always present these songs in this format, there is a reason.
 
One of the things that seems apparent to me as a practicing therapist who supervises interns and talks to others that supervise on a regular basis is that we, as a collective, don't really know how to talk about the decisions and changes that we make when using music in therapeutic interactions. We know that music is an effective therapeutic modality. We know that we, as music therapists, have been taught to look for specific responses to music and to use those responses to assist our client in moving, but we often do not know exactly what is happening with the music and the elements of the music that we use every day. Why does Client X ALWAYS calm when he hears the song, Happy? Is it the lyrics of the song? Is it the tempo? Is it the beat? We don't often know. It is my belief that we need to know these things. We need to be able to figure out what it is about that song that reaches out to the client so we can justify our services in a competitive healthcare world.
 
So, I started to challenge myself to think about how I was using the music I was using. I wanted to identify the elements of music that clients responded to, but I needed to think about how I could do that process.

Hence, the diagram.

The diagram is based on the elements of music - the basic things that make up a musical interaction. There are quite a few - I have ten on my diagram. All of these elements contribute towards the whole of the music and all are important to consider when you are choosing or adapting music for use with clients. Why am I listening to music that has a techno beat, simple lyrics, and is set at about 140 beats per minute? Because my client, the aforesaid Client X, responds to music with that type of structure. Turns out, it's not just the song Happy, but is any song that has those characteristics. How did I discover that fact? I experimented with the original song and changed elements one at a time to see what Client X responded to consistently. That's what makes me a music therapist rather than a volunteer musician who comes in and plays at the side of a client.

I don't think that everyone has to think about these things the way that I think about them, but I do feel that it's important that we are aware of the things that we want from our musical offerings during sessions. I think I probably drive my interns crazy these days asking them, "Why did you pick that song to support that goal?" They often start out just looking at me with blank expressions on their faces, but by the end of the program, they have answers. They can say, "I sang that song at that volume to direct attention towards me." Or, "I slowed the tempo when I noticed that the client was trying to sing along with me but didn't seem to be able to keep up." That's the moment when the intern moves from student into therapist - focused on others through music.

I am always interested in how others perceive what I write about. How do you think about the music that you use in your practice? Do you think about the music? Is it something that we should be talking about as professionals? What do you think?

 Thanks for reading!