Fleshing Out Persephone's Story - Bits and Bobs for the Story Line...

So, here is the story as I have it so far. I'm adding and tweaking things as needed to make the story work. Please note that this story is not based on real life events and exists only in my own mind.

 

Meet Persephone.

She/Her/Hers is a 22 year old future music therapy student in the year 2049.

She has spent most of her education learning about music and human systems, including some work in sociology, anthropology, psychology, biology, anatomy, neurology, and all of these courses again focused through a musical lens.

She has spent little time in the actual presence of her classmate cohort and her professors. She spends most of her learning time in front of her hologram - it's similar to what her grandparents talk about when they describe "school," but it is not the same.

She has finally finished the first part of her studies, is getting a degree in Music Psychology, and will be starting an in-person graduate training at one of three university programs that offer such training in music therapy. 

She has earned the spot in this prestigious training program through good grades, many years of music training, and demonstration of a list of competencies - demonstrated through intense testing during the application process.

Of the four music therapy programs in the world, this program was not her preferred location, but because the competition is so fierce, she is getting ready to move across the world so she can continue her studies.

Her first semester schedule arrived yesterday.

1. The Continuum of Music and Humanity
2. Building Repertoire: Music From the Turn of the Century - Hip-Hop, Country, Pop, and Rock - Music for Older Adults
3. Beginning Clinical Musicianship - Guitar, Keyboard, and Holographic Transmission
4. Clinical Observation - Holographic Therapy Practicum Observation

Of all of these courses, she is looking forward to the Repertoire course the most. Her grandmother has advanced dementia of the Alzheimer's type and Persephone really wants to know a bit about why Gram sings but doesn't speak. Persephone doesn't know much music from that era, but after the class, she may be able to sing to Gram.

 Persephone is a bit nervous to be heading to an actual classroom. She hears that there are things that are just plain strange. You have to arrive on time - EVERY DAY! You have to be covered in clothing for the entire time. There is no pause button when the professor is talking. You can't go back and do something over again if you don't get it right the first time.

 This will be an experience, to be sure, but she is ready!

 CHAPTER ONE

 "Number 2427," Persephone whispered to herself as she walked through the masses of people and the hallways towards her designated entrance.

It was orientation week, and she was trying to find her seat in the auditorium. To do that, she had to find the hall that linked to her section and row - she was number 2427, and that meant heading up about halfway up and a bit over halfway across the great building.

There were so many people. Persephone had never been in a class with more than her siblings before. This felt like a small city full of people. Some were playing instruments. Others were singing in groups. Still others looked scared and skittered around the edges of the groups to get to their designated seats. That's how Persephone felt.

After finally finding her hallway, she walked into the auditorium and gasped. It was huge. Her section was a bit to the right of center. Each desk was labelled with a number, and she followed the numbers until she found hers. Sitting down, she took out her styluses and her water bottle and watched the screen ask for her number.

2427.

Name

Persephone Clarkson

ID Number

She typed it into the desktop screen.

Signature Here.

She signed her name.

Right Index Print Here.

She pressed her right index finger onto the surface in the box indicated.

"Welcome to The Continuum of Music and Humanity. Dr. Licar will begin shortly."

Persephone tried to achieve invisibility as her peers entered the auditorium and found their own seats.

She was nervous.

Her journey to this prestigious music therapy academy had been pretty typical - music instrument and vocal performance opportunities as a young child, participation in recording sessions with others through online learning, lessons and theory coursework in college, initial degree in music and psychology, and then auditions and interviews for the four music therapy academies in the world. She had not been accepted to the academy that she had hoped for, but being accepted to one of four international programs was not a bad thing, was it?

 According to her reading (yep, Persephone was one of THOSE students - one who had already read some of her texts before school had actually started), at one time there were many different universities that offered music therapy studies. Not all of the United States offered the course as a major, but there were over 70 programs where you could study. Now there were four.

Many universities had closed in the early 2030's due to the prevalence of online coursework and programs and the difficulty finding monies required for maintaining old school buildings. As this process happened, the programs that had survived consolidated to preserve resources and to employ teaching professionals. Graduate courses were the only ones that included synchronous (in real time) and in-person coursework exclusively. For a helping profession, such as music therapy, there had to be a real-time and live component to the education. After all, how could you work with people if you never actually saw people?

The current educational model seemed to promote the concept of large lectures with smaller cohorts of students in learning laboratories.

Tap, tap, tap.

She startled, not expecting the sound on the back of her chair, and turned to see what was occurring behind her.

"Do you have a stylus I can borrow," a voice from behind her asked in her ear.

Persephone shook her head just as the lights in the auditorium dimmed.

 "My name is Dr. Licar, and welcome to The Continuum of Music and Humanity."

  The small woman stepped onto the stage as students found their seats and logged in on their carells.

"You are the class of 2052, four thousand strong. Welcome to the study of music therapy."

The words echoed off the walls of the lecture hall. Persephone felt like cheering but resisted the urge because no one else cheered. Finally, the time had come to start learning more about what music therapists did and how they wrought their magic with people like Gram and with Evander. In fact, Persephone's first contact with music therapy was with Gram and Evander, and with Evelyn.

 Evelyn arrived one day when Persephone was about five years old. Evander, Persephone's older brother, was going to start music therapy in addition to all the other therapies that he did during the days. Mama always told Persephone to go to her kindergarten feeds when it was time for Evander to do therapy, but Evelyn asked for Persephone to join in.

 Evelyn sat down on the floor with Evander and invited Persephone to join them both. She took out a guitar and started to strum. The three of them sat quietly on the floor until Evander looked at Evelyn. It took a long time, but he lifted his head and looked at her.

"Hello, Evander, my name is Evelyn," Evelyn sang.

Evander looked at Evelyn and then turned his head to look at Persephone. He looked at her and then turned his head back to Evelyn.

"Hello, Persephone, my name is Evelyn."

"Nice to meet you." Persephone sang back to Evelyn. This was pretty fun. No one really ever sang at home, and this woman seemed to do it without thinking about it.

Evander nodded his head. It was a slight movement, but it seemed to be an acknowledgement of both of the other people in the room.

"It's time to greet one another, saying 'hello.' " Evelyn's music continued. Evander got his holotablet and turned it on.

Persephone leaned closer. She used the family computer when she was in her school, but Evander had his own computer that he got to take with him everywhere. He used it for school and for talking to her when he wanted something. She was not really sure why Evander used his computer to talk when she had to use sounds from her body, but that was just how Evander was.

The music continued. Evelyn seemed to be waiting for something. Persephone kept humming and singing to the guitar strum while Evander went through his routine of turning on his holotablet and getting to his word bank.

"Hello."

Evander's voice box suddenly spoke. Evelyn smiled at Evander and changed her music. She started singing questions to Evander, and he used his voice box to answer. They talked to each other for a bit, and then Evelyn sang a question to Persephone.

"What is your favorite color?"

Persephone sang her answer back to Evelyn.

"Pink."

Evelyn sang an invitation to Evander to ask questions about both of the other people in the room. He looked at his voice box and then,

"Phone, do you want your pickle?"

Persephone started giggling. Evander knew that she did NOT like pickles! He always ate the pickles that she took off her sandwiches and that came with her plates when they went out to eat. Sometimes he would wait until she begged him to take the pickles off her plate. There was nothing that she liked about them. She did not like the smell, the way they looked, or the way the juice soaked into the bread and then left bad tastes on her sandwiches.

Evelyn's music continued as Persephone giggled. She finally sang "No!!" Evander smiled and looked back at Evelyn. "She hates pickles," his voice box stated.

Evelyn sang back, "That sounds like the name of a song. Let's sing something about Persephone and pickles."

For the rest of the time, Evander and Evelyn worked on writing a song about Persephone and her aversion to pickles. Evander would make suggestions and then Evelyn would make suggestions, and by the time Evelyn had to leave, the Persephone and the Pickles song was finished.

All through the week, Evander would play the song on his holotablet every time he saw Persephone. His little sister giggled and sang with him each time. She would run to him after school and ask for the song, and they would sing it together. It was the first time they shared something between the two of them and that did not include their parents.

That song was the first time they had really been united as siblings, and they were able to build their relationship on a mutual interest in music from that day on. 

Dr. Licar stood in the center of the lecture platform.

"The profession of music therapy is one that is often misunderstood. The name is taken by every person who turns on a stereo or makes a playlist. Everyone feels that they can do music therapy because they recognize the effect that music has on their emotions, motivation, physical presence, and relaxation. We know that there is more power to music than what can be accessed via a playlist. We know that a subtle change in tempo can make the difference between someone speaking or singing and sitting in silence. We know that the ability to hit a drum with great strength for sustained amounts of time can lead the brain into processing traumatic experiences in a way that allows for emotional and physical catharsis. We know that children who cannot speak can sometimes sing, and we know how to make the music so that singing is elicited.

 Today is the first day of your journey towards becoming a world certified music therapist.

 It will not be easy. You will be challenged through coursework, clinical experientials, laboratory assignments, rigorous clinical musicianship auditions, and your year-long clinical internship during your last year as a student.

These requirements are global and ensure that all music therapists entering the field have some common skills, information, learning, and technique.

 You have been assigned to a cohort of fellow students. Your identification number and location in this hall today indicates the people that you will be learning with for the remainder of your matriculation. Your coursework reflects your competence in various areas and will be somewhat individualized during your time here. As you get to know your fellow students, you will see that there are differences in your class assignments, your course objectives, and your assignments. These variations are due to your personal performance on the list of competencies for entry into this professional degree program.

 This course is arranged as follows: the first hour per week is a lecture to be held in this hallway. You are required to sign in at your desk and complete the daily reviews at your desk. The second hour per week will be with your cohort and will include laboratory learning in your cohort location. The third hour per week will be a meeting with your third year mentor assigned to you based on your personal areas of focus and as a way to assist you in completing your professional goals. 

Today, we will discuss the course syllabus and start with our discussion about music and humanity and the intersection between the two through a historical perspective. Please access the file entitled "course syllabus," and we will begin."

Persephone opened the file on her desk and picked up her stylus. Her journey had begun.

CHAPTER FOUR

Dr. Licar continued to lecture, and Persephone wrote on her desktop. There would be weekly quizzes on readings. There would be tests of information synthesis every fourth Friday - on both the readings and lecture materials. Lab assignments would include essays, papers, simulations, and group leadership opportunities. Cohort assignments would include several original compositions with presentations and therapeutic music experience development based on specific populations. Students were expected to do approximately 6 hours of work away from class per week. 

 "So far, so good," thought Persephone. The work was equivalent to her undergraduate experiences and could be done with some creative time management.

 The prose from the podium changed. Dr. Licar was starting her lecture about the course content.

 "Throughout all known cultures, times, and organizations, we have found evidence of music. Where humans have lived, there has been music. Music is part of celebration, of ritual, of grief. Music invades and permeates most of our waking hours and is important to many of us for many different reasons. This course will cover the ways humans and music interact and intersect from the perspective of health and wellness. We will discuss the role of music as a treatment modality through the framework of the medical model of treatment, the educational model, the humanistic model. The most important lens for our course today, however, is that of trauma and resilience."

As Dr. Licar continued to speak, Persephone scribbled on her desktop with each of her styluses. She had one for regular writing, another for highlighting, and the third for music composition. Her note taking process was one that she had developed during the last years of her first degree program when she had been taking cognitive psychology, advanced music theory, and her best class of all, sociology of music and human behavior. She found that shifting between writing and highlighted offered her a way to take notes that included doodles, arrows, words, and annotations on pictures offered by the lecturer. Her music stylus was never really far away from her because music would pop into her head at any moment. Persephone had found that the most efficient way to get those music events out of her head was to write them down as soon as possible. Otherwise, the song snippets would just stay there, repeating over and over again until the volume swelled. Persephone kept taking notes until the hour was over.

 It was time to move into cohort time, so Persephone packed up her bag and moved to the next room on her course list. She filed through the hallways with the other people from her section until they reached their destination, Room 311.

 Room 311 was a smaller room - only 200 seats in this room. Persephone found her desk, again labeled with her number, signed in, and waited for the course to begin.

 The rest of the day included meeting her small group leader and the twenty peers that she would spend time with during the semester. They all had the same coursework, so Persephone figured that they had similar interests, skills, and competencies.

Her schedule included the first meeting of her laboratory section where she participated in a series of polls and preference surveys. She then moved to the music lab where her smaller cohort engaged in a jam session using the instruments provided. Clinical musicianship looked like it would be the best type of class - full of music! Tomorrow would include her repertoire and clinical observation classes.

 She left the music therapy building for the walk back to her living quarters. It was time to move into study mode since she had several chapters to read for Dr. Licar's class, reflection essays to write on her reading for lab, and six songs to memorize by Wednesday for clinical musicianship. 

Classes were finally underway.

 CHAPTER FIVE

Tuesday started very early. The alarm went off at 5 am, and Persephone reached out to silence it before hauling herself out of bed and stumbling to her small bathroom suite. She had three hours before her first class of the day and still needed to work on her assignments from the day before. 

 The first day of her new course of study had been slightly overwhelming.

Persephone had not been around that many people all in one room in, well, ever. Her experience of school and university was only from the perspective of distance learning and virtual interactions, so being one of four thousand people in one hall was a completely new experience. Even the clinical musicianship class, where there were only 29 other students, was still more people than she was used to learning with on a regular basis. 

 Day two was going to start in a bit, and Persephone felt that she needed to prepare herself a bit more for the interactions. First, though, she really needed to start on her assignments. After the first day, she had four chapters to read for Dr. Licar's class, three reflection essays for her laboratory section, and six songs to memorize for clinical musicianship. She reached for her styluses and turned on her monitor, signing in with her number and fingerprint.

 First reflection topic: What are your earliest personal memories of music or musical interaction with others? (Minimum - 500 words; Maximum - 2000 words)

 Persephone sat and stared at the screen, trying to remember some incident that would work with the question. She had never really been aware that music did not exist in the lives of other people. Mama and Dad had sung together all the time. Evander would make his sounds, and she would sing along with them. It was one of the benefits of being in a musical family - there was always music happening. Persephone had started playing around with the instruments that were always coming into Dad's workshop for repair as soon as she could walk, but her favorites had always been the cornets that came in.

 There was something quite satisfying about playing an instrument that demanded attention when you played it, and Persephone enjoyed playing the cornet that Mama and Dad had given her for her seventh birthday. Evander seemed to enjoy her playing as well, and both he and Persephone would play together on their instruments - cornet for her and his voicebox and various other instruments as the mood struck them both. Evander had continued working with his music therapist, Evelyn, the music therapist, came weekly to work with Evander on many different things. Sometimes she would ask him to write music, other times they would make exercise program playlists to motivate him to work on his strengthening, still other times they would drum loudly. Persephone was sometimes invited to participate with them, but most of the music that she shared with her brother was just between the two of them.

 What were her earliest personal memories of music or musical interaction?

 Persephone stared at the screen for a long time, attempting to figure out how to express something that was not something memorable, but that was just something that was always there. She started writing.

 After a quick check to see if her assignment followed the guidelines outlined in the task, she submitted her essay to her lab instructor and picked up her guitar.

 Time to start practicing a bit to refresh her brain and work on her second task for the morning - memorization.

 She practiced her scales, her chords, and her chord progressions. The six songs that had been assigned utilized the same chords - I, vi, IV, iii, and V chords. She had a pool of three keys to play through for her next class session on Wednesday and six sets of lyrics to keep straight. She had spent some time listening to the original artists' performances, so she felt ready to start singing the songs for herself. She started the film function on her desktop to keep track of her practice session and started singing.

 As it usually did, singing spurred her train of thought into original compositions. Persephone had learned to grab her staff stylus and write those compositions down to purge them from her brain and to allow her to move back into her practice. She grabbed her stylus, made some quick notations, and then returned to the music she had to memorize. Don't Stop Believing by Journey was not difficult, and Grams loved that song so Persephone had heard it often. The Day We All Walked Out by Little Red and Pandemania told another story, so that was another one that was pretty easy to remember. Her biggest challenges were some really old songs that she had never really heard before. There was one called Goodnight Sweetheart that followed a predictable pattern but it was not something she had performed in the past.

 While she worked on her assigned songs and unassigned compositions, she thought about the next reflection question.

Second reflection question: Select one song that illustrates your current emotional state. Add your favorite performance of this song to this essay. Describe why you selected this song. Describe why you selected the particular performance. Reflect on the experience of selecting a song. Was it easy or difficult to choose the song or the performance? (Minimum - 500 words; Maximum - 2000 words) 

 This was difficult to answer. Current emotional state? Should she be honest or pretend that everything was completely positive? To be completely honest, her emotional state was somewhere between complete terror and pure exhilaration. Was there a song that encompassed both of those emotions for her? She set the guitar down and went to her music collection to see what she could find.

 CHAPTER SIX

Every single time Persephone was asked about her favorite music, she was unable to answer the question immediately. She had so many different songs that she loved that choosing just one seemed to slight the others in some way. Her personal music collection had over 500 songs on it - songs that held special meaning for her in some way or another. Some of the songs were her favorites because of Evander, some because Gram played them, and others were things that she had found for herself. In her collection she had songs from all genres, all time frames, and all styles. Her music listening would skip from classical pieces from Sibelius to German Death Metal and that suited her just fine. Persephone rarely shared her music selections with others because others just didn't seem to understand the beauty and meaning that she found in all the pieces. Others just wanted things to be all of one thing or another - all country music or all love songs - and Persephone found that a bit boring. There was so much more to music than just one label.

Persephone searched through her digital music files, skipping from song to song and trying to find the perfect fit. Breathe 2 a.m. by Anna Nalick? Nope, that was not quite the music she was searching for. It did not fit the emotion she was seeking. She kept looking and listening, switching from song to song to find just the right song for this question. As she searched, she wrote about the songs that she was rejecting and why they were not quite what she wanted. She kept scrolling through her playlist until she found the song that seemed to exemplify all the things that she was feeling and that she needed to express.

 The song that I selected after many attempts, Persephone wrote in her answer, is Master Alarm by James Horner from the soundtrack to Apollo 13. This piece, 3 minutes and 32 seconds in length, seems to follow the emotions that I am feeling about all of the new experiences that I am having right now. The tempo is consistent, but there are different musical patterns happening throughout the piece that offer feelings of turmoil and uncertainty while others play a foundational role in the music. When this piece is followed by the next part of the soundtrack, Into the LEM, you can sense a change between the frenzy of the alarm into the process of making a plan and moving through the uncertainty to a structure.

As for the process of music selection, I find this a difficult task every time I am asked to find some sort of music to describe me. I looked through my music files for about an hour and a half, trying songs to find one that fit my current state. Many of my songs almost fit but did not seem to completely encapsulate all of the things that I feel during this first week of music therapy coursework. After trying on many different songs, I finally found one that seemed to mesh with my feelings about this assignment and my overall emotional state.

 I often find it difficult to select music for myself, especially when directed to share my reasons for the selection. I do not often think about music as something with a definite purpose in my own life, but I know what I like and what I do not like. Those preferences and non-preferences change without much reason, and I often find myself having to justify my musical selections and preferences to others who do not share my tastes. My mother and father say that my style is best described as "eclectic," but I am not sure that is really the best word. All of my favorites share things with one another, but often those similarities are lost when I try to discuss them with other people. They hear abrupt changes from Finlandia by Sibelius followed by music from the Barenaked Ladies followed by Imagination sung by Jim Henson and then finishing off with Enter Sandman by Metallica, and they want to know how I can switch between these types of music so quickly. I cannot describe why I crave these types of changes because they all fit within my love of music. It is a part of who I am.

 Persephone lifted her fingers from the keyboard and stared at the screen. Was this too much honesty for the first week of school? Would anyone else know what she was trying to express? Did her response even answer the question? She was tired and ready to move to the next part of her study regime, but she was also feeling vulnerable.

 She checked the word count, 429 words, not quite enough. She needed to write a bit more to get to the required amount. What else could she write about? She took a deep breath and started typing again.

 My final thoughts about this project include that I hope we do not have to do this very often. I find this type of project to be exhausting. I wonder if this type of challenge is what music therapy clients go through when they are asked to share music or create music for themselves during sessions. I wonder if I would be able to make my own music that illustrates my current emotional state more easily than finding a piece by someone else. I think I will close this reflection and make some music for myself.

 Certainly that was over 500 words.

 Persephone submitted her response and reached for her keyboard. She started improvising as Evelyn, her brother's music therapist, had demonstrated. Start recording. Set key and chord progression. Repeat said progression changing one element of the music at a time until the music felt right in the moment. Persephone felt the music start to take on different nuances that seemed to express her feelings of trepidation and exhilaration. She played until she was exhausted, and then Persephone fell asleep to the recording of the music she had made, listening to the music and how it moved from theme to theme and feeling to feeling.

 She slept well until morning.

CHAPTER SEVEN

 The music started playing at a quiet volume, but Persephone heard it. It was 5:45 am and time to start getting ready for her day. She woke earlier than any of the people she had met in her cohort, but she also enjoyed the quiet of the early morning and getting to the cafeteria before the crush of students descended upon the cereal dispensers. Getting up early was not really a sacrifice when it came to getting some alone time.

 The song was July Tree by Nina Simone. Every night, before going to sleep, Persephone set her music system to randomly select a song from her favorites playlist as her wake up prompt. She enjoyed hearing familiar music and had cultivated her list until it included a mere thousand songs that were her "favorites."  She loved the randomness of the selections. Today is was a bit of Nina, tomorrow might be a karaoke version of Dream On by Aerosmith. You never knew what would start the day. All Persephone knew was that she would start her day with music, and that usually set the day off right.

 The routine of waking up, completing her daily hygiene, and then reviewing her schedule had become very familiar in the past month. Today was Wednesday, so it meant Continuum. There would be a lecture followed by double lab and then finished with small groups. After Continuum was finished, Persephone would go to Clinical Musicianship and lead a percussion improvisation with her classmates. The day would finish with homework and practice for Thursday's classes.

 Persephone double checked her class materials, reviewed the list of things that she had to finish for the week, and checked the class portal for any new discussion topics. Dr. Licar often posted lecture outlines and resources for her students the night before the lecture, and Persephone had found that having those files in her notes before the lectures started helped her stay organized.

 Information downloaded into her device, Persephone left her room for the morning and went down to the cafeteria for breakfast.

 She was staring to get used to being around so many people all the time. This was really the first time that she had studied in a more traditional educational system. Her family had always been involved in home-based schooling, so being in lectures and cafeterias with so many people took some getting used to. She had started to get used to the small talk that her cohort seemed to enjoy. She was even starting to engage in some of that review of material and the social interactions happening around her. Persephone still preferred sitting quietly before classes started, but she was no longer as surprised as she was on the first day when someone would tap her on the shoulder and ask her a question.

 Breakfast consisted of cereal and cranberry juice today. Persephone enjoyed sitting down with a bowl of grains and eating the pieces one by one without feeling rushed, so she was almost always the only person in the cafeteria for over an hour. She would eat and read and watch her fellow students as they came and went. Occasionally, one of her cohort would see her and sit with her for some time, but often she sat alone, reading and writing and composing.

 "Excuse me, may I sit here?"

 The voice startled Persephone from her concentration on Dr. Licar's course outline. She looked up to see one of the women from her residence hallway, holding a tray, and looking at Persephone with an open, friendly smile.

"Of course." Persephone started to move her gear from the table to make room for another person. She glanced at the woman and smiled back as the woman settled her own bowl of cereal and glass of milk on the cleared area. "My name is Persephone. Thanks for joining me."

 "Thanks for having me. My name is Calla. Don't we live on the same hall?"

Persephone nodded.

"Thought so. I'm a first year, so I guess you are, too?" Again, Persephone nodded and then realized that conversations should be reciprocal, so mentioned, "But, I don't think we're in the same cohort, right? I'm 2427."

Calla laughed, "Nope not anywhere close to the same cohort. I'm 1679, but it is nice to meet folks outside our assigned groups. What is your primary instrument?"

 Persephone chuckled and then noticed Calla looking at her strangely.

"Sorry, but have you noticed that this is how we all introduce ourselves now? We don't ask where people are from or anything except for identifying our primary instrument."

Calla laughed quietly. "Hunh. I hadn't noticed, but it seems that is what I know about most of the people here. Well, I am from Denville, New Jersey, USA, and my primary instrument is the viola, but I love playing anything from the string family."

"I'm Persephone, and I'm from Barstow, California. I started playing the piano first, but I play most of the instruments pretty well now."

 The conversation continued, covering the topics of how each had found music therapy as a professional track and about the places they had grown up and undergraduate study tracts. By the end of breakfast, Calla and Persephone seemed to be pretty well-acquainted and had made arrangements to practice their respective clinical musicianship assignments later in the day. They walked to Dr. Licar's lecture together, talking the entire way about classes and their current challenges.

 Settling into her chair, #2427, Persephone smiled as she arranged her styluses, tablet, and water bottle. She waited for what she had noticed was inevitable before each of these lectures.

"Hey, do you have a stylus I can borrow?" Persephone looked over her shoulder, smiled at #2467 and handed him one of her spare styluses. The first time he had tapped her shoulder, she had started not expecting any sort of interaction or recognition from anyone else in the room. This exchange had become routine. #2467 or Bentley Bloom the Third, never seemed to have a stylus on him. Persephone had started bringing an extra one to every lecture because she knew he would ask. She knew that he was a guitar/piano/synthesizer performer but didn't know much else about him.

 She laughed to herself again, remembering her conversation with Calla about knowing what instruments people played and not much else about the fellow human beings in the first year class of music therapy students.

 He was part of her cohort and not part of her small group. She went to labs and small group with the 40's and the 50's. He went with the 60's. He would use her stylus during the lecture and the cohort lecture and always returned it before lab or small group sessions. She hadn't spoken to him much more than the short conversations before every lecture, but she enjoyed hearing his responses to their teaching assistant's questions during the cohort lectures.

 "Thank you," Bentley said. Persephone responded with the common courteous remark, and Dr. Licar stepped onto the stage to talk about music in the Dark Ages. Persephone took notes and thought about the morning. Two interactions with people today - one as usual and the other with someone who might become a friend. Maybe she was finding her way into this live interaction thing.

 CHAPTER EIGHT

All of a sudden, it was time for mid-terms.

First year mid-terms were very important. If you did poorly, you did not move on. In fact, if you did poorly, you left. From what Persephone had heard in the hallways, this set of examinations was more important than almost everything else in the curriculum. The musical performance elements made up seventy-five percent of the grades, so it was imperative that all repertoire was note-perfect.

Persephone had been signing up for every possible time in the over-crowded practice rooms. She and Calla took turns as accompanist and vocalist for random songs from the repertoire list, and Persephone was feeling that she was pretty secure in her piano skills. She was more challenged by the vocal requirements of filling an entire auditorium with her voice. Calla’s challenge was completely the opposite.

“I just can’t keep my right hand going if my left hand starts up,” Calla complained, flopping down into the old chair next to the piano stool. “I never have this problem with my viola! I’d be fine with the guitar even, but the keyboard is going to be the end of me!”

Having heard this before, Persephone understood that she was not expected to respond. She flipped through her repertoire file looking for something that she still needed to practice. “I wonder if I can sign up for more time in the auditorium. I’m still not sure that I am singing loud enough to be heard across the room.”

Calla heaved herself off the chair and opened the door. “I know what that means. Let’s go sign up for any remaining time and then get something to eat. I’m starving!”

Persephone and Calla gathered up their instruments, repertoire lists, and stray bits trash that they had brought into the room. The rules of practice room use were strict, and everyone knew who was where when. There was no chance of leaving a mess without consequences. They moved down the hallway past their cohort rooms and towards the auditorium.

“I wonder why we have to do these tests here,” Persephone spoke out loud. “I don’t plan on running many music therapy groups in large spaces.”

“Maybe if you can project enough to fill up this room, you can sing anywhere,” Calla replied.

“Maybe.”

There was one more space left on the sign-up sheet before the examinations started. Persephone grabbed her stylus and wrote her name in small letters in the last open spot. Calla grabbed her arm and off they went, away from practicing and towards shepherd’s pie.

CHAPTER NINE

The day of Persephone’s examination started with a fire drill. The alarms went off at 2:52 am. Persephone staggered out to the safe zone with her resident mates, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and still trying to remember song lyrics. She had six hours until her examination, and she had not planned on this interruption.

“All clear, you may return to your rooms.”

Persephone walked up the stairs to her room and thought about trying to get some more sleep, but she felt a bit too awake for sleeping again after the trudge out of the hall and back again. She opened up her repertoire folder and started to play her keyboard at a very quiet volume. She ran through all of the songs on the list before breakfast. Following her usual custom, she went down to breakfast at the first possible moment. She grabbed a variety of foods including the makings of a peanut butter sandwich for later, and sat down to eat.

“Bad luck about the fire drill, hunh?” Calla sat next to her, sighing about the morning. “It figures that this would happen when we’re up for our exams. Nothing happened yesterday for the first batch. You’d almost think it happened on purpose to catch us up.”

Persephone shrugged, finished her water, and left to fill up her bottle for later. She loved being around Calla, but there were times when she needed to escape from her friend to concentrate. She gathered up her materials, wished Calla luck on her exam, and walked to the auditorium.

Settling into a seat, Persephone spent some quiet moments reviewing her song selections before others arrived. Not only would she be taking her examination in front of her instructors, her cohort would also be present. Singing in front of 200 pairs of eyes was a bit intimidating, but Persephone felt that she would be fine. Well, as long as she could get that first note out.

The first day of her cohort examinations had been long as an audience member, but it had been interesting as well. As a 27, she would be going pretty quickly. After her music examination was finished, she could use the remaining time to work on her term project for Continuum. As long as she sat quietly through the other performances, she could get most of her work finished. She could use the time since she had spent most of yesterday’s examination comparing herself to the members of her cohort.

That one is wobbly. Ooh, should have tuned your guitar before you started.

Once the thoughts started, Persephone found it difficult to turn them off. They had made it through 25 examinations during yesterday’s time frame. She would be second to go today.

The examination itself was pretty straight forward. Each student had to submit a list of repertoire which was categorized by musical style, possible therapeutic use with clients, and pitch. The lists had been submitted to the faculty two weeks prior to exam week.

“Number 2427?”

Persephone took a deep breath and moved to the stage. Waiting for her were a piano, a guitar, and a microphone. Her job was to sing and accompany herself for any of the songs that the faculty selected from her list.

She had worked hard to memorize all the songs. Her selections were based in her own musical experiences. She had picked songs that Gram enjoyed, and some that Evander had asked her to learn. There were songs from classic rock up to now music, and Persephone loved each one of the songs on her list. She had submitted her list of 30 songs and felt that she would be pretty decent.

“Breathe.” Persephone whispered to herself as she watched the faculty members sitting in the back of the auditorium scanning her list. “This will all be over soon.”

“Please play The Great Pretender by Buck Ram. You may select your instrument and key for this song.”

The disembodied voice echoed through the auditorium. Two hundred students sat as quietly as any large group of people. A sniff here and a cough there came to Persephone on the stage. She sat at the keyboard, decided to play the song in E-flat, and took a deep breath.

“Oh yes, I’m the great pretender…”

The words rang out, a bit wobbly to start, but Persephone seemed to find her confidence as soon as she remembered why this song had been included on her list. The lyrics often described her own feelings, especially now that she was in school.

“Pretendin’ I’m doin’ well…”

She finished the song, heard the applause from her classmates, and waited for the voice from the back.

“What key did you play that in?”

“E-flat.”

“Please play it again in A-flat.”

Persephone stopped for a moment. This was not something that anyone else had done, but it was an expectation delineated on the examination preparation list. She ran through the four chords – A-flat, D-flat, and E-flat seven – and found her opening pitch. This key was a bit too low or too high for her voice which is why she hadn’t selected it to begin with, but she made it through the song without bobbling any of the chords.

“Please select a song from your list to play on the guitar. You will play this song in the key of E major.”

Persephone moved to the guitar and checked the tuning. That B string was always a bit off, so she corrected the tension in the string and started her next song.

“Oh, I’d like to visit the moon…”

This was one of Evander’s favorite songs. He had requested it so much that Evelyn eventually decided that he could only sing it when everything else was finished in his sessions. If he finished his work, he could sing the song. If he didn’t, then no song. He had asked Persephone to learn the song so he could hear it whenever he wanted without having to do the work. She had been singing it for as long as she could play an instrument. He would sing, using his voicebox to croon the story first sung by Ernie and the Muppets.

The song finished to more applause. Three more songs to go unless the transposition meant that there were only two more. Persephone waited to hear what would be next.

“Please sing Night Breezes acappella.”

What? No one else had to sing without accompaniment. What was going on? Persephone took a deep breath, started a body percussion beat (pat, stomp, pat, pat), and started to sing the song.

Night Breezes was a song that had become popular during the first pandemic of 2020. Between the Arms and Me, the group that had performed the song, had been a one-hit wonder. Persephone had loved the song the first time she had heard it, and it was a natural for her list.

When she had finished, the audience applauded her again. The voice from the back said, “Thank you. You are finished.”

Persephone walked off the stage and picked up her bag. Finished? Did that mean that she had passed or failed? Finished? She hadn’t remembered what the faculty had said at the end of the others’ examinations. She found a seat towards the back of the auditorium, took out her tablet and styluses, and started to write.

For better or for worse, at least I am finished.

 CHAPTER TEN

Subject: Clinical Musicianship Examination Results.

 Persephone's hand hovered over the message for a split second. She had never really understood the whole Shrodinger's cat concept before this moment, but she now realized what that classic psychological and philosophical thought experiment was all about. She could see two definite possibilities stretching before her - passing and failing.

 Gram's voice ran through Persephone's head. "Darling, knowing is better than fretting. Just open the thing!" Smiling to herself, Persephone clicked on the message to see her results.

The results of this examination determined the classes that were on the schedule next semester. Folks who passed were placed into clinical tracks to start music therapy clinical work with a variety of clientele. If Persephone passed but only received a pass grade, she would spend some more time in clinical musicianship before starting to work in clinical practicum. If she passed at a higher level, she would be assigned a group of clients during her next semester and would get to start her practical training. If she failed, then she would be leaving the program completely.

Persephone felt that she had passed the examination, but she was not sure if she had managed to pass well enough to start practicum. Her next semester's class schedule included Continuum of Music and Humanity 2; Clinical Considerations: Older Adults; either Clinical Musicianship or Clinical Practicum; and Independent Study: Literature Review. If she had to take an additional semester of Clinical Musicianship, she would be able to continue with her education, but only on a probational basis. Since music skills were essential to the profession, the faculty members expected that all music therapy students could complete basic clinical music skills before they started to focus on the intricacies of therapy processes.

Taking a deep breath, Persephone opened her eyes to see her results. "Pass with distinction - assigned to Clinical Practicum 1: Older Adult Group Treatment."

 Persephone took a deep breath and then sent her results to her parents, to Evander, and to her mentor, Parker. She felt that she should keep her results private until she found out what her friends had earned on their examinations. She felt that Calla had done well, and so did Bentley, so she was sure that they would be moving up together, but chances were good that they would not be in the same practicum setting. Bentley would be moving into older adult work with her since they were in the same cohort, but Calla would be learning about a different population. Each cohort had a different focus every semester, so Persephone and Calla would be able to compare and contrast instructors, clients, musical considerations, and clinical techniques.

 Her desktop chimed. Evander had responded - "Whoooo!" Persephone laughed at her brother's typical one-word response to all sorts of news and comments. He was a man of few words and most of those words were silly, especially when directed towards her! He was her greatest supporter and her greatest challenger.

Persephone closed her message program and walked down the stairs for lunch.

 CHAPTER ELEVEN

 The rest of the semester seemed to drag on once mid-term results were announced. Peers who had not passed were missing from seminars and lab classes as the program offered additional lectures and course work for those who would not be continuing in the program. Persephone's cohort had shrunk by about 20 students, leaving spots in her lecture tier empty. Her friends and acquaintances had passed, so her social groups were stable.

Calla had found Persephone as soon as the results were posted. They had cautiously inquired about the status of the other without trying to appear too enthusiastic (just in case the other had flunked). When Persephone heard that Calla had passed, she shared her own news and their tentative interaction became a bit more jovial. They both kept their voices down until they were able to get out of the dormitory away from the others. At that moment, though, Calla and Persephone started jumping up and down, squealing and laughing as the feelings of relief started to bubble up.

"What is your schedule like next semester?" Calla was looking at her tablet to see what came next.

"Continuum of Music and Humanity 2; Clinical Considerations: Older Adults; Clinical Practicum - Older Adult Group Treatment; and Independent Study: Literature Review," answered Persephone.

"Really? I'm in Continuum 2, Infants and Toddlers, Clinical Practicum - Group Hologram Treatment - Preschool, and Directed Study - Technical Writing.
 I guess I didn't do as well on some of my assignments as I thought, so I get to learn how to write."

Calla's courses sounded interesting, and Persephone knew that she would get to the Infants and Toddlers Clinical Considerations and Practicum eventually. It was nice to have a friend who was taking courses that were a bit different from her own. They would be able to share notes and insights about instructors and expectations.

"Let's go to the cafeteria for some celebration food!" Persephone giggled as they moved towards some oral gratification. She was thinking that she wanted as much ice cream as she could stomach because it truly was a time to celebrate!

 

So, here's where I am in my work so far...

Here's what I still want to explore...

THINGS TO ADD IN

Persephone’s origin story – being around Evelyn and Evander helps P find music therapy as a career. Evander is post-COVID-19 positive and has associated developmental interruptions due to exposure to the virus in-utero. P born in 2027 – Evander born in 2024. Gram – former nurse who contracted COVID-19 – possible cause of dementia. Musical family. Evander is film score composer. P spent lots of time talking to and shadowing Evelyn before interacting with other music therapists – P is very methodical (may be struggle in clinical work between expectation and reality).

More Evander/Evelyn interactions through P’s discussion with Evelyn in high school years – Is Evelyn still a contact in college?? Set out entire curriculum with P meeting with advisor – including year-long apprenticeship before graduation.

New professional association – Music Therapy World – with chapters for each country.

Flesh out coursework a bit more. What happens in hologram session observation course??

Are there other things that you are wondering about?? Let me know!!