TME Tuesday Returns: Forcing Compositions vs. Fully Formed Compositions

So, here it is. Tuesday again, and the return of my TME Tuesdays. Several years ago, I wrote TMEs every single Tuesday and shared them with readers on this blog. I decided to stop doing that for a myriad of reasons, but mostly because of some of the attitudes of other music therapists on social media complaining that they did not want to pay for the intellectual property of other music therapists - that the other music therapists should just give them whatever they wanted at any time. I don't think that is appropriate - after all, the original music therapist had to spend the time, energy, and effort to create, so that author should receive recognition and recompense for that time, energy, and effort. Since I still feel that my intellectual property has value, I am not going to publish TMEs (TME stands for Therapeutic Music Experience, by the way - the term I choose to use for what I do with clients in sessions) the way I did before, but I will tell you the general portions of these TMEs. You can compose your own music to go along with these ideas, or you can pay me for ready-made TMEs available in my sing about mini editions - only $27 USD for three editions! The next edition comes out on May 5th.

End of hard sell.

So, this has been a couple of good weeks for TME development for me. I've written several new songs that have been received well by my clients. I have managed to capture those songs and WRITE them down (that's usually the big problem for me). I do not have a way to put my notation software on my work computer (yet - the DVD-ROM drive is on its way), so the songs are not complete yet, but they have been notated and are ready to be transcribed as soon as I can get that done.

So, do you want to know what I've been composing lately?

Last week, an idea for a true/false game and song popped into my head. I love it when ideas pop that way. It's as if those particular songs are meant to be. The song is repetitive and upbeat, so it grabs the attention of my students. We used instruments to indicate whether the facts shared through the song was true or false. Some of my students also played a board game as part of experience.

This week's new song is based on a social skills program that we use to identify and classify emotions. It is called the Zones of Regulation and more information about the program can be found here. I have wanted a Zones song for a long time, and it finally arrived in my brain! I am introducing the song this week with the use of Orff instrumentation to exemplify the different Zones and their corresponding emotions. Some of my groups are improvising with the emotions as their context. Some of my groups are just listening to what I am singing and playing along with the music. Each Zone has a different sound and chord progression to go along with it.

In addition, I am spending quite a bit of time improvising with my clients as well. Those songs are fleeting and never meant to be caught and transcribed. I have learned that lesson over and over again.

Let's see. What else can I share this week?

Lately, I've been thinking about the potential of each song for YouTube and digital presentation formatting. I have started to include a content decision tree at the end of each of my newer TMEs to help me figure out whether the TMEs that I am designing will be easy to make into digital files (to use when I get my Promethean board at some point in the near future) or to post on my work-related YouTube channel. The first TME idea that I shared is not really a good candidate for YouTube - there are too many client choices and the need for clients to make those choices before the song moves on, but it will be a good digital file idea. The second one has some trademarked material in it. That is the major hangup that I have about posting it on YouTube. The terminology is not my own. I can change the words to remove all references to the zones, and then the song would be appropriate for that venue. It will probably also end up being a digital file for my clients to access in the music therapy room.

Okay - I will share more next week (when I have my jump drive that contains my newest TMEs - it's at work right now). Thanks for being here. 

By the way, if you would like to see more of my TME Tuesday posts, search the term "TME Tuesday" and my past posts should show up! Enjoy!