My, Um, Favorite Song? Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear...

Do you have an answer to the question, "what is your favorite song?"

I have been thinking about this lately. I don't really have just one favorite song - my music preferences change significantly over minutes, so I have many favorites. In fact, I have made so many compilations of "favorite" songs over the years that I can't really just pick one for all the attention and love of being "favorite." I just can't do it.

When I'm asked this question, which I try to avoid, by the way, I hem and haw until any song that I currently like pops into my head.

It is difficult to figure out what to say when you have some many wonderful pieces to choose from, isn't it?

Right now, my music preferences are based in older music. I brought a whole bunch of CDs with me on my recent road trip rather than filling my iPod with music - I filled that with television shows and movies - so I had lots of older compilations of current favorites with me. I listened to many of them when I got tired of listening to Star Wars movies and television shows. It was wonderful to hear songs that I loved back in the late 90's and early 00's. I had some of my more contemporary selections as well, so I listened to quite a few of them in my 3,000 mile trek. That's one of the things that I love about driving across country - the time to listen.

I do not have a current favorite song, but I do have a huge list of songs and music that I love. It crosses genres, times, and every single musical element that I am fond of changing and adapting in my music therapy practice. My playlists for myself are often chaotic to untrained ears. I may switch from Monster by Skillet to Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland and then to Past the Point of No Return by Andrew Lloyd Webber in the space of three songs. When I am listening to music, I prefer to set songs up to shuffle randomly rather than to move in a predictable fashion because I like the anticipation that comes with not knowing what is going to be next.

Is is important for a music therapist to have a favorite song? I don't think it is. I think a music therapist should be open to any and all music that is created and brought to his/her/their attention. If a music therapist has a favorite song, is that a bad thing? Not at all.

One of my neverending personal and professional goals is to digitize my entire music library and keep it handy for making more CDs and playlists for myself. I do not use Spotify anywhere other than at work, so CDs are my way to organize my music listening. I want to make some nostalgia CDs to keep in my music therapy clinic for clients to use when I am absent. I also want to make some selection books similar to the Disney book I made several years ago.

These books have a CD on one side and a list of songs and visuals on the other side. They take time to make, decorate, laminate, and assemble, but I want to have a library of them for my clients to use during the session.

Ooo. It is getting late, so it is time to move into the conclusion of this post. 

I do not have ONE favorite song. I have hundreds of them. I guess I could probably come up with a top playlist, if I had to, but trying to figure out only 20 songs to include would be really difficult for me! There are so many extramusical associations that are included with all of my favorites that I just can't choose, and I don't want to, so I won't.

So there. 

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