TME Tuesday: What Would You Do With This Song?

Every year around this time, a song starts to circle around in my head. It is not really a song that I enjoy listening to very much, but it is there and it just keeps circling around and around. I haven't used it much in therapy sessions (especially not lately as it is an older type song - one from when I was young, so...you know), but it gets in my brain and just keeps going. The song?

Back to School from Grease 2.

 Now, perhaps you are one of the people in the world who have never heard this song before. That is perfectly fine, but let me tell you, it is one that really struck a chord with me (pun intended) and has special meaning this time of year because...(wait for it)...we are going back to school.

Here is a link to this song via YouTube. Now it can be stuck in your head as well. I don't think I have ever officially written a therapeutic music experience (TME) for this song before, so let's go into TME development.

First step, find the lyrics to look at. Second step, be really surprised that this is credited as a Four Tops song - never really thought about who sang the song before... Third step, sit and think about this as a TME.

I often start with a song and then try to fit the song into my clients' goals and objectives and my purpose at my facility. I am an educational enrichment therapist rather than an IEP therapist, so I have the joy and challenge of trying to figure out how to engage all clients in music therapy rather than only working with those who have shown an educational benefit from music therapy services. This is an interesting double-edged sword when it comes to music therapy. On one hand, I have the freedom to plan anything that works within some of our umbrella goals for our clients, on the other hand, I have no representation on official documentation other than an hour per week notated as a service provided. So, when I am designing TMEs, I have the freedom to do what I want to do rather than making my TMEs conform to narrower goal statements. IEP services look very different than my general goals.

My facility asks that I provide music for every student for a minimum of an hour per week - group treatment sessions. My umbrella goals include improving impulse control, providing opportunities to express emotion in a safe manner, encouraging communication of wants and needs in a safe manner, and making choices which support each client's independence. Within those particular umbrella goals, there are many opportunities to do just about anything in sessions, so all I have to do is figure out how to incorporate these general goals into all TMEs.

As I am thinking about this particular song and how to use it with my clients, I am heading towards a structured movement TME. In the movie, this song is a full-cast dance number, and I think it would be fun to replicate this type of movement into sessions. Some of my clients will get really into this type of TME. Others will go with it because they want their participation points, and yet others will refuse. That's pretty much what happens when music therapy is mandatory rather than optional, but that's the way it is. There are so many responses to different TMEs that I know that every single thing I present will be accepted and rejected simultaneously. I LOVE adolescents. No, I really do!

Anyway, this post will not include an entire TME plan because I am still just thinking about what is possible. We can use this as a background for movement as mentioned above, but it would also work well as a lyric substitution TME - changing the words to reflect what each student feels. The music could also change - turn it from a snappy dance number into a back to school dirge if students are not looking forward to going back to school. This would require some music exploration on my part as finding the chords to this song has eluded me so far. I think I have the sheet music somewhere, but I am not entirely sure that I have a songbook for Grease 2. Hmmm. That means that I need to do some dictation work to figure out what is going on musically.

As I look through some of my ideas and then goals that I have to address, I can see some opportunities to work on impulse control through moving as directed/decided, waiting for specific musical cues to do specific movements, and waiting turns to engage in conversation or choices for completing songs. The other umbrella goals are appropriate for this particular song as well.

If nothing else, I have an opportunity to turn this song from an annoying ear worm into something that I can use with my clients in music therapy services. This is going to be something that I am thinking about today as I go through my various trainings...how to make this into a TME for my clients.