Systems in Music Therapy: Grouping

As I am rooting through all of my stuff - break is almost over and things are a mess here - I have found that my organizational style is that of grouping or organizing by category. I tend to think of function or when and where I use things as my categories, so I have everything that I need when I am doing a particular thing or am in a particular situation. My categories do not always make sense to other people (as evidenced by how my sister set up my kitchen versus how I am changing what she has done into what I want to do), but they make logical sense to me, so I continue.

The cabinets in my music therapy space are a perfect example of how I organize things. I have four large cabinets in my music therapy room. Each cabinet has a function. One cabinet stores all the string instruments that I have in my practice. The guitars, ukuleles, and violins live in one place so I can access them when I need them but can contain them the rest of the time. The second cabinet stores all of my manipulatives and props. Do you want small, plastic animals to drop on some drums during an animal improvisation? Go to that cabinet. The third cabinet stores most of the Orff instruments that are part of my instrument collection - I was able to fit in all but one bass metallophone into that cabinet. The last cabinet stores all of my other instruments - further categorized into convenience boxes for use during sessions.

I have a box with rhythm sticks, jingle bell wrist straps, shaker eggs, and triangles (though the triangles are going to have a new place to live shortly). I have a box with hand drums of all sorts (it's a large box!). I have a box for tambourines, a box for novelty instruments, another box of novelty instruments, a box for maracas, and several boxes of wooden instruments that are further sorted. It's just the way I think.

I have found the way I want to group or categorize my instruments. It is a system that works for me. I know exactly where to go to get specific things. I like that sort of system, so I strive to do this type of thing in other areas of my life as well.

I have three days of my first break left before I head back to work. I had to buy some new storage because the old shelving that I had in my apartment has been repurposed a bit. Those shelves came yesterday evening, so I will be putting them together and starting to fill them up today. I plan to use one set in the entertainment room and another set down here for my yarn and fabric or for other things. I haven't quite decided yet. Depending on how sturdy these shelves are, I may get some more sets for my library books and for other parts of my house.

I find that organizing and categorizing by function is the best way for my brain to process things. I do not want to take out five bags of things for projects that I do on a regular basis. It makes more sense to me and how I interact with the world to have all of the basic classroom instruments in the same box so I can offer my clients choices without having to tote lots of things around. One box is better than four boxes - always!

I talk to music therapy interns about organizing every nine weeks or so, and I am always honest that this is one of my biggest challenges in life - ORGANIZATION! I have found some things that work for me, and I share those thoughts with interns. I have four "Cs" that I use to try and keep my stuff in check. Those "Cs" are:

• Corral - this "C" encourages me to dedicate specific spaces for specific things and uses. My cabinet situation is an example of this particular idea. Place all your stuff for music therapy in one place. I am getting that space ready in my third bedroom. It will be my music therapy room and will store all of my materials, instruments, and tools. I do not think it will be where I put my texts because I have another room for books, but we will see. I suggest to interns that they start to find one place to keep things in their living/work situations as soon as possible so organization becomes habitual.
• Categorize - Put things into logical storage based on how you use the materials. I encourage folks to start thinking of materials as "always" and "session-specific." When I was moving between five buildings during a major renovation of our facility, I started this form of organizing because it was difficult to keep all materials in one place without straining myself (see the next "C" for more on this). So, I started using an "always" box and some "session-specific" boxes. The "always" box included materials that I used in every single session, regardless of the population or goal focus. My "always" box included the iPod, speakers, paperwork that I might need, index cards for composing, personal items as needed, a pen and a pencil, and other things that crossed session boundaries. If I was talking about a specific musician during all sessions, that resource went into the "always" box. I also had "session-specific" boxes where I would put resources that went with specific groups. So, my communication materials went into my boxes for my groups of students who needed those materials. I did not have to lug the communication binder into my groups where they were not used at all. This helped me keep track of materials, have what I needed when I needed it, and not worry about hurting myself taking all sorts of things from one place to another when those things were not necessary.
• Conserve - This "C" has been very much on my mind in the past three months as I have gone through some back issues that will require me to adjust everything that I do from now on. The point is to conserve your body and to protect your body so you do not end up having to figure out how to work with chronic back pain and issues. Now, I do not think that my life practices have broken me, but I know that there have been situations where I could have or should have done things differently. If you do not need five large drums during a session, then don't lug in five drums just because it would be nice to have them available. NO! You need to figure out what you need and use that with a sense of ergonomics! This brings me to the last "C"-
• Consider - This tends to be the thing that interns respond to the most because it seems that we do not talk about this topic very much in entry-level training. This is a material-focused way of thinking about goals, therapeutic music experiences, and session structure. There is way too much to talk about here, so I will talk about this at a later time... Basically, this "C" means make sure that you have lots of options available with the materials that you bring with you into a session.

There you go - there are my four "Cs." I may need to write these out and put them all over my house to help me remember to practice what I preach.