TME Tuesday:

During holidays, my sense of time gets scrambled, and I live in a state of time fugue which is simultaneously refreshing and terrifying. This happens no matter where I am and no matter when I am doing holiday time. So, this blog series is helpful because it grounds me in a routine. Today, apparently, is Tuesday, so that means that it is time to write about therapeutic music experiences.

During the Advent season this year, our theme was "I'll Be Home for Christmas." We sang or listened to the song every week for the past four weeks. That song is always a bit bittersweet for me since I live away from my family and always feel that song a bit more than I am comfortable sharing with others. I had to sing it, and it was a bit rough to get through. Now that I have not been home, I feel like this song's meaning resonates more and more.

So, let's talk about taking this song and making it something to use with clients.

We have looked a bit at how I take an object or material and figure out how it will move my client towards his/her/their music therapy goals. This is a bit of a different type of approach - the song to TME approach. Today, we will work on this approach thinking about a generic client - perhaps someone who is struggling with separation or changes in celebrations or who just wants to engage in some reminiscence. 

(I don't use this song with my students in group therapy, primarily because many of my clients do not get to go home or have been sent from home for treatment. This song is a bit too much, and this is something to consider as you work through this TME process.)

Okay.

Here's how I approach turning a piece of music into a therapeutic music experience (TME). I start with finding the sheet music for the song. I then go into music theory analysis mode. I have a graphic organizer that I use for this process. It is in my TPT store at this link and costs $2 USD. If you download this file, then I get about $.87, so there you go...

I start to think about all the different parts of music that are present. Now, I use this process to analyze all sorts of things about the music. I think about the lyrics, the rhythm, melody, form, and all sorts of things. This helps me root myself into the music in a way that illustrates the options that I have that I can use in the music therapy session. I can identify the original key, the melodic contour, and harmonic structure of the composition. This analysis helps me figure out how I can change the music to accommodate client needs and preferences when we use either the recordings (there are MANY of these - I occasionally will make a list of all of the versions that I can find in order to help me get to specific preferred performers) or when we make the music live.

For me, this song lends itself to a discussion about being with and being away from family members. It can also become the foundation for a discussion about leaving toxic relationships and making your own families outside of your biology. There are so many feelings that are associated with celebrations, and this song is one of the ones that brings up all sorts of emotions for me - it is not one that I am likely to bring into the session (and I was not extremely happy about having to hear it four weeks in a row this Advent season, to be honest) because of my own emotions about holidays.

So, now we could get into a conversation about clinical separation and all sorts of boundary issues, but that's a topic for another day. 

Once I have the music analysis finished, I can then make plans for my particular clients.
The center of every TME has to be individual clients because that's the reason for music therapy sessions. Any TME that you find or develop has to be tweaked and adjusted so each client can benefit. You might make changes to the procedure or to the musical format to work on all sorts of clinical goals for your clients. This one song might end up being the foundation for several different TMEs depending on what client comes to music therapy.