music, therapy, and me

I think I am fully immersed in my "old fogey" stage of life. At this moment, the song,  Kids  from  Bye, Bye Birdie  is sliding through my musical brain as I am thinking about the seven applications that I have in my internship file that are not finished. In addition, I have one set of letters of recommendation without an application - isn't that an interesting situation to be in... The one finished application prompted me to send an audition/interview invitation - no, actually, THREE invitations before the applicant bothered to let me know that an internship with me was no longer desired. No one seems to remember that they need to inform the other places that they have submitted applications that they no longer need to proceed as defined in the National Roster Internship Guidelines. So, I am a bit frustrated with the entire experience. Now, this is probably more of a function of what is going on around me than any type of significant change in applicants, but this i...

I am a person who enjoys writing songs. They are never really deep - most of the songs that I have written are of the "social-emotional learning" or "task analysis" types, but I enjoy the process of composition from start to performance. I haven't always enjoyed this process, but I find that this is one of the creative things that I enjoy about the job that I have at this point. In my various roles around the music therapy world, I have taught others how to write songs, and that is a part I enjoy playing. There is something quite nice about watching others be creative within boundaries that I set up. I enjoy seeing what someone else thinks about the prompts that I provide versus what I think and create during the same exact process. This is part of the reason that I am writing about composition on Sundays right now. I enjoy the process. One of the techniques that I recently shared for inspiration for composition is picture-inspired songwriting. There are times t...

I had a chance to show off one of my organizational systems this week when I shared my songwriting kit with a group of students. Sharing something that works for me is just plain old fun, and I enjoy it greatly. I like hearing what other people do in their systems, and I like sharing mine with others. This little songwriting kit is not fancy, but it does work for me, so why not let others in on the secret? My songwriting kit is a pencil pouch that includes some sheet music paper cut to size for my cell phone camera to take pictures for sharing TME ideas, two mechanical pencils, a really good eraser, some post-it notes (of course), and some index cards. The pencil pouch fits in my work bag without taking up too much space, and it is a Star Wars themed pouch with my favorite character in it, so it always makes me smile when I see it. Sometimes the simple things are the best. I have this kit because I tend to have ideas flit through my head when I am not close to my computer or software. ...

Forgive my interrupted posting schedule. I am simply trying to figure out some things in my life, and this interruption is part of the figuring out part. I am at the end of this figuring out part, and that is a good feeling. I know where I will go in my near future, and that makes me feel happy. Sorry for being so vague, but I cannot talk more about this topic. It is something that involves others besides just me, but there is something nice about being certain in my future, so there you go. For now, I am enjoying an opportunity to turn my attention towards something that I really want to pursue in our field - competency-based clinical training. I spent some time putting together a notebook with each of the AMTA Professional Competencies on a separate page. I intend to use this to parse out the competencies across all clinical training opportunities that music therapy students encounter in their preinternship and internship clinical training. It may sound funny, but I really believe t...

It's here again.  Songwriting Sunday, and I think I am ready to talk a bit about how I write songs. Today, I think I will focus on my goal-based compositions. Anyone wondering what that is?? Here we go. There are times when I have to write songs to support and rehearse particular skills to match my clients' goals. The topics are not ones that are easily supported by precomoposed music, so it is my job to make the music that my clients can use in places other than music therapy. So, how do I do this? (NOTE: Please keep in mind that this is how I do things, not the only way to do things - you find the way that works best for you, okay?) I start with the goal and an assessment process. If my client's goals are already known to me, then I do a quick baseline assessment. If the client has a brand new goal, then I start from the beginning. I write task analyses for the different skills or levels of mastery for the goal. For example, if I am writing a goal for toothbrushing, I try...

I want to focus on some fun things, and what better day (especially with the alliteration that I love so much) to focus on fun than on Fridays? I am filling out my blogging schedule with some themes, and this is one that I want to bring back. My word for 2024 is "play." I have been trying to focus on things that bring me joy and fun, so I think I will take Fridays as a day to focus on the things that I find fun in our profession - there are plenty of things that are a natural part of this job that are SO MUCH FUN! Today, I want to talk to you about improvising. (How many of you felt a cold chill up your back when you read the word, "improvising." like I do?) I promise, this is a good thing. I had a jazz band director that made me very afraid of improvising way back in junior high. That fear made me very anxious each and every time anyone told me to improvise in any situation because I was convinced that I could not do it. My internship director, Sheryl Kelly, fixed ...

I fell down a rabbit hole yesterday  morning during my extra preparation hour (which I have right now because we do not have all of our classrooms open). I started doing some music therapy thesis and dissertation exploration. I'm not really sure why I started all of this - my brain isn't fully awake at the moment, and I have a big headache, so things are not the best for remembering or thinking, but I found a couple of articles and dissertations that pulled me into reading.  One of them, by Rebecca Warren, intrigued me enough to have me go through most of it in the hour that I had available to me. The title, Examining Ableism in Music Therapy Education and Clinical Training: Student and Educator Perspectives , was interesting (full citation at the end of this post). I am someone who has done some studying about universal design and universal design learning, and I want to be someone who demonstrates the acceptance of all humans, so I am often interested in titles that include ...

I am sitting at my computer, listening to an episode of J.A.G. , and wondering what I can possibly write about on this morning. This is why I need themes. I like having enough structure that I can predict what I will write about on most days, especially at the start of the work week. I don't always follow the structure, but I like having it in place. I started my Songwriting Sunday series two days ago. I continued with my Internship Supervision series yesterday, but I am not interested in doing anything with therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) this morning. I feel like I have done everything I can do with that particular topic right now. Until I get inspired with a new way to think about TMEs, I think Tuesdays will be something else entirely. I just don't know what they will end up being. Finger update - I have been playing the guitar for the past six days. My finger still hurts, but I am able to bend my finger enough to get all the chords and the strength seems to be okay - n...

I must admit that I am getting ready for some changes in my internship program these days, and I am starting with the AMTA Professional Competencies which feel like they have changed since the last time I really looked at them, but I guess not (when I look at my current evaluation). Perhaps my thoughts about how different things look are spurred on by my desperate wish that the membership would have actually followed through on the "revision every five years" provision that was put into place about 10 years ago and would have revised this document twice in the past 10 years. This is not supposed to be a rant, so I will simply say that I feel that this document needs to be revised more than once every decade. Anyway... I am currently working on a competency-based clinical training project that is requiring me to delve deeply into the competencies, and I am enjoying the opportunity. There are so many things that I like about competency-based clinical training that I can go on a...

Okay, all. I am here, trying out a new blog series that I haven't really tried out yet, but that is something that supports what I am already doing as a music therapist. Here we go - Songwriting Sunday !! Now, songwriting is something that I do all the time. I hope I'm not alone in this, because songwriting is also something that is just fun. After all, we had to go through all of our music theory courses, so why not use that knowledge for something that enriches our professional existence and that makes others look at us in awe. Songwriting is a superpower! Seriously. Who else can figure out melodies, harmonies, pitch centers, rhythms, tempi, lyrics, dynamics, styles, forms, and all that in a short amount of time. There aren't many people out there who can take an idea and turn it into a piece of music. We are part of a small group of people who have these skills. We need to celebrate that as much as possible! (Is anyone's imposter syndrome starting to rear its ugly he...

Dearie, me. It is already Friday, and I have blogged about three or four of the last seven days here. I am getting closer to figuring out what I want to start writing about as themes (which is something I find I need in order to keep going with music therapy related topics on this blog - otherwise I end up just babbling on and on and on...). I am wondering if writing about composition from a clinical perspective would be something that would help me figure some things out. I used to write monthly therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) for sing about songs , but I stopped doing that on a regular basis a while ago. It would be nice to get back into writing music as a part of my regular routine. So, how about Songwriting Sundays? (I like alliteration, so something with an "S" at the beginning HAS to be on either Saturday or Sunday - it's corny, but it makes my heart happy, so...) I enjoy writing songs. I enjoy making things up as I go along as well. So, having a songwriting to...

My goodness. My blogging practices are lagging this week but are significantly better than last week's. Usually, on Wednesdays, I spend time just talking about anything at all. In the past, I have used labels such as "woeful Wednesday," "weekly wrap-up Wednesday," "website Wednesday," and "webinar Wednesday." I remember why Wednesdays were woeful - that group was horrible and set the tone for the entire day, but that group is no longer together. Things have changed. As I continue to work on my journey of whatever this is, I am trying to figure out what types of things I want to focus on here. Perhaps Wednesdays could be a day where I think about what types of things I think music therapy students need to hear from professional music therapists. I could call it "Dear MT Student:" and go from there. Who knows if I will, but it is an option. I wonder if students would ask questions to be answered? That might be a good way to go. I enjo...

I was able to wake up on time this morning and also haul my ponderous self out of my very comfortable bed only an hour later, so I am considering this a win. I have had significant difficulty getting up and out of bed since our last time change, and this is unusual for me. I can say that I feel 100% better than I did three days ago, so I am also considering that fact a win. As a result of recovering from my latest illness and my need to do things differently, I am trying to come up with new things to talk about here on my blog. This happens occasionally. I get an urge to shake my thinking up and one of the ways that manifests is in new topics for this space. So, I am not doing an internship supervision post today. If that is what you look for in my blog, please send me a message or leave a comment. I can continue that topic, if you want. Otherwise, I think I am going to leave that topic behind for a bit. In the past, I have used the following Monday labels: Make It Monday and Music Mon...

Hello. My social media name is MJ, and I am a middle-aged woman who is also a music therapist. I work with persons with a variety of complex diagnoses, and I have a huge interest in all things music therapy clinical training. I am an internship director as well as a staff music therapist, and I am currently recovering from Influenza A - something that is going through my facility and my communities right now. I am currently feeling very tired, and I have neglected my writing habit woefully for the entire past week - something that is very unusual for me. The title of this blog is music, therapy, and me , so if you are here, I assume that you are interested in one or more of these categories. I know my sister reads the blog occasionally - I assume that she is more interested in the me  part of the blog than the other two categories, but I haven't really asked her about that... Hey, sissa!! I have been writing this blog for the past 17 years, and my writing habits have varied over al...