Songwriting Sunday: Repetition

One of the things that I find to be helpful with my client population (children, adolescents, and young adults with dual diagnoses) is repetition of phrases, lyrics, and music.

As a result of 30+ years of working with this population in various iterations, I have found that my clients respond the most to songs with three repeated phrases to prime their responses with a different phrase to communicate the important part of the experience.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a definite way to write music for clinical interactions. This is what seems to work well with my particular group of human beings. Don't go to your supervisors and tell them that I told you that this is the ONLY way to write music - It is NOT! You have to find what works for your clients and for their clinical goals.

Since my clients respond well to this type of song, I tend to write songs in this format more than any other. What I have found is that my clients remember these songs more than the ones that I do in different formats. They also request them more. So, I tend to do either an AABA format or an AAAB format when I am writing songs for them.

One of the things that I was told during my internship was that people learn best with repetition. There are all sorts of comments and cliches that we have floating around in our language about making things habitual and practiced, so I know that others know this as well.

I have worked with practicum students and interns who took this idea to heart to the point where all sessions were exactly the same all the time. This is not what is meant by repetition. Repetition does not mean that all treatment is exactly the same all the time. There is a fine line between repeating something to assist a human in learning and boring them to tears because everything is always the same. Boredom is not what you want from music therapy - EVER! Relaxation, yes. Slower breathing, yes. Boredom - NOOOOOOO!

There are many ways to alter your music to help clients pay attention to the music that is happening with and through them. That's a topic for another time - actually, I've written about it loads over the years - search "therapeutic function of music" or "therapeutic elements of music" to find posts that discuss how to shape the music for each client who comes to you as part of the music therapy milieu. 

Today, though, I am celebrating my typical songwriting format - three repeated phrases with one different phrase stuck somewhere there. It is time to go through my therapeutic music experience (TME) database to find some more of past favorites that I've written and shared but have got away from in recent sessions due to needing to support interns and their creativity rather than using my own. Guess what I get to do now??

I hope that you are going to do some songwriting today. It's a good thing to make a habit. The best thing?? THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN BE WRONG!! So, just go write something. It doesn't have to be a song for a therapy session or TME. It can be whatever it needs to be. Just write something!