Fun Friday: Day After Halloween - Thank Goodness for Prep Time!!

It is the day after Halloween, and other than a screaming fit from my first group of students where I had to yell in order to be heard, the day went pretty well. I am in immense levels of pain from my repaired knee - don't know if it was sitting on the floor so much, CPR recertification, or the weather that has had the most effect on this level of pain, but it is pretty bad. So, here I am, facing physical behavior management training this afternoon with a bum leg and a close to bum back. Can't wait!

Anyway, let's talk about fun things on this Friday.

This week, I have been introducing my 21st century musicians to 20th century music technology. I have managed to break two cassette players, a record player from the 1960's, an RCA cord, and my RCA input in my karaoke machine. I did something really hard for me - I threw out the broken cassette players after trying to open them up and fix them. I hate throwing things out that might be able to be fixed, but I also cannot justify keeping something that is completely unredeemable in the eyes of everyone other than me. So, I put them in the trashcan last evening. I am really hoping that they are gone today when I get to my room.

It is fascinating to watch kids navigate the technology that I remember as state of the art back then. They were unable to understand that you have to press the cassette play button until it clicks rather than just touching the button. Touch screens have taken over, it seems! If I still had a working iPod, that device would have joined the defunct technology timeline, but all of mine just stopped one day - well, except for the one that just broke apart spectacularly - it still kinda works, but is in pieces, so I am not taking that in, but a record player from the 1960s lasted for sixty years?? Planned obsolesce at its best right there.

The way we consume music now fascinates me. I wonder what the next step will be - implants into our brains or ears? Where can we go from here? Now, I know that these were the same questions asked in the past, but it is amazing to me that technology will continue to change and morph and grow.

I have a secret project that happens for the month of November where I get to play around with the ideas of several futures. In this project, I get to use my thoughts and wonderings to create a world. I've moved technology into holographic presentations because, why not?

For now though, I will be putting the remaining devices away and bringing my records and cassettes back to my house. We won't discuss this type of technology again for a long time. I probably won't do this in the next two Octobers that I have left - unless there is a fifth week in October again. We'll see.

Off to shower, drive, and do my work for today.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea...
Read more

Songwriting Sunday: Repetition

Image
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 f...
Read more

Being An Internship Director: On Hiatus

Image
It has been long enough since I have had an intern that I am seriously feeling like I have little to say on the subject. At the same time, I am currently writing Chapter 5 of my general internship handbook, so I am able to write about being an intern and what types of things to think about during this important time in our professional development. It is a strange place to be in, and it is one that is a bit challenging for me. Right now, I have had three vacant internship positions since the beginning of the calendar year. I will have a vacant position next month and that will be an entire year of rejected offers. In the past nine months, I have offered positions to three applicants who have declined. It is interesting how people complain that there aren't enough internship programs, but programs like mine are empty. I guess there aren't enough internship programs that pay large stipends (which mine cannot) out there. I get it. It is interesting to me how we have moved from an ...
Read more