TME Tuesday: Things Do Not Need to Be Complicated
Sure, visual aids are wonderful for reinforcing concepts and assisting with comprehension, but my feeling is that any therapeutic music experience has to be able to work without those aids. Visuals are to enhance the music, not take over for it. If the music doesn't work without the visual aid, then the music becomes the secondary therapeutic medium - an enhancement, if you will.
This week, we are listening to the music of performers born in this month. We have been also playing instruments. I have been selecting the instruments this week rather than letting my clients pull whatever they want from the cabinets, and I've picked some strange ones as well as some really cool instruments that are often overlooked. After a very short demonstration for the unfamiliar instruments, we go into selecting songs and playing instruments.
I do not use any visual aids in this part of our interaction, but the next part, the Halloween part, is visual rich. I have pumpkin carols with different choice options. I have books and songbooks galore. I am working on a Halloween lapbook pattern that will include a haunted house, candy pictures, a pumpkin waiting to be turned into a jack-o-lantern, and a couple of other things as well. My students will interact with those visual aids, but at the core of what we do will be the music.
There are times when I want all the visuals. I want everything to have a visual component to it, and then my clients just don't respond the way I imagined they would. They are only interested in ripping the visuals or putting them in their mouths or throwing it back at me. I often watch the product of time, energy, and effort get destroyed two minutes after I give something to them. It can be defeating to watch all that effort just go into the trash can due to saliva or the fact that it is a million pieces. That's the reason that all TMEs have to be able to stand alone without the visual aids to make it into my repertoire.
Then, there are the times when I realize that my clients also need simplicity. They don't need all the visuals that are possible. They need to make music, and I don't have to have a visual aid to assist them in that process. All I need to do is give them an instrument to play.
Now, I love making visuals. I do. It's something that I am good at, and it is part of my self-care routine to sit down and assemble file folder activities or activity binder pages or lapbooks. I enjoy the process of creating something that I can use in music therapy sessions. For me, the process is more important than the product use, but the product has some satisfaction involved with it as well. I love seeing the end result when I have worked to make something new. I love seeing my clients use the materials I make (not destroy, but use). I feel a twinge of pain and regret when a client destroys what I have offered to them. It is difficult to separate myself from the product at that point. It is much easier for me to send those products to other people and let them use them in their areas so I don't have to watch the destruction process.
Today, I am going to put out the instruments, turn on the music, and play with my clients. We are going to see who can entrain to the external stimulus and who cannot. We are going to discover the various sounds that are available through the instruments. We are going to make music together without visual aids or therapist-determined tasks. We are going to simply engage.
One of the best music therapy moments that I have ever had was with a group of clients with more involvement with developmental symptomology than psychiatric involvement. We all played together for about 10 minutes straight. One client made fire alarm sounds, others just played. Some vocalized, others played. We completed a 10 minute improvisation without words, without visual aids, without anything other than instruments and ourselves.
It was magical.
Sometimes, simple is better. Things do not need to be complicated to be valuable.
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