TME Tuesday: A New Way for Me to Guide My Creativity

I am a music therapist who gets creative blocks at times, and that fact just annoys me. I do not like it when I cannot create something just whenever I want or need to do so, and I have explored many different ways to spur my creativity over my many years as a music therapist.

The other day, I grabbed a set of Dungeons and Dragons dice at Five Below. I have followed several people on various social media platforms who use these to make decisions - I especially enjoy Roll for Sandwich - check it out! I thought that this could be a good format for me, and I turned it into a couple of therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) already!

Now, I have released this as a free resource in my TPT store. (It will not always be free - get it now!!) You have to have an account in TPT to access the information, but signing up is free and there are tons of free resources that music therapists can use and adapt. 

Here's how it works.

I have determined a criterion for each die value. Each die has a different musical element or therapeutic element that guides my composition and intervention design. I take my die, roll it, and record the value. I check the value against my free resource and start to design my music accordingly.

Right now, I have to compose a song with instrumental accompaniment to address the motor domain, in the key of C# (not likely), in a rock style, using stuffed animals, to go with my August themes (back to school), and to encourage social interactions. These are the structures that I have to abide by - I will not do anything in C# - that is a crazy amount of work. It is so much easier to compose in the key of C - maybe I will change that die roll to be minor or modal rather than sharp/flat. We'll see. Anyway, with these guidelines, I can get to brainstorming. 

The first things that come to my mind are using stuffed animals to focus on greetings. We can talk about being new at school for the year, and then we can use our stuffed animals to practice shaking hands, giving fist bumps, giving high fives, and other forms of appropriate greetings. It could function as an opening TME or as a practice for social interactions with others - we could talk about greeting strangers as well as greeting friends. There you go. I am on my way for another TME!!

Check out the freebie while it is still free!! Let me know what you think and let's share TMEs!!

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