Just a Song Sunday:

Let's dive into the archives for this week's post. Here we go in our way back machine...

There are so many ways that we, as music therapists, can adapt and apply music and different elements to support our clients' journeys towards their therapeutic goals. I find that writing things down helps me remember the options available to me when singing and playing a song in sessions, so this is how I think of music.

This particular format is not something that everyone relates to, but it fits my brain very well. Each of the elements of music that I know about is on this chart, and I think through my options. When I am using songs in therapy sessions, I can think through the work I've already done, and that thinking helps me be a more effective music therapist (in my opinion!).

So, this song, Old Friends, performed by Simon and Garfunkel, is one that is not familiar to many of my clients. If using it in a session, I would first need to introduce the song to them. I do this by asking them to listen and move to the music. After we do that, then we talk about the story of the song. Since this is a very unfamiliar group of musicians and song, I would probably not use this song with clients like me former student, to be honest, but you never know what will happen in my next iteration of this position.

If I were to use this in a session with clients similar to my former students, I would put it into a themed session about friendship. We would do some light lyric analysis to discover the themes behind the song, and would also spend some time talking about the characteristics of good friends. The conversation about bad friends would also be part of the session theme.

With other client populations, I would change the focus a bit from the social-emotional learning focus to reminiscence or discussions about friends. Some of the same themes would probably come up, but the focus would be a bit different due to the difference in population. 

I am able to think about how to use the same music with different types of people because I know both the characteristics of the population and the music. Analyzing the music helps me think about how I could use that song with clients to move them towards their therapeutic goals. That's why I do this exercise. I find that it gives me options when working with a variety of people and their goals.

Like I said before, this is not the way everyone thinks of music and music elements, but it is what works for me.

I hope you give Old Friends a listen. I am someone who appreciates Simon and Garfunkel, but this isn't my favorite song of theirs. It is good to listen to songs that we enjoy less than our favorites to increase our familiarity. With repetition comes familiarity and with familiarity comes preference. There you go.