music, therapy, and me

Today is the day that I sit down with my song of the month and start to develop ways to use this song as a therapeutic music experience (TME) for my clients and for hypothetical clients as well. I've already analyzed the musical elements that I can adapt during music therapy, but I left off the TME part of the chart because I prefer to make this something that happens with some thought and deliberation, but I always root it in the musical elements. In case you haven't caught the most recent song choice, I selected Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls for this round of posts. I like the song - it is part of my musical development - and it is probably one of the only Goo Goo Dolls songs that I know (but I am absolutely HOPELESS when it comes to identifying musicians who sing particular songs - I would have to look at their entire discography to see if I know any of their other songs...but I digress). It practically leapt off the page when I opened the book, and then it was playing on t...

So, since I selected "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls last Sunday, this song has shown up at least daily in my everyday encounters. It is somewhat spooky, but I'm choosing to take this as a sign that it is time to focus on this song. There you go. This week's post is all about analyzing the musical elements that are present in every song that we use in music therapy. I spent some time with my favorite graphic organizing software (Inspiration - love this program!!), and here is the song chart. I do these charts because they help me figure out what sorts of options I have when I use this song with my clients. This reminds me that I can change the tempo if my client needs the song faster or slower. I can alter the timbre to accommodate client preferences. Since this song has lyrics, they can either remain as is to illustrate something that a client is addressing, or I can change the lyrics and use other parts of the music to go into other goal-based interactions. I f...

I've been out of the habit of looking at songs and making them something to use in a therapeutic environment lately. That's because this summer, I've been bored out of my skull with all things routine, so I haven't done my usual writing themes, but the summer is almost over for me (school will be back full-time in 21 days), so it is time to get back into what gives me some structure...back into my routines! Over the past year, I've tried to take my Sunday mornings for some cognitive exercise. Specifically, I have selected a random song from either my sheet music collection (wow, I have LOTS of sheet music) or from my iPod (and, I have LOTS of recorded music as well) and then analyzed it the way I like to analyze therapeutic music selections - looking at all of the various elements of music available to be selected, adapted, and used.  I have a graphic organizer set up in my computer files that helps me with this concept. **NOTE: If you are interested in gettin...

As you know, if you've been reading my blog over the past two weeks, I'm currently challenging myself to use a " new to me" therapeutic music experience with my clients every day. I'm doing pretty well with this challenge - I've done seven out of eight possibilities. I'm shooting for four out of four this week, and I figure that this particular post series can contribute to my other challenge. Might as well combine things into one outcome, right?? Better use of systems - am I right?? So, the way I've been doing this particular post series lately is that I've been shuffling my iTunes account to see what pops up. Now, I have over 20K songs on my iTunes account, so there is lots of variety to what is stored on my computer and on the cloud. The selections that have come up have spurred some creativity, lots of thought about cultural appropriation (Cultural Considerations is coming back, I promise! - I'm not finished with that particular thoug...

Forgive me as I deviate from my usual conversation this week - I'm feeling a need to talk about something a little bit different. It does all make sense why this post at this time, but it may take me some time to get there. Please be patient with me. I am a music therapist. As such, I use music all the time to assist my clients in finding paths to their goals and objectives. Sometimes that music is completely improvisational, at other times, the music is the client's preferred music. My work day is full of music, and I love that fact.  One of the problems that I've always had with this job is that I find myself listening less to music now than I did before I was a music therapist. Now, I was never one of those people who had my headphones plugged in all the time - my mother would NOT allow that behavior - but I did enjoy listening to music, and music was my accompaniment to cooking dinner and cleaning the bathroom and other chores. My relationship to music has deepene...

And... This week's song is Little Gem by Euphoria. It's on the CSI Soundtrack and was released on the soundtrack in 2001. Euphoria is a Canadian band that falls into trance, techno, and electronica musical genres. On first listen, the piece seems to be closer to trance than techno, but that is part of being somewhat unused to listening to this type of genre. The tempo is at a good pace for my clients - moderate and consistent. The music itself has some repetitive figures with embellishments in various instrument parts. It doesn't get too repetitive (though that seems to be more about my preferences for music than about my clients' preferences). Another search for this group of performers without the title of the song led me into the various groups that use the same name. There is a Canadian group called Euphoria at present, but it is not the Euphoria of my song. There is also an Indian group called Euphoria that seems to be a bit more well-known these days, but, ...

It's that time again. Time to go to the iTunes account, set the play controls to Shuffle, and see what comes up to use as a therapeutic music experience. I start up the program and, voila! The song that comes up is Pon De Replay , performed by Rihanna, written by E. Rogers, C. Sturken, A. Brooks, and V. Nobles and on my iTunes account from the album Radio Disney Jams, Volume 8 . Basic Information about the song: the song is 3 minutes, 36 seconds long. starts with a percussive pattern that forms the foundation for the piece - approximately 98 bpm (according to my new favorite website Get Song BPM - seriously, why haven't I heard about this site before???) there is a primarily vocal timbre to go with the percussion and electronic sounds - chorus of voices support the front singer the lyrics are primarily concerned with movement and offer some directives for moving in a specific manner, but there doesn't seem to be a set pattern for dancing offered released in 2005 ...

I spent most of the afternoon transcribing a piece of music into a format that my church choir will be able to read and understand this morning. This has led me into thinking about how many times I've had to use the skills that I learned in music theory as part of my roles of music director, music therapist, and composer/songwriter. I don't think there has been a day where I didn't use at least a small part of what I learned in music theory, whether that be dictation, sight singing, or the actual theory lessons. I think I've used my music history information less, but theory forms the basis of all of my active musicking. This week's adventures in theory included the transcription of the anthem for this morning, but also included analyzing new songs shared by my intern, figuring out my own accompaniment patterns for new songs, and improvising music to support what my clients contributed. All sorts of music and theory as part of my day. I think that part of my s...

I did it again. I went to the iPod to find a song to convert into a therapeutic music experience (TME) and found something not at all like what I was thinking I would find. It's amazing how that can happen, isn't it? So, this is how this all happens. I go to iTunes, set the controls to shuffle and click the play button. The musical piece that starts up is the one that I use for my Song Conversion Sunday post. I tend to do a little music theory exploration and then lead into my TME development. The last time I did this, I ended up in a totally new place with my thinking. The universe must approve of the path that I am taking because my random song this time around is a song from a culture that is not mine, but I think this one has a bit less difficulty for me because of the type of music - I feel that this one is a bit more genuine and authentic than the last song from iTunes. It still does bring up several questions for me, though. This week's song is Chorus Resonet ...

Last week, my randomly selected song for this next series of Song Conversion Sunday posts was one that sent me into some deep thinking about culture and cultural appropriation and that has challenged me to think a bit differently about the music that I have on my iPod and how I use that music. Now, to start all this off, I am not an expert on culture, cultural appropriation, cultural misappropriation, or anything other than my own experiences. My own cultural experiences are that of middle-class, caucasian America. I am a woman, I prefer the pronouns "she" and "her," and I do not have to spend much time thinking about cultural misappropriation because my cultural background seems to be prevalent in the place where I live. I have never really thought too much about whether the music that I use in sessions is something that I'm taking from another culture and shaping it into something other than what it was intended for originally. I guess this is something to...

The last time I selected a song, I found it on my iTunes account, and that worked really well for me, so I think I'll do that again. I set my music to shuffle and press play. Here goes - let's see what song comes up... Zen Buddha Indian Meditation Music for Awakening, by the Sea Tranquility Academy, on the 111 Ambient Nature Sounds album. I really like it when fate takes me on paths of exploration and learning. I know very little about Buddhism or meditation, so I will be trying to find out as much information as possible about this particular piece of music as well as why it is titled what it is titled. I don't know that I will be able to do this music any justice whatsoever, but I will make an effort to learn what I can about this piece and the people who present it to the world. A Google search for "Sea Tranquility Academy" reveals that this type of music seems to be what this group does. There is little information about who is behind the music under th...

It is time again for me to dive into a therapeutic music experience development post. If you recall, the last time I actually wrote about music, I selected the song, Stand By You , performed by Rachel Platten, as my new focus. I then took a week off for the Online Conference for Music Therapy, and I am back to my focus. I've been listening to this song this morning, and I find it to be an interesting piece of music. It is not complex - in fact, I think I can replicate most of it just from listening to it a couple of times. The melodies are repetitive, the rhythms are steady, and the harmony (I don't think I wrote about the harmony on the graphic below - I'll change that for next week...) is pretty unremarkable - I, IV, V chords with the occasional vi and ii thrown in for novelty. What I really like about this song is the words. This is a song that is meant to be sung to someone who is going through a rough time. It offers support, and I like that.  This is a song that...

I am sitting here, getting ready for a Song Conversion Sunday post, trying to figure out what to select. Do I go for sheet music? A song book? Nope. Here's the iPod - let's use that to select a song. Turn on shuffle and go to the songs list. Song? Stand By You as performed by Rachel Platten. It's on my Now! That's What I Call Music, Vol. 58 album and is not a song that I've made an effort to listen to before now. My students have never requested it, so it's not something on my radar (or would that be sonar?) yet. Time to change that. So, now I've pulled up iTunes on the computer. Does anyone else have difficulty with getting iTunes to work on your computer? Mine always stops for horrendously long periods of time and doesn't allow for any type of interaction. It's one of the many things that frustrates me about apple products - they just don't work for me the way I want them to work. Never have. Anyway - now that iTunes is FINALLY open, I ...

Oh my. It is time to finish up this month's song and make it into a therapeutic music experience. This particular song, which I found in The Flying Pig Campfire Song Book , had a very simple beginning, but I think it can be so much more!! So, this will now become an information carrier for facts about insects. The melody, harmony, and basic song structure will remain the same, but there are going to be so many more facts offered than in the original song.  I think I will keep the original chorus as originally shared. (It's a Small World) It's a world of centipedes, a world of moths It's a world of katydids, a world of wasps There's so much that we share that it's time we're aware It's an insect world   It's an insect covered world It's an insect covered world It's an insect covered world It's an insect world   It's a world of beetles, a world of fleas It's a world of caterpillars, a world of bees In th...

It is Sunday again, and that means a Song Conversion is in process here at my computer. Last week I selected It's An Insect World , a piggy-backed song that I found in The Flying Pig Campfire Song Book , and that is a brief song about some insects. My rule is that I choose a song randomly and then make it into a therapeutic music experience (TME) to use with clients somewhere. So, here we are. The lyrics of this song are not complicated. They list eight types of insects - centipedes, moths, katydids, wasps, beetles, fleas, caterpillars, and bees. That's it. All the song does is list these insects. I think this song could do so much more!! The song is designed to work with the musical format of It's a Small World , so the musical analysis is pretty easy. Form - A/B. Melody - varied contour, clear differences between chorus and verse, tessitura - about an octave, maybe a bit more (I'm not looking at the sheet music - maybe I should do that...be right back...). Sheet...

When we last met in a Song Conversion Sunday post, I had selected two books from my shelves. Then, I went on vacation and didn't do anything with the two books that I had selected. I'm back from vacation and very uninterested in the books that I have, so I'm changing the rules a bit - I chose a new book! Sharp inhalations of mock horror ensuing from this corner of the world!! (In case you are not able to imply it, this is a lame attempt at humor. Forgive me, it is early here and I am a bit loopy!!) One of my work goals is to decrease the amount of stuff that I have in my office so that I can use the space more efficiently. To that end, I packed up some of the lyric books and visual aids that I haven't used very much at all in the past year and brought them home. As I was flipping through my lyric book, I found SO many songs that are perfect for specific therapeutic outcomes (AKA goals) that I realized that the lyric book was perfect for this series. As as result, ...

It is again time for a Song Conversion Sunday post. It's amazing how these things come up every week! (Lame attempt to be funny here!!) Anyway, I thought I would expand on my ideas about why this sort of process is so important to me and to my therapy practice while going through part of my current routine.  I've been a music therapist for many years at this point. I've spent most of my career working with persons with intellectual/developmental disabilities and chronic psychiatric challenges. I have all sorts of therapeutic music experiences (TME - the name I use for the things that I do with my clients during sessions) that I have collected, written, used, refined, and abandoned over the years. The nature of this job, at least for me, is that I am always looking for more TME ideas, more songs, more ways to connect with my clients during music therapy interactions. I want new music and new ideas, so I often go out looking for them! I keep an idea book with me almost ...

It has been a long week full of illness in my neck of the woods, so you may have noticed (or maybe not, that's okay) that I haven't posted many of the days this week. I am starting to feel better, though, so I thought it would be good to start off this whole feeling better thing with a Song Conversion Sunday post - something to start the week off right. Here we go... Over the past couple of weeks, I've been taking a song that I found in one of my songbooks, one that was randomly selected from one of my many shelves of sheet music books, and a song that was chosen by opening up the book to a random page. The page that I selected has a really simple song on it that I really do not like a whole bunch, but that is the song that I have, so that is the song that I'm using. (If you want to read more, check out these posts - Post One and Post Two .)  It is now time to figure out how to use this song clinically. The music is not complex at all - good for multiple uses. ...

It is Sunday again, and that means that I will take a song, randomly chosen from my shelves of sheet music books and single copies of music, to analyze and make into something that has a therapeutic purpose for my music therapy practice. This process jumpstarts my creative interpretation of music in general by making me think about something out there in the world that doesn't have any therapeutic meaning for me to begin with and then finding that meaning through contemplation, study, and thought. This month's song is from a book called, Musically Speaking . It was written by Roberta Wilson Dolana, published by Word Making Productions located in Salt Lake City, Utah. I can find very little information about the company or the author/composer, so I'm thinking it is a very obscure book. Now, I got this book from the discard pile at my facility when they disbanded the employee resource library many years ago. I'm sure that I picked it up because it had music in ...