music, therapy, and me

It is time for the song of the week. One of my favorite, obscure holiday songs comes from Bing Crosby. It is called Christmas Dinner, Country Style, and it is set to a square dance format. Now, it might be the three years that we square danced in physical education (fourth, seventh, and ninth grades) that draws me to this song, but I enjoy it. I especially like the way it provides a focus to thaning Mother after the meal is prepared and presented. There is a space for gratitude that is missing in many things - songs, ideas, and the ways we view holidays in particular. I would like to make this into a Thanksgiving song, and I might just do that. While Bing's version functions as a Christmas song, I feel like there aren't enough Thanksgiving songs out in the world, so why not make more? This holiday that is coming up is not one of my favorites, but I do like the idea behind it - taking a day to be grateful for what I have and who I love. I have not had a "traditional Thanksg...

Ah. The week after Halloween. It is but a brief respite of the angst and anxiety that is brought up by the simple fact that all of our holidays in October, November, and December are family-oriented and most of my clients are far away from their families. The next two months will be hectic as some clients will have planned visits and others will not. The first hurdle, Halloween, is now over. This week, Halloween songs were played the most in my music therapy clinic. Well, that's not entirely true. They were sung the most during the past week. I sang several song books during sessions. We sang about old ladies who swallowed bats (I don't like the ending of that one - I think I will change it up next time I sing it) and about pumpkins rolling around as well as about spiders, ghosts, and witches. So many holiday songs that are now over. It is now time to shift gears a bit. I will have two four day workweeks in a row followed by a five day workweek and then a two day workweek this ...

I am sitting on my sofa in my front room, waiting for the rain to arrive, and eating noodles. I am blogging a bit later than usual because it is Sunday, and I don't have anything to do.  Well, as always, that isn't true, but I have no outside obligations which is very nice. I could go to see Tron, but I am not all that interested in leaving my house. It was another long night - something is going on with my sleeping patterns, but I am not stressing about it. This all brings me to this Sunday's song. As I write these posts, I spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out what to write about. It varies from day to day and mood to mood. I spend time brainstorming and trying to figure things out, but I never know if anyone else even cares about what I write. This always brings me back to the songs that I keep just for me. The one that I will always keep for my own benefit and use without sharing it with clients is Dar Williams' What Do You Hear in These Sounds?  I love thi...

It is Sunday again, which means it is time to tell you what I am listening to this week. I can sum that up in two words - Not Much. EEEEEKKK! `Sorry, just had a spider rush me on my desk. It was a lean, leggy one which usually indicates recluse of some sort. I've been seeing things moving out of the corner of my eye all morning - and NOW a SPIDER! Ugh. ANYWAY - I have been ripping CDs again, so I have been going through my books and looking through my collection to see what songs I am going to add to my favorites playlist. I already have about 200 songs, but there is always room for more! I still have my CD burner and lots of CD blanks, so I can make CDs to listen to as I commute to and from work. I know - old school, but that is who I am. Anyway, again... As I am going through these CDs, I am constantly reminded that there are so many songs that are important to me for so many reasons. Some of them are songs that I have shared with special people. Others have meaning only to me. S...

I took some time off from ripping music to my computer, but I am ready to get back and get going again. I brought one of my very large CD books down from upstairs just to see that it was the one I finished earlier. So, I am going to trudge back upstairs and get the others that I have to still go through. Three more huge cases and one smaller case to go - the smaller case has holiday music only, so it fits in the smaller case without difficulty. As I stroll through my CD purchases from long ago, I am constantly reminded that I really love all sorts of songs. It is difficult to name a favorite singer or group or song, but I do have my favorites. My music library is eclectic to say the least. Throat singers and monks through to rap and hip-hop artists. I have CDs from groups that made one and never were heard from again. I have recordings that are greatest hits compilations from artists that had long careers. The books of CDs that I have and continue to keep in my home even though there a...

So, I was driving home on Friday afternoon, and I passed two dead armadillos by the side of the road - they were about five miles apart, and I just started singing about them. I'll post the song somewhere, but it is just an absurd little dirge that popped into my head. That's how music happens for me. Things that endure pop into my head and stick there. I sang the song to my sister, and it stuck in her head as well, but she isn't singing the right melody yet. I will have to sing the dirge to her several more times until it sticks. I doubt that I will ever use the song in music therapy, but it fulfilled something for me. The lyrics are simple - Flat armadillo, flat armadillo, flat armadillo, flat armadillo by the side of the road. I also played around with some lyrics, but I didn't develop it any more. There are times when things just don't need to be developed into a therapeutic music experience. They just are. I haven't been taking the time to sing lately. I wi...

One of my quests for this year is to rip all of my CDs (yep, I still have CDs) onto my computer so I have the music in digital form without having to stream. So, I have been ripping CDs and listening to more music lately. I have realized that music has been missing from my life lately... Now, let me clarify because I am musicking all the time with my clients, but I have not been engaging in music for me lately. I listen to what my clients want to hear, not what I need in my own musical journey. So, part of this quest is to remind me of music for me. I was asked why I still have all of my CDs, and the simple reason is that I paid good money for all of these, and I don't want to give them away! I will keep them for as long as I possibly can! As I was listening and ripping and appreciating the music I have collected over the years, I have started to select songs for specific reasons (because I am a music therapist and goals are ALWAYS things that I think about - even for myself). One ...

One of my quests for this year is to get back into listening to music again. It has been a long time since I have spent time listening just to listen. Since music has been my job, I go through periods of time when I just cannot listen to anything outside of music therapy sessions. I am missing music at the moment, so I am making an effort to bring music back into my daily way of engaging in life. I am ripping my CD library onto my computer, and I am rediscovering music that I have loved in the past. I loved the era of burning CDs, and I have lots of "favorites" CDs that I have found in my music library. I pulled out a CD case with "all-time favorites," made in 2007-ish. Curious to see what I loved back then, I popped it into my CD player in my car and have been listening during my commutes. One of the things that I can say with certainty is that I love much of the music of Garth Brooks. There you go. The music that I have included of his always makes me smile. so re...

As a vintage music therapist who has invested in records, cassettes, CDs, mp3s, and now streaming services, I have lots of music around my house. I have managed to give away most of my cassettes, but I have all of the records of my family as well as my extensive CD collection lurking in bookshelves in corners of my home. I have started the process of ripping my CD collection onto my computer to store that music on the cloud. This is not a process for the faint of heart, and it is taking lots of time. I have a CD drive in my computer - I bought it specifically because it had an integrated CD drive because this is a quest I always have at the back of my mind when I am purchasing things. I want to have my music available to me the next time I get a computer. This is a long introduction to the benefit that I am finding with this task. As I put on the topic line, I am finding old favorite songs again. Part of being a music therapist is a love of music, and I have many pieces that I have lov...

One of the advantages of going through my CD collection and ripping music to my computer is that I am being reminded of music that I have loved over my life and career. One of these songs is by Fiona Apple who was part of the "angry girl singer-songwriter" movement that happened at some point in my past. Criminal  is one of my favorites from Fiona Apple. Okay, let me explain something about me. I tend to find one song by an artist that resonates with me, and I then explore more of the music. I am not always impressed by the other songs that those artists share, but I have many CDs that I got because I wanted a copy of the one song that I love. I used to be part of a CD club - BMG got me many CDs for less than $2 each back when I was budgeting for everything - so I was able to find many of the songs that I loved back then for very little money. (I never really paid full price for any CD.) So, with Fiona Apple, I have a couple of songs that I like and more that I do not like as...

It has been a long time since I have listened to music that is just for me alone.  It has been a long time since I sat down with my keyboard and just played music that I love. I do not seek music out for my leisure time - mainly because I am surrounded with it most of the time. I changed that last night. I turned on my streaming service on my television and let it select music for me for most of my waking hours. My choice parameters were soundtracks and musicals, and the music that was shared was mostly pleasant for me. There were only a couple of songs that I didn't enjoy, but I didn't skip any of them. I listened all the way through all the songs, but I also allowed my attention to go in and out while I was listening. I enjoyed it, and will do more listening in this manner. The shuffle function keeps the music novel and goes like my favorite compilations go - from one extreme to another and back again from one side of the music continuum to another side. Many of my non-musica...

How can it already be Sunday again? And the 20th? Already?? This year seems to be flowing past me in a rush. Since it is Sunday, it is time for a Sunday Song post, and I actually have one this time! On Monday, I hosted a reward session for one of my clients who shared the song, "Brighter Days," with me. Sung by Blessing Offor, and written by him and a co-writer, Sam Mackenzie Ellis, the song speaks about remembering that bad days are not the only things that we experience - or, at least, that's how I am interpreting the lyrics right now. That even in the pain, there is love. So, right now, I am wallowing in the music of Mr. Offor. While he is a Christian artist, I find that many of his songs work for those who are not Christian but who are humanistic in outlook. There is something about hearing that someone else feels like there are positive things happening in the world, even in the midst of all the horrible things going on, that helps me move forward.  There are so many...

So... I feel like I need to be totally transparent about something from the get-go of this particular series... I am not good with identifying songs with their performers. I can't identify the song names, but I can almost always sing the song. As I was trying to figure out what song to select for this series, I remembered being in a session last week, listening to a song by Billie Eilish. I really liked the lyrics to the song, but for the life of me, I cannot remember which song it was. I remember thinking, "that would be a great song for our self-awareness monthly theme," but I cannot find the words that I remember in the lyrics search that I am doing of Billie's songs.  This is a common situation for me, but it's also common for my music therapy clients. We can remember things about songs but can't remember names or musicians. We spend lots of time engaged in clue hunting. I ask questions like, "Is the singer a man or a woman?" (I know, those aren...

I subscribe to Dan Rather's Steady newsletter - the free version - because I respect that man as one of the voices of my childhood. Mr. Rather replaced Walter Cronkite as the anchor of CBS news when I was a kid. My parents were diehard CBS news watchers because of Mr. Cronkite, and Mr. Rather became the new voice for a long time before my parents defected to NBC news and Tom Brokaw. Since I grew up with several voices in the news world, I have found myself gravitating back to those voices to help me make sense of the world right now. On Sundays, Mr. Rather takes a break from writing about politics and the state of the world to write about songs that he finds memorable. I like that, and I enjoy reading his words about those songs. I think I might start doing the same sort of thing on my blog - writing a bit about specific songs and why they are important to me. Now, I just have to find the songs... I was listening to songs that my clients were sharing this week, and I realized that ...