music, therapy, and me

Apparently there is a name for the thing I'm going to talk about right now, but I don't know that fancy name, so I'm going to call it my picture book. I have a book full of pictures that I keep around for visual inspiration.  Th ese pictures are from magazines and came from advertisements more than anything else. When I see a picture that I like , I cut it out, post it on blank paper, and then put it in the book. Then, when my creativity is at it s lowest, I f lip through the book, l ooking for inspiration. Know what? I alw ays find some in that book. There are strange looking fruits. I have advert isements for things that make me curious. I have pi ctures of celebrities that I've chosen due to the composition of the picture or the topic ma tter. Whatever catches my attention goes into the book. The be nefit of this collection, for me, is that i t provi des me with ins piration when I need it the most. I am a visual learner and I think best through visual man...

One of the best things about being an established music therapist (and a packrat) is that I have lots of materials available for music therapy sessions. As I am currently trying to change how I run some sessions, and in order to make sure that I can run these sessions, even when staffing is not optimal, I am turning to some of my older projects. I have lots of older projects. Cute, broken storage box When I had to move my area due to a massive renovation, I took many of my resources home with me. There wasn't any space in the temporary quarters and the new room is not conducive to storage. As a result, I have several large totes full of stuff that I used to have at my fingertips. I remembered that there was a box of ability-level and abstract thought level organized file folders in one of my boxes. (Isn't that a super appropriate box for an MT?) Look at all of those materials!! The box itself no longer works - one of my interns ripped the latch when she was try...

I am down to two of my original four scrapbooking boxes. Another one shattered with one single blow from an angry client, so I only have two remaining boxes. I'm getting tired of picking up plastic shards from the floor of the music room, so I am reconsidering my storage options.  The concept of the boxes and the materials is still valid and working well. My clients appear to understand what I want them to do, I am not having to get up and down quite as much, and the flow of the session is much smoother without all of the interruptions. The clients understand the purpose behind the color-coding, even though staff members don't seem to understand. It amazes me that my co-workers don't seem to understand that the blue things go into the blue box while the red things go into the red box, but that is an entirely different blog topic. Now I am looking for another storage option. What I would really like is a storage box the same size as the storage boxes but soft-sided and...

It amazes me how tools can make things more efficient, effective, and easier for everyone. Today's supplemental, while not a visual aid, is a tool that helps me with some of the administrative duties of being a music therapist. A while back, I decided to try something. I decided to make boxes to use with my large groups of kids to assist me in distributing materials, to increase the amount of time that I could actually be doing something therapeutic, and to keep some things contained. In order to do this, I pulled out some of my favorite containers - scrapbooking boxes. You can see some of them here, including a bunch that I use to make visual aids with and some examples of the ones that I am using at work - the blue and purple ones. I chose four boxes - red, blue, purple, and green - as the basis for my visual aids. I rationalized that color-coding materials would help us all keep things where they needed to be (and it is working!). The green box was wrecked by a client who ...

After a long, LONG weekend without a computer, I am now back online with a functioning machine again. Whew. It is amazing how much you depend on electronic devices that you don't really think about until you cannot use those devices. What did I do when I had some "lack of computer" time? I made things. That's what I tend to do. I look around at the house that needs to be vacuumed and think, "I want to make something." The vacuuming goes undone, but I have some pretty cool visual aids to use in therapy over the next several months. Next week is notation week in my music therapy clinic. The second week of the month always has a focus on something related to notation. (Just so you know, the first week of the month is focused on instruments/instrument families/ensembles. The third week is our Musician of the Month week, and the last week is music creating week. There you go.) I struggle with teaching notation to my clients. Many of the foundations to ...

I had a very productive day yesterday which led to completion of lots of products for my music therapy clinic and for TMEs I've developed. Because of this day, I've almost caught up with all of my laminating (of course, I did find more as soon as I put everything away), and I have a bunch of new visuals to show off. Some of these will be available for purchase on my website , some are just for inspiration. As always, comments are welcome!! The process of getting ready to laminate - none of these pictures actually were laminated. Sigh. Olympic medals and Tom - did you know that googly eyes can fit through a laminator? I didn't, but I do now! Colored in and ready to go. Frame for Orff block compositions. Ukulele Chord Charts We're learning how to write music - here's the outside of the rhythm folder. The inside of the rhythm folder/ The other two folders - melody and lyrics. These will work in stations. It's almost the O...

Yesterday was Music Therapy Mailings day! I heard a knock on my door, went to find the postal worker with an envelope with some goodies inside, and then I started to brainstorm based on the things inside the envelope! My July Music Therapy Mailings Loot! I received a CD - We Are Different , by Pat McManus. I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm enjoying some of the song titles - we are different, anger management, do that, chasing what you love. I have the lyrics to some of the songs as well, so I can see the themes that are being conveyed. I will listen to the songs tomorrow during my preparation time. In the packet was a sheet with Olympic medals on it. Ping! That was the spark for my brainstorming process! What could I do with my students that would incorporate the spirit of the Olympics and still work on their therapeutic group goals? Hmmm. I started my planning process. Now, to be fair, I had an idea for small cards that I wanted to use as part of my therapy, so ...

One of my forever quests is to make things that have multiple purposes and uses so that I can squeeze every possible value out of the space that is around me. This quest is really evident to me right now as I am making some progress towards maximizing the use of my space and wishing that I had more and more and more space to use. My solution? Trying to make things more and more effective all of the time... I try really hard to stay in a mind frame of "six things." Before I can keep any type of material or visual aid, I have to think of six different things to do with the material/visual aid; six things with different therapeutic goals; six distinct ways to use the thing in order to justify keeping it in my clinic area. If I can't think of those six things, I can't keep the material in the clinic. It goes home (part of why I am currently trying to maximize my living space right now). So, how is this done? I am a big fan of stream of consciousness brainstorming....

Just in case you were wondering, I didn't write anything yesterday. I went to the lake instead and enjoyed the early morning out by the water...ah. Self-care. Anyway, I am currently in the throes of clearing my house. This is always an adventure in history, as I tend to be a piler of things rather than a tosser of things. I found, in my excavation, this visual that I had put together several years ago for a Therapeutic Music Experience (TME) and for a specific client who has since left. Here was the idea. This is a mountain. It will stand on its own on the carpet, but I also have a way to help make it more sturdy. It is meant to go with the visual aids that I've drawn for a camp song I learned forever ago - Once An Austrian . There are many links to this song on YouTube, but none of them are the version that I learned, so I'm not going to choose one for you. Sorry. The different parts of the sequence song are available for adding to the mountain. At the time, I thin...

I am trying to figure out what to write about today. I haven't used my creativity to make anything this week, so there's nothing new to display. I improvised quite a bit this week, but like all of my improvised songs, the music is fleeting. Oooh, I could update you on how the boxes are working in my sessions. If you remember, I spent time at the beginning of this month talking about using color-coded boxes to help with group treatment. The boxes, in four different colors, contain emotion choices, emotion strips, and any other visual aids that I need during sessions. The idea is to give kids lots of choices for communicating their emotions and to help decrease the wasted time taken in passing one option around a group of 12 kids. We started using them two weeks ago. There are good things and bad things about the boxes. First, kids are starting to get used to how to use them. Some of my students don't understand that they only need to finish one sentence and they co...

Happy Sunday! It's time to talk visual aids, and here are the ones that I'm using this upcoming week. It's notation week in my clinic, so we are going to work on rhythm notation by using these pieces to explore patterns.  Here's how we're going to use them this week.  If you look over the Supplemental Sunday posts from the past, you'll see that I've referenced using boxes in music therapy group treatment. We used the boxes for the first time this week, and they worked as I expected them to work. Kids were able to complete tasks - some with assistance, others independently. Our opening check-in took less time (initial purpose), and I had the opportunity to assess whether my clients could complete the particular task. This week, we will also be using the boxes to help us organize. I will sort the rhythm wheel pieces out so there are enough pieces for 3 entire rhythm wheels. My clients will use the pieces however they want to use them. I will try to k...

I enjoy drawing. I am, by no means, someone who considers myself an artist, but I am a draw-er of pictures, and I like making line drawings to use with my clients. I've learned that I draw best when I can find a visual image to base my drawings on during the process, and I have several "How-to Draw" books that help me out with suggestions on how to make my drawings. So, I draw. Yesterday, I had an urge to draw something, so I sat down with my books and drew several things. Most of them looked decent and are things that I can reproduce and replicate for future products. Two of them already have purposes, so I outlined them and scanned them into the computer. I'll print them out and then start experimenting with shading and coloring. After I like the finished product, I'll re-scan them into the computer and then make them into visual aids for use with my clients. There are several reasons why I draw things to use in my session rather than downloading the vis...

I spent most of Friday morning pulling together some visual aids for my clients to use once we get back to music therapy sessions. I love making things that I can use in my music therapy clinic, and I enjoy watching my clients use them later. As I was taking pictures and getting things ready for the final presentation (which isn't finished yet), I thought about the little tips and techniques that I've learned from others and developed myself (through lots of trial and error!) over the years. If you are interested in getting into the visual aid making side of things, the first thing you need to do is to gather your materials. Here's a list of things that I recommend that you get for easier assembly of visual aids: Several pairs of scissors - You need one pair for cutting paper, another pair for Velcro, and (if you are a scissors fanatic) another pair for cutting laminate. Believe me, having several pairs will make your life easier as you will not be gunking up...