music, therapy, and me

So, with the experience of the Boomwhacker party resonating in my head all night, I awoke to several new ideas. Most of these are not Boomwhacker ideas, but what the hey - I thought I'd share... My clients have developmental and psychiatric diagnoses, so many of the things that I saw last night were not things my clients can access easily. The chants, the songs, and the organization skills were valuable, so I will use them (with LOTS of adaptations) with my students. Now, on to my ideas. With the upcoming Halloween event arriving, I suggest using the Boomwhackers in minor keys. A and C, E and B, D and F are all minor tonalities that can be used as the format for "spooky" songs using the Diatonic set. I often use the exact same songs that I use during the rest of the year on Halloween, but I change all of my major tonalities to minor tonalities. The change of mode increases the eeriness of the music and really makes me think about my melodies and pitches as well. I...

Melody The complexities of music abound. There are many things that happen during a musical piece that exist in time and relationship with the other things. One of those things is melody. I work with children and adolescents with developmental and psychiatric disorders aged 5-22 years. My primary instrument is voice with additional forays into trumpet and guitar. I have functional skills on the piano and am getting better with playing in front of people. I write MANY songs for my clients during my job. The particular songs I write are often concerned with simple topics, have simple lyrics and rhythms, and have catchy melodies (if I say so myself). When I am reading songbooks written for my population, I often find that the songs are too long or too complex for many of my students. As a result, I write my own songs. Melodies, for my students, are often more successful when they are repetitive in nature, follow scalar patterns rather than incorporating skips, and are quick. When a...