music, therapy, and me

Forgive me as I slip into my rant mode, because this rant is probably going to be prolonged and very opinionated and somewhat personal to my own experience. That's what makes a rant, a rant! Just so you know, you are welcome to challenge, support, or be completely offended by what I write - these opinions are my own and you are welcome to your own opinions about any and everything that I write about. If you want to talk things through, then feel free to leave a comment or contact me via social media. I will be happy to talk to you further! Now, please stay tuned for the rant... Disclaimer: This post was inspired by a vague post left by one of my music therapy acquaintances. I have no idea what the original circumstances were or what was said by any party or anything like that, so I am responding to the vague statements left by my acquaintance. I also do not believe that this situation is unique to music therapists. Read on for more. Rant in 3...2...1... Several years ago, I was a m...

Today is the start of the 2017-2018 school year. Kids come to class and to sessions starting today. I've had to deal with teacher complaints about their schedules (talk to others, not to me!) and assisted in reassigning four out of twelve group assignments (that will cause some consternation today, I am SURE!). In the music therapy room, we are going to do some rhythm work this week. As I have mentioned before, music therapy tends to be the only place where my students have positive experiences in a music environment. This is usually because my students don't participate easily in general music education as most music educators know how to engage. Add in the fact that most of my students do not understand many of the concepts of music education (seriously, why do we call that a quarter note?) and the additional fact that they have serious behavior responses when they are not engaged, and most music educators just cannot work with my students. So, many of them come to their fi...