music, therapy, and me

Every so often, I am reminded that simple is often better than elaborate. Sure, visual aids are wonderful for reinforcing concepts and assisting with comprehension, but my feeling is that any therapeutic music experience has to be able to work without those aids. Visuals are to enhance the music, not take over for it. If the music doesn't work without the visual aid, then the music becomes the secondary therapeutic medium - an enhancement, if you will. This week, we are listening to the music of performers born in this month. We have been also playing instruments. I have been selecting the instruments this week rather than letting my clients pull whatever they want from the cabinets, and I've picked some strange ones as well as some really cool instruments that are often overlooked. After a very short demonstration for the unfamiliar instruments, we go into selecting songs and playing instruments. I do not use any visual aids in this part of our interaction, but the next part, ...

One of the biggest and most important lessons that I have learned over my years as a music therapist is that there are many times where you do not need or even want complex therapeutic music experiences or lots of visual aids or even many different instruments. There are times when simple is better than cool. At my facility, we are in a season of change. This happens every year about this time, but this year's changes seem more abrupt and pervasive than in other years. Every classroom has new staff members. Most of the classrooms have new class members. As a result, music therapy sessions have had to focus more on relationship building and learning how to do things with new people than on our music therapy goals. We have to focus on Maslow's pyramid base right now rather than the upper levels of that pyramid. It is time for meeting physiological needs and basic security needs. So, how do I do this? I go back to my own musical basics - rhythm, parallel play, and working on being...

Yesterday started off rough. I had a breakdown on the phone with my sister on Monday evening after I had some horrible digestion issues while on the phone with my mother. (Hi, sis!) I ended up feeling very humiliated and not at all happy with myself. So, I ended my Monday in a mass of self-pity and disgust and down feelings. They continued into Tuesday morning when I woke up in pain and in a horrible mood. So, all the way to work, I was having to deal with pains that don't usually happen on the left side of my body, pains that are part of my back issues, and an intense headache. I was a mass of self-pity again, and I was wallowing as much as I possibly could. Once I got to work, I figured out that most of my problems were hormonal in nature and that made things so much better. Isn't it interesting how having an explanation for something is very helpful in shifting our attitude about our situations? In yesterday's case, as soon as the final aspect of everything manifested, I...

I had a moment last week when I had five minutes left in a session, and I asked my students what they wanted to sing about. They chose food, and I rapidly flipped through my mental file of food-based songs and wasn't satisfied with any of them. So, I made one up on the spot. It seemed to be pretty popular - kids started singing right away, which is usually my indication that they are attending and interested in what is happening. After the session, I jotted down the melody and the words so it wouldn't get away! Here is it, in its roughest form - solfege and lyrics. I haven't done the rhythm yet - that will take some time with the composition software that I just don't have at the moment - but here it is. I sing it with lots of syncopation (which I love when I am composing songs). To read this format, please note that all words are one syllable and each word has its own note (except for the last one which can be anything - change the rhythm to fit the word, but do ...

It is one of my major quests in life to simplify things. The definition of "simple" is: sim·ple [ sim -p uh l ] Show IPA adjective, sim·pler, sim·plest. 1. easy to understand, deal with, use, etc.: a simple matter; simple tools. 2. not elaborate or artificial; plain: a simple style. 3. not ornate or luxurious; unadorned: a simple gown. 4. unaffected; unassuming; modest: a simple manner. 5. not complicated: a simple design. I crave a simple life. I want an existence that is "not ornate" and "unaffected; unassuming; modest." Since that is something that I crave in all areas of my life, I seek to find ways to make one of the most important parts of my life, my profession, simple as well. Okay, people, I am not saying that being a music therapist is simple or easy. It isn't. If you are doing it right, it is immensely complicated, but there are things that we, as profes...

An online music therapy friend of mine posted yesterday that she had witnessed the power of a drum with a client who is mostly nonambulatory. Apparently the child took several steps in order to keep playing the drum, surprising both my friend, the client's father, and the child - once the child realized what was happening. I love stories like that. I love that it is often the simplest of things that make music therapy such a meaningful form of treatment for so many people. I love that music reaches us all, but I especially love that a trained music therapist is able to recognize the significance of how that music reaches each one of us. Often the simplest therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) are the best with my clients. There is nothing wrong with making sounds with one another in a free-flowing pattern. I often turn on a background beat (from the organ) and pass out instruments. We play music with one another. The sophistication of our musical experiences vary, but we are all...