music, therapy, and me

I am getting ready to start a 100 day challenge . Actually, I am getting ready to start two. The first is an art challenge - I haven't quite decided what I want to do with that one. The second is a clean-up challenge that I am going to also do - something that I need to get done for my home and my well-being. So, there you go. Two different 100 day challenges. The art challenge starts on February 22nd - at least, that's the date suggested by the art challenge coordinator. Like I said, I don't know what I want to do for this challenge, but I will figure something out. I may do something similar to some of the smaller art challenges that I have gone through before - I may make a book and then fill it up with drawings or journaling or something like that, or I might try painting or crocheting daily. The purpose of the entire thing is to just do something every day. There is no expectation of getting better at any sort of skill but just to do something. So, I will be doing som...

Do you have an inventory of your music therapy materials? It is a tool that can be invaluable if disaster ever happens. I have a partial inventory, and I think that I will focus on making my inventory more complete this year. The first of the month may be a good time to update the inventory, so I will work on that this morning. I have an inventory of instruments. It is not complete, but I did arrange for storage a couple of years ago, and I counted everything at that point, so I only have to add the instruments that I have purchased at conferences over the past two years to make that more complete. My problem? Oh, I have way too many books of music, visual aids, file folder activities, children's books, and other types of resources that are not listed on the inventory as of yet. Listing these things will take time, but it will be worth it in the long run. I use a simple Excel document to track my inventory. I list the name of the instrument, the type of material it is, ...

I admit it. I have a rhythm notation block that I have not really been able to practice out of my repertoire in all my years of taking dictation and writing songs. For some reason, rhythm notation is my downfall when I am composing. I can't tell if what I've written is actually what I am thinking until I hear it again. Unfortunately, if you are interested in writing music, you need to be able to notate rhythm as well as melody lines, harmonic figures, and other elements of music. For years, I've written music down and then given it to competent musicians to play. I then hear what I've written and have to change things because what they play is not what I want. The best thing that happened to me was the advent of music notation programs! Over the years, I've used all sorts of music notation programs, including Cakewalk (which I LOVED!), SheetMusic Notation (another one I LOVED!), and Finale's Printmusic (which I am learning and don't find as intuiti...

Today's post is a bit different from most of my TME Tuesday posts - I'm going to share a strategy rather than a therapeutic music experience (TME).  I have lots of little strategies that I use in my music therapy practice to make my life and clinical interactions more efficient. Many of these strategies have taken me years and years to figure out. It's amazing, isn't it, that we often stay in the same patterns and routines just because we can't see any other way? When I do find another way, I try to share that with others. This is one such example. One of the things that I do when I am developing themes is go to Google and type in search strings such as "thanksgiving songs for children" or "songs about giving thanks."  It is amazing what information is out there on the web, and I take advantage of that fact to make my themes that much more rich and full. All of a sudden, instead of the four songs that I have that relate to the theme, I ha...

I no longer have six-group days. The art therapist I work with had the brilliant idea of switching that group six (which happened right before day student dismissal) to our four-group days, making ALL days five-group days! I had my first five-group day yesterday. This morning is my first five-group documentation day. I am looking forward to it. It is amazing how something as simple as a schedule change can make such a difference in how things feel, run, and affect you in the day-to-day. I am a fan of the idea of "work smarter, not harder." I think I am someone who would enjoy being an efficiency expert. I know that I like making products and forms and videos and webinars that have helped me find shortcuts and more time in my music therapy life.  "Work smarter, not harder." This is not always easy to do in this world, but I believe it is possible in all areas of life. When I am looking at something that is challenging me, I try to find something that will let...

Forgive me as I deviate from my usual practice of offering up a therapeutic music experience (TME) on this day. I decided that today was a day to talk about how I organize my thoughts into TMEs, and how I organize those TMEs so I can fill up my sessions with TMEs that work for my clients. Some background is needed here. I am an older therapist. I started off my education before the advent of personal, portable computers, so most of the things I did in school were typed or handwritten. (I took a class on how to write using the computer - how's that for being ancient??) I started my TME file in the second semester of my freshman year at college. The course? Observation and Music Therapy. My professor had us come up with 25 TMEs. We had to choose what size of index card we would use to keep track of our TME file, and then off we went. My very first TMEs (yes, I still have those cards) were just what you would expect from a beginning MT student. All of the TMEs were typical m...

I am not the best at rhythmic dictation. It takes me lots of time to figure out whether I'm writing the rhythms that I'm singing or playing. I love syncopation and that just complicates everything as I am sitting down, trying to put a song of mine into sheet music, and getting things ready to share with others. The best thing that ever happened to me was music notation software. There is something really reinforcing about putting notes into something that plays it back to you immediately. And, once I hear the rhythms, I can tell where I've gone wrong. The problem is that then I know what's wrong, but it takes me LOTS of time to figure out what I really want in that pattern. Now, I can improvise, I can read rhythms pretty well, and I sight read, but there is some sort of disconnect between being able to come up with a rhythm and then notate that rhythm - for me! I use my notation software (I have Cakewalk Studio 2002 - extremely old and wonderful software that is...

There are times when I complete a project and think, "That should have been so much easier to do!" Does that ever happen to you? For me, most of those times happen when I have to do some sort of paperwork or documentation or research survey or something that is usually out of my ordinary realm of routine. I am always looking for a better, easier way to do things. I am toying with an idea for documentation/competency-based training evaluation that would incorporate a checklist type thingy. (This is most of my problem - I have an idea, but not the terminology of how it could actually happen...) I am going to start with another form of documentation that I have to do as part of the Online Conference for Music Therapy to see if I can make things work the way I envision it. If it happens the way I want it to happen, then I'll expand into other types of documentation. In order to complete this type of task, I often find that I need additional information, training, and ...