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MythBuster Countdown #9: Music Therapy is Therapy for Musicians, right?

By on May 18, 2010 in For Music Therapists, Music & Wellness, Mythbusters

Welcome to the countdown! 9 misconceptions about making music and music therapy will be unveiled in the next few weeks. My list is based upon my personal interactions with clients, friends, colleagues, and the general public throughout the years. If you’d like to contribute to the list, please comment below or contact me at Kat@SoundHealthMusic.com.

I like these posts because when I receive an inquiry about music therapy, I can usually answer the inquiry with a link to one simple, pre-written blog post. Please feel free to share links to these posts as answers when you run across inquiries regarding making music and/or music therapy.

Music therapy is therapy for formally trained musicians, right?

No and yes. Actually, no musical experience is necessary to benefit from music therapy. Most of my clients have no formal music training, but some do. In fact, it’s safe to assume that the majority of music therapy clients around the world have no formal music training. According to the Sourcebook by the American Music Therapy Association, the largest single category population served by music therapists is mental health. Mental health is followed by developmentally disabled, elderly & Alzheimer’s, medical/surgical, and neurological disorders.

Naturally, there are formally trained musicians in these categories. When I see patients and clients who are formally trained, they benefit from treatment, but not necessarily more so than others. For example, once I treated an Alzheimer’s patient in a hospital. The staff said “Good luck – She’s non-verbal.” I assessed the patient, then started singing a song that was popular when the patient was in her early twenties. (Research shows that Alzheimer’s patients are more likely to be familiar with music that was popular between the ages of 18 and 26.) Much to the staff’s surprise, the patient sang all the words to all the verses. The family witnessed the patient coming to life through song, and the family claimed that the patient was not a formally trained musician!

Remember: No musical talent or experience is necessary to benefit from music therapy.

Then, is music therapy ever therapy for formally trained musicians?

Yes! Music therapists often treat musicians. Some music therapists specialize in enhancing wellness and overcoming performance-related disorders. One such company is Performance Wellness, Inc. based out of New York, NY. The director Dr. Louise Montello (a licensed psychoanalyst and music therapist) has been treating professional musicians since the early 1990s. According to the website, Performance Wellness, Inc. is dedicated to meeting the mind-body health needs of performers and professionals from all walks of life.

A second example is one of my professional testaments. I treated a woman with Alzheimer’s who had played piano her entire life, but at the time of the session, she claimed that she couldn’t play anymore. With some gentle encouragement, she sat at the piano bench with me. I invited her to play anything. She kept repeating the same interval of a 2nd up, then down the keyboard. I improvised to provide a rhythmic and harmonic framework and support system for her improvisation. We performed for her family. Afterwards, she was smiling and laughing, and her family was in shock. It had been so long since they had seen her connect as coherently as we all had in that moment of her performance.

Read more about music therapy. Stay tuned for MythBuster Countdown #8 next week!

Please feel share any comments, thoughts, or insights below.

Special thanks for Salvatore Vuono for the image above.

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VIDEO: Black Eyed Peas & Boomwhackers

By on May 4, 2010 in Boomwhackers®, For Music Therapists, Kids

Thanks to support from the Cancer Coping Center, I am going to make music, drum, and play boomwhackers with kids at Camp Kesem, a camp for kids with a parent who has (or has had) cancer. The camp is a week long, and they do all sorts of fun activities.

I awoke from sleep one night thinking of the perfect pop song for the official Camp Kesem song lyrics. The song has to be COOL if we want the kids to dig it. Hence, I’m introducing the Black Eyed Peas to Boomwhackers. Since none of the video footage of the kids will be made public, we’re sharing this humorous video as a demonstration instead. Enjoy!

I have pre-composed parts for 4 players (2 counselors, and 2 kids), but everyone else can improvise on cue playing boomwhackers in the G pentatonic. We’re going to throw in a chorus of boomwhacker sword fights, then another chorus of boomwhacker train lines. This is perfect for groups of 12 or more. And of course, we’ll record it all for the families’ viewing.

Do you use boomwhackers? Share your own stories, thoughts and comments below!

To play the song with your own group, all you need to get are some boomwhackers and octavator caps. You can peruse more boomwhacker items by checking out the boomwhackers section in my inventory list. You can either use a glockenspiel for part of the melody, or fill in your own words to fit the theme of your group as I’ve done. (See below.)

Click here to download the boomwhacker arrangement

Here are the official Camp Kesem song lyrics:

Don’t stand in front of me, I may not follow.
Don’t stand behind me, I may not lead.
Just stand beside me, and be my … friend.
We’re here together, at Camp Kesem.

I also have a video for Boomwhackers Gone Gaga!

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VIDEO: Drum with Older Adults

By on April 20, 2010 in Drumming, For Music Therapists, Older Adults

I wrote a description of this song intervention in No Worries, No Hurries, and No Wrong Notes. Now you can see it in action! I am using Blue Suede Shoes as a guided music-making experience with improvisation. Because Blue Suede Shoes is a standard 12-bar blues, you can use any song with the same form. Other songs I use include Rock Around the Clock, Hound Dog, Elvis selections, Eric Clapton selections, and more.

When drumming with older adults, remember that people take comfort in synchronicity and familiarity. With that in mind, I always start the group session with a greeting song that includes everyone’s names, check-in exercise, orientation to others in the group, movement, and breathing. Then I can assess whether or not the group is ready for drumming.

Once I hand out drums, I start out with some simple familiar exercises that you can watch in the post Make Music with Older Adults. Then, I invite all the participants turn to their neighbor and say “Wow! You’re a good drummer!” As soon as the participants are comfortable making some music on the drums, then I suggest using this guided experience with improvisation.

I also use Arthur Hull‘s bunny hop technique found in the Drum Circle Facilitation book: I start with big visual and vocal cues, then gradually taper down and disappear, providing the basic chordal and rhythmic supportive structure in the background of the players. The focus is on the players, not the therapist or facilitator.

After the session, I always document the group’s behavioral and psychosocial responses. Have fun!

PS There are a million and one variations to the directions that I lay out in this example, so be sure to to adapt, change, and transform for your own groups.

What do you think? Is this similar to your drumming experiences with older adults?

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9 Great Self-Care & Music Therapy Posts in the Past Week

By on April 13, 2010 in For Music Therapists, Music & Wellness

There has been an explosion of great blog posts in the past week, and I want to share them with you. They have enhanced my every day practice of self-care, wellness, and music therapy.

Self-care & Wellness

1. Rest and Recovery from the Art of Non-Conformity. Chris describes how to manage energy instead of time. Our energy is something that we can be aware of, something that we can convert, something that we can refuel. Whereas, we have can’t change the pattern of time.

2. The Zen of Doing from Zen Habits. Explore ways to engage in everyday tasks with a deep feeling of inner peace and appreciation.

3. Making Art Instead of Setting Goals from Agile Living. Goals = Future. Art = Now. Give living in the here and now a try between your goal-achieving sessions.

4. Live Your Life as if Everything is a Miracle from Make It Happen. Life, love, the body, nature, creativity. Modern science has not been able to figure out these phenomena. Miracles are everywhere!

5. How to Make your Drumming More Meaningful by former Rusted Root drummer Jim Donovan. Jim describes how to connect drumming patterns to your body and mind by way of movements, breathing, and intentions.

Music Therapy

6. Functional Neuroscience for the Clinical Music Therapist handout by Kimberly Sena Moore, MT-BC

7. Middle Eastern Idiom for Guitar Improvisation by Dr. John Carpente, MT-BC

8. The Mindful Music Therapist’s handouts for Taboo Topics by Roia Rafieyan, MT-BC

9. Book review for Bella’s Blessings by Rachel Rambach, MT-BC

One more for music therapists that you’ve got to check out if you work with kids who have special needs is More with Music. Free songs for music therapists!

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Highlights of the Western Region AMTA Conference

By on April 12, 2010 in Drumming, For Music Therapists, Music & Wellness, Older Adults

Yesterday I returned home from the Western Region American Music Therapy Association (WRAMTA) Conference in Las Vegas. Not only were there ample opportunities for continuing education, research updates, and clinical insights, but also WRAMTA set up free massages for participants!

Some of my favorite professional development highlights of the WRAMTA Conference included:

1. NICU music therapy reimbursement: Dr. Jayne Standley from the National Institute for Infant and Child Medical Music Therapy shared an example of how a half-time music therapist in a 40-bed NICU can actually make a profit for the hospital through insurance reimbursement. This information is tremendously helpful for the 35 facilities around the world that provide NICU music therapy.

2. Idea-sharing: Other music therapists and I met up, shared information, and brainstormed about program development for serving hospitalized children and NICU babies.

3. Drumming with Remo: At the networking luncheon I chatted with John Fitzgerald from Remo about current practice in drumming with older adults.

4. New Music Therapy Friends at the Networking Luncheon: When I sat at the networking luncheon table for those who work with older adults, I met 2 music therapists who live and work close to Dana Point. I serve clients in Dana Point twice per month, and we decided that next time I’m in Dana Point, we’ll all go out for lunch!

5. Chant Circle: I participated and filmed the chant circle on Friday. This was a very powerful vocal experience led by music therapists Maureen Hearns, Lisa Jackert, and Jodi Winnwalker of Daughters of Harriet.

6. Drumming with Kalani: Kalani offered bits and pieces of the Drum Circle Music approach to community wellness. Kalani is a master at empowering people to make music. His gentle, yet strongly supportive approach lends itself to adaptations for a variety of populations. For more Kalani’s book, check out Together in Rhythm.

7. Awards Ceremony: Several outstanding professionals and interns received awards and scholarships this year. WRAMTA gave out over $2,000 in scholarships this year!

Special thanks to Judith Pinkerton of Music 4 Life, Chris Hanschke, and all conference volunteers. All of their hard work is much appreciated! Check out what they put together~

  1. The governor of Nevada and the mayor of Las Vegas proclaimed a Music Therapy Week.
  2. Judith and Judy Simpson led an hour-long informative radio show on music therapy.
  3. Judith also set up a special symposium on music therapy open to the public.
  4. The above points only scratch the surface of Judith’s conference accomplishments. She also put together the local committee volunteers, handled logistics, printed programs, and more.

There were many more wonderful offerings this year at conference. I wish I could list them all. Whether you are a member of WRAMTA or not, please consider attending next year’s conference on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. You will definitely have great time!

For more information on the Western Region American Music Therapy Association, visit www.wramta.org.

Photo courtesy of Paul Martin Eldridge.

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