I was going to close out this Musical Mini-Series by going straight to a wrap up, but yesterday something happened in one of my sessions that I just had to share with you.

I was working with one of the classes at Children’s Resources Educational Center (a school for children with special needs here in Miami). The session was right after lunch and everyone was dragging just a bit.

As I started the Hello Song, with energy and large arm motions, I noticed the eye contact was not there from the students. Now to be clear, I don’t need direct eye to eye contact (that would be uncomfortable for anybody!) I am just looking for students to be facing my direction, with their head and eyes focused in my direction.

But as I was singing Hello I noticed the heads and eyes were down.

Instead of getting louder and more energetic in an effort to get their attention, I got quieter and quieter. The quieter I sang, the more heads I saw popping up! One by one, their heads popped up and I saw eyes on me. As softly as I could, I sang “It’s time to say……..” (pause) “HELLO!!!!!!” (as loud as I could).

That did the trick! Heads were up and eyes were on me.

I used dynamics to capture the attention of my students.

Pretty cool that we can use specific musical elements (like melody, the V7 chord, and tempo) to guide and direct our clients, right?

This musical mini-series has been fun to put together. I even dusted off my notes from Music & Development class and Music & Rehabilitation class (circa 2003) at University of Miami.

To wrap up, I truly believe that enhancing our musical presentation will improve our clients’ therapeutic experience. That’s why I bust out my primary instrument every so often and have seen some remarkable responses from my clients.

I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below to let me know how you work to enhance your musical presentation for your clients, and what specific musical elements and instruments you’re using to do so.

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Ready for Part 3? This is the third post in the musical mini-series where we’re a closer look at our therapeutic medium: music.

We started off by taking a glance at melody and the V7 chord.

Next up is….(drumroll please)….tempo!

How can we as music therapists use tempo to guide and elicit movements?

• When working with a stroke patient, we may want them to complete bicep curls in co-treatment with a physical therapist. With an autoharp, we can provide a slow, rhythmic strum to dictate how fast the movements should be completed. Many clients want to speed through exercises to get them done, but we can control that with a nice, slow and steady tempo.
• When working with a child who has a speech delay, we can sing that client’s favorite song at a slow, controlled tempo. This helps ensure each syllable of the song lyrics will be clearly articulated.
• We can also use a slow, controlled guitar strum to guide movements in Therapeutic Instrumental Music Playing (TIMP). For example, to work on bilateral coordination, we can direct a client with Multiple Sclerosis to reach out in a slow, controlled movement to strike the drum.
• Quick arpeggios on flute can guide children with special needs to move their scarves quickly in time with the music.
• A quick tempo in a ragtime tune played on the piano can cue adults with developmental delay to stand up and dance with their partner.

What else would you add? How do you use tempo to guide and elicit movements in your clients?

Stay tuned next week when I wrap of this musical mini-series and share how enhancing our musical presentation can improve our client’s therapeutic experience.

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Last week, I introduced you to the mini-series I’m starting that focuses on our therapeutic medium: MUSIC.

I’m excited to jump in because I want to take a look at a few musical elements and examine how they’re functioning to bring about positive changes in behavior. I’ll also dig into how enhancing our musical presentation can improve our clients’ therapeutic experience.

Sounds like a lot, but I promise I will keep it brief! We’ve got a lot of planning and implementation to do!

Today the focus is on melody.

Here are some ways we use melody to prompt and cue behavioral responses:

• An ascending melody can be used to cue a client with Cerebral Palsy to raise their arms high in the air.
• A descending melody can be used to cue client with autism to shake their jingle bells down low to the ground.
• A descending melody could also be used during a transition song to cue children to go from standing to sitting on the carpet.
• A melody line that is erratic like in “Flight of the Bumblebee” could be used to cue teen clients to create artwork that matches the melody.
• A melody line that jumps from ‘do’ to ‘sol’ to ‘do’ to sol’ can be used to cue marching, as in “left, right, left, right.”
• A melody line that has a small range (two to three notes, for example) could cue the small, controlled movement of a rhythm instrument; a melody line with a large range could cue a large, expansive movement.

This week when you’re session planning, take a closer look at melody and how you can purposefully use this musical element to cue responses.

Next week we will take a look at my favorite musical element. (Sounds silly, I know, to have a favorite musical element, but I do!) Stay tuned next week to find out what it is.

The post {Musical Mini-Series} Part 1: Melody appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

If there is one thing I love to do, it’s session plan.

I cozy up on my blue rocking chair, pull up the blinds so I have a good view of the palm trees outside, and get out a fresh sheet of blank paper. Then I get to work planning my upcoming sessions for the week.

If you haven’t already checked it out, I organized all the session ideas I’ve shared on the blog here. They’re neatly grouped by population and topic:

Although I love coming up with activities ideas, I don’t want to lose sight of two important things:

1. These activities all must start with a non-musical goal in mind (like improving attention or increasing expressive language).
2. The music and musical elements must be used therapeutically in order to bring about the change in behavior that we’re looking for.

It’s easy to get swept up in Pinterest boards and activity books, and get excited about all the activity ideas out there on the web. But it’s critical to keep in mind our non-musical goals and how the music is functioning therapeutically, or we’re not doing our jobs as music therapists.

Next week I’ll be starting a mini-series that looks at how we as music therapists use music and musical elements to cue our clients, prompt responses and guide movement. It’s one of my favorite things to think about. We have this powerful medium at our fingertips, and we’re well trained in how to use it to bring about positive changes in behavior.

Stick around! I’m excited to share some new ideas with you.

The post Don’t Forget These Two Things When You Session Plan appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

Do you ever set musical goals for yourself?

As music therapists we are master goal writers! We assess our clients, create functional goals and objectives for them and track those goals throughout treatment.

Have you ever thought of going through that same process for yourself, musically?

It’s something that is top of mind for me right now for some reason.

I work primarily with children and the songs I use tend to be simple, with pretty basic accompaniments.

Sometimes I really feel the need to push outside that little box and create something…different…and more interesting for my clients. (I wrote a bit about how to do that here).

I am always looking for ways to make my musical presentation more interesting. So, yearly, I set musical goals for myself.

In the past some of my goals have been:

• To purchase a ukulele and incorporate it into my sessions (check! Perfect for summer and beach themed sessions!)
• To use my primary instrument, the clarinet, in my sessions more (check! I got some great responses from my clients which has encouraged me to bring it back again and again.)

I am looking to set some musical goals for myself for the second half of the year. Some ideas I have are:

• To learn a new (yikes!) symphonic instrument (we have a flute, saxophone, and trombone just lying around our house!)
• To incorporate more jazz chords into my original songs
• To create new accompaniment tracks on Garageband

Do you create musical goals for yourself? If you do, leave a comment below to let us know what those goals are – I’d love some more inspiration!

Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Back in January I posted about My Musical Goals. I decided this is my year to step it up musically so I can enhance the quality of my music therapy sessions. Here’s my update on how things are going…

My January Goal was to Become a Ukulele Master. I found some great websites, including Ukulele Tricks (at the recommendation of the Mundana Music Therapy ladies – thanks!) I’ve added the uke to my music therapy sessions and it has been a huge hit with the kids. I even have an upcoming video where I will showcase my skills…stay tuned!

My February Goal was to Break Out of My Guitar Rut. I have always been interested in learning some jazz guitar chords and decided to take advantage of all the Internet has to offer. So, I googled “Jazz Guitar Chords” and found the Guitar Chords Magic website and Your Guide to Jazz Guitar – just what I was looking for!

My March Goal was to Add More Multicultural Songs to My Repertoire. I went to the library and checked out two great children’s books: Diez Deditos: 10 Little Fingers and Other Play Rhymes from Latin America and De Colores and Other Latin American Folk Songs. Since I work in Miami, the songs in Spanish were very appropriate for the children I work with at UCP. (And the books are colorful and fun to look at):

Next week is our annual Multicultural Day Celebration at UCP and I am so excited! I’ve been working with the children on a variety of things that they will showcase to the parents, including a salsa dance, a Spanish fingerplay song, and even a hula dance with my ukulele accompaniment!

Have YOU set any musical goals for yourself this year? If so, share them in the comments section below. Happy music making!

Image courtesy of [fotographic 1980] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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This year, I want to focus on improving my musical skills. Sometimes it’s easy to get comfortable with playing the same strum patterns on guitar and using auto accompaniment on keyboard (does anyone else do that?) So this year I’m going to push myself to go outside of my comfort zone – musically. I don’t believe in big, lofty resolutions, because those are usually out the window by February. But I am going to set some reasonable goals for myself musically for the first six months of the year. That’s it!

January
Become a Ukulele Master!

Ukuleles are probably the hottest instrument out there right now. I jumped on the bandwagon a few years ago when I purchased one for UCP and received two more as gifts! I know a few chords, but I am going to push myself to learn more new chords. Are you looking to do the same thing? Ukulele Hunt , Ukulele Songs  and Dr. Uke are some great resources!

February
Break Out of My Guitar Rut

Breaking out of my guitar rut means learning new strum patterns. If you are trying to do this as well, check out my videos – Groovy Guitar Strums Part 1 and  Groovy Guitar Strums Part 2. Breaking out of my guitar rut also means learning new chords and progressions. Rachel See Smith shared an excellent resource on her Pinterest page…Jazz Guitar Lessons.net I can’t wait to jump in!

March
Add More Multicultural Songs to My Repertoire

This goal comes at the perfect time. At UCP we typically celebrate Multicultural Day during this month and I always struggle a bit with what songs to include in our musical performance. I just picked up a great resource which should help me out this year: Wee Sing Around the World. I have always loved the Wee Sing collection and this should be a great addition to my collection.

April
Spice Up My Piano Playing

I love playing the piano, but I need to spice it up a bit. Here’s where I’m going to start: Online Blues Piano Lessons.

May
Dust Off My Primary Instrument

Are you guilty of this too – keeping your primary instrument packed away? I studied clarinet in college and haven’t played it much since then. This month I’m going to dust it off and use it more in my sessions than ever before. I’ve already started brainstorming new and creative ways to use it…

June
Learn a  Brand NEW Instrument

Yikes, sounds scary! I’ll be sure to let you know which instrument I decide to learn! I’m excited for this one…

Do YOU have any musical goals for yourself this year (or half year)?

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