Fox News Spotlights Mozart During Colonoscopy

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

This story was intriguing because I had recently been talking with some doctors that I know about extending some of my previous research. Many years ago I looked at the effect of sedative music on the anxiety levels of patients having pacemaker implant or heart caths. It was a small study and I am thinking about expanding on this ideas with more participants and also using live music instead of recorded music.


One of the limitations in my previous study was getting enough participants.  It was time consuming seeing only 2 or 3 patients per week.  One of the doctors that I spoke to recently suggested that I use music during colonoscopy procedures.  He argued that they do ten times as many of these procedures as pacemaker implants or angioplasty.  The patients still must be awake and their anxiety levels are usually elevated, so they would make good candidates for the use of music to affect anxiety.


The Fox News story is not talking about music therapy, but demonstrates what people already inherently know, that music can be a powerful influence on both the patient and the treatment team.  It is also pointed out in the video that using music is very cost-effective.  This is a great benefit to talk about in marketing music therapy!

Skypedrum With Kat Fulton!

The 3rd Semi-Annual Skypedrum event at 

Florida State University

We held our Skype drumming event today in my music therapy drumming class.  Kat Fulton has been very gracious in facilitating simulated drum circles for my class the last three semesters.  Her experiences using drumming in the real world have been an invaluable resource for my students!  I love giving them a different perspective and bringing in guest lecturers to share their specific knowledge about target populations.  

Teaching via Skype has its own learning curve and sets of rules, but facilitating drum circles over Skype is still in uncharted territory.  Kat has done more than anyone I know to develop some protocols for facilitating drumming over Skype.  One of the most difficult things to overcome is the time delay.  Her strategy to help manage this phenomenon during our session was to encourage the group to self-facilitate.  Essentially, she gave instructions and then had a person from the group do the leading.  But Kat was also able to do some facilitating on her own by ignoring the sounds coming from her computer and just staying in time with a chant and drum response.  This worked well for a class of music students who could keep a steady beat, but I wonder how well it would work with real clients?  Something to explore!

Today we were studying about the psychiatric setting.  Kat introduced an activity called, "Evolution."  She credited the activity to Arthur Hull, but it worked very well as an activity that could be adapted for use in a psychiatric setting.  You can see that in the picture above the students are seated in a circle facing outward.  There actually had been small percussion instruments placed on each chair before they were sitting down.  They went around the circle and stopped together at times in front of different chairs to play a group groove/rhythm.  After each person had played all the instruments, Kat had them talk about what instruments they liked and didn't like.  This discussion easily transferred into real life examples related to social interaction, personalities, mood and emotional expression.  A great stimulus for group discussion and processing!  

Than you, Kat for another wonderful installment of Skypedrum!   

The iPad Taking Music Therapy and the World of Special Education by Storm!

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

The iPad has recently taken the world of music therapy by storm! There were several presentations at the music therapy National Conference this year about different apps and uses for the iPad and almost every therapist I know has an iPad on their Christmas wish list!


There are new apps coming on-line every month that aim to help children and others with disabilities communicate and learn concepts. I think the reason that the iPad has been so successful is its ease of use, size, weight and just the fact that it is cool! Kids especially love anything that is cool! The typical vocal output devices in the world of special education have been clunky, heavy, and a headache to program. They are also limited by their function and not able to play movies or display programs other than simply saying a word that is chosen from the screen. 


This 60 minutes story is a very positive portrayal of the iPad and other tablet devices and their application in the education of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  The story focuses on using the iPad for communication, but also has some interesting news about future research and the use of the iPad for assessment purposes.  The really nice thing about the iPad, not mentioned in the story, is that it also has tons of apps that are useful for creating music and writing songs.  Since kids seem to be drawn to the iPad as well as music, it makes for a lovely match!  I hope you enjoy the video.  One of my favorite parts was when one of the boys suddenly started receptively identifying all kinds of objects that nobody imagined he knew!  

 

Show Your Love for a Music Therapy Blog on Cyber Monday!

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Show your support for a music therapist on Cyber Monday!  Here is a list of music therapy blogs that are Amazon affiliates:

1. (Yours truly!)  Music Makes Sense

2. Listen Learn Music

3. Mundana Music Therapy

4. Music Therapy Maven

If you will be shopping through Amazon on Cyber Monday, please consider starting your clicking by visiting one of these blogs and clicking on an Amazon ad.  You do not have to purchase the item that you click on, but a small portion of any shopping that you do through the window that opens for Amazon will be credited to the affiliate site.  It may seem like a small thing, but these bloggers put out a lot of free information and material to support music therapy and this is one way to keep the blogs alive.  Thank you and happy shopping! 

7 Days of AMTA Conference Wrap-up: CMTE

This is the last edition of the series as I conclude the post-AMTA marathon!  I have talked about Kat Fulton before, but I wanted to mention something else that she talked about at the conference.  Kat has been very involved in helping people create an on-line presence.  She has also had good advice for those of us who wish to blog and create websites, but need to balance our on and off-line time.  If you are interested in this topic you should look into her On-line Zenn program.  


One of her new projects will apparently be launching soon!  Kat will be hosting an on-line school of sorts that will offer continuing education classes in music therapy!  These classes will be available all the time and will cost a fraction of the total expenditures you would normally pay out to attend a CMTE.  I think it is a great idea and I wish her all he success in this new endeavor!  I don't know if she will have her own courses on the site or is she will just stay on as the "curator" of the site, but it is something to look forward to.  Make sure you are signed up for her updates if you want to keep up with the developments!  

  

7 Days of AMTA Conference Wrap-up: Journals

I went to the information session given jointly by the editors for the Journal of Music Therapy and Music Therapy Perspectives.  Dr. Sherri Robb and Dr. Anthony Meadows were extremely informative about the direction they will be taking the journals and what to look for in changes to the submission guidelines.  


One of the main changes in the pipeline is the conversion to an on-line submission format through a soon to be announced new website!  The editors believe that this will elevate the status of the journals in comparison to other scientific publications that have already moved to on-line submission formats.  The current submission guidelines are here.


The editors also described an openness to both qualitative and quantitative research as long as the methods and modes of inquiry are solidly put together.  They explained the review process and indicated that there will now be an independent statistician to review quantitative research.  The journals may also collaborate with each other in the future on occasion to bring readers similar themes or focus areas of research.      

 

7 Days of AMTA Conference Wrap-up: New Products!

This year's conference was full of new things to buy and look at!  Here are a few of the things that caught my eye!


1. The PAL for NICU units!  This is the commercial version of the Pacifier Activated Lullaby unit that has been researched by Dr. Jayne Standley and others.  The unit is very nice looking and will be easy to keep clean.  I like how it has an extra USB port for recordings of the mother's voice or other preferred sounds or music.  Take a look for yourself here!  


2. Boomtotes!  These have actually been on sale for awhile through Michelle Erfurt's website, Music Therapy Tween, but I finally got to touch and feel one in person!  The boomtotes seem like they could be very handy keeping all those crazy Boomwhackers in line!  I have been trying to convince her to make a "Mr. Boomtote" so that I can carry one around too!  :) ...I am thinking African patterns or camouflage.  What do you think?  Maybe we can start an on-line vote to help her decide!


3. New logo merchandise for the Music for the Heart symbol!  Okay, ...this was not actually at the conference, BUT, conference inspired me to redo the logo and improve the gear selection available with the image.  I created the symbol when I was doing music therapy with cardiac patients.  I think the symbol turned out nice and it does not have to be just for my music for the heart program.    

   

7 Days of AMTA Conference Wrap-up: Music Therapy Pro!

Some of my fellow bloggers have pioneered an on-line music therapy site called Music Therapy Pro.  Rachel Rambach, Michelle Erfurt and Kimberly Sena Moore are the web gurus behind this great resource. 


I learned at the conference that there is an on-line forum that is part of the website.  You do have to be a member of Music Therapy Pro to participate, but the concept is great!  I really enjoy the regional and national listservs for music therapy, but this forum on Music Therapy Pro is a great addition.  One advantage of using the forum at MTP is that all three of the creators try to comment and respond to every post.  So you know you will have at least three answers or responses to every question or issue!  


I encourage you to check it out and give it a try.  I have only hit the highlights, so have fun exploring the rest!

7 Days of AMTA Conference Wrap-up: Call for Stories!

I joined the reimbursement committee this past year and am excited to take part in some of the new initiatives for 2012!  The reimbursement committee has the following mission:

Advocacy: Promoting music therapy means advancing public awareness of music therapy as a viable health care profession and as an efficacious clinical intervention. In addition, AMTA must continue to advocate for the provision of music therapy services in medical, educational, community-based and other settings.

2.3 Develop strategies that will support the development of legislation, regulations, policies, and programs that will increase access to and funding for music therapy services and programs.

To aid the committee in its mission, AMTA will  now have a dedicated webpage for the reimbursement committee.  The webpage will be accessible through the members only area of the national website.  The new AMTA website is creating awesome opportunities for the profession and it is exciting to be part of the development.  But, we need your help!  


We will be placing many kinds of helpful documentation and tip sheets to help therapists with reimbursement.  We would also like to put up YOUR stories about successfully getting reimbursement or even being rejected.  Please send me your experiences and mention any useful codes or specific healthcare agencies so that we can share the stories on the AMTA website.  You can send me the stories as a comment to this post or contact me here. 


If you have a blog or twitter account I would appreciate it if  you would link to this post, re-post, or tweet and Google+ this call for stories.  Let's get the message out and collect as many stories as we can!  Not everyone needs information about reimbursement, but gaining reimbursement for music therapy helps out the entire profession by increasing its prestige and status in the eyes of healthcare providers.  


Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!     

7 Days of AMTA Conference Wrap-up!

There is so much news to cover, that I am going to take the next 7 days to talk about all the cool developments resulting from the AMTA 2011 national conference in Atlanta!  Do you recognize the building in the picture?  It is a view of the 191 Peachtree Tower built in 1990.  I met some friends on the 72nd floor of the Westin in the turning restaurant when I took this picture.  National conferences are great for networking and reconnecting with old friends!


One of the friends I was able to see was the wonderful Kat Fulton who writes the blog, Rhythm for Good.  Kat was very busy at this conference and involved in at least three different conference presentations.  One of the presentations she gave was part of an entire session about on-line music therapy interactions.  I learned that there will be another on-line music therapy conference on February 18th, 2012.  This will be the second one of its kind and will run for 24 hours from start to finish.  It will truly be a world-wide conference!  They are accepting papers now if you are interested in submitting.  You can see the Facebook page here.


Kat is also an awesome drum circle facilitator and queen of boomwhackers!  This conference was filled with drum circles and presentations about how to use drums and drum circles in therapy.  Christine Stevens, Kalani, and Bill Matney were all there sharing their knowledge.  Mickey Hart became ill and did not end up joining the conference, and Remo Belli's wife arrived without Remo.  We missed them both, but there is always next year!


Kat has made a wonderful video that I promote on my blog.  Her Drumify! dvd is a great resource for working with older adults.  I think the dvd is done very well, with great examples and easy to follow cues and information.  I encourage my students to use the dvd and have successfully used some of the song activities myself!


If you have missed her dvd before here is a link to get you on your way:


  Click here to view more details

Schoolhouse Stories: Making Sense Out of Music Therapy for Teachers and Parents

I gave a presentation this past week at the 2011 national conference for the American Music Therapy Association.  The focus of my conference session was to help other music therapists teach parents and teachers about why music works.  My initial interest in this topic grew from my work as a music therapist in the public school system.  There seemed to be many instances when I was asked to consult with teachers and parents on how they could use music more effectively with their child or students.  


As I had more opportunities to talk to teachers and parents, I started to notice that I was using stories and examples of successful music therapy interventions and experiences in my consultations.  This was actually the driving force behind the start of my blog!  I decided that I should write up the stories and post them on the web so that people could go back and look at them as a resource.   


After I realized that stories were so powerful as a teaching tool, I looked up some of the research and theories behind the use of stories in education.  The following prezi presentation is the outline that guided my conference presentation at the 2011 AMTA conference.  I post it here especially for the people that attended the session, but I think it may also be helpful to those who did not attend, even if it is in outline form.  


After I went through the outline, I had the attendees form up into groups.  Each group read through an example story and then discussed the effects of music intervention mentioned in the story.  The groups were instructed to try and find the fundamental musical structures and elements that drove the successful educational outcomes in each story.  I have included links to the stories after the Prezi presentation.  Although these links contain the stories as well as my analysis, the conference attendees only saw the main story so that they could practice evaluating the uses of music in each case.  I encourage you to find even more elements and uses of music than I pointed out in these stories!



 References:

Jackson, P. W. (1995).  On the place of narrative in teaching.  In H. McEwan & K. Egan (Eds.), Narrative in teaching, learning and research (p. 5).  New York: Teachers College Press.

Jalongo, M. R. (2011, November 15). Stories that teach life lessons.  Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/stories-teach-life-lessons

McEwan, H., & Egan, K. (1995).  Narrative in teaching, learning, and research.  New York: Teachers College Press.

Roche, L., & Sadowsky, J. (2003). The power of stories: A discussion of why stories are powerful.              International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 2(4), 377 - 388.

Stories:


1. William Learns to Walk Like a Man
2. Bobby and the Ladybug
3. Scooby Doo Meets His Match
4. Wendy and the Power of Melody


I hope you will let me know what you think about this idea of using stories to help teach people about the power of using music.  Please send me your comments and even your own stories and how you have used them!  Thanks again for reading and stay tuned in for more great stuff from the 2011 conference!

August 2011 Headlines from the Daily Muse

     Just in case you missed them, here are the stories from August in the Daily Muse.  If you want to be on the cutting edge of music news for the therapist, parent and teacher, then you can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

(8-31-11)

Facebook set to launch music listening service?? 

This could get very interesting! I am already signed up for Spotify and they are saying that Spotify might be integrated soon with Facebook. Watch out iTunes! 

(8-29-11)
I have to admit that I just spent over 30 minutes reading my own newspaper! The Musicmakessense Weekly on-line newspaper is a great way to catch up with all the great bloggers and newsmakers out there regarding music, music therapy, music education and even some fun political and entertainment stories! I really like this weekly newspaper because it is just once a week, so I don't feel overwhelmed by so many different additions to my e-mail inbox! You can check out the latest edition here. While you are there, don't forget to subscribe! It's free and delivered right to your virtual doorstep every Sunday!

(8-28-11)
"This propensity to music -- this "musicophilia" -- shows itself in infancy, is manifest and central in every culture, and probably goes back to the very beginnings of our species."

~ from, Musicophilia, by Oliver Sacks

(8-27-11) 

One of my readers sent me this video about her daughter named Nina. They live in the Netherlands and Nina seems to love music. One day they were visiting an outdoor shopping area and came upon a brass band. The video tells the rest of the story. It was really nice of the band to get closer to Nina and bring the live music and social interaction right up close. You can find Nina's full story here, including a personal message from Kenny Rogers! I want to thank Nina's mother for sharing her story and inviting us to experience the joy of music with Nina!

(8-26-11)

More than words - the Art and Power of Music Therapy

The Irish Medical Times

It looks like music therapy in Ireland is doing well! John Garvey is a music therapist in Ireland who provides a nice write-up about music therapy in the Ireland Medical Times. His article provides a little historical perspective as well as references to more recent research demonstrating the effectiveness of music therapy intervention. This is great exposure for music therapy and we wish Mr. Garvey success in his music therapy business across the pond!

(8-24-11) 

The website, All Things Healing, has highlighted another post from Music Makes Sense! You can see my article as well as others by music therapists here. Thank you to Bernice Chu and all those at All Things Healing for supporting music therapy!

(8-22-11) 

Schools are getting back into session, and whether you are a teacher, therapist or student, you need to know how to protect your mobile devices! I am starting to write my dissertation and have implemented several backup strategies for my files. But I would be dealt a serious blow if my laptop was stolen or lost! When I was doing music therapy in the public schools, I also relied on my laptop and mobile phone to keep up with schedules and reports. Luckily, I never had a problem, but I have heard from many friends who lost their tech devices due to theft! 

Conference Update

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

AMTA in the ATL 2011!

As I sit here with the sound of drumming in the near room, I wanted to update you on a few things I have learned today:


1. Mickey Hart is not here for the drumming.  :(  He was apparently taken ill and unable to fly.  I think we will be well covered with drum circle facilitators, however with Bill Matney, Kalani and Christine Stevens in attendance!  


2. Lots of news on the online front:


- We will soon be able to submit manuscripts for consideration in the Journal of Music Therapy and Music Therapy Perspectives through an on-line process.  The journals will soon be opening a brand new website with all the information.  I think this will make the submission process much easier. 


- The Reimbursement committee will also be hosting a new webpage with stories about how therapists are managing reimbursement issues.  The page will also have helpful information and documents to assist music therapists in obtaining reimbursement from insurance companies.


3. Here are a few interesting statistics I learned:


- The 2011 acceptance rate for articles submitted to the Journal of Music therapy is around 36%.


- The 7 year average acceptance rate for Music Therapy perspectives is about 50%. 

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Twas the Night Before...AMTA!

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

AMTA in the ATL 2011!

...and all through the house, I was scurrying to pack along side my spouse.  My clothes have carefully been ironed and folded, and my suitcase will soon be overly bloated!  All my papers are printed and carefully stowed, for soon will be time when all shall be told.  Saturday morning, rise up fresh and early, and join me for stories about music therapy, most surely!    

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Music Therapy Key to Gabrielle Giffords' Recovery

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Representative Gabrielle Giffords was recently on with Diane Sawyer to talk about her recovery.  We know that she received music therapy at the rehabilitation hospital in Houston, but the new ABC interview sheds more light on just how important music and music therapy were in her recovery.  There are three videos on the news story, but the last one is specifically about music therapy.  It contains great examples of music therapy in action!

The ABC news story can be found here. 

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An Invitation to Story Time

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

AMTA in the ATL 2011!

As I mentioned before, you can find me on Saturday morning at 9:30 - 10:30 am presenting a session titled, Schoolhouse Stories: Making Sense Out of Music Therapy for Teachers and Parents.  What exactly is my session about, you may ask!  I do think it is a bit unique, but it is basically a paradigm for communicating with teachers and parents about how music therapy works.  


Story telling is a powerful medium, with a rich oral and written history.  My goal in this session will be to encourage and start training some music therapy story tellers.  We will learn, share and practice during our short time together.  I hope you will come join the fun in this fresh new look at consult music therapy!    

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Hidden Asset

The Daily Muse  

 Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

"A pocket is no place for a smile." 

 ~ From Blues Traveler, The Mountains Win Again

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Are You Ready for a Mickey??!

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

AMTA in the ATL 2011!

Are you ready yet??!  Here is just a little taste of what is to come next week!

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6 Days 'Til...AMTA 2011!

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

AMTA in the ATL 2011!

I just finished calendaring in my  plans for the conference!  I have to admit that I usually don't do this until I get there and look at the program, but the availability of the online program really changes things!  I feel so much more prepared!  I would like to recommend a couple more presentations by my friend Kat Fulton, creator of Rhythm for Good, that you won't want to miss:

• Saturday, 11/19 at 10:45AM: Online opportunities for music therapists’ growth and development.
• Saturday, 11/19 at 3:45PM: Online Zennnnnnnnnn – Tons of tips for making your life easier online.
• Sunday, 11/20 at 1:30PM: CMTE: New Ideas On Drumming With Older Adults. Hands-on. Drumming. Creating. ‘Twill be fun!

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I Need a Clone!

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

AMTA in the ATL 2011!

Here are some more things you will not want to miss next week if you are going to the conference:


1. Mickey Hart's session: Friday 2 - 3:30 pm.  AND the drum circle Friday night at 8:45 in the ballroom.


2. The networking sessions on Friday noon - 1:45.


3. Booth #401 in the Exhibit Hall: Featuring the new Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL)


4. Creating an Effective Online Presence: Kimberly Moore, Michelle Erfurt, Rachel Rambach.  Friday 7:30 - 9:00 am, Mtg rooms 206-207


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AMTA 2011: Making Plans

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

AMTA in the ATL 2011!

I can't wait for next week's annual music therapy conference!  It is almost as exciting as getting ready for Christmas!  As I blogged about yesterday, the official program has been released, so I encourage you to unwrap your pdf file and take a look!  There seems to be a little more activity this year with visiting guests and artists, so some choices may have to be made.  


I was part of the conference choir last year and really enjoyed the experience.  I was impressed by how well we were able to develop some songs with a short amount of practice time.  If you want to participate, then don't miss the 30 minute rehearsal right after opening session.  The choir is a lot of fun and you will get to meet many new people from around the profession that you might not normally run into.    

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Time to Make a Plan: AMTA in the ATL 2011!

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

AMTA in the ATL 2011!

The National Music Therapy Association Conference is fast approaching! The official program has just been released and you can find it here. Now it is time to make a plan! 


You can find me on Saturday morning at 9:30 - 10:30 am presenting a session titled, Schoolhouse Stories: Making Sense Out of Music Therapy for Teachers and Parents.  I am excited to share some things I learned as a music therapist working in the public schools.  If you can't make it, then sign up as a twitter follower and join the tweet-fest that keeps you in tune with everything going on in real-time!  

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Counting Down the Days to Black Friday: Join the Fun!

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Shop Amazon's Holiday Countdown Store

I realize that Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away, but if you're like me, then you've already started looking out for deals! Black Friday and Cyber Monday previews are starting to hit the web. Amazon is even having a huge "getting-ready-for-Black-Friday-sale"! Enjoy this direct link to their blowout sale on CDs and MP3s! 

Amazon Countdown to Black Friday!

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Rush to Some Inspiration!

The Daily Muse  

 Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer by the stars." 

 ~ From Rush, The Pass

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Emile Sande Lends Support to Music Therapy

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

I love exploring music therapy around the world. Emile Sande is a singing star who recently started getting involved with music therapy in Glasgow. I think her interest is genuine and her notoriety will definitely benefit music therapy if she continues to be involved. Two thumbs up for Emile! 

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Zumix Exposure Related to Music Therapy

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Zumix! 

Zumix is an award winning after-school music program in Boston that encourages a variety of different music and dance experiences. I love the fact that the news story about them winning the 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award mentions that some of the program participants are inspired to go on to be music therapists!

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Adele Reminds Us to Watch Our Voice!

The Daily Muse     


Welcome to the Daily Muse feature of Music Makes Sense!  This daily update brings you up to the minute news about music and music therapy as it relates to our professions, events and individual lives.  You can follow the daily entries by subscribing to Music Makes Sense on Twitter or by "Liking" the Facebook page for Music Makes Sense.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Adele's Throat Surgery 

   

 As a singer, I feel for Adele and her need for throat surgery. The news story indicates that she has vocal fold hemorrhaging. It doesn't sound like a pretty condition, but apparently it is correctable. I can't help but think, however, that Adele should be a little more careful with her million dollar voice! People around the world love her unique vocal tone and singing style, but it is definitely rough on the voice! I am sure that her smoking habit also adds to the husky quality of her voice, but I can't see how this is helping her vocal health. I have a hard enough time without smoking to stay healthy and take care of my voice! 


 Music therapists usually maintain demanding schedule for their voices, often seeing clients in 7-8 sessions per day. When I found myself in this situation week after week, I developed some strategies that helped my voice stay healthier: 


 1. Lots of water! This is not a secret, but easy to forget when you are on the go. One of those camel packs would not be a bad idea not that I think back on my work as a music therapist in the schools!

 

 2. Lose the pick! Most of the time, I play the guitar without a pick. Using a pick make the guitar too loud for me to sing over unless I have a mic and am in front of a larger group. 


 3. Straighten up! Your back that is! Posture can be a huge problem when you are constantly leaning or hanging over the guitar on your lap all day. It is also difficult with the variety of seating and standing positions you might find yourself in while seeing clients. One thing that I did to help maintain posture was to alternate or vary my activities so that I was not always using the guitar. Drums, body percussion and sometimes even recorded music can help get your hands free and provide a time to stretch and move around. 


 4. Breathe!  Fatigue is a major enemy of good breath support.  Not only does good posture start to fade away as the day goes on, but you may notice yourself using more shallow breathing.  Good breath support will help reduce strain on the vocal chords.  I programmed my phone alarm to go off at times during the day just to remind myself to breathe correctly.  If you have time in between sessions you can also meditate and do some deep breathing exercises that may help.  


Thanks to Adele for reminding us to take care of our voices.  I think we all wish her the best in regaining and improving her vocal health!   

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6 Ways to Empower Your Music Assisted Relaxation!

It is very popular to use music during relaxation, as evidenced by the thousands of "relaxation" music tracks available for sale and published on the internet.  Choosing from this vast resource of music is a challenge, but there are basic guidelines for finding effective sedative music.  You can read many of my suggestions about finding and using music for relaxation in related posts here.


Once you have chosen some sedative music that you would like to use, there are ways to increase the symbiotic effectiveness of voiced dialogue and music when used together.  Some of the different approaches to using scripts or verbal guidance to facilitate relaxation are: simple stretch routines, guided progressive muscle relaxation, structured breathing and describing simple imagery.  No matter what your verbal instructions entail, there are some strategies you can use to connect the verbal dialogue more strongly to the music stimulus.  This will be easier with some music selections, but the following suggestions may still be useful in concept even when they are not possible with a certain song selection.  


1. Using ascending and descending musical ideas - Some music may have repetitive up and down motion, either in volume, melody or even patterned chord changes.  These ideas are very useful in structuring stretching routines and breathing.  Enya's song, "Watermark" always reminds me of this up and down motion.


2. Breathing - I like to encourage participants in relaxation to find their own natural rhythm of breathing.  Everyone has a different respiration rate, especially at the beginning of a relaxation session.  I am happy if the participants are simply becoming more aware of their own bodies, so I think it is important sometimes not to force breathing into a certain time frame or count sequence.  When I verbally facilitate relaxation, I will often come back to instructions about breathing as one song fades into another.  This helps to maintain focus during the short lack of musical stimulus.


3. Descending arpeggios - There is something about a descending melodic line that cues people to relax.  This is even more profound if the motif is repetitive.  Use this downward idea to pattern your voice and vocal tone so that as the relaxation session progresses, your voice is gradually getting lower in tone and slowing down.  I also really like it when a repetitive background of descending tones supports a solo instrument on a more varied melody line.  This melody helps the participants maintain interest and focus in the music as long as it is not too distracting. 


4. Phrasing - As a facilitator, you really need to know your music stimulus.  It is very important to try and match the start of a verbal phrase or imagery idea to the musical phrasing.  Sometimes you can even introduce a new part of the relaxation sequence (i.e., muscle group in progressive muscle relaxation) or new imagery idea with a new melodic theme or instrumentation in the music.  


5. Cadence - The music can be your guide for the tempo of your speech as well as the rise and fall of your syllables.  Allow your speaking to match and blend with the rhythm (or lack of rhythm, in some cases) of the music.  


6. Take a break! - One of the most difficult things to do as the verbal facilitator is to stop talking!  I think that this concept and the challenge to talk more slowly than you think you are talking are two very important things to remember.  Sometime during the guided relaxation it may be appropriate to allow the participants to simply relax and listen to the music for one or two minutes.  As the facilitator, these two minutes can seem like two hours!  This is a natural feeling until you get used to it and give yourself permission to be quiet for a bit.  One way to help is to find a place in the music that might lend itself to this concept.  Perhaps a section of the music with a new motif or an instrumental break or bridge can be the natural place to stop talking for a minute and encourage the participants to enjoy the moment and try to remember how they feel being relaxed.


Facilitating a relaxation session with music is an important skill for music therapists.  It does take practice and some attention to detail, but is incredibly useful in a variety of clinical settings.