More conference fun! Remo Artbeat drums!

Did any of you attending the national conference for the America Music Therapy Association in Jacksonville see the new Artbeat line of Remo drums??  These drums have actually been around since 2010, but now they will be on sale for the public starting in January!

These drums have special textured canvas heads that allow several different kinds of permanent art medium like paints, chalk and more.  Here is a short video that shows the drum being used for art: 

 

I was impressed by the resonance and overall good sound that came from the drums when I played them at the conference! I don't have any links for the new drums yet, but I did play one of the buffalo drums similar to this one at Amazon, just with the new canvas head:
 


I was informed that the drums would soon be available in different sizes and will include frame drums, djembes and even rainsticks or paddle drums! My first idea is to use a large frame drum during a group session to create a large mandala! I have proposed to my students that will be seniors next year to think about doing a fund raiser to purchase a large frame drum and then create a group mandala on the drum as a senior project. This drum can then be donated to the music therapy program as a senior gift! They seem to like the idea and I am very exited about this idea as well as other therapeutic applications. You can find other ideas about combining music and mandala art in one of my other posts here. 

Happy Thanksgiving and happy drumming!

Tie Dye Duet: Successful Approaches for Combining Music and Art in Therapy

Here is the handout from my presentation at the 2012 South Eastern Regional conference for the American Music Therapy Association in Charlotte, NC.  I had many visuals and music samples that I shared at the presentation, but this outline still has some valuable information if you were not able to make it to the conference.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like to talk about the possibilities.  The conference attendees participated in a Scribble Chase drawing activity during the session and I encouraged them to send me pictures of their final pictures once they have filled in the images that they find.  Hopefully I will have images to share! (*the picture above is my own scribble art creation with a student in art therapy as a partner.)

Tie Dye Duet: Successful Approaches to Combining Music and Art for 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!

It has been a big week for news!  Yesterday I announced my debut on The Music Therapy Show that will take place in March.  Today my presentation idea was officially accepted for the 2012 South Eastern Conference for the American Music Therapy Association!  


I am excited about this presentation because it is on a very unique topic that I have not seen addressed very often (...I actually haven't ever seen anything about it, but I may have missed something over the years...) at music therapy conferences.  


The title of my presentation is: Tie Dye Duet: Successful Approaches to Combining Music and Art for Therapy


I will specifically be talking about some of my experiences combining art and music therapy in the psychiatric setting, but much of the material can be transferred to other settings.  


My session will be on Saturday morning, March 31, at 7:45am.  (Yes, I said 7:45 am!  Bring your coffee and donuts!)  The conference will be held in Charlotte, NC and should be a great meeting!  


Start planning now so that you can make it!  If you can't make the conference, don't worry!  I am sure that I will continue to blog about this topic and will try to put some information from the presentation online after it occurs.  So stay tuned!     

Music Therapy and Art Therapy Combine Efforts in Haiti

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!

Converse college has a great program that  just started including music therapy on a humanitarian mission to Haiti.  I love seeing the collaboration between art therapy and music therapy that took place during this service and learning trip!


If you have been following Music Makes Sense in 2011, then you know that I have been exploring the combined and compatible use of music therapy with art therapy.  (Check out these posts for more details).


I really liked how they used the iPad and percussion activities to bridge the culture gap and engage the people in therapy.  Kudos to the music therapy program at Converse!


Read the full story here.  


  

Art Materials for Combined Music and Art Therapy: Using Clay

Art Materials for In-Patient Psychiatric Consumers During Combined Art and Music Therapy Activities

#4 Clay

       Art and music therapy have been practiced for many years in the treatment of individuals with psychiatric illness.  This series of posts will focus on patients in an in-patient psychiatric hospital, where consumers stay an average of 13 days.  The male and female consumers range in age from young adult to senior citizens.  The consumers are housed in separate units by gender, severity of illness or forensic status.  One unit for more stable patients is co-ed.  The patients are seen for therapy both on the unit and sometimes off the unit in an “art room.”
  
Music and art therapists often work at the same facility, but are likely to work independently when conducting therapy groups.  Some art therapy directives may be effectively combined with music to provide a different experience or outcome.  This series will explore the materials needed for five combined art and music interventions: drawing, using clay, creating mandalas and collages, and painting.

Art Materials for Combined Music and Art Therapy: The Collage

Art Materials for In-Patient Psychiatric Consumers During Combined Art and Music Therapy Activities

#3 Collage

       Art and music therapy have been practiced for many years in the treatment of individuals with psychiatric illness.  This series of posts will focus on patients in an in-patient psychiatric hospital, where consumers stay an average of 13 days.  The male and female consumers range in age from young adult to senior citizens.  The consumers are housed in separate units by gender, severity of illness or forensic status.  One unit for more stable patients is co-ed.  The patients are seen for therapy both on the unit and sometimes off the unit in an “art room.”
  
Music and art therapists often work at the same facility, but are likely to work independently when conducting therapy groups.  Some art therapy directives may be effectively combined with music to provide a different experience or outcome.  This series will explore the materials needed for five combined art and music interventions: drawing, using clay, creating mandalas and collages, and painting.

Art Materials for Combined Music and Art Therapy: Part 2

Art Materials for In-Patient Psychiatric Consumers During Combined Art and Music Therapy Activities

#2 Mandalas

       Art and music therapy have been practiced for many years in the treatment of individuals with psychiatric illness.  This series of posts will focus on patients in an in-patient psychiatric hospital, where consumers stay an average of 13 days.  The male and female consumers range in age from young adult to senior citizens.  The consumers are housed in separate units by gender, severity of illness or forensic status.  One unit for more stable patients is co-ed.  The patients are seen for therapy both on the unit and sometimes off the unit in an “art room.”
  
Music and art therapists often work at the same facility, but are likely to work independently when conducting therapy groups.  Some art therapy directives may be effectively combined with music to provide a different experience or outcome.  This series will explore the materials needed for five combined art and music interventions: drawing, using clay, creating mandalas and collages, and painting.

Art Materials for Combined Music and Art Therapy

Art Materials for In-Patient Psychiatric Consumers During Combined Art and Music Therapy Activities

#1 Drawing

       Art and music therapy have been practiced for many years in the treatment of individuals with psychiatric illness.  This series of posts will focus on patients in an in-patient psychiatric hospital, where consumers stay an average of 13 days.  The male and female consumers range in age from young adult to senior citizens.  The consumers are housed in separate units by gender, severity of illness or forensic status.  One unit for more stable patients is co-ed.  The patients are seen for therapy both on the unit and sometimes off the unit in an “art room.”
  
Music and art therapists often work at the same facility, but are likely to work independently when conducting therapy groups.  Some art therapy directives may be effectively combined with music to provide a different experience or outcome.  This series will explore the materials needed for five combined art and music interventions: drawing, using clay, creating mandalas and collages, and painting.

Top 5 Music Therapy Activities for In-Patient Psychiatric Groups: #1 The Mandala

I currently have the opportunity to work once a week with a group of male patients in an acute, in-patient, psychiatric setting. The group I see is part of a larger series of psychosocial rehabilitation classes aimed at helping patients stabilize, recover and move back out into society. My group is titled as "Music Expression." We do a huge variety of activities during this group, but I wanted to share some of the ones that are almost guaranteed to be successful! These music therapy interventions also work well with female patients or in co-ed step-down settings. The first activity I will share, although in no particular order of importance, is the mandala activity:


Group Mandala: Traditionally, a mandala was a circular art piece that served to center the mind and spirit in an art form from Asia. In modern art, the mandala form has been used for all kinds of different themes and formed out of a variety of art materials. Some of the purposes of using a mandala in therapy could be to increase focus of attention, self-awareness or as an activity that re-centers and structures time, space and focus. A mandala is usually an individual project, but can also be effectively employed as a group project. There are many possibilities for encouraging social interaction and problem-solving during group work where the participants must either combine their individual mandalas into one piece or work to create a single mandala together at the same time.

I Have a Dream...You Fill in the Rest!

The psychiatric groups I sometimes get to work with were planning to have an event to celebrate Martin Luther King.  I was not going to be at the event, but all the activity therapists were doing projects during group time that went along with the theme or created a product that could be shared at the meeting.  I had already planned to use Natasha Bedingfield's song, Unwritten, for a group and this ended up being the perfect time.

The lyrics to her song work perfectly into the theme of, "I have a dream...."

I am unwritten
Can't read my mind
I'm undefined

I'm just beginning
The pen's in my hand
Ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words
That you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

Oh, oh

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries
Are outside the lines

We've been conditioned
To not make mistakes
But I can't live that way, no

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words
That you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
To the years where your book begins
Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
To the years where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words
That you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
To the years where your book begins
Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
To the years where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten


I passed out the lyrics to each participant and then played the song for my group of eight psychiatric consumers.  I had them use highlighters to mark words in the song that they liked or seemed important to them.  Each person then shared the words that he or she had highlighted and why they chose those words.  We had a good discussion about making your own future and how it can be better.  I related the song to MLK and asked the group about their dreams.  I prompted them to think of words that would describe their dreams for themselves for when they left the hospital.

In order to facilitate the experience I had brought stacks of magazines they could tear up, markers, oil pastels, stencils and word stamps.  I proposed to the consumers that we make word collages of the words they had developed to describe their dreams.  I hoped that they would be able to share their collages at the special MLK celebration meeting.  I really wish I was able to share examples of some of the word collages!  They were very creative.  Some of them used letter stencils to connect words up and down with common letters.  Other patients found inspiring words in magazines to tear out and paste onto their pictures.  Thank you Natasha for writing such an inspiring song!  Thanks to the human spirit that can rise up in the most difficult circumstances!  

Improv Lyric Analysis: A Twist on the Old Standard!

Several weeks ago I worked with a group of inpatient clients with psychiatric disorders.  They were male patients with a range of issues related to depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia and other mood disorders. My group was under the category of "music expression" with the goal of facilitating improved communication, social and cognitive skills.  I have tried many different activities with this group and this activity just seemed to go really well.  I think the idea has many opportunities to be used in other settings, so I wanted to share.

Lyric analysis is the process of listening to a song and then having guided dialogging about the lyrics.  Songs have an amazing ability to break down barriers in group discussions and often lead to much better client insight than topical discussions without using music.  Under normal conditions, the therapist chooses a song that has meaningful lyrics and provides a recording or live rendition of the song for the group.  Usually the therapist also provides lyric sheets for all the participants to facilitate the discussion.  My idea for a lyric analysis group was to allow the clients to choose the song to analyze right on the spot!  This may sound a little risky but I did create some structure for the activity!

1.  Choose a set of recordings that include a wide variety of genres.
2.  Each participant will  need his/her own music playing device.
3.  The therapist will need a boombox or other free-field music player.
4.  Print out the Improv Lyric Analysis question sheet for each participant.*

The clients begin by listening to any songs of their choice.  You should give them at least ten minutes to browse through the song collections and find a song that they want to use.  Provide them with brief instructions to find a song that has words that they like.  After they find a song, give each person a few more minutes to listen closely to that song's lyrics and answer the questions on the Improv Lyric Analysis sheet to the best of their ability.

Present each participant's chosen song to the group by listening to the song and having the participant talk about the answers to the questions.  In my experiences there was much material for discussion and the ideas were easily transferred to clinical goals for each patient.  All of the people in my group seemed to enjoy the activity.  The ability for them to make choices and the chance to examine song lyrics they may have not noticed before were some of the preferred actions that the patients told me that they liked.

I think that this same activity would be great for junior high school and high school classes, either a functional academics level of special education or a behavioral intervention setting.  Giving clients choices, especially when it has to do with preferred music is usually a very effective component of a successful therapeutic group.

Here are the questions I handed out:

1. Why did you pick this song?
2. What words or lyrics did you like in this song?
3. How do you feel when you listen to this song?
4. What other songs do you like by this artist/band?
5. Who would you recommend listen to this song?
6. Now draw how you feel when you listen to this song...**

**Extension:  I added an art experience to my group by having them draw a picture that represented how they felt when listening to their chosen song.

Please let me know if you try this in a school setting!  I would like to hear how it goes.  You don't have to be a music therapist to do it.  I think teachers could find ways to use the activity to address writing and language skills.  Speech therapists might use the activity to improve communication skills specific to social and group settings.  Adapt and enjoy!

Another Market for Music Therapy?

FOXNews.com - If Aliens Exist, They'll Love Bach, Scientists Say

This is definitely a different take on why aliens would visit us. Society places so much importance on math and science, but art always seems to be the hidden force within cultures. I think the authors of this newly presented perspective may have a good point. Aliens may indeed be very interested in our cultures for their art and music. I thought it was humorous that they didn't know the effect of Lady GaGa on alien opinion! It would be very important for us to find out what their preference is since the client's music preference is usually the most powerful intervention tool!

~Live long and prosper...in music.

Painting by Numbers: A Musical Collaboration

I was able to collaborate recently with an art therapist during some groups with adults who have mental illness. I loved working in this situation and the art therapist really had some great ideas. I was very interested in the type of art project she presented to the clients and the logistics behind preparing for a large scale painting task. The art therapist was a consummate professional. The art supplies and preparation seemed like second nature to her, so she was able to focus on the process and individual impact of the art on the clients. In contrast, I usually shy away from some art projects because of a lack of knowledge about what type of paint, brushes or paper to use.

Her idea was to use paint on a large surface of different colored pieces of butcher paper. She provided the clients with both traditional and non-traditional "brushes" for tempura paint. The non-traditional brushes were rollers with different imprinted designs, foam brushes or even plastic caps used to stamp designs in the paint. We used six colors: black, green, blue, yellow, white, purple and red. We simply squirted a bunch of paint onto separate paper plates and had the clients gather around a big table with one of the large pieces of butcher paper covering the entire table.

The instructions to the clients were to use a color and style of painting that matched the music played. They were told that the music would be changing every few minutes and that the tempo and style of music would be different each time. Every time the music changed we encouraged the clients to move around the table and try a different part of the painting. We purposely did not give them very many instructions so that the music and their interpretation, if any, could play out. The goal at this stage was to cover the entire piece of paper with paint.

The music I used came from a huge variety of albums. In talking with the art therapist, we decided that there should be both music with and without lyrics. In my experience, music with lyrics provides much more structure for artwork and can be especially helpful to clients with decreased cognitive functioning. But we also wanted to assess the impact of music without lyrics that had strong thematic melodies or striking tempos or styles. Although the first time we did this activity I played the songs in a specific order, I played the selections in a different order the next times I did the activity. I think the main object is to vary the type of music with each change of music rather than try to come up with a certain sequence. Here is a list of music I used:

The Forest Gump Soundtrack (Disc Two): Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Medley: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In

George Winston: Linus & Lucy: Skating

Cirque du Soleil: O

The Best of the Gypsy Kings: Bamboleo

The Forest Gump Soundtrack (Disc One): What the World Needs Now is Love

Classical Thunder II: Infernal Dance of King Kastchei

101 Famous Classical Masterpieces: Ode to Joy

Out of Africa (Soundtrack): Flying over Africa

Cecilia Bartoli: Mozart Portraits

Enya: Watermark: Watermark

George Winston: Plains: Muliwai (Slack key guitar)

Loreena McKennitt: The Book of Secrets

It was so interesting to see the way clients responded to the music. Differences in tempo and style often motivated the clients to paint with long strokes or staccato motions. They also used images described in song lyrics to add pictures to their paintings. When there was just instrumental music being played the painting generally exhibited geometric designs or impressionistic mixing of colors. Interestingly, the art therapist told me that it is common for people with schizophrenia to paint and draw geometric designs or frame pictures with borders. I definitely saw this trend in several of our groups. So far I have tried this intervention with clients on an admissions unit who are waiting to be stabilized and moved to a step-down unit. These groups have been either all male or all female. I have also implemented the activity in a co-ed step-down psych unit with more stable clients.

We allowed the painting to go on for about fifteen minutes until the paper was pretty well covered in paint. I used George Winston's piano version of Cast Your Fate to the Wind to facilitate the next portion of the activity. We had cut out picture frames from card-stock for the clients to use as "view-finders" on the large painting. Everyone was instructed to use their viewfinder to locate a portion of the painting that they liked. We cut out the rectangular images that each person found in their viewfinder and explained to them that they would now recreate this image in a larger size on a new canvas. Here is an example of what one client ended up with:

Sometimes, the clients are not able to cognitively grasp the abstract idea of recreating an image in a larger format. In these cases we taped their cutout image to the back of the card-stock frames and let them keep their piece of art. The art therapist was often able to use the artwork to encourage verbal dialog and discussion with each client.

The whole point of the exercise, of course, is to encourage positive social interaction, increase reality awareness and provide structure for appropriate expression of emotions and communication. We did end up with some nice pieces of art that were entered into a facility art exhibition. This was a nice way to promote client self-esteem.

My next collaboration with the art therapist will be using the "iso-principle" and music while working with clay. Very cool!