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An Article Weekly: “The Effect of Behavioral Contracting on the Acquisition of Guitar Performance Skills in a College-level Beginning Guitar Class”

Each Monday, I will be writing up a short, non-academic review of an article I’ve found interesting. These articles will be taken from music therapy peer-reviewed journals. 

I have been really interested in professional (and personal, for that matter) development of late, and with this comes practicing instruments, among other things. I have to say I am pretty upset with myself that I haven’t progressed much on my ukelele since I’ve brought it home about a month ago. I am seeking out ways in which to improve my keyboard skills, and I’ve tried to carve out a time to practice guitar and ukelele on a regular basis.

I was interested in the article, “The Effect of Behavioral Contracting on the Acquisition of Guitar Performance Skills in a College-level Beginning Guitar Class,” by Lori F. Gooding, MM, MT-BC, NICU MT, in Journal of Music Therapy, XLVI (4), 2009, 323-338.

Firstly, though I intuited what “behavioral contracts” are, I wondered how this article defined them. On page 325, Gooding writes:

“One specific behavior altering technique used in [Cognitive Behavior Modification] is the behavioral contract. A behavioral contract can be defined as an agreement ‘that establishes the nature of the relationship, the objectives of the learning experience, the activities to accomplish the learning objectives, and the means by which the educational effort will be evaluated.”

Also, there are rewards or reinforcements upon which the person under the contract decides.

In this article, there were four groups of college-level, beginning guitar students. Two groups were control, two groups were experimental. Skill sets were evaluated, which included accuracy of chords, ability to stay with a metronome, and fluency between chords. Each group was evaluated in playing I-IV-V7-I chord progressions.

Groups 1 and 2 were the control, and groups 3 and 4 were the experimental. The rewards that the experimental group members chose were to be able to drop one of the two required performances at the end of the class.

Not surprisingly, the experimental groups did perform better upon evaluation than the control groups did.

So now it seems that I need to determine what my reward will be for implementing my own behavioral contract. Hm. I’m not one to delete things from my day, but I’m absolutely interested in adding things to enhance quality of life. Add 10 minutes to my day for creative writing? Songwriting? If, and only if, I can achieve some measurable success at guitar and/or ukelele in a given week?

Oh, the challenges of acquiring one’s own behavioral contract. 

*Coming up: The next Minneapolis Area Music Therapists meeting, held in Edina, Minnesota. Find more information here.

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Sayuk on Friday

I had the opportunity to participate in what I will call an “arts in-service” at the site of the life enrichment contract I hold in Dundas, MN. I was excited for the day because I knew we’d be experiencing some gamelan music, however I had no idea to what extent that experience was going to be. Joko Sutrisno of University of Minnesota School of Music provided a basement-full of the instruments he uses to perform, teach, and show. He spent a little more than two and a half hours teaching this room full of staff members, most of whom declared they weren’t musical, how to play one four-line “piece” he calls Sayuk, meaning “together in harmony.”

Here is a video that explains more about gamelan:

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Experience: Play It Loudly

Play It Loudly, Play It Quietly

I’ve been working in early intervention all over the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro for about six weeks now.

I’ve come up with this music experience that has worked well for toddlers, pre-schoolers, and has worked on a long-term continuous level.

WHO IS PLAYING?

One group of six to eight (ideally no larger) toddlers or six to 10 pre-schoolers

WHAT IS MY TARGET DOMAIN?

Physical, sensory, social, cognitive

FOR HOW LONG DOES THIS EXPERIENCE LAST?

Somewhere between three and five minutes

WHERE ARE THE CLIENTS SITUATED?

In one circle on the floor

WHAT TOOLS AND MATERIALS ARE NEEDED?

Maracas, egg shakers, chiquitas, small tambourines, bells, any small percussion instruments

I distribute one instrument to each client. I instruct them to show me “sleeping instruments.” Once each instrument is distributed, I tell the clients, “Show me ready position,” for which I model holding an instrument straight in front of me. I tell the clients to use their “listening ears,” because I will be changing up the ways I play and sing.

I sing through different actions (Play your instrument way up high) and some different qualities of sound (Play your instrument quietly. How quietly can you play?). I use a song that I created (out of desperation to get my little clients’ attention one day), and, of course, use different vocal qualities and guitar playing.

I then add something of a bridge to the song, in which I sing-instruct the clients to pass their instrument to their neighbor. Nine times out of ten, my clients pick up on the passing aspect, even in my larger groups. (We do utilize a practice round.) The passing provides each client an opportunity to play many, if not all, the instruments in the group.

I’ve been bringing back this experience, and especially in my pre-school groups, I’ve built up the difficulty and have been pleased with the successes that have been happening.

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Newfound app: Propellerhead Figure

This is a cool app that my fiancé showed me. It’s called Propellerhead Figure, and though I’ve spent only limited time with it, I’ve already created some decent tracks. Pretty neat.

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An Article Weekly: “Awareness of Music Therapy Practices and Factors Influencing Specific Theoretical Approaches”

Each Monday, I will be writing up a short, non-academic review of an article I’ve found interesting. These articles will be taken from music therapy peer-reviewed journals. 

This week, I read “Awareness of Music Therapy Practices and Factors Influencing Specific Theoretical Approaches,” by Byung-Chuel Choi, PhD. I found this article in Journal of Music Therapy, XLV (1), 2008, 93-109.

One reason I chose this article to review today is because in one of my contracts, I am interested in providing my clients and the staff members who work with them directly some music experiences that are aesthetically pleasing. This is a goal area with which I have not given a great deal of thought, up to this point. By this I mean I have not determined that the quality of music I want for the client(s) to perform is my primary goal focus; this is not to say that I believe the quality of my music is not important.

This point of this article was to determine

  1. Is the adoption of current theoretical approaches contingent on the music therapist’s age, year of practice, attended college, area of practice, major performing medium, or degree of participation in music therapy conferences?
  2. Is music therapists’ work satisfaction a function of their involvement with theoretical orientations or any other factors?
  3. Is music therapists’ involvement in music making a function of their theoretical orientations or of any other factors?
  4. Is music therapists’ emphasis on the aesthetic quality and growth of music a function of their theoretical orientation or of any other factors?
  5. Is music therapists’ satisfaction with their past education a function of their involvement with theoretical orientations or of any other factors?
  6. Is music therapists’ desire to expand their theoretical knowledge a function of theoretical orientations or of any other factors? (p. 96-97)

The method of data collection was that of a two-page long survey mailed to a randomly-selected pool of 500 music therapists in the year 2004. Of the 500, 289 responded, and of those 289, 272 of the surveys were considered valid.

The results of the survey showed that 59% of the respondents indicated that their school had focused on a cognitive-behavioral approach. I don’t find this statistic to be a surprise.

According to the results of the study, there was “no significant difference” among questions 1., 2., and 3., but that those respondents who held doctoral degrees use less music in their therapy process than those who held any other type of degree.

I think this study asked a whole lot of questions. I’d be interested in knowing more about why, according to this study, those music therapists with doctoral degrees used less music in their therapeutic process than those who have any other degree. I think the first question would be fun to flesh out as its own study.

I don’t know that reading this article answered my question about my own approach to the use of aesthetics in therapy, but, like I mentioned, I’d gladly read more on this subject.

 

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Weekly workshops

Tomorrow I will be conducting a workshop for staff members at the facility where I work on Fridays. I am looking forward to it. I am planning to provide some basic drumming techniques that the staff can use with the clients, as well as show staff some additional ways to learn music when the staff member does not read music.

I believe this is going to be a weekly occurrence. I will be sure to write up on the experience…

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Newfound resource: noahsdad.com

I heard a really nice interview with Rick Smith on The Coffee Klatch podcast. Smith is a father whose 15-month-old son, Noah, has Down syndrome. On his site, Noah’s Dad, Smith writes about discoveries and celebrations that are direct results of his life with his son. Smith posts short videos that are meant to educate viewers of familial experiences with a child who has Down syndrome.

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Having history

One of the topics of discussion at our music therapist meeting on Saturday was that of having history. One of my colleagues and friends works in hospice with mostly Jewish people, and brought up the fact that sometimes he feels a struggle between having history and knowing history.

This topic led into a conversation about the appropriate use of recorded music in sessions. There are pages of notes I took at this meeting, and of course this is an in-depth topic; I can’t write enough about it now to give it justice. However, I will say that I love that I thought a little differently when I left that meeting.

“To have history is different than to know it.”

I hope to write more on this subject soon.