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Another shift

I am beginning something of a transition in my approach to my music therapy work. I’m beginning to shift my perspective into a process oriented approach.

The most poignant thought I took away from clinical supervision tonight, and the realization that I hope to focus on throughout this next week, is, “Because I am asking my clients to use music to express, communicate, relate, and learn, I should use music in the same way.” I don’t use music. I make it for purposes of providing music therapy sessions, but I do not use music in those ways.

Perhaps I will.

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“Special Ed”

I do have a fantastic love for podcasts. One that has always been playing through my speakers is “This American Life.” I imagine you’ve heard it. A few weeks ago, the podcast rebroadcast the below episode called “Special Ed.” Take a listen.

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On environmental music

I love when I find other musicians who feel similarly about listening to music as I do. I went to a Labor Day Eve party (there is no reason Christmas can have an Eve and other holidays cannot; why not get even more excited about a day when not laboring is celebrated?) of a really good friend of mine who happens to also be a music therapist, and though I knew that she prefers not to listen to music during her “down time,” I didn’t realize that she gets as distracted by environmental music as I do! We all were seated around the table and my friend’s fiancé controlled the music. Several times my friend asked him to either turn it off or turn it down. I can hardly handle environmental music because as soon as it begins, my attention snaps to it and evaporates from any conversation that is happening around me. Sometimes I find myself analyzing the music, but most of the time I am pulled very strongly to a memory that is attached to the music. Or, if the music is new to me, I’ll listen for its rhythm– essentially, I am too absorbed by the music to function in other ways.

My friend and I have had a couple of short discussions about why we love but also need our space from music, but I’m not sure if she feels exactly the same way I do. One of my favorite parts of the night, though, was when we all convened in the living room, and as soon as there was a mention of turning on music, the two of us snapped, “No music.”

I do like music, though. I promise.

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“Boléro” in the morning

I have always had trouble listening to music unless it is for a specific reason. Sometimes that reason is for research, sometimes it’s to keep me at a certain pace while exercising, and of course sometimes it’s to change or augment my mood.

I came across the idea of creating a “waking playlist” (as I like to call it) or a playlist to hear in the morning which has the function of staging the coming day. I read about this in a couple of different music therapists’ blogs, and I really like the idea. The first piece that I choose for mine is “Boléro” by Ravel. I discovered this piece when I was in fifth grade, and have adored it since.

Recently I heard a Radiolab podcast called, “Unraveling Bolero,” in which the hosts reported on a very unusual story involving one Anne Adams, a biologist whose path resembled Ravel’s in a peculiar way. Here is a synopsis of the episode:

At some point, Anne became obsessed with Maurice Ravel’s famous composition and decided to put an elaborate visual rendition of the song to canvas. She called it “Unraveling Bolero.” But at the time, she had no idea that both she and Ravel would themselves unravel shortly after their experiences with this odd piece of music. Arbie Orenstein tells Jad what happened to Ravel after he wrote “Bolero,” and neurologist Bruce Miller and Jonah Lehrer helps us understand how, for both Anne and Ravel, “Bolero” might have been the first symptom of a deadly disease.

Find “Unraveling Bolero” here:

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Bluetooth keyboard teams up well

I have come across the best tool combination for note-taking and efficiency therein. Thomas the New Husband bought me an iPad for Valentine’s Day this year, and although I have been using it pretty consistently for its apps, I’m even more enamored with it now. Now I’m using it with its own little tiny (perfect for my child-sized hands) Bluetooth keyboard, and the team of those two cut down the length of time it takes me to write up progress notes by at least half. Probably more.

I’d been using the Evernote app for dictation while commuting between clients or accounts, but now I’m able to use it for synchronized notes as well.

Anything to make paperwork more pleasant.

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Back in the saddle again

Good Monday to you!

Clearly, I’ve been away. In June, I got married. Leading up to the wedding, I decided to shift my focus much more to all of the end-of-planning work that needed to be done, so I sacrificed my blogging for that. But, I’ve decided that this week is the week I get back into it all.

Much has been happening here in Minnesota. We’ve still been holding our monthly meetings. I’ve been finding new clients and even new students. I’d been considering new ways to approach a couple of places in my community (though admittedly, I knew I wouldn’t get to that until July or August). I’ve decided to try to hit up a ukelele group that happens every other Monday night.

For our honeymoon, we flew down to Florida and then road-tripped along the Gulf Coast and stayed a day in New Orleans. The most striking part about New Orleans, for me, was the first half hour walking around a city square and hearing a band play on the street. Comprised of a trumpet, trombone, tuba, guitar, and bass drum, they improvised inside the song “We All Scream for Ice Cream,” to the extent that I teared up a little– they were fantastic. (Of course they were. New Orleans.) That night we spent some time on Frenchman Street and were happy to hear all kinds of amazing music spill out of each door that we passed.

I did love the South.

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An Article Weekly: “Possible Effects of Music Therapy on the Building Blocks of Communication”

On Mondays, 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 literature. 

Tonight, I’m writing about another article I found in imagine. 

I presented to a group of mothers who have children with delayed speech, and the title of this piece stood out to me because of my experience presenting to that particular audience. And, because I heard the most recent episode of “The Music Therapy Show with Janice Lindstrom” (of Heartbeat Music Therapy), which was an interview with music therapist Roia Rafieyan (whose blog is Contemplative Music Therapist), I am even more interested in meeting clients where they are, whether or not they are able to communicate verbally or otherwise.

“Possible Effects of Music Therapy on the Building Blocks of Communication”

Debra Jelinek Gombert, MA, MT-BC imagine 2(1), 2011, 31-33

I thought the Theory section of the article was interesting.

According to speech language pathologist James MacDonald, a child’s interactive life has these three components:

  1. Social Play — interacting with another with no goal other than being with each other
  2. Imitation — acting and communicating like others, spontaneously learning from the surrounding world, and
  3. Reciprocal Turn-Taking — having the habit of give-and-take in a related meaningful manner (pg. 31).

The protocol used in this study included the use of hello songs, goodbye songs, and four pre-composed songs that used scarves, shakers, drums, and sounds. The object of the study was to determine whether a communicative effort would be extended by the client.

Following the four-week study, mothers of the clients wrote that they saw an increase in their children’s turn-taking, imitation, imaginative play, and other positive aspects of interaction.

Certainly I do not do the article justice with this very brief review. My interest in developing communicative behaviors and/or speech is ever-growing; I’m working with children and adults who use little to no speech at all.

I found Roia Rafieyan’s interview on Janice Lindstrom’s show to be inspiring. Two pieces I remember are that she said about ninety percent of her job is hearing (or listening, I can’t remember her word — there is quite a distinction between “hearing” and “listening”), and another being that she is most interested in knowing how her clients are, not in trying to get them to do something.

Anyone read anything good lately?

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Minneapolis live

I had the opportunity to see a good friend and music therapy colleague perform last night here in Minneapolis. Lynn O’Brien and her trio, Hummingbirds, opened for a CD release show. Not only did one of Lynn’s songs bring tears to my eyes, she also inspired me (as she usually does) to try my hand at songwriting again.

I often create songs in my music therapy sessions, and sometimes those same songs develop over time into more detailed experiences. But I’m going to try, to TRY, to write one song per day this week.

Lynn O'Brien

Too often lately I have busied myself with paperwork and preparation. I think it’s time to shift some energy over to my musical development.

Thanks to Lynn for this inspiration. 🙂

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An Article Weekly: “Use of Music to Improve Speech Production”

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. 

The article I’ll briefly review tonight is, “Use of Music to Improve Speech Production in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Theoretical Orientation,” by Hayoung A. Lim. The article was published in Music Therapy Prespectives, (2009), Vol. 27.

I chose this article because I presented to a group of speech-language pathologists last week, and have since been more and more interested in the role of speech and language in music therapy. I have four clients who are not verbally communicative but are expressive in other ways.

This article is a literature review, and a somewhat lengthy one at that.

I’ll briefly describe three pieces of information regarding speech production I took from the piece:

  1. The two different kinds of echolalia (defined in this article as “the repetition of utterance with similar intonation of words or phrases that someone else has said” p. 105) are immediate and delayed. Immediate is as it seems, and delayed echolalia can occur as late as weeks following the utterance. Research suggests that echolalia serves as a communicative function, and is also considered a developmental behavior. Echolalia is known as a “speech imitation skill,” and can be targeted in music experiences. Page 105
  2. Gestalt language forms are defined in this article as “unanalyzed units of speech,” or chunks of speech, routines and patterns within speech, and formulaic utterances that do not complete a cohesive piece of communicative language. With this form of language acquisition that some children with ASD use, these children might be relying in echolalia to interact with others because they are unable at that point in their language development to combine the chunks, if you will. Pages 106 & 107
  3. Children with ASD typically are preoccupied with routine, and therefore may be more attuned to the predictability of some speech structures and not the context of them. Page 107

Here are three points that implicate the use of music in speech production with children who have ASD:

  1. “Music perception follows the same principles of general perceptual organization, such as patter recognition and grouping information into categorical units (p. 108).” Music exists in time, and with children who are interested in predicting events to occur, songs with familiar openings and closings can be appealing.
  2. There has been found significant positive correlation between musical vocal behavior and non-musical speech production behaviors. Page 111
  3. Music often provides an enjoyable environment and learning situation. Page 112

There are so many more things I could and should say about the relationship between music and speech, but I will leave it for another post.