Monthly meetings

On Saturday, the Minneapolis Area Music Therapists will get together again for our monthly meeting. I’ve invited a couple of music therapists I know to attend via Skype, as they live in two other states. One of them had done her internship here in the cities before taking a full-time music therapy position in Indiana. I’m excited to see how we can connect on screen. 

We will be looking at another set of articles (I believe), and sharing songs we are using on a regular basis in our work. I plan to bring an original song that I “wrote” while in a session, and have been using more and more now.

More apps I’ve found

On Tuesday I was surprised with an iPad 2. That night, I proceeded to install several apps. I haven’t yet used any apps with any clients, but I hope to start doing so on a regular basis next week.

Tomorrow I begin my work with a couple of classes of children at a daycare. Though I know those particular clients will be too young to engage in it, I’ve found the app BrainPOP to be potentially useful with typically functioning children of an older age. The app provides a movie that changes on a daily basis. The content of the movies are educational; this month’s “spotlight” is Black History, and today’s featured movie covers civil rights.

IN2L

I wonder if anyone out there who works in nursing homes has ever heard of, or uses, the IN2L system. Ours has had it for at least the year I’ve been working on their staff. The IN2L (stands for It’s Never 2/Too Late) is a computer system (pardon my lack of technological language) that provides a number of programs, if you will, that are supposed to be interactive and can be shared with groups or individuals. The touch screen allows for some easy use by a resident.

I don’t find the system particularly useful, and the times I’ve tried to work with it, it hasn’t exactly provided what it says it will, but that’s another story.

The reason I bring it up is because my fellow music therapist/palliative care unit coordinator brought it into our office and said that with the system’s last update, there was installed a “music therapy” program. Hm. She said that the program’s title was “Music Therapy,” and that, when opened, it provided a large number of song selections from different genres of music. This is very nice, and seems to be a step up from the music offerings the system had before, but, I question why they call it “Music Therapy.” A better title could be “Music As Therapy,” or simply, “Music,” but not “Music Therapy.” Unless, of course, a music therapist is using those programs with a resident, and having that supplement the therapeutic process.

I’ll have to do more investigating of it. 

(You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me) Technology

I led a group at the care center yesterday that included two family members of one of the residents. The group was going really well, and the family members seemed so happy to be there. (They asked several questions about music therapy following the group session, and requested information from me regarding research. I was impressed by their interest in music therapy, and not simply music, if that makes any sense.) At one point in the session, one of the family members requested the song, “(You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me) Lucille.” I don’t happen to know this song, for which I apologized, but I was able to access it because our department recently acquired tablets for each staff member.

I’ve used the tablet several times for different reasons, and I was able to pull up YouTube and search for the song. I found this:

However, the connection failed right away. I refreshed it, and then it failed again. Repeatedly.

You picked a fine time to leave me, Tablet…

Fascination Station: Björk’s “Biophilia”

I love Björk. I have for years. I even liked how she sent me to tears for days in “Dancer in the Dark.” 

I find Björk to be a creative genius, with the beats she produces, the instrumentation she manufactures and manipulates, and the ideas she seems to be constantly generating. This is why I was thrilled to hear a description and review of her newest album, “Biophilia,” on the The New York Times Science Times podcast.

Who knows

 

 

 

“[The album] is no ordinary album. It uses unusual and newly-invented instruments to reflect the rhythms of nature.”

–Pam Belluck, The New York Times

 

 

Ritchie King wrote about “Biophilia” for Science Times, and you can hear some of what he has to say about it here.

Björk combines her music with iPad apps in order to make her product interactive. I am fascinated by her.

 

More podcasts to hear

My list of podcasts is quickly becoming just as full as my Google Reader. I have been subscribed to The Music Therapy Show with Janice Harris for a bit, and though I read the blogs of Rachel RambachMichelle Erfurt, and Kimberly Sena Moore, I had yet to subscribe to their joint podcast, Music Therapy Round Table. I really liked their last podcast in which they spoke about their professional inspirations. I have heard some good things about their service, Music Therapy Pro. I need to look further into this, as I can already see its use as a huge benefit.

Using sound waves on cancer cells

I listened to the most recent podcast of “This American Life” this evening, and was intrigued by one of the stories that followed a music teacher who teamed up with a cancer researcher to find ways to use sound, or rather electromagnetic waves in this case, to kill cancer cells.

If that’s not one important use of sound (arguably music), I don’t know what is!

You can hear that portion of This American Life right here.

Design, public policy, and the learning process

I attended an event tonight entitled, “Can Design Change the World?” This is a part of a speaker series called “Policy and a Pint.”

Policy and a Pint® is an event series co-sponsored by the Citizens League and 89.3 The Current, that engages young people in important conversations about public policy in Minnesota.

Three designers answered questions asked of them by a host who was broadcast on 89.3. The designers spent about half an hour speaking amongst themselves and the host, and then another half an hour taking questions for audience members.

One of the guest designers mentioned that after the fourth grade, the level of creativity (however that is determined, I am not sure) plummets. Each of the designers spoke to the importance of cultivating creativity in our education systems, and that design is a practice of imagination and implementation that each and every person does on a daily basis.

As we all know by now, I am not an architect or a fashion designer or a stylist. But, I was intrigued by one of the questions: “How or why is design practical?” One of the guests responded by speaking to the fact that most people require at least two if not three means through which to learn a skill — audio, visual, and experiential. A way that design supports the learning process is by bringing to reality technology that provides tools for such ways of learning to take place, i.e., the iPad and its apps that many of us music therapists, teachers, and students use in a variety of ways.

If only there were a way to keep music and art in schools…

 

 

 

 

My technology age

I am beginning to find more and more uses for technology in my professional (and personal) life.

I recognize there are several music therapy bloggers who write with frequency about newfound apps that benefit their work. I feel way behind the times, because I don’t use many apps on a regular basis. (Tonight I had the urge to buy a metronome app, though.) I do use my iPod and iPhone with my clients for a number of reasons, however I know there is a myriad of options that I am not utilizing.

But, I’m loving the whole online, web presence “identity” I’m developing. I’ve decided to build yet another site that I will dedicate to my performance endeavors. I use the word “performance” not to mean that I am a solo artist. I’m not, nor do I want to be at this point. I do, though, want to provide vocal and/or violin music for special events.

Also, I’m considering using Facebook for these projects. Has anyone had a bad experience using Facebook for professional pages?