Author: Erin

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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.

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An Article Weekly: “Elementary-Aged Children’s Aesthetic Experiences with Music”

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, “Elementary-Aged Children’s Aesthetic Experiences with Music,” by Phyllis M. Paul. The article was published in Journal of Music Therapy, XLV(2), 2008, 135-146.

After reading this article, I have two big questions. First, though, let me tell you a little bit about the piece:

  1. On page 136, the all-important definition of the word “aesthetic” in this article is this: ” ‘… intense subjective and personal experience; feelingful reaction; requires perception, experience of feelings and reactions, and psychological involvement.’ “
  2. The measurement tool is the Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI), which is “a potentiometer interfaced with a computer that allows the measurement of a response simultaneously with stimulus presentation” (pg. 136), on which the left side was marked “0” and the right, “255.” The study considered whether fourth grade students of three types — normally developing, students with special needs, and gifted students — could use the CRDI to express aesthetic experiences.
  3. The piece used in the study was “18th Variation” from Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, by Rachmaninoff. Reasons given for using this piece were that it is a “complete piece of music (pg. 138)”; and it is relatively short, at three minutes 38 seconds long.

My first big question stems from the sentence directly following the descriptions of the reasons given for the piece selection. The sentence reads,

“In addition, some research … suggests that listeners may experience a more immediate enjoyment of, and appreciation for, music from the romantic period” (pg. 138).

Huh. Of course the author cited the research (an article published in Psychology of Music called “Towards and Understanding of Music Appreciation,” by E. Payne), but I for one would love to know more about said research. 1. What is “immediate” in “immediate enjoyment?” 2. Define “enjoyment.” 3. Define “appreciation.” 4. What leads a person to believe fourth graders in the year 2008 (the year in which this article was published) are among those people who have this enjoyment of music from the romantic period?

The results of this study show that there was a large difference between the group of normally developing students and the group of students with special needs, whereas a similar (but not identical) study that was conducted on preschool-aged students with and without developmental disabilities showed there was “no difference when comparing the preference discriminations” (pg. 142). My second big question is, How does age affect these results? I recognize, though, that this same test was not administered to the preschool-aged students.

Any insight?

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Monthly meeting

Tomorrow we’re having another monthly music therapist meeting. I am excited for this one; we’re including one of our friends who has moved to another state. I’ll be excited to see her (even though it’ll be on a screen).

 

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Planning practices and problems

I have never considered myself a songwriter. I have always considered myself a planner.

Recent realizations are such that I am a songwriter (almost on a daily basis), and my feelings toward planning are that they are hopeful and sometimes restricting.

I believe all of this relates.

I’ve been afraid of writing songs and music because I’ve felt that there are a certain set of rules a composer must follow in order for the song to be valid. I’ve also always held that a songwriter must be very versed in music theory. I loathe music theory. I know it’s useful and important, but I still loathe it.

I’ve been set on rigid planning practices, in regard to music therapy and everything else there is to plan, but I have frequently been so pleasantly surprised by results of therapy sessions when I truly accommodate for the moment. This is not to say that goals and objectives are abandoned. This is to say that I am really good at improvising when I need to be. I am so happy with that.

As far as songwriting and planning go, I’ve found that I can create a legitimate song in a session that is not only applicable to that particular client and his or her needs but teachable and adaptable.

I like these kinds of surprises.

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Newfound podcast: WSJ on Small Business

One way in which I have been trying to branch out as a young professional is to develop my business skills. My fiancé offers endless assistance, for which I am grateful. I am also trying to seek out any resources I can utilize on my own.

Podcasts are huge for me right now. I am in the car a lot, driving from client to client to contract to client, etc. Perhaps it’s my Suzuki upbringing, but I absorb a lot from listening to interesting content; I love to read, of course, but I think I gain more from the act of listening.

One podcast I’ve liked this week is Wall Street Journal on Small Business, which can be found here. The podcast is short and provides synopses of several pieces that are applicable to small business owners and entrepreneurs.

 

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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.

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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.

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My Epic contract

I began another contract today. This one will last for eight weeks. I work with groups of adults with developmental disabilities throughout the day, and end the day with a debriefing session that includes staff members. Today was the first time I’d met most of the clients and many of the staff members. I loved the experience and am fortunate to feel very comfortable with and welcomed by the staff.

One of my biggest challenges with this particular contract is that I am charged, if you will, with the task of designing music experiences that non-musicians can facilitate  with the clients in my absence. The facility owns a collection of instruments that I used today and will be using in the future, but the facility’s biggest hope is that when I leave, the music won’t. The staff provides music sessions on a daily basis, and I understand my job to be to provide new resources for them and new techniques with which they feel comfortable. Apparently, some of the staff chose not to be a member of my particular project because music was too intimidating. Based on the responses I observed in the clients today, I definitely believe music is a powerful force at this facility (and most places). My big question is, How can I lead and teach in a way that is musically stimulating and pleasing, but not impossible for non-musicians to perform? 

I do love challenges.

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Expansion

I presented on music therapy to a group of speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists on Wednesday (was that really only yesterday?), and since then I’ve been thinking more and more of the importance of collaborating. Each therapist’s purpose when working with a client is to help him or her reach a goal, and what I have in common with other creative arts therapists and “traditional” therapists is that I want to help move a client in a positive direction. I know that knowing more about each modality would be tremendous for me as a clinician and for my clients as well.

Much of the current event information and inspiration I get regarding music therapy is from other music therapists’ blogs. So, today I subscribed to 20 speech-language pathologists’ blogs. 🙂 This isn’t to say that I will know exactly what they’re talking about, but I will hopefully have a better understanding of what they do, in some respect. I will also be looking into other avenues of education (presentations, podcasts, etc.).

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Kid Talk: Advanced Children’s Therapy

Today I presented to speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists at Kid Talk in Victoria, Minnesota. Half of the group was familiar with music therapy, and all of them seemed very supportive and interested in it and its work toward speech goals for their clients. I shared some resources I have, and was happy to receive some new resources from them as well. Not surprisingly, many of the speech-language pathologists shared that they use music in their treatment.

A few days ago I posted here that I’d love to co-facilitate sessions with other therapists. This topic came up in my talk this afternoon. Perhaps I will have such an opportunity in the near future.