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Child Development Club

Happy new year!

We’ve been traveling in the Midwest and in New York City over the past couple of weeks. This is our first full week back at work. There really is comfort in routine.

I am taking this opportunity to guide you to a new website to which I am a contributing blogger. The site is Child Development Club, and it was created by Laura Efinger,  M.A. OT/L, CEIM, who lives and works in Cairo, Egypt. I’m excited to be a part of this community as it has writers of a variety of professions (including one other music therapist) who live all over the world.

Child Development Club’s mission:

The Child Development Club was created to support parents, care providers, educators, administrators, therapists and other professionals by providing relevant child development resources. Our goal is to provide international resources that adults can utilize with children, so children can thrive and be successful in activities of daily living no matter where they live.  Our goal is also to provide a resource network that students can easily access and utilize on their own.

Feel free to find my latest post here.

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Contributing blogger

I am excited to announce that before the end of the month (and this calendar year, for that matter), a piece I wrote will be posted on a child development site that I will link to once the site goes live. I will be contributing blog posts on a variety of subjects regarding childhood development and how music can aid in such a process. Please feel free to offer any topics on your mind that you believe would be beneficial to offer an international audience. I do have a series of pieces pre-composed, but am always looking for more fodder.

Once the site goes live, I will be sure to link to it. Let me know your thoughts!

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The bells will be ringing

I have missed blogging with my regularity this past week, however I am in need of any extra time I can find; I’m getting married next month and I have ohsomuch planning yet to do. So, with this upcoming, life-changing event (a wonderful one), I am going to post to this site only once a week in this month of May. I’ll see how life treats me in June…

This being said, I have to say I was heartbroken when I heard this news story, and I want to share it. (Not because I want you to be heartbroken, too, but because I find it a notable story.)

Oops! Stradivarius cello broken in accident…

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Georgia, Georgia

I’ve just read that the Georgia Senate has passed a state licensure bill for music therapy. More and more states, including Minnesota, are pushing for state licensure and a few already have it.

What I find troublesome about this news is that apparently the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is opposed to a music therapy state licensure in Georgia and has issued a call to action against it.

I hope this issue is cleared up quickly. I know I, and any music therapist I know, respect the profession of speech-language pathology, and those speech-language pathologists with whom I have any work-related relationship seem to find value in music therapy.

Honestly, I am just now learning of this, but I did find the ASHA’s call to action.

Here is where I first learned of this news. I find Daniel Tague, MME, MT-BC’s blog Music Makes Sense to be full of interesting music and music therapy news and information.

 

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The world is mine

For Valentine’s Day, I received to my surprise a gorgeous iPad 2, complete with a red leather case. Tonight I installed around 15 apps, all useful for my work. I am so excited I’m not so sure I can sleep tonight. I probably should, though.

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Enhanced karaoke

I’m not too interested in karaoke (I think I sing and play other people’s music enough as it is), but one Ray Evangelista certainly is. A story was broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio tonight — apparently there are people who have gone to see him for ten years straight. He calls his version of karaoke “enhanced.”

Find the whole story here. 

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Guitar lessons

I am excited that I now will be offering guitar lessons (both adaptive and traditional) through the studio where I have been offering solely music therapy sessions. My first student will start next week.

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Clive Robbins

Directly following our Minneapolis music therapist meeting last night, I received a text from one of my good friends and colleagues, saying that Clive Robbins of the Nordoff-Robbins approach to music therapy died. I am sad to hear this, and know that he will always be a very prominent figure in our profession.

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Now, if only I had access to a CAT scanner

When I was growing up, I played Suzuki Method violin with about a dozen other kids. Three of those kids — who happen to be siblings — were (are) very, very talented musicians. As an eight-year-old, one of them locked herself in a bathroom with her violin and didn’t come out until she had taught herself the entire Book 8 (the Suzuki books start with Book 1, being the easiest, and go to Book 10). Another sibling traveled the world as a performer. Though I don’t know the details, I recall hearing that she had a bow (just the bow) that was thousands of dollars.

I came across an article by way of Bob Collins’s News Cut that described the use of CAT scanners in replicating instruments. Specifically, a 307-year-old Stradivarius violin.

The short story is that a radiologist by the name of Steven Sirr left his violin, which he practiced in his quiet time at the hospital, on a table near a scanner while he attended to a patient on his way to surgery. When Sirr returned, he thought he’d scan his violin. (Out of boredom? Who paid for that? Anyway.)

Stradivarius and its replica, picture from BBC News

The data was used to build very near exact copies of the antique Stradivarius.

Read the whole article here.