logo

Drop us a Line

info@themusictherapycenter.com

mobile logo
 

Blog

Toby, intern at the Music Therapy Center of California, is pursuing her degree in Music Therapy with a concentration in Vocal Performance from Radford University. Toby’s primary instrument is voice, but she has been playing guitar and piano since her early teens. She also enjoys writing and recording original songs and playing with other musicians as well.

Toby first decided to study music therapy in 2007 when she was interning at Invisible Children, a San Diego based non-profit raising awareness and funds for ex-child soldiers in east Africa. While working with youth and other volunteers from around the United States, Toby learned about what it means to pursue your passions and started contemplating what it was she wanted pursue and if it could help others. After watching a short documentary about music therapy and rehabilitation overseas, she decided pursuing music therapy as a career was a way for her to both follow her love for music and to serve people in her community.

“I can’t imagine a life without music. Listening to and playing music has always been a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings and make connections with others. I love that music therapy is so multifaceted; the scientific research is fascinating, but it doesn’t get in the way of music being fun and engaging for groups and individuals. I love sharing special moments with people through music and I’m excited to be working in a field where I am able to bring positive change to their lives by creating music together!”

Image

Hello!

This is my first post as an intern at MTCCA and I’m excited to share with others the amazing things I’m learning about music therapy and the work that we do!

Today we were talking about speech and language development through music. Music is an amazing tool to help develop and enhance language skills of kids and adults of all backgrounds. Because of the inherent structural qualities in music, like tempo & rhythm, melody, and repetitions of sections or verses, our brains and bodies can quickly connect with what we are hearing, oftentimes without even thinking about it! One of the reasons the brain work so well in the context of music is because once we connect with a rhythm and structure of a song we can anticipate what is coming next and we want there to be a resolution to our anticipation.

Here is a cool example of anticipation in music lead by the multi-talented speaker and musician, Bobby McFerrin. Watch for what happens at the 38 second mark!

http://worldsciencefestival.com/videos/the_power_of_the_pentatonic_scale

Now, this example does not have to do specifically with speech and language, but it is a good example of how we respond to music when we are anticipating what should be next. Because music is fun and engaging for so many individuals, they are motivated to work to keep the music or the singing going. So for a child who is engaged in music making, but has difficulties with speech or language, we will often sing a line or phrase they know well except for the last word and pause the music until they verbalize that target word, then the music continues. For example, “Up above the world so_____, like a diamond in the _____,” and so on. This prompt is very basic, but it can work as a foundation for children who are learning how and when to give appropriate responses, producing accurate articulation, making eye contact and watching for cues, and so much more!

That’s my realization of the day! Stay tuned for more interesting thoughts and information about music therapy in our next post!

-Michelle “Toby” Tobias

When teaching music lessons to those with special needs, it is important to be able to adapt to each of their individual needs and to be understanding of the ways they learn best.  Here are some tips for teaching adapted music lessons:

  • Put yourself in their shoes, learn as much as you can about their diagnosis so that you can think like they do
  • Be precise and detailed in your instructions, some students can take things very literally and do not generalize, so be careful of idioms or terms that could be confusing
  • Use a routine with order and repetition, you can list out what you are going to do in the session
  • Be consistent, with the way they do things at home, with what is in their IEPs, etc and if you are preparing for a recital then you may need to help prepare them for several weeks in advance.  The more they feel comfortable, the less you will have acting out behaviors
  • Adapt and be flexible, you may need to work on left and right hand with them first on a drum or by throwing balls, they may need breaks if they are having a melt down
  • Set expectations, make sure you are setting high enough expectations, have them perform in the same recital as typical students
  • Have patience
  • Have compassion
  • Have a sense of humor, find ways to make lessons fun for them

Mary Jane

What is the Transformational Design Model?
Also known as the TDM, the Transformational Design Model is an assessment procedure that is used by many music therapists. There are a series of steps that the therapist goes through as they are assessing the client that ends in determining goals and interventions that are best for that client. It is a system that basically translates scientific methods into real-life functional use. It helps music therapists take non-musical therapeutic exercises and turn them into musical exercises, and then take those exercises and turn them into real-life every day skills that are functional.
Why is it important in the practice of music therapy?
-Helps plan goals that are relevant to the clients’ needs
-Helps make sure the goals and objectives are musical
-Helps generalize interventions into everyday functional application
-Allows music therapists to work with and share with other therapists
-Ensures patient centered instead of discipline centered programs
-Give clients quality service

Mary Jane

 

As my music therapy internship is coming to an end I have been establishing closure with more and more of my clients. Many families of clients have expressed gratitude, appreciation, and even sadness to see me go. I hadn’t actually realized how much of a partnership I had established with some of these families, which is a large part of the therapist/client relationship.

That’s something we weren’t exactly taught in music school. They teach us how to work effectively with many different populations, but they don’t teach us very much about interacting and connecting with the families of clients. In early childhood education, when a teacher establishes relationships and partnerships with families, the child’s learning is enhanced. This goes the same for music therapy. When there is a strong connection between the family and therapist, the child’s experience is enhanced, and this internship has certainly taught me that.

Well, it’s been a wild ride. I’ve learned many things about music therapy and life in general. I’ve experienced many things, a lot of which I never thought I would experience. And I can now say with certainty: I am ready for the professional world. Here I come!

Blog Topic – Job Market

                This is probably the most perfect week I could have gotten “job market” as a blog post, as I will be finishing up my internship work and moving on to the professional job market in less than a month now! Right now, the professional world of music therapy just seems to fill me with a mix of excitement and anxiety; excitement because I’m about to start what is going to be my life-long career and it can go literally any direction from here, anxiety because I still feel like an intern a lot of the time.

                From this internship, there is an array of different career options in front of me. Music therapists can make a living being self-employed, being in private practice, contractors, or working in a music therapy clinic/studio. Until recently, being self-employed was something that I didn’t think I could ever do. However, surveys have shown that about 81% of music therapists are considered self-employed, so it’s looking more and more like owning my own practice will be a necessary step in my life-long career.

                Where my life as a music therapist will go, nobody knows. The journey down this path, as I’m sure any professional music therapist would explain, is a crazy and unpredictable one. It’s going to be a crazy transition, but after 4 years of schooling and 6 months of interning, I feel as though I’m ready to take on the professional world. Here I come!

Mark

Songwriting is used often in music therapy. Therapists often write individualized songs for clients which fit each client’s specific needs at the time. Songwriting is also used by music therapists as an intervention where they get the clients to write their own songs. It provides an outlet for clients to express themselves.

5 Tips to Good Songwriting:
Write the melody without an instrument
Put a fresh, unexpected chord in the melody
Use simple words
Use Repetition
Use lots of action and imagery in the lyrics

Mary Jane

Music, the brain, and Aesthetics

While studying the different ways our brain processes music and music learning, one interesting concept that I came across was that we all have a preconceived cognitive schema, not only for music, but for just about just about everything else. A schema shapes our expectations about how a certain thing should be. In simple terms, a schema is our familiarity with a particular subject. We all probably have our own schema of music. When some of us here the word “music” we might think of the latest top 40 charts, such as Wrecking Ball, and some of us might think of a Beethoven symphony. A schema is important because it frames our understanding and our interpretation of familiar aesthetic objects.

This concept is greatly applicable to music therapy. From the moment I first read about music therapy, I had a schema formed for what I thought the profession was, and it’s incredible to look back and see how much that schema has been altered and changed already. It’s safe to say that after starting my internship here, my schema for music therapy is completely different than it was before, and is  still constantly changing.

Mark

Improvisation is a free performance done with little or no preparation. It is often seen in Jazz music and in Eastern traditional music. The differences between a composed song and an improvised song is that the improvised song is not written and it takes place in real time. Improvisation can be individual or it can be a group activity.

Studies show that “improvisational music therapy was more effective at facilitating joint attention behaviors and non-verbal social communication skills in children than in play (with toys, etc).”  It also has been shown to produce “significantly more and lengthier events of eye contact and turn-taking.” (Kim, Wigram, Gold, 2008.)

How does this work? This video gives a great explanation. MRI results show that when a person is improvising, the same area of the brain used in speech and social communication is lit up.

I have personally seen the power of improvisation in real life.  I have seen people who have difficulty communicating through speech improvise on an instrument and the music is powerful and full of emotion.  It’s as if those people have a lot to say just waiting inside of them but they cannot always express it through speech.  Improvisation gives them the opportunity to communicate and express emotion in alternate ways.

Mary Jane

Mary Jane Dibble is currently a music therapy intern for the Music Therapy Center of California. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy from Utah State University. She previously earned a bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of Utah.
Mary Jane’s primary instrument is the violin. She is also proficient in piano and guitar. She has provided music therapy to adults with mental health disorders, older adults with dementia, children with special needs, and hospital patients. Additionally she has performed in community bands and ensembles.
Mary Jane’s Story
“Music has always brought a lot of joy into my life and serves as a great motivator. When I turn on good music, it’s like a mini vacation away from the stresses of life. My favorite part about music therapy is seeing the joy that music can bring and the changes for the better that music can make in people’s lives.”
IMG_1308

Client – a person or organization using the services of a professional person or company

I’m very glad that I got this word for my blog entry. I find that a big part of the purpose of these blog entries is to look at a word, usually a musical word, and see how it relates or apply to my work as a music therapy intern. Well, it doesn’t get more applicable than the word “clients” because that is exactly what I’m in this job for. There are many parts that I love about this internship. I love being able to say that I get to play drums and guitar with kids, teenagers, and elderly people for my job, but there is so much more to it than that. I am in music therapy for many different reasons, but to help improve the lives of my clients, above all. This job has a lot of pleasant parts as well as difficult parts, and that is one thing that I can say keeps me going through a lot of the stresses and challenges of this position; knowing that at the end of the day, I am doing this to help improve the quality of someone’s life.

Mark

The word of the week could not have been any better suited to write about. Why?, because I have been anticipating this time for seven years and now the time has come. Seven years ago I went back to college to earn a degree in music, and music therapy, and now in a week that goal will be fulfilled.

My life is still full of anticipation, taking the certification exam, beginning to build a client base, and being part of the music therapy community. I thank all the friendly peers, students, mentors and professors who made this journey enjoyable and included me as part of their families.

And now with great anticipation of the future, I bid you all a heart felt thank you!

Craig