You're Getting Sleepy

I think today I'll take some time and do a little bragging. This is WAY outside my nature. My general viewpoint is that I'm average at best and downright pitiful at worst. I've begun to notice a few talents of mine, however, and I'd like to take this post and illustrate one of them.

I am pretty good and getting people to relax and fall asleep. I cannot say that my success rate is 100%, but I think it may be close. My daughter usually will fall asleep shortly after I begin rocking her and humming, which I find refreshing. Usually, I have no idea what to do with her [although I am getting better], but when she's tired but won't sleep, I can jump into action. I've noticed I have the same effect on clients at work, as well. This week, I went to see a few people who were pretty confused and agitated. It can be very hard for someone who is confused to relax. Imagine feeling or knowing something is wrong, but not being able to tell someone what it is. Quite frustrating, I'm sure. Both clients agreed to a music therapy session, but it quickly became apparent that they were too agitated to have a positive conversation. I was able to redirect them enough to close their eyes while I sang. I'd say something like, "I am going to play a song for you, now, and I'd like you to close your eyes and listen to the words and tell me what you see in your mind." They would agree and I'd go to work. Both of them had fallen asleep within about 20 minutes.

I have a few techniques I use to get this, which I will divulge at this point. I feel my guitar playing is fairly adequate, in that I feel comfortable finger picking, so I generally play songs with long chord progressions. Holding chords for a long time can let those tones, especially the deep tones on the E and A strings, ring out. I try to match my voice to that feeling, but I do not force the breath into the notes. It's more like breathing into the notes, not using my breath to project the notes. I've read a little about this technique in some music therapy journals [some of them you can read about here], and believe it fits under the technique called "Toning". I do need to do more research to verify that, however. The songs I choose need some fairly obvious characteristics, like a predicable melody, harmony, rhyme scheme and a slow tempo. I also like to insert improvised interludes where I will sing a variation on the melody, but on an "ah" or "oh" sound. I find that humming closes off the sound and people cannot hear me [which is not always a bad thing, I suppose].

I think a portion of this comes fairly naturally to me, but it definitely helps that I started a relaxation group during my internship. There are many different techniques to use when it comes to relaxation, but this is one way that I can use it on the fly for people who are confused and anxious about something. I hope this post is helpful to other music therapists and interesting to everyone else. I hope you all have a relaxing weekend!