Learning about music

Here's the next edition in my "Music is My Therapy" series. It's about how learning about music is therapeutic for me, and hopefully it may give you some insight into how you can use music to enhance your life. Not to sound like an expert, mind you, but I figure that if nothing else keeping this blog forces me to process and put down in writing my philosophies, lessons, and thoughts.

I have always been a curious person and music may be a curious person's wonderland. There are so many facets of music that can be learned. You can learn instruments, theory, philosophy, sight reading, composition, history, etc. Instruments can be fun and challenging, as well as practical for music therapists. In my job in hospice, I get a chance to meet with people who have played all kinds of instruments. Many have played piano and sang, but occasionally I meet a client who used to play band instruments and, I might be able to create a therapeutic experience simply by playing a clarinet, trumpet, or whatever they used to play. I don't often do this, mostly because I don't know a ton of band instruments enough to play in a session. I would love to get that point, though.

History is another interesting aspect to learn for music therapists. Many times, I can tie in a story that a patient told me with the story behind a song. This makes the client feel more connected with the music and can help them open up to me, as well. Everybody has a story, and I love to hear them.

So far, I've just mentioned a few ways learning can be therapeutic for my clients, so I'll talk a little bit about one of my favorite aspects of music. I'm a huge fan of learning about music philosophy. I'm always so interested in people's thoughts when they are composing. For instance, one of my favorite movies at this moment is "It Might Get Loud", where three great guitarists (The Edge, Jimmy Page, and Jack White) talk about their approach to guitar and songwriting. Even practice has a philosophy. The book "Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music" by Glenn Kurtz discusses how Mr. Kurtz went from being an aspiring professional classical guitarist and, eventually, learns to just play for himself. This book really has helped me focus when I practice and refocus when I lose sight of what I'm doing. I would definitely suggest you watch "It Might Get Loud" or read "Practicing."

What are some of your favorite things to learn about music and why?

Music in the environment

A few posts ago, I discussed how I use music as my own personal therapy. I gave four ways that I intentionally use music to enrich my life and mentioned that maybe I'd try to break each of these down at some point. Well, my friends, that time has come.

I guess I should start by stating what exactly I mean by "environment". Essentially, I mean that music is playing for anyone within ear shot to hear. For people to hear, people need to be around. Seems basic enough, right? For me, then, music in the environment is used to foster social support and promote interaction. I'm not a very extroverted person. I'm the guy at the wedding reception who stands off to the side and watches people dance not because I can't dance (although that's what I'll say whenever someone tries to get me to do it), but because there are always so many people out there dancing. Plus, it's too loud for me to talk over, so I end up just moving around, trying not to bump into people, and not talking. Knowing this, then, maybe it makes more sense that I try to use music as a way to break the ice in small groups. I love talking with people about music and playing new music for people. Many times, I will just put a record on and talk with people when they come over to visit. It seems that when people hear music that they know they don't have to listen to, they feel more inclined to talk. This includes myself.

One reason I bring all this up is that it appears that music is becoming a personal experience. People have mp3 players and headphones nowadays, not radios in their homes. Computers have speakers, but I bet if you go to coffee shop, you'll find that people with computers are using headphones, isolating themselves from potentially disruptive stimuli. I can't help but wonder how this isolation affects us as people in the 21st century. We can listen to what we want to listen to through headphones. We can watch what we want to watch on one of hundreds of channels. We can decide who we do and do not interact with by denying "friend requests." We can essentially create our own world where we don't talk to people, listen to music, watch shows, or hear news we don't like. This may make us less annoyed, but is that really how many of us want to live?

These ideas have implications for music therapy. Yesterday, I did a music therapy session for a gentleman where we had arranged to pick up lunch for him at his favorite restaurant, and brought along several of his friends that would meet there. I played music and, for the first song they listened quietly and clapped. I said, after that, "What are some stories you have of Eddie?" and that got the ball rolling. People started telling stories back and forth and, once they were in a good pace, I started playing again. You could tell that the stories got more animated the longer I played and, when I decided to eat my lunch, the stories slowed down more. I wish I had kept playing, and was planning on it, but people started to leave. The music seemed to, for that period of time, spur on conversation and interaction between old friends.

Trygve Aasgaard talks a lot more about music therapy as an environmental factor in his chapter in "Music Therapy in Palliative Care: New Voices" edited by David Aldridge. Aasgaard's chapter, entitled "Music Therapy as Milieu in the Hospice and Paediatric Oncology Ward", holds a lot of information about how environmental music therapy is used at his hospice in Oslo. Check it out!

Wedding season is in full swing

Lately, I've been inundated with weddings and, when you are a musician, that means several weekend gigs over the course of a few months. I decided to do a quick little post about some of the music I have done at weddings so far. I actually don't think I have any more weddings to sing at (although I'm standing up in two more), so this makes a good time to recap what I've done in weddings.

Song #1 - Everlong by The Foo Fighters

Before I write anything, listen and watch this video of the original, pre-Bryan version.

My first thoughts, the strumming seems a little too percussive and the vocals are a little to raw/edgy for a traditional wedding. The bride and groom requested to keep all the lyrics as written and asked for it to be "slower", which I found out meant less percussive. Apparently, my computer or myself is unable to post video of the final outcome (turns out "young people" can be technologically deficient). I'll try to explain what I did. After I reworked the song, I played traditional chords instead of the power chords, but kept the same chords themselves (Dmaj7, B9, G9) and played the guitar line that goes with the pre-chorus an octave higher, enabling me to stay closer to the headstock of the guitar. The strumming was almost a campfire strum, with some syncopated accents to bring in the original strumming patterns. I would love to show you (whoever happens to read this), but, as I stated earlier, YouTube does not like me or my computer.

Song #2 - Come Thou Fount

This song is a fairly familiar hymn, so I didn't have to change very much. The girl who sang it with me is a friend of mine, which was fun. She sings in a very pretty mezzo-soprano voice and I have a tenor voice. That meant that if we both wanted to sing the melody the whole time, it could be a wee bit trebly, which isn't always enjoyable. Because she is a soprano, I decided she could have the melody for the whole song (which just fits into the stereotype, doesn't it?). I wanted to change up the song to keep it interesting for the friends and family who drove from all over Iowa (and beyond) to come to the wedding. I split it up as such:

Verse 1- finger picking guitar; voices in unison
Verse 2- finger picking guitar; voices singing harmonies
Verse 3- whole notes plucked with fingers on guitar for first half of verse, then finger picking; voices singing different harmonies

I thought it went pretty well, but I'm not aware of any recording that happened to post a video or sound clip of the whole song.

Song #3 - Song of Ruth, arr. by Eilers

This was in the same wedding as Come Thou Fount (which I also ushered in). It is a really pretty SATB arrangement of (you guessed it), the Song of Ruth found in (right again) the book of Ruth in the Bible. Essentially, in the Bible story, Ruth is saying she will follow Naomi, her mother-in-law, after her son (Ruth's husband) dies. Noami urges Ruth to go back to "her own people", but Ruth pledges her loyalty to her mother-in-law through this song. Basically, it says, where ever you go, I'll go. This song was a great choice the by couple, as the groom has been teaching in Tanzania and the bride had to give up her job and life here in the United States to teach for a few years with him in Africa. The song is written in a "churchy" style, which I hadn't sung in for a year or two. Because it was already written, I didn't have to arrange anything this time and just had to focus on getting the notes and intonation down with the other singers. We didn't practice more than 2 or 3 times total, including the day of, so I was a little nervous, but it seemed to go well. It challenged me to sing out, something I'm notoriously bad at, and listen more to the other people singing, something I don't have to worry about most of the time for work.

Overall, I'd say that I'm very happy with the music for this year's wedding season. Each song challenged me in some way and I felt that the musical product was pretty good in each of them. I can only hope that they couples I helped enjoyed it at much as I enjoyed learning from the songs.

Music is my therapy too

I think that, occasionally, it's work stating that music is really cool. This statement may make you think "Duh! If it wasn't, you wouldn't be a music therapist!" Before you change pages, however, hear me out. As music therapists, or any other professional who makes a living doing something they love, I think it may be easy to let your love of music (art, recreation, etc) become a bit of a burden. I've talked with a few music therapists who, like me, play music for hours a day, but once they get home, music is not part of their lives. I guess I've only heard it a few times, but it always disturbs me a little bit. If a music therapist loses sight of music as an amazing recreational activity, the therapeutic use of music therapy may become a just a job. Maybe this is the Millennial in me talking, but I want my job to be more than a pay check. I want it to be a calling, a mission, and a sense of fulfillment.

I understand, however, that through the sheer amount of time we spend playing music, we get worn out. If I play guitar all day, and then get home and play all night, I don't only have to worry about carpal tunnel (or other physical ailments). If music was only an activity where I play by myself, I could alienate my wife and other people I love. Therefore, this week, I've been thinking about ways that I use music as therapy for myself.

1) Music in the environment - Turn some music on when you get home. This sounds really basic, but I think people don't always think of this as therapeutic. At home, I like to play music while my wife and I go about our afternoon and evening. It always varies and we take turns choosing the music. My wife and I have some different tastes in music, so we end up learning new music. My wife listens to the radio (country and top 40) and I listen to music that doesn't get a lot of radio play (a lot of independent, experiemental music), so I get introduced to popular music and she gets introduced to music that tends to stretch the ears a bit.

2) Learning about music - I've always enjoyed learning. I like learning new music and musical instruments. My wife likes to poke fun at the number of instruments I've acquired (and still want). Whether I'm getting better at instruments I already have a basic understanding of (like the mandolin, cavaquinho, or violin) or learning something completely different (like the clarinet I got for my birthday), I just enjoy the challenge of learning.

3) Composition - Writing music is probably the most active way I use music as therapy for myself. Even if I don't necessarily sit down to write and process my life's events, they usually end up somewhere in my music. Sometimes, I realize it and consciously choose not to include it in my music, but sometimes it really seems to fit with the song and I keep it. There are other times that I sit down to vent my frustrations and anxieties (or joys), and even if I never end up playing those songs, they help me process the events that brought on the music. It's like holding a mirror to my emotional self.

4) Silence - Believe it or not, sometimes not using music can be just as therapeutic to me as listening, playing, or writing music. Our modern, fast-paced world seems to be very noisy and sometimes I forget what it's like to hear the world, instead of cars, television, and music. I recently took my dog for a walk and forgot my iPod. It was a fantastic time outside and I was reminded how the birds sounded. Now, when I go for a walk or run, I don't bring my iPod, because the world can give me enough to listen to.

I guess that's all I'll write about today. Perhaps over the next couple weeks, I'll expand each of these, because I'm pretty sure I could write for quite a while on each of these subjects.

Balance

Yesterday, I listened to the new The Music Therapy Show with Janice Harris podcast, which was about balance between work and life. This morning, I saw a quick news report about Millennials in the workplace. A stat they posted during the story was that 34% of young people entering the job force stated that work-life balance is the top priority in choosing a new job. This seems to be a sign that I should follow suit and cover this topic myself.

First off, I feel I should define the word "Millennials." Millennials are the new generation that is just starting to enter the workforce. Millennials come after Generation X (starting around 1986 or so). As a Millennial myself, I feel I can give some insight into this age range. The following statement are generalities and may not be true for everyone, but seem to be a trend. For our whole lives, we've been told we're the best at everything. We have been termed the "Trophy Children" because every little achievement is celebrated. Because of this, we may have been coddled too much and may feel a sense of entitlement when we enter the work place (Heaven knows, I've been guilty of this). We are hard workers, though, and when given the right environment, we can thrive and be quite productive. If you want to read a little more on this new generation, find a copy of The M-Factor: How Millennials are Rocking the Workplace by Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman.

This idea of work-life balance seems to be a trend not being adapted only by Millennials, but by others. Self-care can be so important, especially in care giving roles, such as music therapists, nurses, social workers, etc. We seem to want to be a bottomless well of support and assistance, but eventually, we need to take care of ourselves. I've heard of several studies that show a correlation between burnout and poor self-care/coping strategies. If we want to keep doing our job effectively (and enjoy what we do), we need to refill our wells.

I realized pretty early on that I needed to refill, so here are some things I do to take care of myself. The first (and probably biggest thing I did), was change my schedule. I now work 4 10-hour days. I can see more people in one area, which helps me feel more effective, and cuts a day of travel out of the week. This also gives me one floating "mental health"/"domestic duties" day, where I can relax a little bit (right now, I'm sitting in my favorite local coffee shop) and take care of the things around the house that I feel to tired to do after a day of work. Usually, I feel this way regardless of whether I work 8 or 10 hours. Needless to say, my wife appreciates the work I can do at home on my day off. Usually, I take off Fridays, but I like to change it up.

As I discussed in my 4 P's of Coping with Windshield Time post, I do a lot of self-care in the car. It's important for me to process, especially. When I'm aware of my emotions and how they affect the clients I see, I can deal with them effectively. It's like treating the illness instead of the symptoms. I can deal with what causes my emotions instead of simply ignoring my emotions and pretending that other people can't see them.

The last thing I'll write about is taking time to do things you enjoy. I try to go for a run at least 3 times a week (not always fun while I'm doing it, but I feel better afterward). When I get a little spare time on a Saturday morning, I like to play my old Nintendo 64 (and laugh at how poor the picture quality is versus modern systems). Reading books, especially my Bible, are also something I try to make time for.

What are some things you do to balance your work and life?

Being Bold

Disclaimer: It was pointed out to me that this post sounds like it might be in competition with my current job. In no way do I desire to leave my current job. This post is my attempt to encourage advocacy through sharing one instance where I have advocated for my profession. 

Today, I met with someone about doing music therapy at the local hospital on my day off. I work 4 10-hour days to cut down on driving time and I thought, "Hey! I've got a day off, I might as well use it to get some more experience." So, a few weeks ago, I called up the manager of the pediatric center and told her about what I'd like to talk with her about. This is me being bold. It may not seem like it to some of you extroverts, but I did something which was contrary to my typical personality. First of all, I made the initiative to make the call. Second of all, it was a cold call. We had never spoken before. Lastly, I asserted myself as someone who can help provide a specialized service. It was hard for me to essentially say, "I would like to help make your services better." It's usually easy for me to downplay myself, but I couldn't do that this time. If I wanted to be taken seriously, I knew I needed to take myself seriously (another bold move on my part).

To my surprise, the manager was not only interested, but said she'd like to meet with me ASAP. When we were done talking, I called up her secretary and scheduled our meeting. Then I began researching, reading, and freaking out slightly.

The meeting was today. We met over coffee and it was a meeting genuinely filled with excitement and ideas. It turned out that she has much bigger plans than I initially thought (this time she was bold). I came in with the idea of just working with the pediatric and birthing centers. She was thinking bigger. We started talking about how music therapy can be more than a "treatment" for patients, but can create a supportive culture in the work place and even be preventative medicine on many levels. We discussed how music therapy can compliment medicinal pain treatments and, sometimes, keep medicines from needing to be used. As the meeting progressed, we became more and more excited.

We parted after about an hour with a follow-up visit in the works. She wants my resume, scope of practice, a job description, and access to some research articles. I left the meeting feeling very empowered and optimistic. I'm not going to quit my "day job" (not that I want to, anyway), but I feel that big things might be in the works. And it all came about because I decided to be bold, call someone I didn't know, and tell them I want to help.

If I can be bold, anybody can. I'm not an extrovert. I'm not overly sure about myself most times. I'm not entirely sure why I called, but I did and, if nothing else, I helped make someone else excited about music therapy. We'll see what happens from here on out.

If you have the time, post a comment about a time when you were bold (be it with music therapy or life in general) and how it worked out.

Memorials

As the end of May grows closer, I notice my schedule being inundated with a kind of appointment that usually shows up in force one time a year. Yes, my friends, memorial services are being planned and people want us, as music therapists, to provide the music for the event. I don't mind, really, because I believe my job is not to support only the clients in the time leading up to death, but also the clients' families and friends during and after the death. In nursing homes, where I have a lot of clients, people make friends, but the friends can rarely attend the funeral of someone if it means traveling outside the facility. Even if their physical mobility and mental status allow them to attend, they need to find someone to bring them, because most residents do not have a driver's license any more. The facility rarely has enough people working on a shift to spare some to make this trip and the families of residents often have their own lives that are dictating where to be and when to be there. This leaves the friends of clients at the facility, unable to have the closure and ritual celebration of life that often comes with a funeral.

As I'm working with activity coordinators in facilities, I often hear that people want a song or two that are simply reflective and will only be sung by the music therapist. This is understandable. Sometimes that songs that seem to connect to the level of grief of the residents are not songs that are well known. I always try to choose songs that express a level of grief and, when I do more than one, to connect to different levels of grief.

Throughout the year, I try to listen for songs that may be useful in my work with hospice, especially memorial services. I decided I would post a couple songs on this blog that may be useful to others that I feel are fitting memorial songs that people may not know very well, or know at all. When people don't know a song at all, I find, they listen to the words more closely, so the words may be that much more powerful.

Here are three songs I plan on doing at one memorial service. I may post some more as I see them. 

Oh, My Brother - Eddie From Ohio (album: I Rode Fido Home)
    I couldn't find a youtube video for this song. Really great song about supporting each other through hard times. Also talks about saying goodbye, which would be a good talking point if you speak before or after songs. Even if your loved one isn't here to hear it, it's important to say goodbye.
http://www.last.fm/music/Eddie+From+Ohio/_/Oh+My+Brother

I Find Your Love - Beth Nielsen Chapman (album: Look)
     From a whole album written after her husband died. This album chronicles her journey of grief and is really beautiful. Any song from "Look" would make a great memorial service song. In my internship, they did two community memorial services each year and the one I worked on used only songs from Beth Nielsen Chapman

Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World - Israel Kamamawiwo'ole
     He was a big guy with a big heart. I really love his music. This video was made after he died and you can see them pouring his ashes into the ocean.