Music For Kiddos Podcast
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I want to share with you about my background because is really important to me. I'm an improvisational music therapist and is really a big part of my identity. In case you are not a music therapist, let me tell you a little bit about what improvisational music therapists do.
Music therapists tend to specialize in one or two areas. The settings, groups and individuals that we work with are very diverse. W can work from anywhere from like babies or helping a mother through childbirth, all the way through the end-of-life and every stage in between.
As you can imagine, working in a hospital is really different than working in a school, and that's really different than working in an assisted living facility.
The approach of an improvisational music therapists in any of these settings is really “in the moment.” We often make up songs on the spot with what the client is needing or we are reacting to what is happening in the moment. Sometimes the entire song isn't made up. Sometimes it's just a tiny portion of the song that's made up.
Before I started Music For Kiddos, I probably had fewer than 10 existing songs in my repertoire because I made up most of the songs I used with children right on the spot (hard to believe, right?!). I had a rude awakening when I started to work with early childhood music groups, which is a setting that isn't super realistic for improvisation.
This experience led me to the conclusion that there are three very simple components to improvisation that I think are key to having a successful experience:
Structure: Try the ABA song form; A is the familiar theme that comes back and B is the improvisational section.
Take risks: Leave space, see what happens. If you ever feel uncomfortable about leaving space, remind yourself that it is the kind thing to do to give your client the time to process the information you might be providing so that they have the opportunity to respond.
Get out of your comfort zone: If you need a little nudge, go ahead and pick an instrument that you are less familiar with and just have fun with it. See if you can be in that position where you are less familiar on an instrument, just like your client, and just go for it. See what happens.
I go in depth about these three components to improvisation during a music therapy session in episode 15th of the Music For Kiddos podcast. If you want to learn more, tune in and don’t forget to leave a review so that I know that you are interested in this topic and want me to talk more about it in future episodes. I can talk about improvisation all day, like clinical improvisation or just improvisation in a classroom.
FREE RESOURCE
In episode 15 of the Music For Kiddos podcast, I share the song “Keeping A Beat”, a song that I use to improvise and target different goals such as speech, gross and fine motor movement.
Download the lyrics of this song here.
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Thanks for tuning in!
Thanks for joining us on the Music for Kiddos podcast! If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts and tell us what you think by leaving a review! Don’t forget to sign up for the Song-of-the-Month-Club to receive a free, high-quality original song every month, or hang out with us on Instagram to stay connected.
