This past week has been absolutely crazy. I have been leading all my own sessions, documenting the sessions, and starting an assessment of the patients I have seen... including an 11-year-old girl who is tired, sick, in pain, and doesn't want to do much of anything. Which brings me to today's topic: Broadening your Horizons.
By that, I mean your Musical Horizons. Unfortunately, I have not yet met a kid whose favorite artists are Mumford and Sons and Adele. Shocking, I know. When you are working with kids, you need to use music that they are going to be able to sing along to and recognize, and like the girl above, they are NOT going to play with you if it's a song they have never heard before, isn't ridiculously silly, or doesn't have some other goal with it (counting, relaxation, etc.) Example: I FINALLY got her to strum the Q chord with me after playing through a verse of Katy Perry's firework. Do you think she would have done that for Weezer's "Say it Ain't So"? Not likely.
So to be a good Music Therapist, you have to put your prejudices aside and be able to play and sing a variety of styles, or you won't connect with your pts. Thank GOODNESS for my little knowledge of some T Swift songs and Bieber (shout out to the CeeTLes!), but it's not enough when working with an adolescent girl. So I am currently learning some of the lovely Selena Gomez's stuff for my next session with the aforementioned pt. I'm definitely not going to listen to her all the time, but it's not awful.
Now, with 2 Selena songs under my belt, a handful of simple piano techniques, and a score of T Swift by my side, I am prepared for tomorrow's session!
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