Music Therapy Musings

There is a great podcast on the topic of songwriting on Music Therapy Roundtable this month.

One of my personal intervention favorites with clients is songwriting. I actually began writing my own songs before I ever became a music therapist so it was natural for me to work my skill into my clinical work. There are several methods to writing songs which I use with my older adults and Alzheimer/dementia clients. Songs we write can be as simple as taking a song that is already known to the residents, such as “If I Had a Hammer” and having them fill in the blanks.

If I had a ______________________
I’d ____________________________
I’d ____________________________
All through the _________________

You get the idea.

Spring boarding off that method…I have used well known songs and had residents simply rewrite all the lyrics, but keep the music to the original song in place. One of the long term care facilities I work in is located in the country and “country is in the name of their facility. We took John Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Roads” and rewrote the lyrics, turning it into a song about their own home/facility. We then performed the song for other residents and staff. It was fun to see the response the group got.

Finally, I have even been able to have some groups write original lyrics and music when using songwriting as a clinical music therapy intervention.

Songwriting produces some wonderful results in improving self-esteem and pride to a much needed means of self-expression. Definitely one of my favorite interventions.