I am a third year music-therapy student at the University of Louisville, currently spending a semester abroad at the Karol SzymanowskiAcademy of Music in Katowice, Poland. During my time studying music therapy in Katowice, I have been exposed to active CMT and the performance aspect of this music therapy. I am very interested in seeing and understanding the merge between performance and music therapy and how one can benefit the other in certain therapeutic situations, which is why I was drawn to this article.
I found this article interesting, relative to my current experiences with music therapy, and productive, in that it raised some excellent questions about the future of music therapy involving performance. I tend to believe supportive articles about music therapy, which could be considered emerging or "outside of the box," should to be the direction that music therapy needs to go. Our field needs to be flexible to the various needs of groups and individuals (the need to perform, or more accurately, the need for the benefits of performance) rather than strictly utilizing music therapy practices which are confined by a definition.
My recent encounter with CMT involved a short sit-in on music therapy led by my music therapy professor at a facility named Bugocice for children of a variety of ages, that provides housing and/or care for children with difficult or abusive family backgrounds or behavioral issues. Performance was a working goal with some of these children (mostly teenagers and young adults, up to the age of 20) that involved connecting the community with the performance of songs chosen by the members themselves.
I appreciated what this article had to say about the paradoxes between performance and current common music therapy practices, but found myself supporting the concept that performance is a beneficial part of music therapy (the CMT perspective, rather the the perspective of the music therapy consensus model). This was not only because of the evidence and scenarios that are offered up in the article, but also because I have observed first hand how the performance was not only beneficial to those performing (stepping out of their comfort zones, building confidence, singing songs with lyrics that they related to, etc.) but also important for the community that the performers were connecting to. The community was able to accept music that revealed a softer side of members of society that may be feared by the community due to the label and stigma put on them by the label “behavioral issues,” assigned by the school systems.
Something that particularly struck me in this article was that CMT might "negotiate" between performance as “pressure” and as “epiphany”. Yes, it is true that in some scenarios, the pressure would be greater to the client and more detrimental than the epiphany of being someone who is an individual is not. Everything has it's time and place, a performance certainly should be considered a part of the therapeutic realm in music therapy because music itself is flexible- why attempt to constrain therapeutic practices due to the fact that performance is not in the current common music therapy practices? Disregarding the external factors of the performance (who wrote the piece, how was it intended to be performed, etc.) the symbiotic relationship between the performer and the audience strikes me as rather similar to performing solos in a group situation, however performance is on a larger scale with strangers. It is dependent on what the client would best benefit from, and performance is not something that the music community should be "wary" of. In fact, we are not only connected to the medical/interpersonal/psychological side of music therapy, but also with the MUSIC, and connecting this is another way to harness support FROM the community- to show something familiar that every individual can be given the opportunity to connect with the performer about.
A definition should encompass all that something is, not confine it to what it should be. It has struck me as odd that there is even a question as to whether or not this should be a practiced approach to Community Music Therapy, seeing that it is both appropriate or beneficial in a variety of situations.
At the facility that I was observing music therapy at, there were rehearsals several Wednesday nights in preparation for a performance at the Academy of Music. The performance consisted of soloists, duets, and group arrangements (by the music therapy students at the Academy) of songs that the members had chosen. The lyrics of these songs were surprisingly revealing; rather than songs that could be considered offensive or crude, the members chose songs about experiencing hardships and moving on, of friendship, of deeper emotions. A quote that came to mind from the article: "...But they also creatively perform how they can be; their hopes and aspirations, the achievement of personal and social connection. Perhaps this is why the experience feels so good to them." This was not only the act of them expressing themselves in a larger group situation, both in rehearsals or performance, but also a way for the community to accept the members, to be given insight into the emotions and lives of the members, and an opportunity for the community to provide encouragement, even if is only verbal after the performance! What a beautiful experience to witness.
Although this article addressed scenarios that I am both familiar and unfamiliar with, I would like to address that there is no mention of the role of the music therapist in this article; is the therapist a facilitator, an organizer, whomever they are needed to be at any given moment? Is the Music therapist active in the performance moment or only in the preparation? How much does the therapist contribute, and is this something that does not require a music therapist (which could therefore imply that it is not music therapy at all)?
This article has certainly provided food for thought for not only myself, but I hope also for the entire music therapy community, and I hope to hear more from the author again soon!
About Laurel Yoder
Biography
Student of Music Therapy, University of Louisville
I am a third year music-therapy student at the University of Louisville, currently spending a semester abroad at the Karol SzymanowskiAcademy of Music in Katowice, Poland. During my time studying music therapy in Katowice, I have been exposed to active CMT and the performance aspect of this music therapy. I am very interested in seeing and understanding the merge between performance and music therapy and how one can benefit the other in certain therapeutic situations, which is why I was drawn to this article.
I found this article interesting, relative to my current experiences with music therapy, and productive, in that it raised some excellent questions about the future of music therapy involving performance. I tend to believe supportive articles about music therapy, which could be considered emerging or "outside of the box," should to be the direction that music therapy needs to go. Our field needs to be flexible to the various needs of groups and individuals (the need to perform, or more accurately, the need for the benefits of performance) rather than strictly utilizing music therapy practices which are confined by a definition.
My recent encounter with CMT involved a short sit-in on music therapy led by my music therapy professor at a facility named Bugocice for children of a variety of ages, that provides housing and/or care for children with difficult or abusive family backgrounds or behavioral issues. Performance was a working goal with some of these children (mostly teenagers and young adults, up to the age of 20) that involved connecting the community with the performance of songs chosen by the members themselves.
I appreciated what this article had to say about the paradoxes between performance and current common music therapy practices, but found myself supporting the concept that performance is a beneficial part of music therapy (the CMT perspective, rather the the perspective of the music therapy consensus model). This was not only because of the evidence and scenarios that are offered up in the article, but also because I have observed first hand how the performance was not only beneficial to those performing (stepping out of their comfort zones, building confidence, singing songs with lyrics that they related to, etc.) but also important for the community that the performers were connecting to. The community was able to accept music that revealed a softer side of members of society that may be feared by the community due to the label and stigma put on them by the label “behavioral issues,” assigned by the school systems.
Something that particularly struck me in this article was that CMT might "negotiate" between performance as “pressure” and as “epiphany”. Yes, it is true that in some scenarios, the pressure would be greater to the client and more detrimental than the epiphany of being someone who is an individual is not. Everything has it's time and place, a performance certainly should be considered a part of the therapeutic realm in music therapy because music itself is flexible- why attempt to constrain therapeutic practices due to the fact that performance is not in the current common music therapy practices? Disregarding the external factors of the performance (who wrote the piece, how was it intended to be performed, etc.) the symbiotic relationship between the performer and the audience strikes me as rather similar to performing solos in a group situation, however performance is on a larger scale with strangers. It is dependent on what the client would best benefit from, and performance is not something that the music community should be "wary" of. In fact, we are not only connected to the medical/interpersonal/psychological side of music therapy, but also with the MUSIC, and connecting this is another way to harness support FROM the community- to show something familiar that every individual can be given the opportunity to connect with the performer about.
A definition should encompass all that something is, not confine it to what it should be. It has struck me as odd that there is even a question as to whether or not this should be a practiced approach to Community Music Therapy, seeing that it is both appropriate or beneficial in a variety of situations.
At the facility that I was observing music therapy at, there were rehearsals several Wednesday nights in preparation for a performance at the Academy of Music. The performance consisted of soloists, duets, and group arrangements (by the music therapy students at the Academy) of songs that the members had chosen. The lyrics of these songs were surprisingly revealing; rather than songs that could be considered offensive or crude, the members chose songs about experiencing hardships and moving on, of friendship, of deeper emotions. A quote that came to mind from the article: "...But they also creatively perform how they can be; their hopes and aspirations, the achievement of personal and social connection. Perhaps this is why the experience feels so good to them." This was not only the act of them expressing themselves in a larger group situation, both in rehearsals or performance, but also a way for the community to accept the members, to be given insight into the emotions and lives of the members, and an opportunity for the community to provide encouragement, even if is only verbal after the performance! What a beautiful experience to witness.
Although this article addressed scenarios that I am both familiar and unfamiliar with, I would like to address that there is no mention of the role of the music therapist in this article; is the therapist a facilitator, an organizer, whomever they are needed to be at any given moment? Is the Music therapist active in the performance moment or only in the preparation? How much does the therapist contribute, and is this something that does not require a music therapist (which could therefore imply that it is not music therapy at all)?
This article has certainly provided food for thought for not only myself, but I hope also for the entire music therapy community, and I hope to hear more from the author again soon!