Me Making Music, Music Making Me: Unexpected Travels in Music and Music Therapy

Abstract

Personal stories illuminate the particular while also hinting at the universal in its many variations. I offer my story because of its very ordinary and everyday nature. The particulars of this version evolved through reflection and conceptualization, that is, recalling personal anecdotes of lived experience and lived meaning as well as situating them in theory. This paper is organized developmentally and parallels three musically distinct phases in my life - from 8 until 18 years, 18 to 28 years, and 28 to 38 years. Each phase is characterized by personal and professional factors that, together, offer variations on the common theme of music as a lifelong endeavor. They also illustrate the two phrases, "me-making-music" and "music-making-me," which were coined in thinking about my experience with music as a lifelong endeavor.