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Keymaster
Just a quick reminder to save your forum responses to use later when planning sessions!
KeymasterThank you for contributing to this extremely important conversation. As another resource, please take a look at the 2020 edition of the early childhood music therapy on-line magazine, imagine. The entire issue is focused on cultural and social implications for music therapy. I was honored to be invited to contribute a podcast on the subject. https://www.imagine.musictherapy.biz/composing-therapeutic-songs-for-culturally-and-linguistically-diverse-early-childhood-music-therapy/
KeymasterHi, Jeanne. Just thought I’d let you know that I am also from a big family. I’m second out of 8!
KeymasterWelcome to the Sprouting Melodies Training. I am so excited about this session, with the great variety and depth of music therapy experience represented. Wow! One of my favorite parts of the course is getting to know everyone better through the forum. In this time of unprecedented challenges world wide, I hope you will use the forum postings for support, motivation, and growth. Meredith and I are very committed to creating a place for community in music therapy, and we are glad you are here to join us.
We are so fortunate to have Erika Svolos as our course moderator, trouble-shooter, and general all around go-to person.Please reach out to her with any other questions or concerns that are not answered on the forum.
You will get to know Meredith and I well over the next ten weeks,but here is a little more about me personally. Just about a year ago I retired from my clinical music therapy work after over thirty years practicing in early childhood and public education. (Side note, I have had a lot of experience with IDEA, IEPs, and Public Ed and would love to share with those of you working within this system.) Even though I am not working clinically now (very strange) I continue to teach music therapy, primarily at Molloy College on Long Island, New York. I also finally have the time to do more writing and research, and some of you might know the books that were recently published on Vocal Skills and Basic Verbal Skills in music therapy.
My up-close and personal experience now with early childhood music is with my two-year-old grandson, Max. It is so much fun to watch how music develops in this little guy, and great to see the markers of early childhood music development from the framework that you will be learning in this course. My three adult children are scattered across the country, and as soon as travel restrictions are lifted I hope to get to visit.
Please keep in touch through the forum, or reach out directly to me at Elizabeth@RaisingHarmony.com.
KeymasterI am so glad to see that this course has provided you with useful information, new ways of thinking or framing the work, and a new or refreshed repertoire of music. The focus of Raising Harmony has been and will continue to be on using the power of music and the expertise of music therapists to create and sustain community. And community to us means everyone. Early in the course you were asked to reflect on the cultural and social music traditions of your home or work neighborhood. It might be a good time to go back and look at your answer to check in and see if your practice supports inclusion and opportunity for all.
I’d like to share some other resources. It has been my pleasure to partner with other music therapists in examining how music therapy can create opportunities for children and families in limited-resource communities. Here is a link to a podcast that I recorded on the subject with Dr. Varvara Pasiali of Queens University in North Carolina.https://amtapro.musictherapy.org/?p=2026 There will also be a podcast coming out in the yearly edition of the on-line early childhood music therapy magazine, imagine.Of course, we would love to have you share your thoughts and initiatives in this area. Please keep in touch!KeymasterThank you all for thinking deeply about the success of each child and family. Our ability as music therapists to understand and incorporate individual differences is one of the unique things we bring to our communities. Seeing each response and behavior as part of a developmental and ecological system has really helped me to find strategies that work for the individual as well as for the group.
Another way to frame it, is to think about our own approach to the work. To me there are three stages – proactive, active, and re-active. Our focus at Raising Harmony is to use the music and the qualities of music to spend most of our time in the proactive and active stages in our sessions. If I find myself being overly reactive, I know that I need to recalibrate and change how I do things. For me that means…More Music!May 6, 2020 at 5:08 pm
in reply to: Share some of your experiences with children of this age and level.
KeymasterThank you! We are now more than halfway through the course, and I wanted to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, creative, and supportive responses in the Forum. I learn something each week by reading how you are absorbing and integrating the material and the music. It is particularly meaningful to me during this course since I know that so many of you are struggling with the Coronavirus Crisis. As tough as it is in so many ways, I have watched in awe as the music therapy community has risen to the occasion to bring quality, engaging services to their clients and communities in new and innovative ways. As we have always believed here at Raising Harmony, music therapy and music therapists are transformative. Thank you for being a part of that transformation.
KeymasterWelcome, all! I am always excited to start a new Sprouting Melodies course and meet all of you virtually. We have been so fortunate to draw incredible and diverse music therapists from across the country. We hope that all of you take advantage of the forum to connect with this community now and as you continue your career.
Meredith and I created this program for many of the reasons that you are taking the course – A practical way to complete CE credits while managing family, life, and career. We are truly committed to giving you useful information, lots of music, and a great way to feel supported as part of a network.
You are in excellent hands with our course moderator, Erika Svolos. Meredith and I also pop on the forum throughout, and we are always available through emailing us directly -Elizabeth@Raisingharmony.com or Meredith@Raisingharmony.com.
We look forward to reading your thoughts and speaking with you directly on our conference call later in the course.
Happy Musicing! BethJuly 29, 2019 at 8:41 pm
in reply to: How have you used these four music experiences in your practice?
KeymasterI’m so glad that many of you noted the applicability of the Musical Developmental Levels to the elderly with cognitive decline. Meredith and I will actually be presenting a CMTE at national conference that explains how the levels can inform work across the life span. Would love to have you join us.
July 29, 2019 at 8:36 pm
in reply to: Sing and learn some of the songs presented in the video. Share with the board your experiences using these songs.
KeymasterHi, Destiny. This would be another great topic for our course conference call. Hope you can make it.
July 29, 2019 at 8:34 pm
in reply to: Sing and learn some of the songs presented in the video. Share with the board your experiences using these songs.
KeymasterHi, Emma and all! This is a great topic to bring up on our course conference call. I’ve actually worked extensively with grownup/child dyads and would love to share some thoughts with you on the call.
May 6, 2019 at 8:39 pm
in reply to: How have you used these four music experiences in your practice?
KeymasterHi, Shannon and Tabatha. Thanks for openly sharing some of your struggles. One of the reason I put the Musical Developmental Framework together was to help me (and hopefully others) understand how musical responses develop across time. The moments when I was most out of sync with my students was when I was not understanding what music meant to them. This was most noticeable when i underestimated how much movement children need. One thing I have had to do is switch my thinking about movement. Rather than seeing it as a separate experience from music, I began to realize that all movement is musical. It has contour and dynamics and rhythm and meter. I think I mention in the course that in other languages, music and movement are the same word.
A resource that might be helpful in including more movement is the Sprouting Melodies video blog. (Most of the songs were recorded after the course, so they will be new.) One that I’m using now with my preschool groups is “Can’t Sit Still”. Check it out at the Sprouting Melodies website under the blog link.May 6, 2019 at 8:09 pm
in reply to: What value do music therapists bring to families of young children?
KeymasterNicely said, Megan and Carrie. Thank you for so eloquently underscoring our value as music therapists.
I’ve had a great time catching up with all that has been going on in the forum for the April 2019 training. Now that we are at the halfway point, I hope that everyone is getting a taste of all that music therapists can bring to our communities. Whether you use the framework and music from the course in Sprouting Melodies or as part of your music therapy practice, we hope that you have found new ways of thinking about children, families, and music.KeymasterWelcome, everyone! I am always excited to meet music therapists from all over in this course. I love the diversity of experience and geography. You have a lot to share.
You will get to know me well over the next ten weeks through the videos and material. Please remember, though, that I am always available through email at Elizabeth@RaisingHarmony.com. One thing to share- I am now a grandmother! My grandson lives across the country, so we have to sing together on the phone. He is almost a year and as soon as I start singing he seems to know it is me.I am still working clinically and composing all the time, so be on the lookout for more songs and music.
Beth
KeymasterWelcome, everyone! I love reading your posts about your music therapy journey. Thank you for sharing. One of the things I most value about this Sprouting Melodies training is the community that is created through the forum. Please continue to use this venue to get to know each other, share ideas, ask questions, and network!
You will get to know me well through the weekly videos, but here is some more personal information. I have recently become a grandmother! Max is now 4 months old, and I will admit that I sometimes do some music experiments with him. Yes…it is true that 4 month old babies can match pitch and ‘sing’! It is so much fun to enjoy special moments with him through music. In the next few weeks I’ll be recording some new songs that have been written for him, but that would work well with Sprouting Melodies. Look for them on the blog page of the Sprouting Melodies web site. -
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