Hi team,
There have been some really tough events around the world over the last few weeks. I doubt there is a single member in our community who hasn’t been affected in some way, either directly or by association. Please be good to yourselves and to others, and continue promoting harmony with your warm hearts and talents. You’ll notice that I’m trying to keep the tone of my emails upbeat, but it’s not without feeling the gravity of the challenges we are facing. Keep smiling and doing what you do, because you are very, very important.
And with that uplifting preface, here is your Friday 5 to kick off the weekend 😃
Read
Last year, we did a 3-part series featuring people who changed careers to become music therapists at various stages of their lives. If you never saw it, check it out. It’s inspirational and you just might know someone who should read it.
Learn
Come to the 8-cmte NICU Music Therapy Lecture, presented by Jayne Standley and co., at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. That’s my hospital 😉 Come hang out, learn, and network with other music therapists and NICU professionals.
Guitar
I really enjoyed hearing what you were going to work on this week! How did it go? Here’s another tip – something I did with one of my students just this week. Have someone sit across from you and make various expressions (sad, happy, excited, etc.) while you play guitar and even while you sing. Your job is to match them as they change expressions. This will do three things: 1.) Get your eyes away from your hands and music 2.) Test how well you really know a song, and 3.) Give you an opportunity to practice your observation skills. The better you know your instrument and the music that you’re playing, the more observant you can be of client responses. Better music = better therapy. Feel weird asking a friend? Do it with an episode of Friends and choose a character to observe and match 😃
Listen
Quote
“Man’s music is seen as a means of restoring the soul, as well as confused and discordant bodily afflictions, to the harmonic proportions that it shares with the world soul of the cosmos.”
-Plato
Matt
PS
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