Matt Logan – Page 13 – Music Therapy Source

Matt Logan In Clinical Insights, Ideas, Inspiration

The Power of Vulnerability

By now, you may have seen Brené Brown's wildly popular TED talk from 2010. I remember watching in 2012 and I recently revisited it as she has been promoting a new book, Rising Strong (which I have admittedly not yet read but plan to in the near future). In case you haven't seen it, feel free to view it here. I recently gave it another watch and thought about how vulnerability (or lack thereof) affects us as students, clinicians, and in our lives in general. In the video, Brené talks about "excruciating vulnerability".…

Matt Logan In Ideas, Inspiration, Media Morsel

Music is Medicine, Music is Sanity

I thought I had shared this video on here before, but it must have just been on the MTS Facebook page. What I love about this video from Robert Gupta is his description of the transformation he saw in his "student", a former Juliard pupil with paranoid schizophrenia. It reminds me of a variety of clinical situations I've encountered in almost all of the settings I have served. Music can change an environment, in can change a person's state, and it can open pathways to positive interaction and expression. Enjoy…

Matt Logan In Site News, students

Music Therapy Schools Directory

What would make finding music therapy schools easier? You may have noticed that Music Therapy Source recently got a new look. I'm really happy with it, as I think it better communicates some of the resources available here. One of the new resources that I'm really excited about is the Music Therapy Source School Guide. The original directory, with links to each school, is still available here for free and was recently updated. But the new school guide goes above and beyond! In it, you will find tuition information, a list of…

Matt Logan In Advocacy

Music Therapy re: VISION

The time is here again for the annual Social Media Advocacy Month. I remember when this project first took off in 2011, and I think it's safe to say it has been a success. My first Advocacy Month post, now 5 years ago, was about teaching others, sometimes subtly, to be music therapists. You can find it here: Teaching Advocacy (more…)

Matt Logan In Productivity

How to Be More Productive

How to be more productive The other day, I was reminiscing about my undergraduate and graduate school experience. They were similar in some ways, but also significantly different. I realized that in graduate school, I made some changes to my approach which drastically improved my productivity. And it was done out of necessity. In addition to being a full-time graduate student, I taught the undergraduate guitar class, I supervised practicum students, I ran a small private practice and lesson studio, and I worked part time for a hospice agency. I was…

Matt Logan In Guitar

Make Your Guitar Playing More Efficient

I'm really excited to announce the launch of my new mini ebook for guitar, How to Switch Between Chords Faster: Six easy lessons for mastering open chord transitions. Do you feel like getting from one chord to the next is a struggle? Are you working too hard? Do you ever feel like your fretboard hand is clumsy and can't quite find where it is supposed to go? I've had dozens of students with this issue, and this ebook consists of the lessons used to fix this problem. Implement these simple…

Matt Logan In students

How to Prepare for a Music Therapy Degree

In this video, I answer a question from a mom named Shelly. She wondered what her trumpet-playing son could do while still in high school to prepare for entering a music therapy degree program. I provided four tips about how to prepare for a music therapy degree program. One of those tips is to review basic music theory. Here is the exact book I used to review and test out of an introductory music theory course, saving time and money: Harmony and Theory: A Comprehensive Source for All Musicians (Essential…

Matt Logan In Advocacy, students

Tell all the high schoolers…

I was darn lucky. I stumbled upon music therapy as a potential career when I was still in high school. This provided a significant advantage. I knew what I wanted, I dove right in, and I saved a lot of time. And now I'm on a mission. I want to do anything and everything I can to get high schoolers interested in music therapy as a career choice. I've talked with too many middle-aged and later-life musicians who have said, "If I had known about music therapy earlier, I definitely would have…

Matt Logan In Technology

Music Therapy Recording Setups

Recording music often becomes part of the therapeutic process for many music therapists and their clients or patients. Recording technology might very well be a part of the music therapist’s tool kit, and can be used for songwriting, legacy creation, family support activities, music assisted relaxation, and so forth and so on. As technology continues to change, it is becoming easier and easier to produce high quality recordings. Just as we strive for quality in our live music production, we should aim to produce audio recordings that are well-done and…

Matt Logan In Ideas, Jobs

Music Therapy Jobs

The other day, I was talking with Sara, who is a high school student (and a talented singer and clarinetist), and her mom. Sara was exploring music careers, and her mom asked me, "Are there jobs in music therapy?". This is probably the second-most common question I am asked, the most common being, "What is music therapy?". It's a valid and important question. I mean, what's the point of getting a music therapy degree if there aren't any opportunities for employment? Well I'm going to answer the question to the best…