VIDEO: Mashup for Drumming with Older Adults: Ayub + Opera
Ayub Rhythm + Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen = Successful Older Adult Drumming and Singing Here’s a fun way to drum with older adults in your music therapy or group drumming sessions. I particularly enjoy introducing something new by way of something old and familiar. (Granted, the Ayub rhythm is much “older” than Carmen, it will [...]
9 Tips: Drum Circles for Kids with Special Needs
Marilyn, one of my subscribers, recently asked me about drumming with kids who have special needs. She and her business partner have been hired to run a drum circle at a summer camp! Marilyn is a drum circle facilitator in Jacksonville, FL, she runs Heart 2 Heart Circles, and she blogs at Marilyn’s On The [...]
VIDEO: Introducing Black Eyed Peas to Boomwhackers
Thanks to support from the Cancer Coping Center, I am going to make music, drum, and play boomwhackers with kids at Camp Kesem, a camp for kids with a parent who has (or has had) cancer. The camp is a week long, and they do all sorts of fun activities. I awoke from sleep one [...]
9 crazy ideas for playful spontaneity during the work day
Sometimes my eyeballs get stuck on the computer screen. Sometimes I find myself doing the same daily routine, and I need a change. This week I found bits of time during the day to give my left brain a break, clear my mind, gain new perspective, exercise my imagination, and return to work refreshed. Here’s [...]
37 Hospitals with NICU Music Therapy Programs
You can watch and read a NICU Music Therapy overview here. Now, find the closest hospital to YOU that offers NICU Music Therapy services. The following hospitals use music therapy in the neonatal intensive care unit. The links will direct you to the hospital’s music therapy service page. This list is based upon an internet/email search and [...]
Are all music therapists entertainers? No, but some are. Are all entertainers music therapists? No, but some are.
My experience~ I’ve found that especially when working with groups of older adults, misconceptions about music therapy may arise from by-standers, staff people, and/or family members. And for good reason. Music is fun. Music makes you laugh and smile. Music tugs the heart strings. Not to mention, a therapist who is highly skilled at gaining rapport quickly with the client may appear to be “entertaining.”
The difference~ While some music therapists are professional performers as well (We’re quite a talented bunch!), when providing music therapy, he/she uses music as the tool to address client-specific goals. Here are 7 differences between music therapists and entertainers.
“Quick Fix” is a buzz phrase, and for good reason. Before antibiotics, people died of infections. Before aspirin, people had to take time to comfort and nurture a head in pain (although the latter option is coming into style again, thankfully). Now we can pop a pill and be 100% in 15 minutes. Not to mention, the advances western medicine has made in trauma and emergency is amazing. In fact, music therapy paired with trauma and emergency care is extremely effective, too.
But maybe if we could take some sort of musical pill to take all of our ailments away~ Emergency musical surgery? Take 2 Beethoven Piano Sonatas, 1 Jimmy Buffet, and call me in the morning?
I’m not saying that doesn’t work for some people. But the professional practice of music therapy is quite a bit more involved than taking a quick listen to cure your ailments. Let me preface my post by acknowledging that there are some decent, effective, quick, individualized ways to reduce stress and clear the mind. Some recordings of guided meditation, relaxation exercises, calming music, and music for entrainment have gotten great reviews by listeners. Some music therapists recommend certain recorded music to effect stress and the mind, entrain brain waves, etc. I constantly see on Twitter “Oh Justin Bieber #musictherapy to ease my mind during traffic.” I say YES to that! (Well, I would prefer a nice Prokofiev symphony or Babatunde drumming, but to each their own.)
1. Self-care
2. Social media and social networking to expand your business
3. Activities for well-elderly, seniors, and the use of drum circles
4. Special events with refugees and drum circles in San Diego
Ayub Rhythm + Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen = Successful Older Adult Drumming and Singing
Here’s a fun way to drum with older adults in your music therapy or group drumming sessions. I particularly enjoy introducing something new by way of something old and familiar. (Granted, the Ayub rhythm is much “older” than Carmen, it will probably be “new” to most groups in the US and west.) So, get your doumbeks warmed up and play!
The YouTube link follows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv-ZjmGSuF0
Rhythm: You have it, even if you say you don’t. We are biologically programmed to express it. Heartbeats. Breathing. Footsteps. Language. Blinks. Birthdays. Sex. Sleep cycles.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, rhythm is “movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions.” Rhythmic cycles can occur over short periods of time (ocean waves) or long periods of time (season cycles).
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July 26th, 2010 
Kat Fulton 
