Roll With the Changes

 REO Speedwagon: "Roll With the Changes"

As music therapists, when something happens in our lives, we can almost always think of the song that accompanies what is going on. This week, "Roll With the Changes" by REO Speedwagon has been my theme song.
Dr. Natalie Wlodarczyk tells us at Drury all the time that our greatest assets as music therapists are our flexibility and our creativity.

This became especially true as this week, it was announced that due to overall budgetary constraints, Drury's Master of Music Therapy program will not be accepting any new students for the next foreseeable future.

This decision came down at the same point I was getting ready to begin taking some graduate coursework. I absolutely love Drury and I think we have a fantastic program for music therapy. Our students go out prepared for their internships and have great experiences, as a general rule. Our curriculum is rigorous and we have a clinic for music therapy services on campus.

Obviously, if it were up to me, I would have been extremely happy to stay in our great environment at Drury and do my graduate work there.

But, things changed, and so you roll with the changes. My husband and I sat down with our five to ten-year plan and used our flexibility and creativity to roll with the changes. It really is true that flexibility and creativity are my greatest assets, both for working with clients and for navigating life. While I am disappointed that I won't be able to do my graduate work at Drury, it is also exciting to have the opportunity to make new plans. 

So, I would second what Dr. Wlodarczyk says - flexibility and creativity will get you through anything, whether it's a session that doesn't go how you were expecting or a significant change to your educational plans. 

Whatever may be going on in life right now, it's always a good time to turn some pages and roll with the changes!

The Best Practice Tips You Haven't Already Heard

Every musician has heard the stock set of practice suggestions. You’ve probably heard them enough that they are starting to get really old. And as I am putting in more time in the practice room in preparation for my senior recital, I am finding that I need some more strategies for making the practice room productive and avoiding practice room burnout. (Seriously, you don't want this-->

 to be you at the end of your practice session!)

Here are the best ideas I have come to this semester for practice room success.

1. Get out of the practice room

Really, go practice anywhere else you can think of. Most university music buildings have at least one other rehearsal space that you can probably get permission to use for half an hour. Hearing yourself in a different environment can show you a lot of things you maybe weren’t hearing before. It can also reenergize your mind and focus. But if you really need out, then literally get out. When was the last time you played a gorgeous solo underneath a tree? Or in a rose garden? There are also probably some beautiful local churches around and the office staff are probably more than happy to let you serenade them from inside their fantastic acoustic spaces.

2. Introduce some noise

White noise, that is. If you are anything like me, there is nothing worse than trying to tap out a complicated polyrhythm or hemiola when the (talented and lovely!) soprano in the next room is belting out an aria at the top of her lungs. If a diagnosis of ADHD could be localized just to the practice room, that would describe me perfectly.

The best solution I have found to help me focus is to take my phone and turn on my white noise app. My favorite is the gentle rain sound. For whatever reason, having a more immediate but non-intrusive, non-musical sound next to me helps me block out all the sounds coming from the rest of the music building and channel my focus toward my practice goals.

3. Set an alarm and then forget about time entirely

When you are having to squeeze shorter practice sessions in between classes, or sessions, or meetings, or work, it can be hard to stop thinking about “When do I need to pack up and leave? How much time do I have left?” My solution: As soon as I walk into the practice room, I set an alarm for when I need to stop playing and start packing up. Then, I put the concept of a deadline or time limit out of my mind completely. This allows me to get to a place of deep focus with the music, trusting that I’m not going to be late for my next scheduled activity because I know the alarm will jolt me back into my day when it’s time to go.

4. Put your goal physically where you can see it

We have all been told that our most efficient practice will happen when we go into the practice room with a goal in mind. Some days, though, my thoughts are disorganized enough that having the goal only in my mind just won’t cut it. I find it extremely helpful to actually write down my goals or the spots in my music that need my attention the most and put them physically in front of my face. Index cards work very well for this. I like to stick them to the mirror in the practice room, and then, when I am having a hard time letting go of the rest of my to-do list, everything that I intended to accomplish in the practice room is staring me in the eyes and there is no avoiding it.

5. Use a decibel meter to gauge your dynamic contrast

I recently found a great sound meter app for my phone. The best thing about it is I can have it display a graph of sound levels over time in seconds. When I put this across the practice room from me and play a phrase, the shape on the graph should match the shape of the dynamics written in the music. If the peaks and valleys on my decibel graph are too flat, then I know I need to exaggerate my dynamic contrast even more to have the shape be apparent to a listener. The decibel meter is to dynamics as a metronome is to rhythmic accuracy. It forces you to be right on.

Those are my most recent and innovative practice room discoveries. Now I want to know, what helps you get the most out of your practice time?