How Did I Get Here?

I'm crouching on the floor, playing a guitar, while simultaneously holding and playing a set of jingle bells in my right hand. The strum pattern from my right hand shakes the jingle bells and makes them sound. I'm also singing and trying to get eye contact from an amazing little someone with an autism spectrum disorder.

How did I get here?

I never imagined I would have the desire or ability to find myself in that situation when I first began studying the flute years ago in 7th grade. Even though I didn't know it, that is indeed where my personal journey towards music therapy began. 

As a small child, I loved music and would spend hours at a time picking out tunes by ear on the family piano. I couldn't get enough. A family friend offered free piano lessons, which I took for a while, but being young and foolish, I decided maybe piano lessons weren't so awesome after all.

The summer before my 7th grade year, I heard a flute trio play for the very first time. After that, there was no going back. I had to learn how to do that. It was no longer a want, but a need.

I started private flute lessons and band that year and threw myself full force into both. If you asked me what I wanted be when I grew up, it was absolutely very clearly, "either a band director or a professional flutist."

Music education or performance were my only two options, as far as I was concerned. And, of course, I only listened to classical because pop music was "dumb" and "shallow."

Now I just laugh at my 7th grade self. (And also want to kick her for not listening to pop music sooner.)

Things continued more or less in this fashion through my sophomore year of high school. In my second semester, I was assigned to write a research paper on a "personally relevant question." So, my question was whether I should pursue music education or performance.

In my initial searching, I found the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) website. The more I read, the more it became a moment like hearing the flute trio. I very quickly realized that this was my niche. The research paper I turned in was not about education vs. performance. Instead, I turned in a paper about the effectiveness of music therapy, the career options for music therapists, and what my personal action plan should be to send me on my way to MT-BC. I got to present my findings to my entire English class, so I was already advocating for music therapy.

That same year, I took a career and aptitude test at school. My top three results were music performance, counseling, and health care. My teacher laughed and shook his head and said, "Good luck finding one career that's all three of those." I told him that it meant I was supposed to be a music therapist.
 

Do you have a personal music therapy journey to share? Send me an email or share in the comments!

Advocacy: The Student Edition

Last year, one of the best posts to come out of Social Media Advocacy Month was Top 10 Times You're an Advocate and You Don't Even Know It by the fantastic Kimberly Sena Moore. Music therapy students, if you don't know who she is, I suggest you start following her on Twitter and reading her blog, Music Therapy Maven. She's an advocacy rock star!

Since a student's involvement with music therapy is a little different than that of a working professional, I offer you all the best ways I have found to advocate as a student!

1. Educate Mom & Dad (and your siblings, and grandparents, and cousins, and nieces and nephews, and great aunt Sally)
Don't be afraid to take a few minutes at the next family dinner and chat with your family about what you are going to school for. Most people are naturally fascinated by the idea of music therapy, so go ahead and ask your family what they already know and fill in any major gaps in their knowledge. The coolest thing happened to me over the holidays. A friend of the family asked what music therapy was all about, and before I could open my mouth, my parents started explaining it like advocacy pros!

2. Social Media
Our generation was practically born with Facebook and Twitter accounts. Use that knowledge of social media to share music therapy news with your family and friends. Follow music therapists on Twitter, and like music therapy businesses on Facebook. Check out the AMTA News page for ideas of what to share using social media.

3. Practice Your "Elevator Speeches"
The question, "What is music therapy?" will be with you like a birthmark until music therapy becomes so mainstream that it would be laughable not to know about it. Until that day, people will ask you this in restaurants, grocery stores, in lines, in the park, you name it. The challenge for you is answering this question in less than 2 minutes! Practice answering the most common questions you hear and see how concise you can get your answer while still giving the most important points.

4. Wear It Out Loud
Does your music therapy student organization have t-shirts or hoodies? Do you have any AMTA apparel? Don't save it for lazy Saturdays in the house. Instead, wear your music therapy clothing out to run errands and be prepared to answer "What is music therapy?" yet again.

5. Gig In the Name of Music Therapy
Every time I perform for anything, when someone compliments a performance, my response goes something like this. "Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed it. I am actually majoring in music therapy, so I would hope my education is paying off." And again, I answer, "What is music therapy?"

6. Start a Music Therapy Blog
It's not hard, and even as a student, you will have valuable things to share. I promise.

7. Join Your CBMT State Task Force
If you really want to be involved with advocacy, this is the way to go. I'm not kidding. I did it, and so did a fellow Drury student. We have gotten to participate in conference calls and be "in the know" with the process of state recognition in Missouri. If there is anything students can do along the way, I want to know about it and help. Check out the CBMT State Recognition page and brainstorm ways you could be involved with the process. Contact your state task force to offer your services.

I didn't quite make 10, but I bet you have some more ideas! Share them in the comments below.

Saturday Shout Out: Taking Body Blows

This Saturday Shout Out goes out to my dad, Ray Blevins.

It was around this time last year (one week before finals) that my dad wrote me a super encouraging Facebook post. He reminded me that while my stress was high and the semester was knocking me around a little bit that I would make it. To slip into a boxing analogy for a moment, he told me that all the best fighters had to take repeated body blows before they could wear down their opponents and claim victory. Next week includes 2 project presentations, 3 tests, a review packet or two, a recital class performance, and who knows what all else. Next week may feel like black eyes and broken ribs, but those are just body blows. It's not a knockout. I just need to go two more rounds (weeks) in the ring with this semester and then, the KO is mine. So, thank you, Dad, for your insight and wisdom.

Now I want to know, whether you are a student, a practicing therapist, or a supervisor/educator, what body blows have you been taking lately? Who or what helps you stay in the ring until the final bell?

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?