Music therapy brings a flock to Blackbird

Music therapy students pride themselves on providing solace for people of all ages, in all walks of life. On Feb. 16, GCSU music therapy majors held a performance at Blackbird Coffee to showcase music they have written for their clients.

“We work with babies, adolescents, school age children, adults and hospice patients,” said music therapy department chair Dr. Chesley Mercado. “We work with the entire lifespan.”

The show started off by getting the audience involved with a sing-along to “What a Wonderful World” and “You Are My Sunshine,” both accompanied by sign language interpretation. The signers were part of an introductory sign language class and all the students except for one were new to sign language before they took the class.

Senior Neal Clark played a song he wrote that was aimed at children called “Innocent Dreams.” He was inspired by some memories and reminiscence from his own childhood.

“I really couldn’t sleep one day and I just started writing,” Clark said.

Writing songs is not an easy process. Music therapy students are required to write at least one song a year, but many write more than that. And songwriting does not happen overnight, despite the sparks of inspiration insomnia can sometimes create. Writing a song, from start to finish, can take about two weeks, Clark said.

“One of the first ways we learn to write songs is to write the blues,” Dr. Douglas Keith said.

Keith teaches the freshman seminar class for music therapy, and they performed a song called “The Comatose Freshman Blues,” which humorously deals with the stresses of being a new college student. The song used unconventional instruments, like maracas adorned with flamboyant red and yellow feathers.

While some songs deal with the feeling of children and adolescents in the early part of their lives, and others make people laugh, some songs are written to help people whose lives are coming to a close. A lot of music therapy work in the community involves hospice patients.

Music therapy major Elise Ivey performed a song titled “Connie’s Prayer,” which was written for the mother of a client with a terminal illness.

“He really loves country music,” Ivey said. “This is a song written for his mother when he passes away.”

This concert was the eighth annual show for music therapy students, but the first one held off campus. The setting led to some deviations from the program.

“Music therapy is a really spontaneous career. Having it (at Blackbird) in this informal setting made it better to showcase the music,” Mercado said. “You have to be in the moment and follow the client’s lead.”

Posted by Claire Kersey on Feb 26 2010. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry