Title

Music Therapists’ Preparation for Song Discussion: Meaning-Making With the Music

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2019

Publication Source

Music Therapy Perspectives

Abstract

Songs are powerful catalysts and resources for change processes in music psychotherapy. Not surprisingly, music therapists often invite clients to listen to recordings of popular songs. A common song listening method is song discussion, in which a therapist selects a relevant song to explore with a client or group and facilitates the listening and subsequent verbal processing. In the relevant music therapy literature, lyrics assume a primary focus (i.e., lyric analysis), and yet, the music of a song, as integrated with its lyrics, impacts both client’s and therapist’s meaning-making and is therefore crucial to take into account. The purpose of the present investigative essay is to encourage music therapists to give attention to the music of recorded songs as they plan to facilitate song discussion. Herein I present a conceptualization of recorded popular songs and consider how one makes meaning from song listening processes. I urge therapists to prepare for song discussion through careful phenomenological listening and introspective interpretation. Finally, I describe procedures of a developing model for aural song analysis and interpretation based on Bruscia’s Improvisation Assessment Profiles (IAPs) with an abbreviated example viewed through multiple theoretical perspectives.

Inclusive pages

205-212

ISBN/ISSN

0734-6875

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Volume

37

Issue

2

Peer Reviewed

yes

Keywords

songs, song discussion, meaning, music analysis, interpretation, lyric analysis

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