Music Therapy

This course is designed to provide a foundation for the development of clinical guitar skills for the music therapy student with little or no guitar playing experience. Students will gain an understanding of the basic mechanics of the guitar, including care, tuning and proper positioning. Emphases will be placed on basics of functional guitar playing using simple rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment patterns to develop clinical repertoire.

This course is designed to develop intermediate clinical guitar skills for the music therapy student with an established foundation of functional guitar skills. Students will further their knowledge of mechanics of the guitar, including alternative tunings and barre chords. Emphases will be placed on functional guitar playing using rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic accompaniment patterns, while singing, to further develop clinical repertoire.

This course is designed to develop advanced clinical guitar skills for the music therapy student with demonstrated intermediate functional guitar skills. Emphases will be placed on the following: purposeful use of fingerstyle/picking techniques, connecting strumming pattern variation with clinical intention, relating accompaniment style choices to clinical context, guitar centered improvisation techniques, prompting and cueing techniques, and guitar methods utilizing genre related clinical tools and techniques.

This course is designed to develop clinical keyboard skills for the music therapy student, with emphases on playing and singing simultaneously. Music therapy students learn how to read a lead sheet and create appropriate accompaniment patterns for various genres. Students are exposed to a wide range of literature from 1920s to present. 

This course is a continuation of ISKB-231, Keyboard Concepts for Music Therapists 1. Students learn advanced accompaniment patterns for popular musical styles.

Designed for the music therapist in training, this course is an introduction to the principles and practice of using the voice effectively in clinical sessions. The first part of this course is focused on development of the voice, including physiological aspects of the singing process, vocal health, and development of functional voice skills. The second part of this course is focused on clinical applications, including development of vocal confidence and entry-level skills in vocal techniques to foster client engagement.

This course is designed to give students a basic understanding of the profession of music therapy. This includes a history of the profession, levels of practice, education and training requirements of music therapists, and music therapy methods with various clinical populations. Students are introduced to the music therapy treatment process and approaches to research within the profession.

This introductory course is designed with the whole musician in mind and seeks to assist each participant to foster skills to enhance overall wellness creativity, and performance. Each two-hour class offers didactic information, interactive learning, and explicit skill building in conceptual and practical areas scientifically demonstrated to support the craft of creativity and wellness. These areas include balance, mindfulness, and mind-body science. Substantive threads from each of these areas will be woven through the texture of each individual class to support recognition of the interconnections that exist among them as a whole. All of this information will be used to help each student create a solid foundation of awareness as a musician.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of recreative and creative methods in music therapy. Definitions, uses, variations, clinical goals, and facilitation techniques are covered. This course has a strong experiential component, whereby students role play in an effort to practice implementation skills learned in class.

This course is designed to develop student/therapist observation skills in clinical settings. In addition to classroom experiences, students are assigned and expected to complete weekly observations in a clinical setting under the direct supervision of a board-certified music therapist. Please note that enrollment in this course will incur a $200 additional charge to facilitate enrollment in clinical training management software. This includes lifetime access to all clinical training documents.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of receptive methods in music therapy including definitions, uses, variations, clinical goals, and facilitation techniques. This course has a strong experiential component, whereby students will role play in an effort to practice implementation skills learned in class.