"As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness.” - Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Hello kind reader,
My name is Hillary Veras Rosa, a current music therapy intern at the STAR Center Inc. in Jackson, TN. As this is currently my 5th month in internship, I realize that I have introduced myself in this matter way more times than I can count in the past 5 months, so today, as you read this, I would like to introduce myself differently.
Hi, my name is Hillary, a lover of music, a “life impactor” and a food enthusiast. I chose to introduce myself this way, due to what I will be focusing on during this post.
I have had the privilege to work with a group of people receiving music therapy services for the past 4 months and I decided as a part of my growth and development in music therapy skills, I would begin a songwriting project with this group. This group is composed of a group of ladies that have been taken in by a program designed to help expectant mothers in active addiction and/or partaking in substance abuse called A Mother’s Love through Aspell Recovery. Not only is this a great program, but also the ladies that I have learned to build rapport with and bond with the past 4-5 months have been great as well. As one of the Music Therapy Interventions that I planned and prepared for session time with this group, I began introducing a songwriting project. This consisted of 5-6 sessions of journaling, finding common ground, sharing personal experiences, finding melody and chord progressions to their liking and bringing it all together to craft a song that they would enjoy. The purpose of this project was not only to meet individualized goals of emotional processing but also to channel self-expression and creativity, focusing it on something that they could be proud of. These feelings of accomplishment are important and valuable during their recovery process.
The steps I took in order to help them create this song were the following:
Divide what we would accomplish towards completing the song in each session. The project was divided into 5-6 sessions.
During session one, I lead them to a journal while listening to music and talk about what we would want the song to talk about and what type of sound we would want the song to have (meaning genre, if they wanted it to sound happy or dad or hopeful, fast or slow, etc.)
The ladies chose for the sound to be “happy” and something that sounds like a country song. This led to me presenting a key and some chord progressions that sound “happy” and to play some different rhythms on guitar to get a feel for what direction they would like the song to go towards.
We spent some time choosing a specific topic to write about (past, present, future, specific story, child, etc.). They chose to write about recovery and the things they would like to enjoy from again now that they are in recovery. This was based on what they all journaled about.
During session two, I provided sheets of paper with empty lines in order to write in the lyrics and what they wanted the song to say specifically. It was organized and crafted for it to be written in poem form.
Then, I and an MT-BC present (Gab Barton), led them to sound out what they had written in a poem form. This led to having them choose and vote which lyrics sounded better and for them to work together on what they wanted on the song.
In session three and four, I helped them see the lyrics in a song form by showing and explaining the purpose of a verse, chorus, and bridge. They then wrote out the “poem” in song form and added lyrics and/or simplified lyrics accordingly.
After this, we applied the melody throughout the full song and applied specific chords to the lyrics as well. I made sure to record it through voice memo on my phone as we went through the song so that I wouldn’t forget of the progress we’ve made so far on the song.
Lastly, for session three, we gave the song a title.
For sessions for five and six, we recorded the voices, instruments that I brought in (drums, shakers, and tambourine sticks), into a garage band and spent the full sessions on recording and showing them how to also play instruments on the iPad we were using to record into GarageBand. Thankfully the way to play instruments was simplified on the app by just tapping on the note. I was able to fully lead them through what instruments they wanted to play and which notes to play on certain instruments (drums, bass and piano)
After this, I spent time adding some voices, editing for all the instruments and voices to be in the correct time. I made sure to make sure the instruments were played using the correct chords and individual notes.
Once the song was complete, I showed it to everyone else and they approved of how it sounded!
Finally, I posted the song on Soundcloud and was able to download a link to be able to provide it to all the ladies for them to listen to the song whenever they’d like.
I think this project was extremely beneficial for their recovery process. I could see how proud they felt of themselves on completing the song and how they all input something into this finished product. They were able to express their true selves through this song. Not the broken part of themselves that maybe everyone else may have seen, but really, truly themselves aside from their addiction. This song is an anthem of life after recovery!
-Hillary Veras Rosa
Listen to our song, “Somethin’ Right” on Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/P4gf8htRiDDDuV117