ROCK OUT!

I’d like to share a story about one of the music therapy classes I currently co-lead with my intern. The class is called iStrum – improvising, Songwriting together (yo)u and me. We do daily improvisation, using various instruments, as well as songwriting in different styles. One of our ongoing projects is writing a song inspired by Iron Maiden’s style of music. Heavy metal, really?! You might be surprised – the students have gotten really into this idea! Earlier this week, we worked on creating a melody for the lyrics students had written. We gave each student a chance to sing the lyrics with whatever melody came into their head. Once we got some melodies, we practiced singing it together. One of our students got so into this process that he got up out of his seat, went to the front of the class, and started singing at the top of his lungs! The fact that he has the confidence to do this in front of his peers is one of the unique things about our students that we see on a regular basis. It’s a great feeling to see that we’re giving our students an outlet to express themselves freely, in a safe setting where no one will judge them for simply being who they are. Quite the opposite, in fact, they cheer each other on! And I get to share this experience with them using music – how lucky am I?