My goal in this blog is to voice my thoughts and feelings in a way that helps communicate through a linear space of how music is changing me and the world around me. I don’t want to just share what others are doing, but to document my own growth of a music therapist. However my growth as a music therapist is completely involved in the world around me. We live in such a creative world, filled with humble people doing amazing things. Although I think of myself as creative I think there is so much more possibilities for me.
Creativity is so important for any musician, it is what adds your soul to a written piece of music, it is the groove in the rhythm and the spice in the salsa. As a therapist I’m trying to adapt to my environments quickly and getting in groove with the client as cleanly and quietly as possible. I noticed today that I talked too much in session. Myself and Samantha a U of W student were helping an autistic boy who really liked Brahm’s Lullaby. When Sam started singing the boy said “Stop singing stop singing.” I quickly asked her to hum, at that point the client was completely peaceful. It worked out great, until I started asking him questions. It’s hard for us to relate to people without asking the open ended questions, but he was being over stimulated by the words in the room. He was in a great peaceful state while we played and hummed, had we stayed in that space for a little longer, we would have benefited the client more. It’s always a learning experience. A great experience though.
I have two videos I want to share this week that I will be posting. the first one today is a video from Ted.com that talks about the neurological effects of creativity. I am blown away with this talk because I knew it was something I was struggling with. I think too much.
For creativity to really flow, you need to turn some things off. Example if you wanted a nice powerful hot shower, but the dish washer is running, the washers got a load of towels going, your kids are washing their hands in the sink (and leaving the water on), and your wife comes in and flushes the toilet. Chances are if this all happened to you, your nice stream of hot water is gone. Creativity is like a stream that requires a balanced flow from your brain or soul. You need to turn some things off to get the flow going. Think of a free style rapper, just going for it and not giving a second thought to those around him, the creativity is charging him giving a sense of focused power. You’ve got to turn things off like, negative self talk, your self imposed limitations, your false ideas of success. If you want to take your ideas to the precipice of creativity you’ve got to loose some baggage.
Take a look at this video about your brain on creativity and how very creative people turn things off in their brain.
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