Sunday Singalong: The Sneezy Scarecrow

There are lots of reasons I love attending the national music therapy conference, but today I’m adding a new one to the list: the opportunity to record my first-ever guest edition of Sunday Singalong!

Actually, it’s kind of funny that I had to come all the way to Atlanta to see Meryl Brown, who lives an hour north of me in Bloomington, Illinois. Meryl and I were in the graduate program at Illinois State University at the same time, and have since kept in touch via our state association and social media. She runs a successful private practice, Developing Melodies, and always has excellent professional advice to share with me.

When she told me about her scarecrow song on the first night of conference, I immediately asked her if she would mind sharing it in a video. She agreed, and Andrew Littlefield volunteered his guitar for her use. I must say, us music therapists are excellent team players!

Be sure to check out Meryl’s website and follow her on Twitter. I happen to know that she has many more fun songs like this one up her sleeve, and you never know…she just might be making another guest appearance here in the future.

Friday Fave: Making a Guest Appearance…

Guest Post at Mundana Music Therapy

…over at Mundana Music Therapy, one of my favorite blogs by two of my favorite music therapists! If you’re curious about how I organize and access my insanely huge repertoire of music therapy songs, then hop on over and check out my guest post, 5 Ways to Organize Music Therapy Repertoire.

Kimberly Thompson and Megan Resig are the owners of Mundana Music Therapy, and recently relocated their private practice from Rochester, New York all the way to Portland, Oregon.

Kim and I ended up in the same elevator at last year’s AMTA national conference in Cleveland, where she introduced herself and told me that she and Megan would be attending the CMTE presented by myself and my Music Therapy Round Table colleagues. They did, and we have been in touch ever since. In fact, Mundana Music Therapy is the newest Listen & Learn sponsor.

Kim and Megan are doing big things in the world of music therapy, and I’m honored that they invited me to make an appearance on their blog. So go check it out, and have an amazing Friday!

Adventures in Songwriting: My Process

My Songwriting Process

Want to read Part 2 of my “Adventures in Songwriting” series?  Well then you’ll have to scoot on over to Wade Richards’ blog, Time for Music!  There you can read all about the process I use to write my songs — and check out all of Wade’s great articles and music therapy resources.

So what are you still doing here?  Go read Adventures in Songwriting: My Process and feel free to share the process that works best for you.  Oh, and if you missed Part 1, you can find it here.

Sunday Singalong: Vocal Rest Edition

My plans for a brand-new “Sunday Singalong” video were thwarted by this icky cold I’ve been fighting for a week, and I am not happy about it.  I haven’t been doing any singing this weekend, but I have been busy writing…including my first guest post at Kids Sing Studio!

Kids Sing Studio Lisa Casciola, MT-BC, is the owner of Kids Sing Studio in St. Louis, Missouri, where she has over 50 students.  Impressive, right!?  Lisa was one of my supervisors during my internship with Midwest Music Therapy Services, and I learned so much from her not only about music therapy, but also about running a private studio.  I was thrilled when she invited me to be a guest blogger.  My post, Young Musicians and the Importance of Self-Confidence, tells a funny story that happened during one of my college auditions and the lessons I learned from it.

So in lieu of a video today, go check out my guest post on Lisa’s blog.  I’ll be back next week with a new video next Sunday — just as long as my vocal rest pays off and I kick this cough!

Friday Fave: Inaugural Guest Post!

Since launching Listen & Learn Music a year ago, I have been extremely fortunate to connect with so many wonderful parents, music educators, and fellow music therapists. Twitter and Facebook have also been wonderful tools for networking within the music therapy community, and I’ve gone from feeling completely isolated as the only music therapist in my city to having contact with colleagues across the country.

Today I’d like to introduce you to Listen & Learn’s first-ever guest blogger, Kimberly Sena Moore,MM, NMT, MT-BC. I met Kimberly via Twitter, and quickly discovered that in addition to being a wonderfully nice and interesting person, she is a fountain of knowledge in the field. She is Director of Neurosong Music Therapy Services, Inc. and blogs at Music Therapy Maven (where I recently had to opportunity to write a guest post). A Neurologic Music Therapist and Board-Certified Music Therapist, Kimberly has a keen interest in understanding how our brain is affected by music and a strong desire to educate the public about music therapy, as evidenced in her article as follows:

The 5 Most Important Things to Know About Neurodevelopment


My favorite graduate courses were the neuroscience courses. It fascinated me how the brain was organized, how it functioned, and how this incredibly complex and dynamic organism could be broken down and understood in simpler parts. Amazing.

And now that I work with trauma-influenced children, I’ve learned much more about neurodevelopment. I have had first-hand experience of the profound and pervasive effects their experiences have had on their ever-growing and ever-changing brains.

In that spirit, I wanted to share with you the 5 most important things you need to know about neurodevelopment. These five concepts are foundational to understanding how our brains, and how our clients, grow, develop, and learn. And here they are:

1. Neurodevelopment is Predictable. Our nervous system develops in the same order every single time. Every time. The first systems to develop are the more primitive ones – those in the spinal cord and brainstem. These structures also happen to be life-sustaining and are responsible for basic regulatory functions (e.g. heart rate, respiration, consciousness, etc.). Our brain then develops in a sequential fashion – once the primitive systems are in place, development moves to the more complex structures (e.g. the neocortex). In fact, did you know that, even though our brainstem is basically fully developed at birth, parts of our neocortex are not fully developed until our mid-20s? And it happens in the same way….every single time.

2. Neurodevelopment is Hierarchical. Our brain is organized in a hierarchical fashion. The simpler, more primitive structures are responsible, or mediate, the more basic, primitive, simpler functions (e.g. the brainstem is responsible for many of our life-sustaining functions mentioned above). The more complex structures mediate the more complex functions (e.g. the neocortex is responsible for verbal skills and abstract reasoning). And our brains are wired (no pun intended) to develop in this hierarchical fashion. The simpler, more primitive structures need to develop before the more complex ones can. Success at one stage depends on success at previous stages. We had to learn how to sit up, before we could crawl, before we could stand, before walking, then running, jumping, etc. We didn’t start out running – the first step was to learn how to sit up. And it’s the same with neurodevelopment. We need to learn how to breathe and pump our blood before we can talk or make moral decisions. Neurodevelopment is hierarchical.

3. Neurodevelopment is Use-Dependent. “Use-dependent” is a term Dr. Bruce Perry, a Texas-based researcher, uses. Use-dependency is a reason why we are so individualized, despite the fact that our brains develop in the same, predictable way every time. Neurons are the only cells in our body that change based on our experiences. This ability affects the whole brain. Our brain is constantly reacting to what occurs in our environment. It’s a very plastic organ. It responds to what is occurring in our environment and, if needed, will change so we can adapt to our environment. So the brain of a child who grows up in neglectful, abusive, chaotic environment will need different skills that the brain of a child who grows up in a stable, loving, nurturing environment. Their two brains will develop differently because they will adapt to the needs and skills each child requires to survive. Use-dependency – how our brains develop depend on how they are used.

4. Neurodevelopment begins in the womb. We are shaped by our experiences even before we are born. Our brain is changing and adapting to the environment in utero. Scary, huh? (It was when I was pregnant!). The brain of a child whose mother experiences abuse while pregnant will be different than the brain of a child whose mother experiences love and support while pregnant. Those two children will have been exposed to their mothers’ emotions, chemicals, and stress and will develop differently as a reaction to those experiences. Our in utero experiences affect our developing brain. It begins in the womb.

5. The first 3 years are the most important. The amount of learning and growing that takes place in the first three years of life is mind-boggling. Our brains will never grow as rapidly as they do when we are babies, infants, and toddlers. It’s during these early childhood years that that the majority of brain development occurs. According the Dr. Perry, our brains are 90% adult size by the time we turn 4. And the learning that takes place in those early years have profound and pervasive effects throughout our lives.

If you are interested in reading more, I would recommend the articles and writings of Dr. Bruce Perry. Although he is a neuroscientist and research, you will find his writings accessible and easy-to-understand. You can find much of his work available for free on his non-profit’s website, the Child Trauma Academy.