If you’re a music therapist, I know for a fact you have at least one large shelf full of books, if not several bookcases. Books bought in bookstores, eBay, handmade with printouts from the internet. Maybe even those college textbooks for references or ideas. Every music therapist has a repertoire built from the first few years of school and their career, that’s a given. But are you still building your repertoire?
I know I am guilty of becoming comfortable in a cycle, especially in a school setting where I see the same 13 classes every week. It’s so easy to do the same opening and closing in a 30 minute session and just rotate the meat in the middle. But one day I realized that the kids almost knew the routine better than I did, and while a routine can be good for those on the Autism Spectrum, it’s good to work towards accepting differences and changes, too.
So I started to expand my repertoire. I went on eBay and bought new books on songs and activities for children. I beefed up my Pinterest page and organize what I had pinned so far into categories that would make it easier for me to find ideas when I needed them. I followed more music therapy blogs to get some ideas. I went back into my old textbooks and class notes. I reviewed my particular and internship folders. I was determined to reload my creativity!
Everyday I familiarized myself with new repertoire. I began to introduce new songs and activities, slowly but fast enough to make it clear that changes were being made. Each week I adapted a new activity I had found for my students until eventually our entire session changed. Now my students don’t expect the same thing every week and they look forward to something new!
How do you expand your repertoire? Where do you find new songs and activities? Let us know in the comments below!
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