- 8 - Music therapy is the use of music to restore, maintain and improve the mental, emotional and physical health of people. Music therapists plan programs to meet those needs, either acting alone or with other therapists. They use instrument playing, singing, improvisation, rhythmic experiences and other aspects of music to accomplish this goal. In effect, they use music to achieve non-musical progress in their clients. After due consideration of the record before us, we find that petitioner's occupation as a professional pianist and piano teacher is different from the services she performs and will perform as a music therapist. While performance and teaching skills are no doubt skills utilized by a music therapist, we believe that the specific therapeutic goals of music therapy exert an influence over a music therapist's tasks and activities such that the tasks and activities differ from those of a professional pianist and teacher. Rather than teaching music skills to a student, a music therapist uses music skills to effect a therapeutic change in an individual. Significant in this regard are the following statements by Dr. Michel: [A] music therapist has to be able to adapt the music skills in another way to meet the needs of the client. And that is quite different than performing on the stage or teaching in the studio. There are some similarities with the teaching area, but not so much in the performance, so music therapists have to learn to adapt those skills to make use of them to follow the goals that are set for therapy. * * * * * * * And music therapists are teaching sometimes, but if you are a teacher of music, your primary reason for teaching is to teach music skills. If you are a music therapist, it is to use music or help clients learnPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011