What prompted the creation of this site?

I realized that, at least from a student point of view, we music therapy students tend to gravitate towards the same songs and genres when choosing music for sessions. There seems to be a high density of country, classic rock, oldies, and popular music used. Despite the fact that many genres are listed (and mandatory) to learn from the Guitar Proficiencies, most students don’t take advantage of the full list. I propose to make an online ongoing songbook that would not only give basic information about how to create music in different (and traditionally less popular genres), but also provide sample songs.

This is a need so that other music therapy students will not be afraid to get outside of their music genre comfort zones. It is my hope that the format I present this in will be easy to learn for new students.

 

Is there truly a need for this site?

I fully believe that there is a need for this site. As an example, if I were to ask students how many rap songs they knew how to sing, they would probably give me an answer with a decent amount of songs. However, I would wager that if I asked them to tell me how many rap songs they used in sessions, the answer would be zero. I am hoping to show students that we can use all types of songs in sessions, as long as the therapeutic intent and goals are still appropriate.