music makes things make sense

A great moment in Music Therapy today brought a reminder even to me of yet another way in which music making and music as intervention can help teach everyday skills so important to development, interaction, and engagement in one's environment.  Simply, music can make things make sense.

Today I was in session with a client who has a natural love and understanding of music.  He is on the Autism spectrum, and is high functioning.  His understanding of music is something that is his own.  It's a beautiful thing, really.  It is one of his lights :)

Something, also, to keep in mind here is that for him, it can be something that further keeps him in his own little world or it can be an amazing bridge to many other things.  Music is naturally the motivator for him, but if we can try to also make it the language that makes the world make a little more sense, the tool that makes life goals more accessible, and the door that opens to other areas where he wouldn't otherwise naturally open himself to ... well, that's the broad idea for him. 

Today, he was (quite brilliantly) making up songs on a professional keyboard I have.  He was also very interested in my melodica, making up tunes and such on that as well.  I had a 12 string guitar in the studio this week.  He showed some interest in this as well as it was something he hadn't seen before. 

I began playing a chord progression (very upbeat as I knew he would be interested in) on the 12 string.  My goal was to engage him in music making with his instrument and mine as well.  This concept has natural ties to social awareness, cooperation, acceptance of other's ideas and input, and social interaction. 

Initially, he was not at all interested in making our instruments work together.  He wanted to play his own and then me play my own.  This can relate to life concepts of parallel play verses interactive play.  Little by little (and I won't necessarily get into specific methods here as it would be lengthy), he began tuning into what I was playing without taking my playing as an interference or assault to his own ideas and independence.  The moment when he finally hit a sequence of notes that went with the key/chord progression I was playing, was pretty amazing.  He looked up at me very excitedly, and then looked down at the keyboard (now fully engaged), and came up with a sort of base line on the key board to what I was playing on the 12 string.  In that moment ... in that musical moment ... he understood concepts of interactive play, social awareness, social cooperation and acceptance. 

And then we had a little jam session.  He seemed on cloud 9, but even more, he seemed in his element and almost liberated. 

Music is so cool.  Really.