Here we are. Hello everyone. I'm Paolo Caneva and you're listening to A Light-Hearted Journey Through Music Therapy — a podcast dedicated, of course, to music therapy. I picture you all healthy and happy, even though these are exceptional times… let's remember that everything passes — music therapy included — so let's stay light! Today is Tuesday, March 17th, and in this eleventh episode we'll talk about songwriting!
What does songwriting mean? Literally, this English word stands for "writing songs", "composing songs", and for many years now it has been considered one of the most widely used techniques in music therapy. Those of us in this line of work can compose or improvise songs to welcome someone, or to say goodbye at the end of a session, or to invite the person to do something, or to encourage them to say or pronounce a word rather than a syllable or a simple vocal sound — or even to describe (like a singing reporter) what the person is doing at a given moment. There are also those who compose songs to communicate and to tell, in an alternative way, about situations of fragility or illness (I'm thinking of Gaspare and Cristian of PSICHIANTRIA).
But beyond this "meaning", when we talk about songwriting in music therapy we also mean the process and the procedures of facilitated composition that we carry out together with the person. I won't go into the details now. Many techniques are described in the book Songwriting. La composizione di canzoni come strategia di intervento musicoterapico, and for anyone interested in going deeper, email me at cnvpaolo@gmail.com and I'll let you know the date of the Facebook or YouTube live, entirely dedicated to songwriting, that I'm planning.
In the little time I have left, I'd like to invite you to do a very, very easy exercise — especially those of you who, for a living, handle music, instruments and emotions, or who are studying to work in this wonderful world of music therapy. Why not try to compose a really simple song for yourself? A light, happy song… unique, because it's only yours… dedicated to you alone, and not made to be shared on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. The intent with which you begin this exercise is simply to give yourself — in a complex moment like the one we're living through — one of the most therapeutic experiences there is: your own voice taking care of your soul.