Today is Tuesday, April 28th, and in this seventeenth episode I continue — although under a different title — a reflection that began two weeks ago.
Or rather, two podcasts ago.
I started by questioning music therapy in the time of Coronavirus. Then, last week, I explored Zoom a little more closely. And today I would like to conclude with a broader reflection on how this pandemic is forcing us to engage massively with the world of technology.
Not only in order to talk to one another and see one another — through Zoom, Skype, Meet, and so on — but also in order to find sonic and instrumental solutions.
Two premises before we begin.
The first: I am speaking to the music therapy practitioner who is willing to experiment, who has a flexible and curious attitude, and who is inclined towards sharing and teamwork.
Premise number two: I assume that the people who are truly interested in this discussion are perhaps those forty or so colleagues who are trying to make a living through music therapy.
You do know, don’t you, that most of the people who, today in Italy, practise, speak about, teach, or write about music therapy do it as a “second job”?
Many of them, in fact, bring home a salary as educators, community workers, teachers, support teachers, musicians, composers, activity leaders, trainers, nurses, speech therapists, physiotherapists, counsellors, life coaches, psychologists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, and so on.
I myself, during these sixty days of stoppage, with no fewer than three nursing homes closed, would have experienced this quarantine with great anxiety if I had not had my distance teaching at the Conservatoire of Verona and the Conservatoire of Brescia.
So, thanks to Covid, here we are again: the very old dichotomy has been brought back and transported into the real world.
- Acoustic or electric instruments?
- Electronics or craftsmanship?
- Analogue or digital?
With one tiny difference.
This time, my friends, there really isn’t all that much room for discussion.
If we can afford to wait a year and a half because we come from a wealthy family, because someone supports us, or because we have other sources of income, then we can continue talking about the epistemology of music therapy, the protection of the profession, the difference between music therapy and entertainment, between music therapy and education, about models and techniques, protocols and the history of music therapy, observation and research, “my qualification is worth more than yours”, professional recognition, and “can I call what I do music therapy or not?”
Otherwise…
If we are among the “forty thieves”, then we had better use this quarantine as the opportunity destiny has offered us to vaccinate a music therapy way of thinking that is beginning to twist in on itself.
What if we tried, intelligently and constructively, to expand the glossary of music therapy?
Technology, lightness, entrepreneurship, problem solving, pragmatism, practicality, productivity, and teamwork.
These are the words I propose we bring closer to the words we have practised so much in our country over the years — without setting them against one another.
As my young friend Mauro Faccioli says, we can choose whether to ride the urgency by inventing new contents, or to continue complaining that “this cannot be done”, barricading ourselves behind form.
Where do you want to stand?
I’ll stop here.
We’ll meet again on Tuesday, May 5th, with an episode in which I’ll try to share some reflections on the theme:
“Music Therapy in a Team: Is It Possible?”