Today is Tuesday, July 7th, and in this twenty-seventh episode I’d like to share with you some reflections on how we can document — and then share with the socio-healthcare or educational team — the music therapy pathway we have carried out with the person referred to us.
I say “for those who, like me, are only musicians” quite deliberately.
Today, many people come to music therapy with an already significant clinical and scientific background, and for all these people the problem does not really arise.
The “all-in-one” solution would be for every individual to possess all the necessary skills.
But only a few geniuses are born each year.
It is much more realistic to try to provide strong skills for team collaboration, together with practical tools that allow us to do, and share, just enough — and to do so with dignity.
In other words: if I have to carry out a randomised, double-blind controlled study, I will rely on a researcher.
And all the time I save by making that training choice, I will use to learn one more musical instrument, to study that particular cadence, or to improvise without hesitation around the circle of fifths.
There are, however, situations in which, regardless of what is written in the books, there is no team.
And we have to manage on our own.
At that point, there are many possible solutions.
First of all, we will necessarily have to choose another type of research design.
Instead of choosing and carrying out the gold standard of experimental studies, we will turn towards different research methods and tools: inquiry, surveys using questionnaires, interviews, or participant and non-participant observation, simulation, and so on.
In this podcast, I would like to explore observation a little more deeply.
I believe that all of you, during your practice, use observation sheets or observational protocols, so as not to get lost in the mare magnum of the flow of events.
What kind of observation sheet do you use?
Did you take it from a book, a teacher, or a model?
Or did you build it yourselves?
And if you yourselves are the authors of the observational tool you use every day, what criteria did you choose in order to create it?
Around which indicators will your gaze be oriented?
In other words: what have you decided to observe through this sheet?
There are observation sheets that are complete and beautiful, but impossible to use because of the enormous amount of time required to fill them in.
How long does it take you to complete yours?
And, still keeping our feet firmly on planet Earth, has it ever happened to you that you used your observation sheet also as a source from which to retrieve evaluative elements?
For a pure researcher, that is a bit like watering down wine with sparkling mineral water.
And finally — I promise, this is the last question — when that specific indicator you have chosen, among the many possible ones, is actually reflected in reality, what do you do?
In other words, when the person with whom you are doing music therapy somehow does one of the things you have listed in your observation sheet, what do you do?
Do you put a cross, like an on/off switch?
Or do you choose a Likert scale?
Of course, the topic of research methodology cannot be dealt with in a five-minute podcast.
But even this short amount of time can remind us of the importance of having clear criteria for observing and measuring what happens in our work, while remaining aware of the inevitable subjectivity involved.
I’ll stop here.
We’ll meet again on Tuesday, July 14th, with a new episode of A Light-Hearted Journey Through Music Therapy.