Meaningful moments in music therapy improvisation : a thesis presented to fulfill the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Therapy at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
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Date
2006
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Massey University
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Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate moments that were deemed to be meaningful
for the clients involved, within music therapy improvisation in the researcher's clinical
work. The purpose of this was to gain a greater understanding of the processes that took
place during these moments. The qualitative study employed a naturalistic inquiry
approach which focused on four meaningful moments involving client participants from
two contrasting settings: adults with mental illness at a Community Mental Health
Centre and a pre-school child with developmental delay and her mother at an Early
Intervention Centre.
The study collected three main sources of data: transcripts of a discussion with peer
participants, the researcher's clinical notes and the musical notations regarding the
moments. Two music therapy students acted as peer participants. They viewed the
recordings of the four moments and commented on what they thought was happening in
terms of the music and interactions. The transcript of this discussion, along with the
researcher's clinical notes, were analysed in two stages to find the essence of what was
happening in the moments.
Three primary analytic categories were identified and a number of common themes
were found within them by comparing and contrasting the findings. The study
concluded that the meaningful moments were made up of three essential elements: a)
the music; b) the emotional content; and c) the therapist's interaction.
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Music therapy