23.7. 1993 Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spain - World Federation of Music Therapy

Extract of dialogue from music therapy session
Client 1: I decided to bash away at them (drums)
Client 2: That´s allright if you're in a room by yourself....
SHUT UP! ( to everyone else)
Client 1: We're not musicians - we're just, sort of .......
Client 2: But all of us here, we can get a little thing going.
Client 3: Yes ! but drums are supposed to be hit loud
man! Not just "tap, tap, tap"
Client 4: Is there any such thing as a quiet drum? Client
1 : No,loud ,drum!
Client 2 : Yes but for someone who can't play, like me,
I'm just feeling my way (playing drums with natural
ease) until I can get something. Then when I'm a bit
more confidents I can hit it loud without drowning
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everyone else, if I pick the right time. But, if I don't really
k.now what I'm doing and I just play loud...... (banging)
then no-one else can (demonstrates loud solo) ... hear
anything.
Therapist : One of the difficult things about getting music
together is being sensitive to each other. It's a hard
business.
Client 1 : Yes ... that's why a lot of musicians don't get on
break up and all that. They can't agree. They can't get
together as a group, they just bust up.
This discussion interests me on many levels, not least in
the way it demonstrates this group's struggle to work
together. However, with reference to the subject of "the
good ear" and the way we listen, it seems that this group
of people were getting a very strong idea of the
importance of aural skills in music and in therapy. (A