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

poor. It seemed reasonable to expect that our Music
Computer might form a link with the boys' normal
educational tools.
In treating such boys we always hope to involve them
sooner or later in free improvised music so as to give
them opportunity to release into it, if necessary, any
build-up of emotional pressure and possibly trigger any
latent creative gifts.
MidiGrid, containing as it does, an enormously wide
range of melodic, rhythmic and chordal possibilities
combined with the tone colours provided by the sound
module, allows for the boys an infinite variety of musical
invention. The capacity for recording and playback is
also an invaluable asset as the work is immediately
available for appraisal, discussion and possible
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modification.
As it is in the nature of music to discover solutions, the
positive experiences begin to usurp the negative ones
and in our joint musical explorations a rapport is formed
between the therapist and the boys, of trust and mutual
respect. One boy entitled an improvisation "On the
horns of a dilemma!", which seemed to mirror his inner
state.
For the purposes of this short paper, our references will
be related to two boys who have opted to work on a
series of experiments in Music Technology.
The older boy, John, is just 13 years of age and we have
been working with him for two years. Initially John was
so acutely withdrawn that we could hardly get a word
out of him beyond a barely audible 'Hello'. He tended to
isolate himself by experimenting with the Computer and