Review of "The Music Never Stopped"

On Monday night, I got an opportunity to see the movie "The Music Never Stopped." The movie centers around a man's journey as he recovers from a brain tumor and tries to reconnect with his family.

My interest in this movie came from the fact that one of the central characters is a music therapist! The music therapy world has been abuzz lately about this film, and for good reason. This is an opportunity for millions of people to learn a little bit about music therapy, and in our line of work, that's a great thing. The question was, would the film makers portray music therapy accurately?

After seeing the film, I am beyond pleased to say, they nailed it. Every music therapist should be thrilled with how our field was described in the film. It was accurate, factual, and highlighted some of the wonderful benefits music therapy can provide.

The music therapist in the movie provides a quick, accurate, easy to understand definition of the field, but the real highlight for MT's is the scenes that feature the actual therapeutic interventions. There are several such scenes. For the most part, the MT does music listening exercises and melodic intonation interventions.

My only concern (and it's a VERY minor one) is that some people who watch the movie may see the music listening interventions only at face value. I'm sure most music therapists have been asked at one time or another "Music therapy? Do you, like, play records for people and make them feel better?" To some, the interventions in the movie may appear to be just that. However, when you watch closely, you can see that it goes much deeper. The MT carefully observes her client's reaction to the music and adjusts the session accordingly (and quite skillfully, I might add), guiding and talking him through the emotional issues that arise from hearing these songs again.

Again, that's a super nit-picky criticism and it's truly not a point of concern. It provides a great introduction to music therapy that anyone can understand. It will be a great talking point for music therapists to discuss what we do with those who have seen the film, and it will work as an excellent lead off into explaining what else we do as therapists.

As far as the movie itself goes, I truly enjoyed it (and this is coming from someone who is typically hypercritical of movies). I believe it does an excellent job of illustrating how health issues affect more than just the patient. The whole family feels the pain of an illness. Now, this does mean that the movie gets pretty sad at times (so if you're a crier, you may want to pack extra tissues). Despite this, it's a great "feel-good" movie that is most definitely worth seeing.

Look for it in theaters soon!

Exceptional Children's Week

Last week was Exceptional Children's Week, which meant performances galore for my students. I had one show last week and one this week.

I'm a big fan of these shows because they accomplish so many goals for so many people involved. For my students, whatever they perform is addressing some goal area, be it motor skills, communication, social skills, etc. Perhaps most important though is that it gives them an opportunity to perform. They get to be the star of the show. The whole school cheers for them, and that's something that doesn't get to happen to frequently for these students.

It's also huge for their parents, for the same reasons. They get to come watch their child be a star. Their disability is not an issue. The pride you see on these parents' faces is truly something special.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of the show is the involvement of students from the rest of the school. Special helpers volunteer to come in and perform in the show with the exceptional education students. It's great to see these kids get involved and befriend my students. It's an excellent social interaction for both parties. For the months following the shows, there is a noticeable difference in the attitude of the regular education students towards the exceptional education students. Prior to the show, there may be some staring going on in the hallway as my students walk by, and there's definitely some intimidated looks. However after the show, the attitudes are completely different. The students wave and say hi to my students, give them high fives. It's amazing.

I particularly enjoyed the show this week, partly because the performance was the first time I saw it! With the other shows, the music therapists are heavily involved, and I see the acts for MONTHS leading up to the performance, so it tends to lose it's special-ness, if you will. At this particular school however, we took a secondary role, only helping prepare one act. So the rest of the show was new to me, and I was floored! Seeing my students dance with their peers from the rest of the school just gave me chills.

Following the performance, we attended an awards ceremony for my students called the "Yes I Can" awards. Every student it individually recognized for their accomplishments in the classroom. We had a packed house of parents who were all beaming with pride. Towards the end, one of the teachers read a poem she had written, which she couldn't even get through without choking up. Needless to say, every parent in the crowd had tears streaming down their faces as well. It was a "warm-fuzzy" kind of day.

Just 2 weeks left!