Sing a Song and Bring the Sunny Weather!

Post written by: Ashton Becks, MT Intern

The other day, I had a little gap in my schedule, so I sat down to brainstorm ideas for this blog post. As I jotted down a couple of things that came to mind, I kept humming the melody to a song I had just played at a memory care unit for older adults. We sing this every week as a way to bring our time to a close, and it seemed Roy Rogers himself had followed me from the facility to my mind back at the clinic. I’ve really grown to love the tradition of bidding farewell to all the residents and hearing them sing along to “Happy Trails” every week. Good songs like that can walk with you through your day, and so it dawned on me: why don’t I make a playlist of all those songs I've enjoyed practicing and playing through my internship so far? I’ve decided to make things a little interesting by choosing songs my friends at the memory care unit specifically would love (as they were my source of inspiration!) and relate them to my day-to-day experiences as an intern. Here’s a day in the life of Ashton through song!

Three gentlemen pass a maraca around during group music therapy.

Song 1: “It’s a Good Day” by Peggy Lee

• This is a great Hello Song I’ve played at countless sessions. “It’s a good day for singing a song” is a great way to wake up in the morning for a day at Piedmont Music Therapy.

Song 2: “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson

• Working in Greater Charlotte usually means you’ve got a beautiful commute to work. Hello I-77, I-485, Carowinds, Panther’s Stadium and the likes!

Song 3: “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton

• This one feels pretty intuitive, and I also love listening to most everything by Ms. Parton.

Song 4: “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King

• Soul and RnB from this era I listened to frequently even before the internship. This song is on the playlist because of the nature of my internship. I have some amazing supervisors that help prepare, plan, brainstorm, and teach me on a daily basis. I can definitely stand by them and feel confident in my growth as a potential MT-BC.

Song 5: “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” by James Brown

• Yes and yes for James Brown. This one is the newest one on the list but is very applicable to my day. PMT serves clients at their main clinic, but much of their work comes outside of the clinic. When you are not only traveling but also loading up your car with drums, bells, shakers, music stands, a guitar, and sanitizing wipes…you’re gonna need a good bag or two. I’ve learned the art of strategic packing, so I figured this song points to a pretty frequent experience for music therapists. 

Song 6: “Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin

• This one relates to the supervision piece of my internship again. Many times while I’m still learning how to facilitate a group, write up documentation, work through goals and objectives, and schedule my day, I’ll debrief what I think went wrong. My supervisors always provide positive reinforcement for the things going well and a path to progress for the areas I could improve. 

• I also did a fun activity with resonator bells to this song, so I was reminded to put this on the playlist! The group was split in half by the chords of the song, and we were able to play an accompaniment to the song with the bells.

Song 7: “Happy Trails” by Roy Rogers

• Of course, I have to end with this song to finish my day at PMT. The final line of the song says “Happy trails to you until we meet again”, and I feel like that’s so fitting. I’m grateful that I get to come back every day and learn and grow more. 

If you’d like to listen to my playlist, I’ve compiled these songs on Spotify for anyone to enjoy! I hope this gives you a glimpse into my internship in a fun creative way. Maybe even try and think about what are a couple songs that would describe your day… 

Until we meet again!

Ashton