MT and Musicianship

[MT-PRO Music Therapy List]

I am following the discussion about how much "musicians" should the music
therapist be, and I dont understand one issue.
 
Isn't it necessary to have musical skills to enter the music therapy training
program at universities in USA? So why question the musical abilties of
professional music therapists?
 
Here in Brazil it is really a problem for most of our training programs are held
at private institutions and  they (the institutions) doesnt want us (the teachers
and admitions intervewers) to reject so many appliences based on musical skills
that most of students DO NOT HAVE . I teach "musical perception" and "group
playing" at the training program at Faculdade Paulista de Artes in São Paulo
(Brazil) and I suffer a lot because the students do not have a prior musical
training.
 
Another issue that I think is very important is that someone said (I dont
remember who did it now), or I understood so,  that we should have a kind of
music "carreer" toghether with the music therapy. I completely agree with that
!!!!
 
I do think that we music therapists should have a participation in at least one
kind of  musical activity that is purely artistic in order to be "in peace" with
the musicians that are inside ourselves. Otherwise, they (the musicians) would
try to emerge in the clinical setting and it wont be healthy to our
patients/clients. I sing in a choir and take part in a group that research
brazilian folk traditions and present them as a mix of music, drama and dance (in
this group I sing, dance, and play percussion instruments).
 
I would like to know how do you, american music therapists, deal with your
musicianship.
 
Renato Tocantins Sampaio
 
Sampaio e Parente - Núcleo de Musicoterapia
São Paulo - SP - Brasil
reco@uninet.com.br
-- MT-PRO Music Therapy List, mtpro@multipro.com on 10/29/1999 at 7:21:03 AM


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