5. ‘I was playing freefall’: enjoying creative play
Music therapy seems to have afforded opportunities
for creativity and playful interaction. Josie described
this as follows: ‘Never played an instrument…
enjoyed it… it was fun, I was playing freefall…
did my thing, and the music therapist did his thing…
we sort of caught up in the middle.’
And Mark, who had his first keyboard lesson,
said: ‘He started to teach me the rudiments of the
keyboard... which was really, really enjoyable.’
Ken also played a keyboard for the first time:
‘It was good to try something new... completely
outside what you would normally do.’
Not all participants found their music therapy
experience comfortable. Sue asked to listen
to the harp, but began to find the experience
uncomfortable.
The rest of the session entailed a discussion
of her musical history and preferences: ‘To have
somebody come in my room and play music to me,
I didn’t like it... found it embarrassing… but we had
a good conversation...we had a laugh.’