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Harp for Music Thanatology

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Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 39 total)
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  • #75637
    tony-morosco
    Participant

    Saul,

    The program she is looking at is specifically for harp. Guitar is good for music therapy, but many people confuse these harp therapy programs and music therapy programs. They are not the same thing.

    I have a few friends who have degrees in music therapy. Music therapy is a degree and certification that requires getting a minimum

    #75638

    Well said Tony.

    Kristin, I love small harps and am usually a big advocate of small harps for therapy work.

    #75639
    Debbie Stackrow
    Participant

    Kristin, there is a program of study called Music for Healing & Transition Program–MHTP. The director is Melinda Gardener. It is a program that encompasses many different instruments for a therapy setting, including for those who are transitioning. There is a good explanation at their web site and you can ask questions there. Good luck!

    #75640
    harp guy
    Participant

    Just as a tidbit of information,

    As mentioned above, the 31 string harp they recommend looks like the MusicMaker’s Gothic 31. It is the same harp. If you got to http://www.harpkit.com (the Musicmaker’s website) under the link for their 31 string harp, they carry the Chalice of Repose link/banner advertising that this specific model is the one preferred by that program.

    Their reasoning behind that specific harp (from what I have gathered) comes from the fact that the range is decent for a lever harp, it is small, portable and light weight, and it is an extremely stable instrument. I have a Musicmaker’s harp myself, and will attest by the stability of their harps. I have to tune my L&H every day, but I only have to tune my MusicMaker’s once or twice a month (and that’s saying something seeing as how I have “absolute/perfect pitch”).

    But anyway. To be clear, the OP commented about needing a 31 string pedal harp. You don’t necessarily need a pedal harp seeing as how their preferred instrument is a lever harp.

    #75641
    Misty Harrison
    Participant

    What a fascinating field. I thought the exact same thing as Carl. Not being rude. Just thinking what the heck is that word. I actually thought it was an encyclopedia or something.

    Let us know what you end up doing because it sounds like a wonderful thing to do with the harp.

    #75642

    My point was that you don’t have to only use a harp, a guitar can do nicely, too, and I do not hold with the idea of

    #75643

    I think many people will say the same thing about teaching…..anyone with competence in their subject area can do it…NOT……

    And haven’t we all heard church musicians who would be better off staying home? But they can do it without the education….and there are people who can direct choirs without the education too…..and then there are people who can play the harp without the proper instruction…..

    ….and where does it end? There is a reason for becoming educated in something that offers an education.

    Briggs

    #75644
    tony-morosco
    Participant

    I agree to an extent Saul. I was trying to contrast these harp programs with actual music therapy. Music therapy is a whole different thing and you can’t do it without education. Most people don’t even understand what it entails.

    But my concern with these harp programs has always been three fold.

    One is that I worry that people who simply want to volunteer to play for people in hospitals and retirement homes are suddenly going to be asked for their certifications and credentials.

    the second goes to what you say about the guitar being just as useful. Don’t get me wrong, I love the harp more than any other instrument, but some of these programs seem to approach it as if the harp were some kind of magical instrument compared to others. All instruments have their unique properties, but this idea that the harp is somehow special and the almost magical thinking surrounding it leads me to think that “some” folks have delusions of being some kind of magical bard of ancient Celtic times or something.

    The third is that “some” of these programs (and I don’t know enough about most of them them say how prevalent) incorporate some very non scientific ideas but present them as science. As was mentioned above one of these programs used to (it sounds like they no longer do this but I don’t know for certain) insist that people play with the harp on the left shoulder so it is over the heart. What scientific reason is there to alter the standard way most people play in order to play over the heart? What does this actually do and what evidence is there to justify such a thing? None. But know what. Ancient magical bards from Celtic lands used to play on the left.

    I had a short and pointless debate with one of the founders of one of these programs once who tried to explain that all things are energy of different vibrational rates. That we have sound, and if we go up we have light and energy, and if we go up higher we have spiritual energy.

    I tried to explain that light and sound are not just different vibrational rates of the same energy on a continuum but different orders of energy, one being kinetic energy and the other being electromagnetic energy. She completely ignored this. I also asked her to explain how she isolated, quantified and qualified “spiritual energy” and where she published the paper on it because I never seen anyone provide actual objective, material evidence of spiritual energy. She ignored that too.

    But she insisted her program was based on accepted scientific principles.

    Now certainly not all of these programs incorporate these kinds of thinking, and I certainly don’t claim to be familiar with them all. But from what I have seen some of them leave me rather sceptical concerning the scientific foundations of them, and makes me feel it important to, at the least, emphasise the difference between them and a licensed, board certified

    #75645
    unknown-user
    Participant

    First, thanks to all who have shared good/interesting tips, etc.!

    I’d love to be able to take this particular course, yet the cost for me is prohibitive, with harp purchase/rental and the course itself. This was my motivation for asking about any options in harps that may be a little less expensive. I’m particularly interested in hospice work, having volunteered in a non-musical capacity, so this program “spoke” to me (except for the $$$).

    It’s interesting- I’m torn between the necessity of good education for those (including myself) who need it for this thanatology work, and the inevitable exclusion that results when these highly specialized programs are created. It does create an expectation from hospitals/etc. I think the training is a way for the person to make a living, which is fine, but for those who will volunteer those services it may get a little dicey- only time will tell.

    The extreme harp specifications are explained in the website, and I do understand it; I guess, but it does also create a type of exclusiveness as a result.

    Just wish the program included a little more instrument choice, since I think it’s the only thanatolgy program in existence.

    #75646
    Geri McQuillen
    Participant

    Well, Tony, I have my asbestos undies ready too, because I have a bit of an issue with these programs also.

    #75647
    unknown-user
    Participant

    Hello Geri-

    Do you know the name or location of this hospital?

    Thanks

    Kristin

    #75648
    Geri McQuillen
    Participant

    The facility that I was thinking it was is the new Sacred Heart Hospital at Riverbend in Springfield, Oregon.

    #75649
    David Ice
    Participant

    I have to agree to a large degree with Tony’s post

    #75650

    Tony, I so agree. I have been trying to be polite and not rant on this topic, but I want

    #75651

    I do remember seeing a Harp Therapy program that was set up in Montana that seemed to be perhaps cogent and useful.

    I am willing to teach healing and harp to someone interested, but I don’t have the energy to market a “certificate” program, but I can have one hand-calligraphed to show completion of the program.

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