Amy Thomas | Upstate Music Therapy Center LLC

Current Events: Marcus Whitman Community Partnership Event

by Amy Thomas | Oct 26, 2022

This blog post was written by Robin Neary, MT-BC

This month, Upstate Music Therapy Center employees Robin Neary, MT-BC, Jamie Swieringa, MT-BC, and Casey Kunzer, MT had the pleasure of attending Marcus Whitman School District’s Community Partnership Event. Families, professionals, and members of surrounding communities gathered to make connections and share what everyone has to offer!

High school students approached our table, inquisitive with questions and asking for advice and recommendations regarding the first steps to becoming a music therapist (which our fellow therapist Katie Pistilli shared in previous blog posts, “Should I Become a Music Therapist?” and “5 Steps to Becoming a Board Certified Music Therapist”). Observing a session with a music therapist is the best place to start!

Families with children of varying age ranges and abilities shared a moment to make music using the instruments at our table – we even saw some familiar faces!

Community members from Ontario, Yates, Monroe, and Seneca counties shared information about their organizations and events, as well as the opportunities for collaborations.

We shared that music therapy can:

foster the expression of feelings
enhance memory
improve communication
promote wellness
manage stress
alleviate pain
promote physical rehabilitation

We also shared information regarding some of the many benefits of music therapy for children that receive services in schools as part of their educational programming – some examples include:

Communication
- expressing wants and needs
- speech, sign, communication device

Cognitive
- learning academics
- recalling information

Socialization
- interacting with peers and adults
- attending
- following directions

Physical
- sensory input
- fine-motor skills
- gross-motor skills

Music therapy sessions can be tailored to best fit the needs of individuals and groups of varying age ranges and ability levels. For more information on the services we provide, see our other blog posts “Enhancing Lives Through Music Services” and “How to Make a Music Therapy Referral.”

Thanks to the team at Marcus Whitman School District for allowing us the opportunity to share our passion and our services with the community!

The Improve Your Mood Playlist

by Amy Thomas | Sep 1, 2022

Blog Written By Rebecca Szalay

Do you ever notice when you are feeling down that you gravitate towards music that reflects that mood? How about when you’re excited? Do you change the music if a slow or sad song comes on because you feel happy? Music has the ability to express every emotion and we can prolong those moods by continuously listening to those same emotional pieces. Our emotions and events in our lives and how we handle them shape who we are and the decisions we make in the future. Sometimes, when feeling down, we are not ready to talk to someone. We need time by ourselves, but we don’t always know how to get out of that bad place.

How do we use music to get us out of that “funk” or negative emotion when we are not in the mood for the happy stuff?

The Iso-Principle

It’s called the iso-principal. “[Iso-principle is] a technique by which music is matched with the mood of a client, then gradually altered to affect the desired mood state. This technique can also be used to effect physiological responses such as heart rate and blood pressure” (Davis, Gfeller, & Thaut, 2008).

Make Your Playlist

Making a playlist for your mood is a very effective way to use the iso-principle at home. Give it a try by following these steps:

1) First, understand that you are allowed to feel bad. If you are sad, mad, puzzled or just feeling “emotional,” it’s okay. We all have those times and need to work through them. Let’s make a playlist.

2) Start with songs that match your mood. Those ones you gravitate towards that speak to your soul and your current emotional state. Pick a couple of these songs, this is a gradual process.

3) Then, choose a few songs that are less sad/mad but not quite as energetic as something like “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.

4) Start focusing on your breathing. Use the slow pace of the song to breathe in and out and focus on calming. This will help you lower your heart rate and blood pressure, allowing you to calm and start heading towards a physical baseline. The purpose of this playlist is to gradually bring yourself from the negative to the positive. It is a set of songs that, when they are done, help you know that you will be okay, you can do this, and that negative feeling will not last forever. The playlist does not need to end in dancing around the kitchen to your favorite upbeat songs (although if it does, you will have fun doing so).

The intent behind your playlist is to help you to move on and be okay doing so. This process can take a while depending on how you feel. If you create this playlist ahead of time and save it, it is ready when you need it.

If you have any questions about making a mood playlist or want to share your “good mood” songs with us, we would love to hear from you!

Children’s Songs That Won’t Drive You Mad

Apr 3, 2024

Blog written by Rebecca Szalay If you are the parent of a young child, chances are you have a CD or playlist of young children’s songs that you listen to everywhere, especially in the car. You may also find yourself singing “Baby Shark” in the grocery store because...

Current Events: Marcus Whitman Community Partnership Event

Oct 26, 2022

This blog post was written by Robin Neary, MT-BC This month, Upstate Music Therapy Center employees Robin Neary, MT-BC, Jamie Swieringa, MT-BC, and Casey Kunzer, MT had the pleasure of attending Marcus Whitman School District’s Community Partnership Event. Families,...

The Improve Your Mood Playlist

Sep 1, 2022

Blog Written By Rebecca Szalay Do you ever notice when you are feeling down that you gravitate towards music that reflects that mood? How about when you’re excited? Do you change the music if a slow or sad song comes on because you feel happy? Music has the ability...

The Waiting Game

by Amy Thomas | Jul 20, 2022

Written by Katie Pistilli, MT-BC

Waiting is hard for everyone, but especially for young children. Keep in mind, today’s toddlers and preschoolers have been exposed to a fraction of waiting opportunities of their older peers because of the pandemic. They may not have been brought to restaurants, amusement parks, or airports. Although COVID-19 is still with us, our communities are safely moving on as best they can. Maybe you feel comfortable trying out some new activities with your family, but be patient with your little ones. They might have a hard time in those situations that require a lot of patience. Thankfully, there is always music to pass the time!

Shh… We Have to Be Quiet!

“Repeat after me” games are perfect for settings where you have to be a little quieter. Think: restaurants and doctor’s offices. Create a game out of being as quiet as possible. You and your child can only make sound with your body parts. You, the adult, goes first. Clap 3 times, then point to your child to clap 3 times. Once they get the gist of the game, mix it up. Stomp 4 times, touch your nose 2 times, but don’t say anything! It might not seem like you’re being musical with your child, but what’s a melody without some rhythm?

This game isn’t only keeping voices soft, but it’s also practicing turn-taking, imitating, auditory recall, and improvisation. These are many skills that are addressed in music therapy!

Need some inspiration? Try the hand jive! You can do this dance with or without the music.

Dancing to Pass the Time: Waiting in Line

You’ll have the best luck getting your child’s attention if you sing songs that you both know. Put that phone away, and dig into your memory bank! You can always change the lyrics to make these traditional songs a little more interesting. Try “If You’re Happy and You Know It” first. If you’re happy and you know it… bark like a dog! Meow like a cat! Try to make your kids laugh with “If you’re happy and you know it be a… fish!” or “A monkey!” Make up some silly movements and your child will do the same.

Next up, try “The Wheels on the Bus” or “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” You could change the song to “The Wheels on the Tractor” or “Ears, Shoulders, Belly Button, and Toes.” Changing the vehicle or body parts opens the door to so much creativity. Movement and singing together will pass the time even faster. When the original song becomes familiar, these lyric changes will have your children laughing!

Ring, ring, ring… Bananaphone!

Bananaphone is a jazzy and catchy Raffi classic. It can be sung anywhere with whatever is in your purse! Once the child learns this song, you can start turning anything into a phone! Who knows what your child will come up with… maybe they will start FaceTiming with an apple! Practice having conversations with grandma, imaginary friends, or TV show characters!

Time flies when you’re having fun! Singing, dancing, and playing are the best ways to endure the waiting game. Thanks for reading! We hope you found some inspiration from these tunes and activities.

The Improve Your Mood Playlist

Sep 1, 2022

Blog Written By Rebecca Szalay Do you ever notice when you are feeling down that you gravitate towards music that reflects that mood? How about when you’re excited? Do you change the music if a slow or sad song comes on because you feel happy? Music has the ability...

6 Creative Summer Activity Ideas

Jun 6, 2022

Written by Amy Thomas, MT-BC, LCAT Who needs summer ideas for your children and family? In this blog you will find fun, creative, and simpleideas for the summer months. Keeping it simpleWe’re aware that simple for one person may not be simple for another. For this...

Nature’s Instruments: Making Music Outside

May 2, 2022

Spring is finally here! The daffodils are blooming, the Easter bunny made his visits, and families are itching to get out of the house. In the spring, the outside world is full of sounds. Last week, we shared the blog Pause and Hear the Sounds of Spring to practice...

6 Creative Summer Activity Ideas

by Amy Thomas | Jun 6, 2022

Written by Amy Thomas, MT-BC, LCAT

Who needs summer ideas for your children and family? In this blog you will find fun, creative, and simple
ideas for the summer months.

Keeping it simple
We’re aware that simple for one person may not be simple for another. For this reason, we are sharing many
types of activities that can be done in multiple ways. This should allow you to feel comfortable doing one, two or
more of these fun summer activity ideas with your families.

Let your creativity flow
Many would answer the question, “Are you a creative person?” with a strong “no!”. Unfortunately, our
attitude of lacking creativity holds us back from exploring ideas and activities. Perhaps this comes from a
place of fear that you won’t be good at creating. We hear you and are committed to guiding you through those feelings and thoughts.

Here are three things to remember when it comes to creativity:

Don’t feel like a failure if you need to follow someone else’s idea. Once you have that idea feel free to
make it yours. Here is an example. You hear a song, but you cannot sing those notes or remember
all the words. Here is a great hack! Use your own melody or a tune you already know that you can
easily remember and shorten the lyrics, so they repeat and are fun for your children to sing along.
If a creative spark doesn’t come naturally to you, choose something that you enjoy doing. Instead of forcing yourself to do arts and crafts (do those words make you cringe), but you love to paint – start there. Add a fun twist by incorporating different materials, such as a wood. If you love to walk in the wilderness, incorporate that into your summer activities. We have fun ideas below for our nature loving readers! By doing activities you enjoy, you’ll have a vested interest in creating with your child.
Creativity has nothing to do with perfection! The need to have things perfect will stop you from creating with your child. If this is a problem for you, the best way to address it is pushing through those thoughts and feelings. Instead of your children hearing you say, “I’m not good at this,” or “That turned out awful,” demonstrate the joy of creating by saying, “That was fun to try.” or “I learned so much doing that today.” It’s about the process not always the product.

Activities for all ages

Some of you may be thinking that it’s challenging to come up with activities for all your children to do due to their ages and developmental skills. There are some wonderful ways of handling this. One way is creating roles for each person in the activity. All children like to know their part. Even children as young as 3 years old can be assigned a small part in an activity. As the others cheer them on while they take their turn, your children will be gifted with the opportunity of team building. Another way is break down activities so that a younger child only completes the project up to step 3 but the older child does all 6 steps. Both children did the activity according to their developmental ability.

Extra Note: The adult does not need to finish the younger child’s project. When a child sees an adult fixing or adding to their activity it can create a belief that their creation was not good enough, so we caution parents to only help if a child asks you to support them on a step.

Now what you’ve all been waiting for, (Drum Roll Please), the summer ideas list!

Nature Ideas:

I Spy Nature – Hide things in a wooded area so that at least part of them can be seen. For the older children ask them to I Spy something that is more challenging to see from where you are standing or sitting together and more obvious items for the younger child.
Nature Scavenger Hunt – Create a word list or picture list of things that each child or team will look for. Once they have all their items, they return to the start location. If you choose, use these items to create a nature piece. The parent can have pictures and steps of things that can be made with the nature items or let the child create their own masterpiece. Rubber bands, glue, tape, and paper are additional supplies that can be used along with the nature items. Use this link to see some wonderful ideas -> https://www.weareteachers.com/nature-crafts/

Music Ideas:

Instrument Making – Kids love the simplicity of making things from recycled items. The adults love the ease and low cost of using these supplies. Begin to put away paper towel and toilet rolls, clear tubs, and containers from food where the labels can come off easy. Rice, pastas, mash potato flakes, dry beans, are great fillers for shakers. Additional items to have on hand are paper plates, colored tape, rubber bands, and anything else the child can
use to decorate their instruments. Use this link to get more ideas -> https://zinginstruments.com/homemade-musical-instruments/
Parades – All children love parades and in every good parade there is music, people, floats and snack or candy throwing!! Let your children’s creativity go as they decide what and who they would like in their parade. They can use wagons, their instruments that they made, a speaker to play music, a karaoke for the announcer, chairs on the sides with dolls or stuffed animals to throw candy to. Your kids will LOVE this activity and will want to play it multiple times over the summer.

Art Ideas:

Tissue Paper Art: This offers the opportunity for all ages to create a colorful object. There is no right or wrong way to lay out colored pieces of tissue paper so create away. The children can make an abstract piece on plain paper simply sticking it to glue or use modge podge (like this one) to brush over it or place the pieces on contact paper. Colored tissue paper can be purchased in shapes, in sheets and torn, or cut to size and shape by the child. Tissue paper art can make a great piece to hang in a window for your child to enjoy all summer long. Use the link to see the simplicity of making this cute jelly fish! https://www.iheartartsncrafts.com/suncatcher-jellyfish-kids-craft/
Popsicle Stick Creations: From the youngest to the oldest in the family everyone will enjoy these activities. Here are just a few: sorting colored sticks, laying them out to create family members names or words, putting them into a hopscotch board, tic tac toe with two different kinds of pastas, or use them for making a project. If you want colored popsicle sticks, you can purchase them or paint them yourselves. The ideas are endless! Use this link for simple art projects -> https://www.playideas.com/25-summertime-popsicle-stick-crafts-preschoolers/

Let your creativity flow and have a wonderful summer with your children!

The Improve Your Mood Playlist

Blog Written By Rebecca Szalay Do you ever notice when you are feeling down that you gravitate towards music that reflects that mood? How about when you’re excited? Do you change the music if a slow or sad song comes on because you feel happy? Music has the ability...

6 Creative Summer Activity Ideas

Written by Amy Thomas, MT-BC, LCAT Who needs summer ideas for your children and family? In this blog you will find fun, creative, and simpleideas for the summer months. Keeping it simpleWe’re aware that simple for one person may not be simple for another. For this...

Nature’s Instruments: Making Music Outside

Spring is finally here! The daffodils are blooming, the Easter bunny made his visits, and families are itching to get out of the house. In the spring, the outside world is full of sounds. Last week, we shared the blog Pause and Hear the Sounds of Spring to practice...

Nature’s Instruments: Making Music Outside

by Amy Thomas | May 2, 2022

Spring is finally here! The daffodils are blooming, the Easter bunny made his visits, and families are itching to get out of the house. In the spring, the outside world is full of sounds. Last week, we shared the blog Pause and Hear the Sounds of Spring to practice mindfulness and notice the sounds of nature around us. From the sound of wind, to water flowing and birds singing, there is so much to hear in the spring. Let’s take the music of nature a step further this year and make some music with what you can find outside!

Drum Sticks

The stick is nature’s most convenient instrument! Sticks are easy to find around the yard, especially after all the windy days we’ve had this year. Note: we are not encouraging children to play their drumsticks anywhere they want! Part of the fun is finding something outside like a rock or tree stump that can withstand stick music. Try to find sticks that look the most like a drum stick. You can even peel off the bark and notice that the color is very similar. Play a recording on your phone, or sing a song to tap the sticks to. Before you know it, your kids will feel the thrill of being a nature drummer!

Acron Whistles

Playing the acorn whistle takes some practice, but once your kids master the skill they won’t want to stop! For this instrument, you only need the top of the acorn. Hold it in between your thumbs with just a tiny triangle to blow into. Put your mouth on your thumb’s knuckles, and blow. This whistle can be heard for miles!

Some instruments are easier to watch, then learn. Check out this YouTube video for some help with the acorn whistle!

The Power of Pebbles

For this instrument, you may have to head to a local park with canal access or a pond. Safety first with this activity, don’t forget life jackets and have adequate adult supervision for the kids! Lake Ontario or the Erie canal are great places to check out in the Rochester area. To make music using water, simply find some pebbles or rocks along the shoreline. Drop one in the water, then another. Do they make different sounds? Is it a plunk or a thump?

If you aren’t up for plunking pebbles, they actually make great instruments without water! Find two pebbles and tap them together. Click, click, click. The sounds you will hear from tapping two rocks together are similar to a Cuban instrument called the clave. Claves keep the beat for the whole band, and pebbles can too!

Pinecone Scraper

If you have pine trees at your house, go check underneath them for a pine cone. These large seeds have so much potential to grow into a pine tree or become an instrument! After you find the pinecone, you’ll need a small stick to act as the scraper. If you’re right-handed, hold the pinecone in your left hand and scrape across it with the stick. Depending on the direction you scrape, you will get a different sound.

We found the idea for the pinecone scrapper on the PBS kids website. For more inspiration on nature’s instruments, check out their activity sheet from an episode of Nature Cat!

Isn’t it amazing how almost any item can be used to make music? We hope these tips make your outdoor adventures even more fun as you hunt for the perfect nature inspired instrument.

The Improve Your Mood Playlist

Sep 1, 2022

Blog Written By Rebecca Szalay Do you ever notice when you are feeling down that you gravitate towards music that reflects that mood? How about when you’re excited? Do you change the music if a slow or sad song comes on because you feel happy? Music has the ability...

6 Creative Summer Activity Ideas

Jun 6, 2022

Written by Amy Thomas, MT-BC, LCAT Who needs summer ideas for your children and family? In this blog you will find fun, creative, and simpleideas for the summer months. Keeping it simpleWe’re aware that simple for one person may not be simple for another. For this...

Nature’s Instruments: Making Music Outside

May 2, 2022

Spring is finally here! The daffodils are blooming, the Easter bunny made his visits, and families are itching to get out of the house. In the spring, the outside world is full of sounds.