Spectrum Press

12/03/2024

Happy snowy Tuesday! ❄️ We’re looking to add another fantastic board-certified music therapist to our Schools team here in📍Rochester, NY! Could it be you? 👋 Click the link in ’s bio for more information!

09/09/2022

🎶 Back to school🎶

It’s a wrap on our first week back in schools! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 We all took First Day Selfies to celebrate the start of the school year! 🤳🏼

We were all with at least one other person that day: apparently long skirts and plaid pants are where it’s at when you work in schools! 😜

03/03/2022

Free sheet music alert!

Originally created for harp, this modal piece in E Dorian easily transfers to the piano or other melodic instruments. “Emerald” is a beautiful tune offering a great alternative to traditional Irish songs or music played around St. Patrick’s Day.

Originally created for harp, this modal piece in E Dorian easily transfers to the piano or other melodic instruments. "Emerald" is a beautiful tune offering a great alternative to traditional Irish songs or music played around St. Patrick's Day. The Song: Emerald The Music GET THE

02/09/2022

DID YOU KNOW 👀 All of our content here on Spectrum Press is inspired by our team of 20 creative arts professionals?

It’s true! 🥳 AND we’re excited to share that school-based music therapy team is growing here in Rochester, New York!

Come join our team of creative professionals at Spectrum Creative Arts. 🌈 Interested in learning more about the position? Check out the direct link here: https://bit.ly/3rDFA3X

We’re excited to talk with you soon! 👋

02/09/2022

Who's gearing up for the big game this weekend? The Super Bowl has been a major topic of discussion amongst our students over the past few weeks, and Wade's annual "Super Bowl Sunday" song has made its return!

If you have any football fans in your community and are looking for a fun, Super Bowl-themed music experience, we've got you covered! Listen to the recording, download the free visual tool, and purchase the fully notated score here:

Some consider the Super Bowl a culmination of a football season with two teams battling for the trophy, while others enjoy the celebration: food, friends & family, music, and the commercials! No matter your reason for watching, the Super Bowl is a night of sports and spectacle. "Super Bowl Sunday" i...

02/08/2022

"I Am Love: A Book of Compassion" is such a sweet book with a beautiful message that is perfect for Valentine's Day, but can really be shared anytime during the year!

Today on the blog, music therapist Shannon Ogden shares an original song she created to go along with the book, as well as some discussion prompts. Check it out, and snag the free lead sheet on our website:

As we approach Valentine's Day every year, I try to think of unique ways to discuss love with my clients. I saw the book, "I Am Love: A Book of Compassion," by Susan Verde with art by Peter H. Reynolds, while doing some shopping at Target a

02/01/2022

Megan here!

For our team, January is where we work with clients and their caregivers to evaluate their goals and make sure we are all on the same page with how we spend our session time. While it makes for a BUSY month, it is such a valuable part of our therapeutic work!

We strive to engage in collaborative goal setting practices on our team and work in partnership with our clients to make decisions about how session time will be used.

Since we work primarily with diverse learners, it's important we make this process inclusive, accessible, and meaningful to the individual.

Today on the website, I'm sharing some strategies I've used in my own clinical work to make goal setting an accessible, collaborative experience.

Have some tips of your own? I'd love to hear them in the comments below!

For our team at Spectrum Creative Arts, January is a month where we complete Progress Reports for our clinic students. We engage in this process twice a year, and while it sounds quite formal, our progress reporting process is simply an intentional time for the provider

12/20/2021

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, which marks the first day of winter and also the shortest day of the year! Even though many of us have the upcoming holidays on the brain, we thought it would be fun to share some unique ideas for integrating this seasonal shift into your upcoming session plans!

I never knew very much about the Winter Solstice as a kid, but the more I've learned about it as an adult, the more I've come to appreciate the history and traditions around this beautiful celebration! If you're not familiar with the holiday, you can read more about

12/10/2021

✨ PANCAKE-spiration ✨

Happy Friday!!! Noa here. 👋 When working with a student this week, she was super excited about the pancakes 🥞 she ate earlier. (Are there any fellow pancake enthusiasts out there?!)

So, she decided she wanted to incorporate pancakes into our movement and breathing exercises together.

While reading through some books she chose, we explored ways to move our bodies that reminded of us pancakes, sharing in some giggles and shared food-related excitement.

I hope your students can relish (😂) in some pancake-adjacent FUNspiration in their sessions too!

12/09/2021

Last year, we shared an article written by Juliana Joyce, one of our school-based music therapists, that shared some tips for fostering more inclusive environments, specifically around the holiday season.

Today, we're re-sharing this article, but with some additional content by Juliana reflecting some of the ways her own thought process has evolved throughout the year. Here's a quote from the article:

"in the last year, I have increased my knowledge in anti-oppressive practice and anti-racism through research, attending workshops, and self-reflection. As the late, great, Dr. Maya Angelou said: “When you know better, you do better.” I am revisiting last year’s blog to set the precedent that we can learn and grow as music therapists and as humans, and reflect this growth within our practice." (Juliana Joyce)

In the article, Juliana shares some really wonderful tips for how we as therapists and educators can do a better job of honoring more diverse holiday traditions in our clinical practice, along with a transparent look at how certain ideas have evolved for her over time.

Happy holidays, everyone! Last year, I wrote this blog post about cultivating an inclusive environment in your music therapy practice, specifically focusing on the school based setting. However, I wanted to revisit portions of it based on knowledge I have gained in the last year. I am

12/01/2021

Sharing a new article from our website today!

During my music therapy training, I was always taught the importance of providing clients with "age appropriate" music. And to some degree, I get the reasoning behind this. As music therapists or educators,when we are selecting music to use in session, we want to make sure it is both accessible

11/30/2021

Happy Hanukkah, everyone! Noa here to share a Hanukkah ditty inspired by the infamous children’s music artist, The Laurie Berkner Band.

With “We Are the Dinosaurs” being an all-time Laurie Berkner favorite for so many of my kiddos, I knew I had to keep the dinosaur fun going… with a little holiday twist! Here are the lyrics:

🕎
I am a Menorah-Saurus
Marching, marching…
I am a Menorah-Saurus
Hanukkah is here, Hanukkah is here!

The sun is going down
Let’s celebrate now
Light the candle for night # ___.
🕎

With the menorah (the Hanukkah-specific candelabra, pronounced MEH-NO-RAA) being one of the more familiar symbols of Hanukkah, this song has been a great way to approach Hanukkah with students of various social and cultural backgrounds.

Side note: You may see "Hanukkah" spelled a variety of ways: Chanukah, Hanukkah, Hanukkah, Hanukah... Guess what? All those spellings are CORRECT! 🥳

Wondering why? It’s simply because the English alphabet doesn’t have perfectly equivalent letters and sounds to those of the Hebrew alphabet and language.

The English pronunciation for the holiday is HA-NEW-KAA — You may also hear the holiday pronounced with a hard, guttural “CH” (similar to a sound found in the German language) at the start of the word.

Thanks for joining me in this brief review of some Hanukkah terms and symbols! If this piggyback tune finds its way into your sessions this week, we’d love to hear from you!👇