Playing Their song: Developing and delivering a repertoire for use in music therapy on placement with two singing groups of people living with neurological conditions, and their carers

This research study uses qualitative, action research methodology to investigate the factors impacting how I can choose and deliver repertoire within the context of my music therapy practice on placement with two singing groups of people living with neurological conditions and their partners and carers. Adhering to the characteristics of action research, this study consists of cycles of learning, and focuses on my understanding of the perceptions and perspectives of clients of the service, plus my own responses regarding the repertoire and how it is used during the music therapy, thus attempting to understand people’s preferred repertoire and improve my practice. My clinical practice notes, participatory observations and reflective journals were coded and analysed to develop themes. Following this, inductive meanings were made of what, how and why the particular repertoire was used. There were many insights learned, from the perspective of the researcher (as a student music therapist and beginning researcher), but the most salient seemed, to me, to be that the entire gestalt of the experience shared whilst singing and playing together with the groups was more important than the minutiae of individual factors that go into making up that experience.