
Social Skills Instrument Trick or Treat
Halloween is one of my favorite times of year at the studio because of all the different festivities that take place! The week leading up to Halloween, we begin something we call Costume Week. True to its name, Costume Week encourages everyone, clients and staff, to...
read moreA Success Story at the “School of Dynamics”
I have the privilege of supervising music therapy students from two local colleges as they accrue fieldwork hours. It is such a rewarding thing to help develop the skills needed to be a music therapist, and it always reignites my own personal love for my work! One...
read moreMy Music Therapy Story
When I was in high school, I was often asked what I wanted to study when I went to college. For a long time, I didn’t have an answer to that question. I knew I wanted to go to college, but I didn’t know where I should go, or what I would choose to study there. Then...
read moreCommon Misconceptions of Music Therapy
Music therapy is still a pretty “new” profession, which means not a lot of people know much about it. It also means that those of us in the field have a HUGE desire to educate and share about how amazing it is! I have only been a board-certified music therapist for 3...
read more7 Benefits of Music Therapy
Music therapy has a multitude of benefits that are often unknown! Each client’s needs are different, so their experience with music therapy will also be individualized to meet those needs. Read on to discover some of the foundational or “basic” benefits of music...
read moreA Window into the First 5 Sessions of Music Therapy
“As a mother of a child with special needs, I found the process of finding help for him and choosing the right help for him to be extremely daunting. With each step through early intervention I felt as though I was left with more questions than questions were...
read moreStudent Spotlight – Assisting a Summer Camp
by Isbah Shahjee A few weeks ago, I assisted with the Bumps & Beats Summer Camp at Valotta Studios. It was a great learning experience for me as I figured out how to work with younger children. In the mornings, I would help the teacher in charge with...
read moreStudent Spotlight – How to Motivate Yourself to Practice
by Isbah Shahjee As an orchestra kid in elementary to middle school and now currently a high school junior piano student at Valotta Studios, I do my best to practice as often as I can. When I was younger, It was hard for me to remember to practice when I had so...
read moreArt’s Advice – “All the World’s a Stage…” pt. 2
If you read our last blog, you should have been waiting with bated breath for this follow-up entry on the “solo!” Before I launch into my solo regarding the solo, I thought it would be wise to provide a sort of transition from performing as part of an ensemble which...
read moreArt’s Advice – “All the World’s a Stage…” pt. 1
“All the world’s a stage...” This famous quote is from Willy Shakespeare from his comedy “As You Like It.” Now that you no longer need to agonize over where you heard that quote, we can move on! Through a monologue performed by the character Jaques, Shakespeare...
read moreArt’s Advice – It’s All About that Bass! (Apologies to Megan Trainor)
In my last blog I talked about my experiences as a twelve year old and my first year as a percussion student. Percussion was my first entry into the world of instrumental music, but it was not destined to be my last. As my interests in music expanded in high school,...
read moreArt’s Advice – Why Private Lessons?
In years (very) gone by, music was relegated almost exclusively to the home. The musical “The Music Man” depicts a traveling con-man named Harold Hill who travels from town to town, selling the townsfolk on the advantages of a school instrumental music program to...
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