University of Dayton

From the SelectedWorks of James Hiller

Summer June 21, 2019

Music Therapists’ Preparation for Song

Discussion: Meaning-Making With the Music
James Hiller, University of Dayton

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/james_hiller/7/

 Music Therapists’ Preparation for Song Discussion:
Meaning-Making With the Music
JAMES HILLER, PHD, MT-BC University of Dayton
ABSTRACT  Songs are powerful catalysts and resources for change
processes in music psychotherapy. Not surprisingly, music therapists
often invite clients to listen to recordings of popular songs. A common
song listening method is song discussion, in which a therapist selects
a relevant song to explore with a client or group and facilitates the
listening and subsequent verbal processing. In the relevant music
therapy literature, lyrics assume a primary focus (i.e., lyric analysis),
and yet, the music of a song, as integrated with its lyrics, impacts both
client’s and therapist’s meaning-making and is therefore crucial to take
into account. The purpose of the present investigative essay is to en-
courage music therapists to give attention to the music of recorded
songs as they plan to facilitate song discussion. Herein I  present a
conceptualization of recorded popular songs and consider how one
makes meaning from song listening processes. I urge therapists to pre-
pare for song discussion through careful phenomenological listening
and introspective interpretation. Finally, I  describe procedures of a
developing model for aural song analysis and interpretation based on
Bruscia’s Improvisation Assessment Profiles (IAPs) with an abbreviated
example viewed through multiple theoretical perspectives.
Keywords: songs, song discussion, meaning, music analysis, interpret-
ation, lyric analysis
Songs are ways that human beings explore emotions. They
express who we are and how we feel, they bring us closer
to others, they keep us company when we are alone. They
articulate our beliefs and values. As the years pass, songs
bear witness to our lives. They allow us to relive the past,
to examine the present, and to voice our dreams for the
future. Songs weave tales of our joys and sorrows, they
reveal our innermost secrets, and they express our hopes
and disappointments, our fears and triumphs. They are our
musical diaries, our life stories. They are the sounds of our
personal development.
Because of these myriad connections, songs provide easy
access to a person’s emotional world and to the thoughts,
attitudes, values, and behaviors that emanate from it.
Given the aims of psychotherapy, songs can greatly facili-
tate the process and provide a very effective vehicle for
emotional change. Bruscia (1998, pp. 9–10)
Songs are powerful catalysts and resources for change pro-
cesses in music psychotherapy. Austin (n.d.) defines music psy-
chotherapy as “the use of music within a client and therapist
relationship to promote the client’s emotional, psychological,
and spiritual growth and healing” (Music Psychotherapy
section). Not surprisingly, music therapists often invite clients
James Hiller, PhD, MT-BC, is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Undergraduate
Music Therapy at the University of Dayton.
Address correspondence concerning this article to James Hiller, PhD, MT-BC,
Department of Music, University of Dayton, 300 College Park Ave., Dayton, OH
45469-2946. Phone: 1-937-229-3985. E-mail: jhiller1@udayton.edu.
© American Music Therapy Association 2019. All rights reserved.
For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com
doi:10.1093/mtp/miz005
1
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to listen to recordings of popular songs (Bruscia, 1998; Crowe,
2007; Dvorak, 2017; Eyre & Lee, 2015; Grocke & Wigram,
2007; Jones, 2005; Silverman, 2007). A  common song lis-
tening method is song discussion,1 in which a therapist selects
a relevant song to explore with a client or client group and
facilitates the listening and subsequent verbal processing
(Bruscia, 1998; Eyre & Lee, 2015; Gardstrom & Hiller, 2010).
The purpose of the present investigative essay is to en-
courage music therapists’ attention to the music of recorded
songs as they prepare to facilitate song discussion. I  believe
that the music of a song, as integrated with its lyrics, impacts
both client’s and therapist’s meaning-making and is therefore
crucial to take into account. Whereas some of the concepts
presented here may be relevant to live renditions of songs,
the focus of this paper is song discussion with recorded song
material.
Three fundamental premises undergird the ideas and opin-
ions presented in this paper. First, in music therapy, music is
the primary treatment modality; clients come to music therapy
to engage with and benefit from encounters with music (Aigen,
2005). Music is a music therapist’s medium of expertise and
arena of understanding and influence, and can be highlighted
in song listening methods.
Second, the experience of listening to a song involves more
than hearing lyrics with musical dressing. Songs are a creative
fusion of musical, lyrical, and stylistic features and song lis-
tening is a holistic music experience potentially involving a
variety of human functional domains—physical, cognitive,
emotional, psychological, and spiritual. When a person listens
to a recorded song in a focused manner, as in a therapy situ-
ation, they are exposed to an amalgam of lyrics, melody, har-
monic context, and rhythmic support, along with the song’s
stylistic presentation, and all of these aspects impact the ex-
perience. Consequently, when a therapist and client examine
their song listening process, their experiences of the musical
attributes may provide insights that are equally as advanta-
geous to therapy as those stimulated by the lyrics alone. To
be transparent, although lyrics take on musical properties
when performed (e.g., rhythm, accent, dynamics), the lin-
guistic meanings important in most song listening methods in
music therapy differ qualitatively from meanings derived from
the music. Thus, I do not consider lyrics to be “musical elem-
ents,” in contrast with other authors (Dvorak, 2017; Hanson-
Abromeit, 2015).
Third, regardless of the theoretical perspective employed,
the music of songs heard by clients is worthy of accounting
1
For a description of other song listening methods, such as song communica-
tion, song reminiscence, song regression, and song choices, see Bruscia (2014,
pp. 134–139).
2 Music Therapy Perspectives
for in music therapy. Addressing a song’s musical energies and
forces (Aigen, 2005; Zuckerkandl, 1956) can be valuable in
comprehending a client’s experience. For example, from a cog-
nitive perspective (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy or dia-
lectical behavior therapy), directing a client toward describing
their experience of the musical aspects of a song may support
understanding of the cognitive and emotional responses the
client has while listening (Hanser, 2015). Similarly, a therapist
might bring focus to the representational potentials of a song’s
musical characteristics in evoking conscious and unconscious
psychic materials and related feelings—those that animate
psychodynamic processes of projection, identification, trans-
ference, and countertransference (Bruscia, 1998; Gardstrom
& Hiller, 2010).
Building upon these premises, I  assert that clients benefit
when music therapists consider the music of a song in
preparing for and facilitating song discussion. This idea has re-
ceived only infrequent attention in the music therapy literature.
Song Listening Methods in Music Therapy
Literature Review and Resulting Curiosities
I conducted a review of articles from prominent English
language journals and an international, open access journal2
using keywords and phrases relevant to receptive song-based
methods, including “song,” “songs,” “song analysis,” “song
discussion,” “lyric analysis,” and “lyric discussion.” My re-
view revealed that most authors refer to song-based methods
as “lyric analysis” or “lyric discussion.” In these methods, cli-
ents are engaged in responding to the linguistic or narrative
aspects of a song, but rarely to addressing its musical features.
My review also revealed that popular songs are a common
category of song from which music therapists draw for psy-
chotherapeutic applications (Freed, 1987; Grocke & Wigram,
2007; Plach, 1996; Standley, 1991). Songs from popular
music genres have been employed to address a wide variety
of clinical aims (Bruscia, 2014; Eyre & Lee, 2015; Freed, 1987;
Grocke & Wigram, 2007; Jones, 2005; Silverman, 2009a,
2009b, 2009c, 2015; Waddelow & Taul, 2016). A few ex-
amples of clinical aims include, “evoke affective states and
experiences” (Bruscia, 2014, p.  135), promote projections
and insight (Grocke & Wigram, 2007; Jones, 2005); “address
anger, social isolation, aggression… alcohol and/or drug
use” (Waddelow & Taul, 2016, p.  66), motivation for treat-
ment (Silverman, 2015), and “improve mood, identify and
work through feelings, process issues, improve social skills in
working with others, identify coping skills, and create group
cohesion” (Eyre & Lee, 2015, p. 175).3 Curiously, only one of
the authors cited above mentions the potentials of the musical
features of recorded songs (Dvorak, 2017).
During my review, I began to wonder why music therapists
have seemingly chosen to process lyrics to a far greater extent
than a song’s musical features. Given the apparent important
2
Australian Journal of Music Therapy, British Journal of Music Therapy, Canadian
Journal of Music Therapy, Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives,
New Zealand Journal of Music Therapy, and Nordic Journal of Music Therapy,
Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy.
3
For a list of goals and objectives specifically related to “lyric analysis” in music
therapy, see Dvorak (2017).
status afforded lyrics, I wondered whether reciting lyrics for a
client to hear or inviting the client to read the lyrics for them-
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selves might yield the same therapeutic benefits as listening to
the song recording. In the absence of comparative research,
my clinical experience—that is, “practice wisdom” (Scott,
1990, p. 564)—leads me to believe that there are indeed fun-
damental differences between the experience of reading or
hearing lyrics recited and hearing them in the context of song
listening. I  assert that most music therapists would similarly
indicate that song listening is a notably different sort of experi-
ence. In fact, my belief is that song listening is a truly unique
sort of human endeavor due to the reciprocal and symbiotic
relationships that occur between a song’s musical and lyrical
features and how these together influence a listener’s experi-
ence (Moore, 2012).
When an author referenced musical attributes of a song,
I  wondered how they might account for the music’s import.
Dvorak (2017) explored song listening processes with the
aim of designing a verbal processing model for “lyric ana-
lysis interventions” (p. 2). The author emphasized that, “When
examining the therapeutic function of music… typically the
text (i.e., lyrics) of the song is considered the most important
component of the intervention” (p. 2). The author also stated
that the musical attributes influence the song listening ex-
perience, noting, “musical elements (e.g., tempo, harmony)
may influence client interpretation of the text and modify the
overall impact and meaning of the experience for the group”
(p.  2). I  agree with this thought-provoking suggestion, yet
noted the author provided no explanation for how a client’s
interpretation of a song’s lyrics might be influenced by its mu-
sical features. Nonetheless, Dvorak’s assertion parallels my
interest in the potential meanings and clinical benefits to be
gained through attending to the musical features of songs. In
fact, Dvorak (2017) also urges therapists to carefully consider
the “elements of and complexity of the music, as well as pos-
sible interpretations of the meaning of the music” (p. 4) when
preparing a lyric analysis. Dvorak’s position is an encouraging
one for the present article.
Role Relationships Between a Song’s Music and Lyrics
What are the role relationships between a song’s music and
lyrics? Are they separate entities that serve distinct expressive
purposes (e.g., music evokes emotion, lyrics stimulate cogni-
tion)? Or are music and lyrics integrated aspects of a single
expression, asserting reciprocal influences as a song unfolds,
with a unified impact on a listener’s interpretation? Or do
these role relationships fluctuate in a listener’s experience?
I propose that the listening experience is an idiosyncratic and
situated one, and therefore each of these role relationships
have meaning-making potential and are valid.
In my own experience and clinical judgment, song listening
often involves emerging, and sometimes a merging of, thoughts,
images, feelings, and physical sensations (e.g., movement po-
tentials [Thaut, 2005]), and these provide a unique impetus
for meaning-making. According to Moore (2012), a prom-
inent popular music musicologist, the partnering of music
and lyrics in songs alters and, in most cases, enhances the
potential expressive impact of both. The origin of, or stimulus
for, one’s thoughts, images, feelings, and physical sensations
when listening may not be tracable to a specific musical or
Meaning-Making With the Music in Song Discussion
lyrical element, but rather to interactions that occur between
them. Thus, I find that isolating the impact of lyrics from the
reciprocal influence of music, and vice versa, is a limiting per-
spective. Yet, from an academic standpoint, I will periodically
exercise some level of separation between music and lyrics in
this article toward bringing certain concepts to light.
Before describing my conceptualization of popular songs,
I  will speak to my positionality, that is, my position on this
topic given the identities that I embody, which influences the
ways in which I construct my experience of the world (Kezar
& Lester, 2010; Milner, 2007).
Positionality
I am a native English speaker and I do not speak other
languages and therefore chosen to delimit my discussion
to songs with English lyrics. I  have the most experience
with English language songs due to the cultural and pro-
fessional contexts in which I  have lived and worked.
Although I may construct musical meanings from songs,
I cannot begin to presume to fully understand a song that
possesses lyric content in a language other than English.
Without comprehending the lyrics, the experience of a
song lacks the potential for integrated understanding be-
tween its music and its lyrics (Griffiths, 2003; Moore,
2012); they are of the same whole. My choice to delimit
the discussion is in no way meant to diminish or ignore
the value of songs with non-English lyrics, but rather to
focus on the song material that I best understand, that has
been influential in my own clinical work, and that en-
ables me to explain concepts most clearly. Further, I ac-
cept that my understanding of song lyrics and music are
influenced by my position as a white, educated male mu-
sician living in the United States. That said, my earnest
hope is that concepts presented in this paper will be useful
to therapists who can and do work psychotherapeutically
with popular music with non-English language lyrics,
and that others who are qualified to do so will take this
work further.
Popular Songs Conceptualized
What is meant by the term popular song? This is a surpris-
ingly complex question, given the enormous range of musical
genres and styles available to listeners. Yet it seems that one
tends to know a popular song when one hears it, even when
the individual has no formal musical training. Musicologist
Campbell (2009) noted that popular songs simply sound dif-
ferent in many ways from other types of songs, such as those of
the European art or folk song traditions. Campbell explained
that “popular music can simply be music that appeals to a mass
audience, is intended to have wide appeal, and has a sound
and style distinct from classical or folk” (p.  3). Campbell’s
point is in part sociological in that the composition process,
training of composers, performers, and listeners, performance
attributes, audience participation protocols, instrumentation
and technology used, and even composers’ intentions when
composing popular songs (e.g., to earn money, make a polit-
ical statement) differentiate them from art songs or traditional
folk songs (p. 5).
As musical objects, popular songs are difficult to cat-
egorize on the basis of style. According to musicologists, this
3
is because conceptualizations of musical styles persistently
evolve in substantial ways (Campbell, 2009; Moore, 2012).
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Style is defined as “the manner of articulation of musical ges-
tures,” or how musicians choose to perform a song (Moore,
2012, p. 120). This might mean, for example, the choice to
record a song in a reggae, heavy metal, or country style. Each
style, therefore, calls for enacting/sounding different musical
gestures, and has developed through its own historical and
cultural evolutionary processes. Style is important to account
for in a client’s listening process in that, with recognition of a
song’s stylistic features, certain expectations are evoked that
affect interpretations and meaning-making (Moore, 2001a).
At the same time, there are also no enduring or inviolate
rules for how any given style may be reproduced. So as lis-
teners, we tend to rely on approximations of what might
be considered ideal models of styles that have been widely
heard (Moore, 2012, p.  8). A  comprehensive discussion of
musical styles and their development is beyond the scope of
this paper. Suffice it to say that musical styles have emerged
and continue to evolve through interactions between musi-
cians and cultural resources and are therefore implicated in
meanings constructed from popular songs by both therapists
and clients.
For the sake of simplicity and clarity, I  continue this dis-
cussion with my assumption that a recorded popular song, as
an object of analysis, has three general parameters: (1) lyrical
materials that have meaning within 20th- and 21st-century
English-speaking cultures; (2) at least one primary singer/
performer whose role is to present the lyrics integrated with
melodic and/or rhythmic characteristics (e.g., sung, spoken,
whispered, shouted, rapped); and (3) instrumentation that
includes some form of rhythm section-like accompaniment;
that is, drums, bass, and often a harmony instrument such as
guitar or keyboard in either acoustically or electronically pro-
duced form. Stated more simply, these three structural features
are the lyrics, the melody and/or rhythms that are integrated
with the performed lyrics, and harmonic-rhythmic accompani-
ment, all presented with some level of recognizable stylistic
character. Additional instrumental parts are often added to this
basic structure and should be accounted for in an analysis as
relevant.
Moore (2012) notes that, “The defining feature of popular
songs lies in the interaction of everyday words and music…
but it is how they interact that produces significance in the ex-
perience of song” (p. 2). To paraphrase, it is how musical and
linguistic features interact—their interrelated nature—that is
essential to a listener’s experience of a song and the meanings
that they construct.
I agree with Moore’s perception of the nature of songs as a
merging of these features. For each is singularly ineffectual as
a catalyst for or elicitor of meaning relative to a particular song
listening episode. For example, lyrics in the form of words,
sentences, and phrases can exist as independent poetry or
prose, and one can have a meaningful experience by reading
the words of a song. But in a recorded song, lyrics are often
aligned with a melody drawn from a particular modality and
with distinct rhythmic elements that underscore semantic and
syntactical characteristics. In rap, for example, the rhythmic
elements and performed vocal inflections are essential to the
way the lyrics musically unfold. All told, I believe that a listener
4 Music Therapy Perspectives
does not experience lyrics in isolation from a song’s musical
features.
Melodies may also exist as stand-alone entities that one can
audiate (i.e., hear in one’s mind), hum, vocalize, or whistle.
But without an historical relationship with a melody, such as
prior repeated hearings in one context or another, and without
the benefit of lyrical dressing or a harmonic context, a melody
is limited in its capacity as a source for construing meanings
(Stratton & Zalanowski, 1994).
Finally, the foundation provided by a rhythm section
(i.e., accompanying drums, bass, chordal instruments), a
singular accompanist, or an electronically produced ana-
logy of either may provide interpretive ingredients that sug-
gest certain energies and moods, but richer meanings may
surface when a rhythm section supports a vocal line with
its intervallic contours, rhythmic accents, and integrated
lyrics. Therefore, it seems that the interdependence of
these song attributes is essential to a meaningful listening
experience.
Analyzing and Interpreting Song Material
Rationales for Analysis and Interpretation
Music therapists are obligated to understand as fully as pos-
sible the potential influences of any musical media to which
they expose clients, including recorded popular songs.4 This is
both an ethical and clinical concern. Aigen (2009) writes that,
“all aspects of melody, harmony, rhythm and meter, and tex-
ture that constitute one’s clinical-musical interventions should
have an underlying rationale” (p.  242). Hanson-Abromeit
(2015) advocates, “Careful consideration of the components
of music in relation to client characteristics is critical for ef-
ficacious music-based intervention” (p.  25). These authors
seem to convey a similar view—that therapists should bring
to a therapeutic encounter prior understanding of the poten-
tials of the musical elements before applying them toward a
particular outcome. I am in full agreement with these authors;
this is especially important in song discussion because the
musical elements in a recording cannot be manipulated by
a therapist should a client have an abreaction. Clients are, in
a sense, vulnerable to a song recording (Gardstrom, 2009).
A therapist’s careful preparation regarding the music can help
to safeguard the experience and thereby enhance the thera-
peutic relationship.
I believe that song listening calls for a different sort of clin-
ical preparation than other music therapy methods. Rather
than the sorts of objective responses to which Aigen’s and
Hanson-Abromeit’s positions seem to suggest, preparation for
song discussion should be geared toward interpreted mean-
ings. This is because in psychotherapeutic song listening, the
primary response modality is interpretation and meaning-
making (Gardstrom & Hiller, 2010). A therapist’s clinical prep-
aration, therefore, should aim toward potential meanings that
may come from listening. Such understanding informs how a
therapist may position themself to empathize with their client’s
meanings. Further, a therapist may better protect the integ-
rity of the therapy process through conscious awareness of
4
See AMTA Professional Competencies 10.1, 10.3, 10.5, 12.5 (AMTA, 2013) and
Board Certification Domains I.B.13.a, I.B.13.c., I.B.13.d., I.D.10., II.A.5.g. (CBMT,
2015).
countertransference responses that they may have with a song
and that could create barriers to empathy and understanding.
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Constructing Meaning From Song Listening
A music therapist’s beliefs about the nature of a song lis-
tening experience seems critical when considering why they
employ this method in the first place. My own position,
buoyed by theorizing from popular musicology (e.g., Clarke,
2005; Moore, 2003, 2012), is that listening to a recorded
popular song provides unique opportunities for listeners to ex-
perience themselves in relation to that song and to construct
meanings from that experience. These meanings are infused
with each listener’s cultural backgrounds and identities, life
contexts, and experiences. For a client in therapy, constructed
meanings may also include aspects of their clinical challenges
or symptomology.
I take a constructivist view regarding song meanings.
From this perspective, individuals uniquely formulate their
own meanings from a given listening experience (Alvesson
& Sköldberg, 2009; Hiller, 2012). I  believe that the musical
elements heard in a song do not individually or collectively do
something predictable to a person; they cannot evoke a pre-
determined response. Rather, I hold that the musical elements
and lyrics presented in a recorded song function together as a
unified musical expression across the duration of that song and
provide opportunities for a client to: (1) interact with the song;
(2) experience musical energies and forces, metaphors, and
imagery (Aigen, 2005; Johnson, 1987; Zuckerkandl, 1956);
and (3) relate these experiences to themself and to thereby
exercise agency in ascribing relevant meanings (Abrams,
2012; Ruud, 2010; Viega, 2018). I  agree with musicologists
Clarke (2005) and Cumming (2000) who stress that music
does not function to communicate information directly from
one person to another, but that it makes information available
to listeners. Multiple listeners may share certain meanings
due, perhaps, to similarities in life contexts and experiences
and, in therapy, to similar relational or psychological issues
or challenges (Moore, 2012, p. 9). It may also be the case that
a client and therapist or a group of clients may co-construct
meanings through intersubjective, dialogical processes, such
as those that may unfold during a group song discussion.
With clear understanding of one’s beliefs about the nature
of the song listening process, a therapist may then use their
skills to analyze and interpret potential meanings from the
song prior to its introduction in therapy.5
Therapist Phenomenological Listening
Analysis and interpretation are distinct yet essentially re-
lated endeavors and may occur through a therapist’s phenom-
enological experience of a song and theoretical understand-
ings of the nature of music as a medium of human expression.
By phenomenological, I mean a therapist’s study of their own
lived experience—in this case, listening to a recorded popular
song (Finlay, 2011; Forinash, 1995; Forinash & Gonzalez,
1989; Jackson, 2016). A  therapist’s phenomenological lis-
tening experience may be characterized as open, uniquely
5
Ideas relative to particular song selection for song discussion is beyond the scope
of this paper. For detailed coverage of the topic of song selection, see Gardstrom
and Hiller (2010).
Meaning-Making With the Music in Song Discussion
personal, and introspective, with the aim of accounting for
thoughts, feelings, images, and physical sensations and what
these may mean in that moment.
Defining Analysis and Interpretation
To analyze a song is to gain awareness of salient musical
attributes and to examine how those attributes relate to each
other and to the lyrics. Analysis, then, positions a therapist to
interpret or construct meanings for what they have heard and
experienced while listening. The therapist’s own unique ana-
lysis and interpretations can provide insights into how a client
or group might experience a particular song and the meanings
that they might construct. Of course, a therapist’s meanings
ought never be imposed upon clients, but they are nonethe-
less informative for the therapy process.
Evolving Model of Song Analysis and Interpretation
In this section, I  describe an evolving model of song
analysis and interpretation based on the Improvisation
Assessment Profiles (IAPs) of Bruscia (1987, 2001). I briefly
introduce each of the relevant profiles and follow with sug-
gested procedures for analysis, which include examining
lyrics, performing an aural music analysis through inten-
tional listening episodes accounting for the music as heard
(vs. score analysis), and consider interpretative notions with
relevant theoretical support.6
The Improvisation Assessment Profiles
My approach is based on listening processes described for
the IAPs developed by Bruscia (1987). The IAPs were designed
“to provide a model of client assessment based upon clinical
observation, musical analysis, and psychological interpret-
ation” via a client’s improvised musical products and pro-
cesses (p.  403). The IAPs represent the most comprehensive
means of analyzing and interpreting improvised music found
in the music therapy literature (Gardstrom, 2007; Hiller, 2011;
Keith, 2007; Stige, 2000; Wigram, 2000).7
Whereas recorded popular songs are not improvisations,
I have nonetheless found through experience that the listening
foci of the IAPs are advantageous for aurally examining music
in non-improvisational contexts. The six IAP profiles are
Salience, Integration, Variability, Tension, Congruence, and
Autonomy. (Note: The sixth profile, Autonomy, is not rele-
vant in the context of song material). The IAP profiles repre-
sent psychological processes that manifest through the ways
in which music unfolds through time and provide a cohe-
sive set of lenses for organizing one’s listening. Accordingly,
while listening one may note salient or influential/impactful
musical elements and events, variability in the music (i.e.,
constancy or instability), integration or relatedness of certain
musical elements with others and with the lyrics, the nature
of musical tension(s) and resolutions, and congruence (i.e.,
coherence or mismatching) regarding aspects of the music
and the relationship between parts of the music and between
the music and lyrics.
6
In this developing model, lyric analysis and interpretation do not occur inde-
pendent of musical analysis; these features are considered closely interrelated.
7
Other examples of improvisation analysis grounded in phenomenology include
Arnason (2002) and Ferrara (1984).
5
Procedures for Aural Analysis
While analyzing, I  seek to account for how I  am experi-
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encing the musical phenomena on a cognitive level—that is,
I organize and classify my aural foci via the IAP profiles. I am
concerned with identifying which music elements are pre-
sented, how they are sounded, and their relative relationship
with specific lyrics. I  propose the following flexible proced-
ures for an analytical listening process:
. Prepare to write or type notes upon/within a lyric sheet.
1
2. Carefully read the song lyrics prior to listening to the
recording the first time and briefly annotate, circle, or
highlight certain lyric phrases or specific words that
seem relevant to clinical themes in the client or group’s
treatment process.
3. Listen for and identify musical/structural form (e.g.,
AABA) so that one can return to a particular place in the
recording as needed.
4. Listen again, allowing the unfolding music to draw the
attention to whichever musical elements and related IAP
profiles seem important.
My aural analysis of the song’s music occurs somewhat
systematically by keeping the framework of the IAP profiles
firmly in mind. I say “somewhat systematically” in that I know
that the musical elements will have qualities that I can identify
relative to the profiles, but the process is not formulaic; rather
it is phenomenological—emergent and reliant on my unique
listening experience (Bruscia, 2001). Thus, I  listen respon-
sively given the precise musical materials that present them-
selves, and I  account for how I  comprehend their unfolding
nature. I try not to obsess over particular music or words, but
simply account for their presence as the process continues.
The Salience profile helps in this regard, as I allow myself to
recognize certain aspects of the music as more or less influ-
ential than others, thereby managing the amount of musical
information in the analysis. I briefly note these important fea-
tures, which might, for instance, be the way particular elem-
ents relate, vary, or create and resolve tension, as well as any
obvious congruities or incongruities between musical events
and lyrics. The music draws my focus toward a particular
profile or profiles, and I consider the logical relationships that
seem to manifest between the musical sounds and energies
and the lyrics as they simultaneously progress.
The focus of an analysis can be on any number of musical
features. For example, depending on the given recording, my
analysis might focus on the nature of a song’s harmonic pro-
gression—its flow of tensions and resolutions and how repeti-
tive or cyclical the harmonic movement may or may not be.
Focusing on the harmonic motion would be due to my ex-
perience of this movement as a salient feature and therefore
worth examining. The focus might just as well be on the tex-
tures created by the blending of instrument timbres and how
these are integrated with each other or not, or on the contours
and movements of the melody and nuanced inflections per-
formed by the vocalist as these relate to anticipated stylistic
expectations.
Questions of an interpretive nature might emerge during
analysis as the musical and lyrical materials are sounded and
the song unfolds, but I try to hold these in abeyance until I have
6 Music Therapy Perspectives
a reasonably complete sense of the song’s musical structures
and materials. Depending upon the song, the analysis process
may take as few as three to five listening episodes but may
require more. Proficiency with the processes that I  describe
hinges on knowledge of how the IAP profiles function as aural
analytical lenses. Bruscia (1987, 2001) provides detailed in-
formation on the IAPs.
Given the phenomenological nature of the analysis pro-
cesses, multiple therapists may listen to the same materials yet
experience them uniquely, finding particular musical aspects
more or less relevant as they listen. Therefore, what I hear as
salient, tense, integrated, varied, or congruous may not be
what another listener hears. This is as it should be, for each
song offers the potential for different analytical foci, and each
listener brings uniquely contextualized “ears” to the process.
These differences do not make the process untrustworthy, but
rather are a reflection of our humanity as distinct, culturally
situated individuals.
Song Interpretation
To interpret a song is to ascribe or construct meanings for
what is heard and experienced. As emphasized earlier, each
person brings to the process of song listening and interpret-
ation their own inner world of knowledge and accumulated
and culturally situated life experiences. However, a music
therapist’s interpretations should also be grounded in relevant
theory. Moore (2012) noted that “there is no perspectiveless
position from which to make an interpretation” of a song,
inferring that interpretation always has traces of the listener’s
uniquely situated experience (p.  326). For just as with any
sound stimulus that one defines as “music,” song listening al-
ways involves a level of interpretation. This is also the case be-
cause a song listening process is an active and personal one.
An individual does not passively receive a song, but rather
they do something with what they hear—they interact with
the song—and from this interaction some form of overt and
covert response is possible and the individual may have an ex-
perience. I assert that to experience song material means to be
intentional in responding physically, cognitively, emotionally,
psychologically, and/or spiritually.
The interpretive process considered here draws upon a
therapist’s capacity to experience song material intentionally
and to be introspective about that experience. To be intro-
spective means to examine one’s thoughts and feelings that
occur while or result from listening. A therapist’s experience
of a song, like that of a client’s, is unique and subjective. Yet
the range of potential meanings is neither infinite nor arbi-
trary (Moore, 2012, pp.  243–246). Rather, a therapist’s con-
textual characteristics and theoretical positioning, along with
the precise musical and lyrical materials presented, constrain
the range of interpretations. In fact, the unique contextual fac-
tors that one brings to the interpretive process lend integrity to
each listener’s interpretations.
To explain the ways that interpretations of songs are delim-
ited and therefore not random or arbitrary, I draw again upon
the work of musicologist Moore (2012). Moore’s approach to
interpreting recorded popular songs was based in part on as-
sumptions from ecological perceptual theory (pp.  243–248).
This theory was first adapted by musicologist Eric Clarke
(2005) for interpreting meanings relative to popular music
and later adapted more specifically by Moore (2001b) for ana-
lyzing popular songs. Clarke’s and Moore’s conceptualization
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of ecological perception holds that certain musical sounds—
invariants (stable elements) within a musical texture—provide
particular sorts of affordances or interpreted uses (Moore,
2012, p. 12). The action one takes while listening to a song,
then, might be to internally make sense of the different sounds
relative to each other. It might also be to reflect on how the
musical sounds suggest certain thoughts, memories, and asso-
ciations and their related feelings. Consequently, affordances
may touch on a variety of domains available to a listener
who uniquely constructs their meanings, but always within
an ecologically-bound range of possibilities (DeNora, 2003,
2013; Kreuger, 2014). While considering potential interpret-
ations, a therapist’s conceptualizations are further limited by
awareness of the characteristics of the particular client or group
for which the song is intended. These may include aspects of
their life histories, contexts, and cultures and their psycho-
logical challenges and current functioning. Such awareness
can inform speculation about how the therapist’s interpretive
constructions might subsequently relate, or not, to those of the
client or group.
Abbreviated Example of Song Analysis and Interpretation
Whereas a music therapist’s interpretations begin from legit-
imate personal and subjective perceptions, they may gain fur-
ther legitimacy through theoretical undergirding. To illustrate
this process, I provide here an abbreviated example of an IAP-
informed analysis of X-Ambassador’s recording of Unsteady
(Grant, Harris, Feldshuh, Harris, & Levin, 2015) and consider
the musical aspects from multiple theoretical perspectives.
Again, the phenomenology of listening allows for multiple,
equally valid perspectives on any song. As with any listener
and any song, my interpretations should not be taken as de-
finitive, but are based on my experience.
As the song begins, four low register, sustained piano
chords move in a stable half-note sequence (Profile,
Salience). The chords occur on beats 1 and 3 at a slow
tempo throughout the entirety of the duple metered song
(vi-I-IV-V for the refrain and vi-V-IV-I for the two verses).
Following the introduction, beats 1 and 3 are emphasized
with sustained electric bass notes and the booming timbre
of a reverberating kick drum. I  experience these sounds
as decidedly stable, yet not static (Profile: Variability). The
three instruments provide a rhythmic and harmonic founda-
tion that I experience as having a rocking quality, alternating
every two beats; that is, I  feel cyclical tension and release
with every two chords in the sequence, which conjures the
metaphoric sense of shifting my balance from left foot to
right, as if standing and rocking back and forth. This might
align with an embodied cognition perspective (also referred
to as schema theory), wherein musical events are metaphor-
ically related to real or potential experiences of bodily mo-
tion (Aigen, 2005; Hiller, 2012; Johnson, 1987; Johnson &
Larson, 2003).
Embodied cognition also affords meanings as I consider the
quality of the singer’s voice. The vocal tone sounds breathy,
a repeated upward glottal flip takes him into an “unsteady”
falsetto range, and a downward slide in pitch at the end of
most phrases leads me to perceive these timbral attributes as
Meaning-Making With the Music in Song Discussion
integrally connected to vocal movements characteristic of
crying and sighing.
Then, as I  further reflect on these metaphors of rocking,
crying, and sighing and interrelate these with the song’s lyr-
ical content, I am able to construct deeper and broader per-
sonal meanings that might inform my understanding of a
client’s meanings. The vocalist implores his parents to “hold,
hold on, hold on to me.” I  perceive congruence (Profile:
Congruence) between the content of the lyrics, the singer’s
emotional presentation, and the undergirding rhythmic and
harmonic movement. I could conjecture that the client’s em-
bodied experience of rocking (or of having been rocked by
another), and of crying and sighing, also might intersect with
the lyrics to afford them expanded meanings, which would
derive from their personal biographies, as well as from their
ongoing therapy process.
Alternatively, from a psychodynamic theoretical perspective,
I  interpret the unchanging, cyclical rhythmic and harmonic
phenomena as providing a stable and predictable holding en-
vironment (Bruscia, 1987) (Profiles: Variability) within which
other musical and emotional expressions are made manifest.
Layers of arrhythmic hi-hat cymbal and tom-tom-like sounds
(Profile: Integration) contrast with the stable and rhythmic
foundation. These dis-integrated sonic textures may represent
a manifestation of internal emotional conflict. It is within this
sonically tense environment (Profile: Tension) that the vocalist
tells his story; that is, how it feels as he witnesses the break-
down of his parents’ relationship (e.g., “Mother, I know you’re
tired of being alone; Daddy, I know you’re trying to fight when
you feel like flying”).
Lyrical content is the essential focus of cognitive-
behavioral perspectives in song listening methods (Dvorak,
2017). Interpretive considerations of the music that part-
ners with the semantic and syntactical features of the lyrics
(i.e., meanings of words and the ways that one forms verbal
statements) may reinforce and inform how I understand my
emotional responses to the lyrical messages. In Unsteady,
for example, experiencing emotional tension in the melodic
contours of the primary vocalist’s pleas (Profile: Tension)
reinforce my feelings of aloneness and anguish as I  relate
my life experience to the lyrics. Yet, hearing the high, con-
sonant vocal harmony layered over the second statement of
“hold, hold on, hold on to me” (Profile: Integration) may help
diminish the intensity of my feelings so that I  can process
their rationality, perhaps recognizing that others also share
my feelings and that I am therefore not necessarily alone in
them. Exploring the rationality of thoughts and feelings that
a client experiences from both the lyrical content and the
phenomenon of the music’s movements and energies might
enhance both therapist’s and client’s perspectives and lead to
new understandings.
In summary, a therapist’s aural analysis and interpretations
of a song draw upon their phenomenological listening ex-
periences. These occur on various levels, depending upon
the musical and lyrical materials presented and the context
and intent. A therapist is challenged to be open to experien-
cing song material physically, cognitively, emotionally, psy-
chologically, and spiritually, and to be reflexive about their
experience. Enacting reflexivity means to apply self-observa-
tion and inquiry in striving to bring one’s thoughts, feelings,
7
and conceptualizations about a phenomenon into awareness
(Bruscia, 2014, pp. 54–55).
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Conclusion
In this investigative essay, I shared my belief that music ther-
apists enhance the benefits of song discussion by introspect-
ively experiencing a song themselves prior to introducing it in
therapy. I called attention to the historically predominant focus
in the music therapy literature on the lyrical content of songs
to the exclusion of musical attributes. I offered an explanation
of the musical and lyrical features of songs as interdependent
in the listening experience. I  suggested that comprehensive
understanding of the entirety of a song—the interrelated nature
of a song’s musical and lyrical features—may be a defining
feature of a music therapist’s work versus that of other mental
health clinicians who use songs in their practices. The sorts
of recorded popular songs that are a common focus of music
psychotherapy were defined and described as amalgams of
musical and lyrical components, and I  provided ethical and
clinical rationales for therapists to pursue deeper understand-
ings of the music of a song prior to its use in song discussion.
Finally, I briefly described concepts supporting one evolving
model for song analysis and interpretation for therapists, with an
abbreviated sample. Space does not permit a thorough descrip-
tion herein, but in a future article, I hope to provide detailed
procedures of IAP-informed analysis and interpretation and
offer more comprehensive song examples and explanations.
My sincere intent in underscoring the importance of musical at-
tributes in song discussion is to expand the clinical affordances
of this commonly employed music psychotherapy method.
Conflicts of interest: None declared.
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