08/21/2026
Welcome to another MTAO Musical Friday! Where each week, one of our members shares a song or musical experience that has been or could be useful and meaningful in a music therapy context.
Today we have our Public Relations Chair, Callahan Connor, MMT, MTA () sharing a mindful listening improvisation, musically responding to the sounds in the world around him (notably the swelling of cicadas and the soft whooshing of passing cars).
Spontaneous creative sound-making can be intimidating and vulnerable for many people, and our anxieties can pull our minds in many directions away from the present moment. Mindfully attending to our senses, e.g. listening intently to the world around us, can bring us back into our bodies, back into a sense of connection with nature, and can offer a chance for spontaneous responding that may sidestep anxiety and intimidation. Waiting and listening can change the nature of the musical task, removing some of the stress of making the first sound, and shifting the attention away from good/bad/beautiful/ugly sound (or other judgments) and onto a simpler relatedness to the moment. This can offer a liberating and holistically connective experience.
Here Callahan is using a fiddle and responding to the dynamic sound changes he notices (e.g. volume, pitch, texture, sound length and sound source) with his own impulsive choices on the fiddle, ādialoguingā with the sounds of the world around him. This demonstrates a one-on-one type of structure, but during most sessions, clients would also be invited to join the sonic dialogue space with their own sounds.
For a client who does not play the fiddle, voice, percussive elements, or steel tongue drum may be better suited to invite a positive, mindful experience, but any creative adaptation is possible.
Music therapists: do you have other ways that you like to invite mindfulness through musicking? Please do share in the comments! āŗļø
