Meet the Autoharp

This is an autoharp, and it's one of the instruments I'm required to be proficient on for my program. It's a funny little thing. You hold it in your lap, push down a button (which plays a chord) with your left hand and strum the strings with your right hand. It's kind of awkward to play in my opinion, but there is a whole world of autoharp enthusiasts, and music therapists are among them! I'm not particularly fond of it because it takes forever to tune and is just not most pleasing sound to my ears, but it does have definite advantages for working with people who are handicapped--it's basically a "cheater" guitar of sorts--all you have to do is push a button and play the strings, and you've got a chordal accompaniment for any song.

For anyone curious, music therapy operates from a totally different guage of musical success--all the subtle nuances and technicalities a private teacher works with students on have less meaning (if any) in a music therapy setting. This is kind of funny because as a musician you are trained extensively in this way; but in a therapeutic setting, the music often is secondary to the target behavior, more like the means to the end. Something that to a trained musician is gratingly "unmusical" could be the sweetest success in music therapy.

One of my textbooks states, "The beauty of music lies beyond its surfaces and structures, it also emanates from the soul, and when a client is able to find the soul in music, or make it sing, the music is beautiful." What I'm learning is that finding "the soul" in the music could have very little to do with the music itself, and a lot to do with the success of the therapeutic relationship and the efforts of the person. I think it's kind of comparable to the beauty I heard when my kids clicked with a song or game when I was teaching. To trained musicians the sound often leaves much to be desired, but when you've worked with the group and have a special relationship and understand the progress they've made, "success" and "beauty" are much more easily seen.

I'm gonna try to remember that the next time I have to pick up an out-of-tune autoharp...