iPads and Music Therapy

My last blog post discussed the trends in technology and how it impacts our profession. One important piece of technology is the iPad. iPads are practically everywhere, people use them to check their social media, read books and magazines, watch videos, and listen to music. Music therapists have successfully jumped on the iPad bandwagon and incorporated this useful piece of technology into their practices. This post will talk about some of the uses for iPads, some helpful apps, and an example of how iPads are used in a Bronx nursing home.

On musicandmemory.org, there’s an article titled, “Frontiers of Music Therapy: How iPads are Transforming a Bronx Nursing Home”. The author, Benedikte Scheiby, a music psychotherapist, discusses how she uses iPads with her clients. A lot of their residents at the nursing home suffer from poor fine and gross motor skills with tremors, muscle weakness, or paralysis which make it difficult for them to play an acoustic instrument. With the help of an iPad, they are able to simply tap or swipe their hand and play almost any instrument they want. Garageband offers an array of instruments that residents can use to compose and record music, creating a vehicle for creative expression which they can save and feel proud of.

Youtube provides several opportunities for residents. Besides using Youtube for listening to music from “the good old days” that reminds them of their past and which they can sing along to, it can be used to post their own original compositions that family members and everyone can view. Scheiby says, “These shared projects are exciting for the residents and proof that that life is not over in a nursing home.” Here’s an example of one such video:

Simply listening to familiar music has many therapeutic benefits. These include reminiscing, moving to music, working on speech through song, short term and long term memory, and more. Apps that can facilitate this listening include Youtube, Pandora Radio, and Spotify. They can also use apps such as Nature Sounds, and Stress Free Music, to listen to relaxing music when they’re feeling anxious or need help sleeping.

The last couple apps I’m going to mention are Skype and FaceTime. These are both free applications that enable residents to video-chat with friends and family, bringing loved ones together. Video-chatting can minimize “feelings of isolation and fears of being forgotten”.

All of these apps are only a few of the many that can be used in music therapy. Here are a few more apps that can be used with many different populations:

• Tun-dfree: A tuning application. It’s great because it provides tuning for almost any instrument you can think of.
• MelodicaFree: A loop machine with preset sounds. You have control of creating the sound scape by touching the grid.
• Singing Fingers: A really cool art program . You drag your finger on the screen while saying something and it records what you say in color. Then drag your finger over the design for playback.
• Shiny Drum: A drum pad
• ZoozBeat: This is awesome! It comes with 15 or so preset loops with many genres. Select a loop then you are able to play 6 different instruments to add to the loop sound by shaking the iPad. 
• Dub Selector: Interactively dub music applications.
• NLogFree: A synthesizer with tons of presets.
• Thumbafon: A mode instrument
• Glee: Smule makes this app. It’s great for karaoke or free singing, plus includes auto-tune and harmony selectors.
• aXylophone: A xylophone
• Magic Piano: Smule produces this as well.
• Digidrummer: Another drum pad app. If you buy GarageBand then you won’t need these free drum apps.

Games:

• I Say Free: This is like Simon from the 80’s. It’s great for memory, strategic planning, and cognition.
• RubyRepeat: A more complicated form of I Say Free.
• Angry Birds: For problem solving (cognition)
• Soundrop: A music app that uses velocity of a dropping ball to change the pitch of the sound.
• Circadia: A sound strategy game.
• Talking Gina: A giraffe that can repeat what you say. Kids love it. There are also a ton of these types of apps featuring a cat and a dog.

Sources:
https://musicandmemory.org/blog/2013/02/07/frontiers-of-music-therapy-how-ipads-are-transforming-a-bronx-nursing-home/
http://www.musictherapymaven.com/guest-post-essential-ipad-apps-for-music-therapists/

What are some apps that you use in your music therapy practices?