As a certified Lifemusic™ facilitator with a strong background in education, I have been facilitating sessions based on this method for over 10 years, already. Within this time, I have worked in a wide variety of settings – from community and after-school centres, to public health institutions and wellness facilities in several countries around the world.
Listen to dr Rod Paton, composer, music therapist and scholar, the author of Lifemusic™, introduce the method:
Every Lifemusic™ meeting is build upon the same four basic principles:
Everyone is musical.
There are no 'wrong' notes in music.
Every sound has a meaning.
Making music is an act of trust.
By following the above guidelines, Lifemusic™ helps the participants to establish a safe, inspiring environment in which sound becomes a tool for exploration of emotions, ideas, passions, connection. Every session is different just as much, as every group of participants is. Everyone enters the meeting with different experience, expectations, skills. Every participant is free to choose a level of engagement and a way of participation that they are most comfortable with, as long as their choice is rooted in respect for other participants and the meetings setting.
Lifemusic™ sessions can be equally joyful, engaging and beneficial for participants who already enjoy music-making, and for those who had never even considered it before. The facilitator leads the group through a number of open-ended activities, often based on so called 'holding forms', involving a whole set of carefully selected instruments, 'magical objects' designed to foster creativity and connection.
I have used Rod Paton's Lifemusic™ working with 'amateurs' looking for new ways of releasing everyday stress, participants recovering form physical and mental distress supported by their therapists, professional musicians, actors and dancers aiming to expand their 'creative vocabulary', teachers looking for inspiration for their daly work, yoga practitioners, children of all ages and their parents, my friends...
Regardless of the occasion, Lifemusic™ tends to always prove that if we listen genuinely and respectfully, to ourselves and to one-another, beauty is likely to happen spontaneously!
If you are curious about Lifemusic™ and would like to find out more, please consider the following resources:
Paton, R. (2012). Lifemusic: Connecting People to Time. Archive Publishing. (Available on Amazon).
Paton, R. (2011). Lifemusic: Sounding out university community engagement. International Journal of Community Music, 4(2), 105–120.