ResearchWorks: An ode to odds & sods: improvising through music therapy research

Music therapy practices are often improvisatory and collaborative in nature, emerging through spontaneous play between participants and therapist. In music therapy sessions, people make, listen to, and engage in music together. As such, everyday music therapy practice can be unpredictable, vibrant, and demanding of a particular resourcefulness by all involved.

A further resourcefulness is required in considering research approaches in music therapy practice. Epistemological and methodological frameworks that may be perceived as rigorous and academically, or institutionally acceptable may not be congruent with the practices being researched. How can practitioners and researchers understand such potential misalignments, and how might all involved in research adopt a practice turn, aligning research with the people, places, and events through which music therapy emerges?

This presentation addresses these questions from the perspective of everyday practice. I draw on snapshots of practice, ranging from NHS children’s services to community based groupwork with people living with dementia and their companions, to consider a number of questions for those involved in practice, research, or both: how do we develop research with those we work with, how might we understand what matters to whom, and what might social impact look like when practice and research are creatively aligned?

Speaker: Claire Flower

Claire Flower trained as a music therapist at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has worked extensively with children and families, in education and health settings, including hospice care. In 2008 she co-edited, with Prof. Amelia Oldfield, the text ‘Music Therapy with Children and their Families’ and has subsequently published and presented her work widely. She has a particular interest in practice and research with families, and this was the focus of her doctoral studies. Claire is Consultant Music Therapist in Children’s Therapies at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London. She also works for Together in Sound, a collaborative project between The Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research at Anglia Ruskin University and the arts venue, Saffron Hall, facilitating music therapy groups for people living with dementia and their companions. Claire was Chair of the Scientific Committee for the 12th European Music Therapy Conference, held in Edinburgh and online in June 2022. She is on the organising group for the forthcoming international Music Therapy with Families Symposium, being held in Vienna in September 2022.

Guildhall School’s ResearchWorks is a programme of events centred around the School’s research activity, bringing together staff, students and guests of international standing. We run regular events throughout the term intended to share the innovative research findings of the School and its guests with students, staff and the public.