The Traveling Music Therapist – Apps I LOVE part 2

When I posted about the apps I love to use on the road, there are a few of my absolute favorite that I forgot!  Here are a few bonus apps to round out the bunch I listed yesterday!   Enjoy! 1. On Song – A wonderful app for downloading, organizing, and creating lyric and chords sheets that you can always have on hand digitally. 2.  Music Notes – I have an account with musicnotes.com where I download the majority of music for my students.  What’s nice about the app is that once you purchase the song, you also have a digital copy available that can be transposed into most any key!  You can also add any of the notes you need, highlight specific words, notes, or parts, and easily flip between pages. 3.  Wordpress – Because my website it done through wordpress, I love having the app handy.  This way I can write blog posts from Starbucks, my car, or hotel room (at conferences or on vacation) without having to lug my computer along!   I can also make several Read More

The Traveling Music Therapist – 12 Apps I LOVE

Whether I am on the road, in my office, or with clients, I almost always have a device with tons of apps I like to use for a variety of purposes.  The following apps I’m going to talk about are apps for business and travel.  Enjoy! 1.  Triplog – mileage tracker.   I loved this app when I started using it because I could press “start trip” and it would use GPS to track my miles.  However, I have poor GPS signal in several of the rural towns I go to so I have taken to manually inputing my miles.  This is a great apps for people in larger cities or areas with great signal strength 2. iCal – I have my google calendar synched with my iCal so that all my events pop up and sometimes even have alarms 3. Chase – I do not live near my bank and am always on the go so I use my Chase app ALL the time 4. Maps – I have given up trying to use my Tom Tom for the Read More

The Traveling Music Therapist: What’s in the Car

Every week, the amount of “stuff” I have in my car simply grows and grows, and it eventually needs to be cleaned out (usually every Friday… or so).  Some things stay (and always will) while others (like Starbuck cups) get thrown out.    Below is a fairly inclusive list of what you may find in my car any given week.  Get Ready… it’s pretty awesome. Water bottles (empty and full)  Starbucks cups Lunch Wrappers First Aid Kit (2 actually) GPS Phone Charger Pens and Pencils Paper Mileage Log Hand Sanitizer (for after EVERY session) Headband,  Hair Ties, & Bobby Pins Umbrella A Case of Water Assorted Instruments Phone iPod Sanitizing Wipes Ice Scraper Random CDs Mints/Gum Car Cleaning Supplies Art Supplies AND MORE   What things do you keep in your car as a Traveling MT? Read More

The Traveling Music Therapist: What I Listen To

When I have a long day of music therapy sessions and lessons planned, listening to the same 10 pop songs on the radio isn’t necessarily on my top 5 list of things to do.  Often, I like to either listen to a podcast or audio book, sit in silence, or write new songs in my head.  Below is a quick list of some of the Podcasts I’m currently listening to! Music Therapy Podcasts 1. Music Therapy Round Table – http://musictherapyroundtable.com/ 2. The Urban Therapist – http://urbantherapists.wordpress.com/ 3. On the Go Studio – http://www.onthegostudiopodcast.com/ 4. Start a Therapy Practice – http://startatherapypractice.com/category/podcast 5. The Music Therapy Show – http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mtshow Other Favorite Podcasts & Radio Shows 1. Freakonomics 2. Radiolab 3. Q with Jian Ghomeshi 4. Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me 5. NPR – in general 6. How Stuff Works What are some of your favorite podcasts, radio shows, or audio books? Read More

New Series: The Traveling Music Therapist

I was so blessed when I moved to Lincoln, to find a part-time position at a hospital and another music therapist who needed a contractor.  I love the diverse range of clients I work with and all of the different settings, but I do a lot of traveling.  This week alone, traveling only three days, I will spend roughly 8-9 hours in my car. That’s a lot of driving for 3 days!  Last year I put over 13,000 miles on my car for work alone (and that’s probably an underestimate).  So, over the past 2 years of travel, I have come up with a couple strategies for coping, a few tricks to make life easier, some resources to help things along, and a list of things I cannot forget. Over the next couple weeks, I’m going to be sharing with you some of the ways handle being a Traveling Music Therapist.  Today, I have a 6 Quick Tips for Travel. 1.  Schedule enough time to be 5 minutes late (in case you have to talk to a family, make a Read More