Abstract

It is important for music therapists to have musical self-awareness as it helps to ensure that they are not inadvertently imposing their pre-conceived personal and cultural notions of music aesthetics and musicality onto their clients. This research provided me with an opportunity to explore my current beliefs and assumptions about musicality and reflect upon how these might impact my work as a newly certified music therapist. Therefore, purpose of this heuristic self-inquiry was to reveal and examine assumptions that I hold about the concept of musicality and explore how these assumptions may inform my music therapy practice moving forward. As my family members’ musicianship has influenced my understanding of my own musicality and what it means to be musical at large, I engaged in an experiential self-inquiry process wherein I used free improvisations and reflexive journaling to explore how I have reacted and responded to three family members within the context of our musical relationships and past musical interactions that we shared. This resulted in four narrative summaries along with a cross case analysis that revealed three overarching themes: musician self-concept, musical traumas, and newly revealed assumptions and biases on musicality. A creative synthesis in the form of a sound collage served as a representation of the personal and tacit dimensions of this research process. Limitations of the study along with potential implications for others’ clinical practice and future research are also presented.