Tue, 30 Jun 2026 02:30:12 -0600WeeblySat, 09 Jan 2016 00:32:19 GMThttps://www.keymagiamusic.com/blog/january-08th-2016I began playing violin when I was 10.  The school offered band, orchestra and choir beginning in 5th grade and I was eager to take up an instrument...namely flute.  At orientation night, the band teacher determined that flute was not to be my instrument as, try as I might, I was not able to make a sound out of it.  She encouraged the clarinet.  I wasn't impressed.  My parents suggested I try the violin since my mom had one already and if I didn't like it I could revisit the flute in a year.  So, a little grudgingly and with every intent to play flute the following year, I began violin lessons.

​There were two of us in the beginning strings class so essentially we had a private lesson each week with our teacher.  I fell in love with the instrument.  The variations in sound and pitch, the vibration of the bow moving across the strings, and yes, the challenge to be able to play well.  I determined while still in elementary school that I would teach strings and orchestra classes one day.

​My junior year of high school, the orchestra teacher often asked me sub for her when she was ill.  Surprisingly, I discovered I really didn't enjoy directing the orchestra.  I wasn't sure what to do at that point, still loving music, but not wanting to teach or perform left me wondering where I was headed. 

One day while practicing in my teacher's office, I noticed a newspaper article she had pinned on her bulletin board about music therapy.  I began researching the field and found there was one music therapist in the town where we lived.  She worked with adults who had suffered brain injuries.  That summer I began volunteering at the rehabilitation hospital, assisting the music therapist and falling in love with the thought of helping others with the music I so loved. At the same time, I began working as an assistant teacher at a local music school, assisting and teaching preschool music classes.  I found I really enjoyed this also.

​I moved across the country to attend Shenandoah College and Conservatory (now Shenandoah University) and study music therapy from Marian Sung.  Through many practicum hours with various populations, I learned that I loved working with children who have special needs. 

​Due to a hand injury, I had to quit playing my violin and leave Shenandoah my senior year.  I went to Tennessee Technological University for a year, hoping to finish up there.  Most of my music therapy classes had been completed so I began working with the Tennessee Early Intervention System as a student music therapist working with children birth to 5 years of age with special needs.  I would drive to their homes in the surrounding areas to provide group music therapy for families who were not able to come into town for services.  After a year there, I decided to return to Colorado and finish my degree at Colorado State University.

​Upon completion of my degree in 1995, I went to Enid, Ok to do my clinical internship.  I worked at Northern Oklahoma Resource Center of Enid.  It was a residential facility for people with special needs.  My days were filled with writing goals and objectives, planning and implementing music therapy sessions with clients and writing up documentation on the sessions at the end of the day.  The weekly sessions included band made up of two young men, a drummer and a singer, a signing choir made up of the teens and young adults living at the facility, a 1:1 using music to teach a young man to communicate with sign language, using hand bells, singing and various activities with a patients with Alzheimer's disease and doing research on how music affected the rate at which people work.

When I finished my internship, I returned to Colorado and took the exams to become a Board-Certified Music Therapist.  I worked in child care for a time, got married and then started my private practice, Music Therapy Services of Northern Colorado, working with children birth to 12 years of age with developmental disabilities.  The children and their parents became family to me.  Most of the sessions were held in their natural environment, their home or school, and I loved getting to know them well and watch them grow and progress in their habilitation.  The children all had various goals including speech, gross motor skills, fine motor skills and learning of information.  I even had the privilege to help an elementary aged boy be able to walk to the beat of music without a walker.  Each child was an overcomer in their life!

​Through working with several agencies in the area, I co-led a playgroup for kids birth to 4 years of age.  The group included kids with special needs as well as their typical peers.  Each week we would have a theme based play time, a craft, a large motor play time and music therapy.  At the end of our time, an expert in a given field, would come talk to the parents about things they could do to help in the development of their children. 

​In 2000, I stopped working, with the exception of the playgroup, to stay home and raise my son.  At the end of 2001, the playgroup funding came to an end and I put my full time and attention into raising our two children.  After a couple years, I missed doing music with young children, so I took a class on musical development of young children and play-based models of teaching music in early childhood education.  As we began homeschooling, I used what I learned to teach early childhood music classes for other homeschool families. 

​Our season of homeschooling has passed and I am now excited to have time to share music with more of our community through Key Magia Music. Life is a process that we move through.  We learn, grow and consequently change.  But one thing has remained for me - I love both music and teaching children, whether it be homeschooling my kids, music therapy with my clients or teaching play-based music classes with young children, I am most at home on the floor with little ones, singing, laughing and teaching.
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