The Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy degree provides skilled musicians with opportunities to develop expertise to use music within a therapeutic relationship to meet the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs of individuals as board-certified music therapists.
The program's students come from throughout the U.S. and serve the region and nation in professional health care and special education settings.
Classes in the Music Therapy program include the Hayes School of Music's core curriculum: private instrument/voice study, ensemble participation, music theory and aural skills, music history, world music, and other musicianship classes.
Additionally, students in the degree study specific music therapy techniques and theory in order to demonstrate the Professional Competencies established by the American Music Therapy Association. Students learn to address clinical goals for people of all ages and types of challenges through music experiences. These experiences may involve the client's active participation in creating music such as through singing, playing instruments, songwriting, or improvisation or receptive engagement in music through imaging, listening or moving to music.
The culminating experience for this degree is a required 1,020-hour internship at one of more than 50 affiliated sites across the country, which prepares students for the examination administered by the Certification Board for Music Therapists Inc.