«DrumPower» – Developments 2016/17

As in the last years, various reports from colleagues at the Institute for Music Therapy and other institutions have shown that the DrumPower method is proven to be a well-founded music therapy method in different contexts of prevention and therapy. It is successfully carried out by the graduates of the DrumPower training in new fields of practice.

Applications
In addition to the project initiatives known from the 2015/16 report in Erlangen, Hamburg, Wolfratshausen and Munich, new project initiatives took place at various schools in 2017, for example in the area of Landshut and Munich or in Bern in Switzerland.

Working with unaccompanied minor refugees was again a special focus for the institute this year. At the school of the Association Hilfe von Mensch zu Mensch, a long drum-power project was carried out in close cooperation with the teachers.

In December 2016, we got new experiences in an integration project with a primary school class and a special education class in Munich. Although both types of school are in a school building, there is little overlap and encounters among the pupils in school life. The new project format with two classes was initiated primarily under the aspect of cooperation, integration and contact with strangers. In the process, it became clear that music can build bridges and makes it easy for students to experience something in common. It also showed that contact and integration take time and the desire to overcome strangeness and limitations. Since these are often missing in everyday life, it requires special opportunities for encounter and contact. The DrumPower project was able to open a few doors while playing together, as you could see in the final performance.

DrumPower Integration Project in Munich

In the continuation of the cooperation project with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, a very interesting project about exclusion and integration emerged in a second grade of the elementary school on Flurstraße in Munich. After the staging of an exclusion situation with different (drum) groups, the students invented two songs with the coaches. In the first song, the excluded child sings of his sadness and loneliness. Then, in the second song, the group develops compassion and invites him to be there again. The songs are very sensitive and touching due to their special musical design, supported by the piano and cello sounds of the musicians. The children and the audience loved the music.
The musical story was performed at the festival MPHIL 360º of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra on November 12, 2016 in the Black Box of the Gasteig in Munich. Currently, there is another cooperation project with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra at the Elementary School on Flurstraße, funded by the program "Art and Games" of the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Stiftung Brandenburger Tor.

Project in cooperation to the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra

For the school year 2017/18, the working group "Prevention" of the Institute for Music Therapy is planning further projects at various schools, working with refugees and in collaboration with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

Advanced Qualification
In 2017, two advanced qualifications were completed. Participants from various pedagogical and therapeutic fields developed context-specific application concepts for the TrommelPower project in middle and primary school, for the work with unaccompanied minor refugees and for clinical work in child psychiatry and psychosomatics. This reflected design of the DrumPower concept in accordance with the context of the respective practice fields impressively demonstrates the flexible methodological applicability of the project model with various target groups.

DrumPower Advanced Qualification 2017

For example, the DrumPower projects within the framework of psychosomatic clinics have a special effect. The topic-centered approach proves to be an effective gateway to hidden background issues for patients, while focusing on developing solutions through project orientation. This results in helpful interactions between topic-focused work in the projects and therapeutic work-through in the regular psychotherapeutic offers.

Another example within the International Training Group is the use of the project model in a publicly funded music therapy program for refugees in Luxembourg. Differences and transitions have been discussed carefully between the group therapeutic approach of the DrumPower project model and individual therapy of traumatized people.

DrumPower Advanced Qualification, International Training Group 2017

For the next year, a DrumPower advanced qualification is planned in Sweden.
We will also be giving two seminars at the Zurich University of the Arts on the subject of violence prevention with music and the DrumPower project. The next advanced qualification at the Institute for Music Therapy of the Freies Musikzentrum in Munich is planned for 2019.

Scientific discourse
In 2016 and 2017, the TrommelPower project method was presented and discussed at various music therapy congresses. On the "3. International Symposium on Youth Music Therapy "in Edinburgh, the specific impact and impact factors of the project method with a focus on development were discussed. At the European Music Therapy Congress in Vienna the basics of the method were presented and practical application possibilities were taught in a workshop. In 2017, the project method was presented and discussed at the symposium in Zurich and at the 4th International Symposium for Music Therapy with Young People in Munich.

4th Symposium on Music Therapy and Adolescents at 28th and 29th of November 2017
(Katrina McFerran, Melbourne, Andreas Wölfl, Munich, Évi Forgó Baer, Zürich, Henrike Roisch, Munich, Giulia Fedrigo, Verona, Suvi Saarikallio, Jyväskylä, Philippa Derrington Edinburgh, Viggo Krüger, Bergen)

Accompanying the ongoing projects, the Working Group on Prevention provided a lively discourse on the methodology, theory and research in the various fields of practice, which are reflected in various publications:

• Roisch, H. Westphäling, D. Maier, S., Neumann, N., Hirnschall, C. (2017): TrommelPower gegen Gewalt – Gewaltprävention, soziale Integration und Persönlichkeitsförderung mit Musik. In: MuG Musik und Gesundsein, 12/2017, 18-21.
  
  
• Westphäling, D. & Wölfl, A. (2017): Trommelpower mit unbegleiteten minderjährigen Flüchtlingen in einer Übergangseinrichtung der Stadt München - Erfahrungen und Eindrücke. In: Timmermann, T.; Schmidt, H-U (Hg.): Förderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen durch musiktherapeutische Vorgehensweisen. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 125-131.
  
  
• Wölfl, A. (2017): Gewaltprävention mit Musik – Grundlegende Gedanken zu musiktherapeutischen Möglichkeiten der Gewaltprävention. In: MuG Musik und Gesundsein 32/2017, 14-17.
  
  
• Wölfl, A. (2017): Musik und Gewalt: musiktherapeutische Gewaltprävention. In: Timmermann, T.; Schmidt, H-U (Hg.): Förderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen durch musiktherapeutische Vorgehensweisen. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 85-124.
  

New insights into theory formation and research have also been gained in various graduation papers that refer to different aspects of the DrumPower method.

Professional support and supervision
All Munich DrumPower projects take place under professional support and supervision; supervision is also provided for a high school in Erlangen (Emmy Noether-Gymnasium) and for use in psychosomatic hospitals.

Support
DrumPower projects with the children, adolescents and young adults can only be realized with the support and funding from foundations and private sponsors. For the year 2016/17 special thanks go to Barbara Weidinger Music Foundation, the Lions Club München - Karl-Valentin, the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Cultural Department Munich.