Experiences of creating personally meaningful songs within a therapeutic context

Abstract

Background: This study investigated the songwriting experiences of 13 students and 13 retirees who engaged in quasi-therapeutic songwriting experiences. Method: Each participant created a song parody, original lyrics and an original song in randomised order. Each song was written on one of three separate themes: a positive experience, a negative experience and a neutral experience. Participants were interviewed about their experiences after the creation of each song and again at 6-week follow-up. Interviews were transcribed and analysed according to grounded theory methods. Twelve participants responded to invitations to review the themes and subthemes. Results: Five main themes emerged: art..