This case study is an ethnographic descriptive microanalysis of the musical interaction between the music therapist and a 9-year-old boy with social communication issues. More specifically the study investigates the development over 7 sessions of their interaction in a greeting song, ‘Goddagsangen’, which was a part of the opening routine of every music therapy session. Two videoclips were selected for analysis using the video microanalysis by music therapist Ulla Holck (Holck, 2007a). The clip from 2. session shows an interaction that doesn’t work and the boy is hardly participating in ‘Goddagsangen’. The clip from 7. Session shows a positive interaction and the boy is engaged.
The transcription was made in the computer annotation programme ELAN 5.9.
The analysis of 2. session shows that the music therapist synchronized her drumming to the boy’s drumming in ‘Goddagsangen’. The analysis of 7. session indicates that the boy tries to synchronize his drumming to the music therapist’s drumming in ‘Goddagsangen’ and that they have reached ‘joint attention’. This investigation and the theoretical basis indicate that the music therapeutic use of ‘Goddagsangen’ has supported the development of the boy’s ability to communicate socially. ‘Goddagsangen’ contains elements such as breaks, (song)pauses, rythm, Motifs, synchronized drumming, suspensive phrases etc, which are reflecting elements of the early mother-infant interaction.
For further research, the investigation of the feasibility of ‘Goddagssangen’ as a simple assessment tool to evaluate the development of the interaction in the music therapy.