Buy that instrument: Graduating music therapists equip their imaginary music therapy room–theoretical and practical implications

Introduction: Frequently, graduating music therapists face the challenge of buying instruments to equip a music therapy room. With the constraints of a basic budget, critical decisions are inevitable, thus revealing underlying perceptions of what is perceived as less and more important in music therapy. The objective of the study was to find the main instrument choices of graduating music therapists and more specifically to see whether these are related to target clientele, to the therapist’s gender, to musical background, and/or to cultural/national background. Method: 41 graduating students were required to spend a virtual budget of 2000 Euros (≅ 2200 US dollars), to equip an imaginary music therapy room for a clientele of their choice. Spending patterns were compared according to target clientele, gender, musical orientation, and cultural/national background. Results: The most frequently chosen instruments were guitar and drums. No differences in spending patterns were found in relation to target clientele, gender, and musical orientation. Some differences were found in relation to cultural/national background, and more specifically, to the music therapy program in which participants were trained. Discussion: It seems that music therapy programs might have an overriding influence on students’ approach to instruments and their possible functions in music therapy.