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Music therapy specialist skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Kathleen Melago,

Dr. Kathleen Melago

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical music therapy specialist skills. We ranked the top skills for music therapy specialists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 17.3% of music therapy specialist resumes contained music program as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a music therapy specialist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 music therapy specialist skills for your resume and career

1. Music Program

A music program refers to a musical rendition. It could be either created just for the sake of expression and to discover how music triggers feelings and emotions or to represent an idea, a story, or anything else via music.

Here's how music therapy specialists use music program:

Developed, coordinated, and directed music programs and other recreational activities for residents of a large, culturally-diverse nursing home
Created and grew highly successful elementary and secondary choral and general music programs.

2. Music Education

Here's how music therapy specialists use music education:

Administered an original, theme-based curriculum in music education for Kindergarten through Second Grade students at East Elementary School.
Worked with Assistant Head of School and other colleagues to provide a great music education to students in the inner city.

3. Chorus

Here's how music therapy specialists use chorus:

Produced and conducted winter and Spring Concerts, Assembly performances, after school Chorus.
Audition students to participate in All City Chorus events.

4. Public Schools

Public schools are available for everyone. They are funded and controlled by the government. With state guidance, each school board determines the curricula, finances, and jobs for schools within its borders. The government also decides on academic standards and standardised tests.

Here's how music therapy specialists use public schools:

Project Image Orff based curriculum taught at Chicago public schools.
Helped write instrumental curriculum for Livonia Public Schools.

5. Music Curriculum

Here's how music therapy specialists use music curriculum:

Designed and implemented developmentally appropriate, experimentation and play-based music curriculum and classes for children ages 2-5.
Established a firm music curriculum focused on music literacy.

6. Kindergarten

Kindergarten is an early form of education that begins when a child is about five years old. During kindergarten, children learn the basic elements of reading, writing, and mathematics in addition to colors, telling time, sharing, and similar principles. Kindergarten classes are typically overseen by a single teacher who lectures on all of the subjects listed.

Here's how music therapy specialists use kindergarten:

Developed daily music lesson plans for eight, 50-minute classroom sessions for over 250 students, kindergarten to sixth grade.
Provided students from Kindergarten to 8th grade with fun music activities throughout the summer

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7. Fine Arts

Here's how music therapy specialists use fine arts:

Coordinate various fine arts activities and school programs.
Serve on the fine arts curriculum committee and chair the math/science/technology curriculum committee.

8. K-12

K12 is a term that incldues all 12 years of education in the US education system. It includes the education offered at the primary stage, middle stage, and secondary stage. It includes children of ages as young as 5 to 18 years. The grades included in K12 are Kindergarten, the initial 5 stages, grades 6 to 8, and 9 to 12. This system is followed specifically followed in the US and may vary in other countries.

Here's how music therapy specialists use k-12:

Introduced K-12 students to basics of creating original musical and theatrical works in accordance with their age and development.
Performed for and educated K-12 students on the history of jazz through the Young Audience Program, sponsored by Mobil Corporation.

9. K-6

Here's how music therapy specialists use k-6:

Developed and implemented lesson plans for grades K-6 that included singing and rhythm games Directed and accompanied musical theater recitals
Instructed K-6 students in music at Parkside, Midway, and Beverly Park Elementary Schools.

10. Choral Music

Here's how music therapy specialists use choral music:

Teach skills in music understanding/appreciation, harmony, explorations in music and choral music to elementary pupils.
Served as general/choral music instructor to help students understand basic principles of music, such as melody, beat and tempo.

11. Grades K-5

Here's how music therapy specialists use grades k-5:

Designed and implemented Kodaly-based curriculum for grades K-5 creating a foundation for music literacy development.
Provided music instruction to approximately 500 students in grades K-5.

12. Drama

Here's how music therapy specialists use drama:

Offered After School Workshops in Drama, Voice, Keyboard, and Recorder.
Established Drama Mentoring Program for alumni students ages 12-16 years old.

13. Music History

Here's how music therapy specialists use music history:

Instruct students through fun and engaging activities in music games while providing knowledge of basic music vocabulary and music history.
Led discussions about music history, involving resident/students personal history and interests where applicable.

14. Pre-K

Pre-K or pre-kindergarten is a classroom-based program for children below the age of five, and it is a voluntary preschool program. It helps the child develop social and emotional development before they are ready to start preschool.

Here's how music therapy specialists use pre-k:

Lead classes of Infants, Toddlers, Pre-K and Kindergarteners in structured music making activities.
Provide music instruction in piano and theory for Pre-K and Elementary level students.

15. RAN

RAN stands for "revenue anticipation note," which refers to a practice where an organization (often the government) borrows money to support a specific project. When these funds are then repaid, the money given to the lenders comes from the profits generated by the business originally funded.

Here's how music therapy specialists use ran:

Organized, wrote and ran audio for bi-weekly talent shows and chaperoned weekly field trips.
Set out New Release items as dated Maintained organization of Departments Ran inventory control on a monthly basis Operated cash register

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What skills help Music Therapy Specialists find jobs?

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What skills stand out on music therapy specialist resumes?

Dr. Kathleen Melago

Professor of Music Education, Division Head for Music Education, Supervisor of Music Student Teachers, Slippery Rock University

Today's music educators need to have a good balance of breadth and depth. In music education, that means experience in a variety of different aspects of music education. For example, someone who wants to be a high school band director will want to experience concert band, marching band, jazz band, winter guard, color guard, and strong technical skills for teaching music theory or composition. They also would benefit from having experiences directing choir and orchestra. Administrators are looking for highly qualified people who also have the versatility to step in where needed amidst the changing programming needs of the school. Going back to the band director example, if the band director has experience in a choir and someone is needed to direct one period of the choir, that versatility could come in handy.

What soft skills should all music therapy specialists possess?

Dr. Kathleen Melago

Professor of Music Education, Division Head for Music Education, Supervisor of Music Student Teachers, Slippery Rock University

I am a believer in helping students develop their social-emotional learning competencies. In short, they need to have a good sense of their own identity through their self-awareness and self-management, they need to be welcoming to others in the sense of belonging through their relationship skills and social awareness, and they need to have agency through making responsible decisions. Educators need to be organized and manage many balls in the air all at once, but they also need to understand how their decisions impact others. They need to work to empathize with others - to try to see things from someone else's perspective as best as they can - so they can make decisions that are beneficial to everyone. As music educators, we have the unique power to use music to help students learn more about themselves, learn to manage their actions toward reaching their goals, to be part of a group that truly needs each other to be successful, and to learn about the world by studying music that often has been written to express an otherwise indescribable emotion - like emotions from 9/11, school shooting, BLM. For music educators to effectively bring these experiences to their students, they have to be vulnerable and embrace growth in their own SEL skills. The best music educators are not just good at content knowledge, but they know how to change lives.

What hard/technical skills are most important for music therapy specialists?

Dr. Kathleen Melago

Professor of Music Education, Division Head for Music Education, Supervisor of Music Student Teachers, Slippery Rock University

Music educators have a vast knowledge base that is important. In Pennsylvania, as in many states, music teacher certification is PreK-12 and includes every aspect of music education in those grades. It's difficult to declare specific skills as the most important because it depends on what is taught. Elementary general music teachers need to not only be skilled in the processes they use to scaffold and sequence their instruction, but they have to be superb at transitioning between activities and thinking through every second of the class. Suppose 30 seconds pass in a high school orchestra rehearsal while the teacher is getting something ready. In that case, it's not likely to derail the whole class. Thirty seconds of pause in action with kindergarteners is a whole different story. In secondary ensembles, conducting skills are extremely important because they are the primary way the teacher communicates with the class. One often overlooked important technical skill area for high school directors is technology. From running the sound in the auditorium to setting up amps for a jazz band to knowing how to handle the technology on a marching band field, music educators use technology in a lot of ways beyond the distribution and management of content during instruction or for communication of things like grades and news.

What music therapy specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Rusty Banks

Senior Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music, Franklin and Marshall College

First of all, remedy anything that you should've learned so far but have been shaky on: theory, chops, repertoire, and so on. After that, acquire related skills as fast as you can. An example:
I'm primarily a composer and guitarist. As a composer, I write music and hand it to performers to play. That generally works great. Sometimes though, if you're working with non-musicians (film makers, choreographers) they need a recording of the piece before the performance so they can choreograph or edit to it. Notation software can play back your composition, but it sounds cheesy and plastic. This isn't a problem with musicians. They can listen to the cheesy sounds and imagine what it sounds like on real instruments.
Artists that don't have a background in music will really struggle with this, however. It just sounds cheesy to them. So you need to do a better mock-up in the computer. This is a much more complicated process but can generally produce results that, while not as good as a real orchestra, are close enough to work with. It is an entire skill set separate from composing. It's closer to a combination of conducting/programming/mixing/producing. So I spent the pandemic learning to do that.
I also learned a handful of other music production/tech things. All of these skills will be quite useful to me in or out of a pandemic.

What technical skills for a music therapy specialist stand out to employers?

Fred David Romines Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Marywood University

Instructional templates that employ the latest software seamlessly integrated with in-person and remote instruction.

Do you want to know more?

List of music therapy specialist skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a music therapy specialist resume and required skills for a music therapy specialist to have include:

Music Program
Music Education
Chorus
Public Schools
Music Curriculum
Kindergarten
Fine Arts
K-12
K-6
Choral Music

Grades K-5
Drama
Music History
Pre-K
RAN
Classroom Management
Professional Development
K-8
Elementary Schools
Music Performance

Music Appreciation
Songwriting
K-4
Sales Floor
General Music Classes
Vocal Music
Elementary Music
Music Theory
K-2
Private Lessons

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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Music Therapy Specialist Skills

Updated January 8, 2025

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