Getting Messy: Playing, and Engaging the Creative, within Research Inquiry

The focus of this special issue of the Journal of Music Therapy is Arts Based Research (ABR). I was first introduced to the multiple methods, techniques, and approaches that make up the rich emergent tapestry of ABR during the 2004 qualitative methods symposium in Sauen, Germany, hosted by the University of the Arts, Berlin, and led by Professor Mechtild Jahn Langenberg (Edwards, 2004a). In preparation for the symposium, Langenberg wrote about the inclusion of ABR as part of the event as follows: We will try out, experience and discuss various issues related to arts based forms, approaches and techniques used as research methods in music therapy for collecting, describing and analysing data as well as vehicles for presenting research results. The arts forms include music, movement, story telling, poetry, art, play, etc. (Langenberg, 2004, n.p.)