Dr. Natalie Wlodarczyk, a professor at Drury University, is an artist who has deep ties to music in the Springfield, MO area.

She is a board certified Music Therapist who received her doctorate from Florida State University. She has had numerous published works in her field, is the founder of the Inter-generational Rock-band at Drury, and currently runs the Music Therapy program.  In addition, Dr. Wlodarczyk is actively involved in music around the community, performing with several groups throughout the years. The Scoop recently got a chance to talk with her and about her influences and thoughts on music.

What got you into music?

Well my dad played guitar and I always was intrigued by it. When I turned  seven I got my first guitar, and I pretty much just never put it down.

Do you play anything aside from guitar?

I play piano just because all music majors are required to, but I don’t consider myself a piano player.  I can play basic piano.  I play a little harmonica, and then I can play a little drums but mostly I use percussion in a music therapy setting, so hand percussion, drum circles and that sort of thing.

What would you say a Music Therapist is?

Music therapy is the use of live music intervention or activities to reach non-music goals.  So Music therapists use live instrument play, singing, looking up lyrics, drumming, and a million other hands on music activities that all have a goal to help people in ways that aren’t musical like helping them with rehabilitation after an accident, learning to walk again, talk again, communication goals, and social goals.  So using musical activities to reach non-music goals.

Are there any groups in the community that you play with?

I am.  I’m involved in a duo called The Shandies that is with Shannon Stine who is a musician around the area.  We just started playing together back in April.  We play a mix of covers and original songs, but we’re working on focusing more on original songs.  It’s kind of a mix of folk and light rock with some country thrown in.

Any solo gigs?

I do a solo gig now by default.  I was in a duo with a really talented guitarist named Russel Weatherly and he and I played together for three years til he retired, so I now play a solo monthly gig by myself at Falstaff’s Local downtown, and that’s pretty much all I do solo.  To be honest with you, that’s a big step for me to take that on solo because when I lived in Florida I played with another group, three women, kinda 3-part acoustic harmony stuff, then when I moved here I played in a rock band called AKA, so I played rhythm guitar in that band for a bit, and then I started the duo with Russel, and the duo with the Shandies, but I never considered myself a solo act and was very scared to play 3-hours by myself.  I think I was worried that I wouldn’t be interesting enough by myself without the harmonies or someone playing lead guitar.  I was worried I wouldn’t be interesting enough, but the reception has been good, and it’s been a good challenge for me to push what I can do by myself, with one guitar, one voice, and one person.

You mentioned your dad inspired you to get into music, but was there a band that also helped inspire you?

Yes, oh my gosh, so many.  Around the room are a lot of records that belonged to my dad.  My dad died about 5 years ago in a car accident.  I inherited all his stuff so these are all his record albums: The Beatles, The Eagles, Neal Young, Jethro Tull, Steely Dan.  All acts from the 60’s and 70’s that I was raised on, so they really influenced me.  Being a guitar player, they really influenced me into the singer-songwriter thing.  Today I would say I love Sara Bareilles. I think her songwriting is amazing.  Her lyrics just really blow me away.  Her lyrics are very clever if you take the time to listen to them.  Her melodies are catchy, but the lyrics, I think are just very clever.  I like more of the folksy thing, like Damien Rice, and there’s a group called The Wailin’ Jennys. They influence me a lot with their harmonies.  I’m always discovering new things.  College students really help me keep current with different artists.

What is your favorite aspect about playing at the different local venues in town?

I think that it gives me an opportunity to do music that’s for me and not my job. One of the reasons that it’s important for working musicians like music teachers and music therapists to gig and play in outside groups is because it gives you an opportunity to keep some music for yourself.  You can get burnt out on music believe it or not, if you do it for your job.  I actually remember having a conversation with my choir teacher my freshman year of college.  I asked her, “What do you listen to in the car or on your way home?” and she was like ,“You know I don’t listen to any music in the car, and when I’m at home I just sort of want quiet.”  When I heard this, and this was 18-year old me, I was horrified and I never wanted that to happen to me.  That sounded terrible.  I wanted to make sure that I kept a piece of music for myself.  Playing gigs, it’s fun, and it gives me control over having music just for me.

Would you have any advice for someone who wants to get started playing gigs?

One of the best things you can do is go watch other people play.  I try to encourage the students here at Drury to go watch other musicians play, but I don’t know how much they do. I really think it’s important, especially if you want to be in that scene yourself, to go out and watch other people perform and make connections.  That’s pretty much how I got involved, and if they want to play shows themselves, just going to meet local musicians helps get your foot in the door.  Someone might invite you to come sit in on a set, or something.  And even if you don’t aspire to be on the performance side of things, I think going to listen to other music is really important for musicians to see which styles are developing or evolving.  There’s good stuff out there, and you don’t want to miss it.

What is a good way for those sorts of people to find local performances?

Believe it or not, Facebook.  I cannot imagine how I would know who is playing where without Facebook.  I think it’s posted in the newspaper who is playing where every weekend but I don’t look at the paper.  If it’s a Friday night and I’m not playing myself I will go to Facebook because if you like enough local bands they’ll start popping up on your news-feed so you can see, oh, Blue False Indigo is playing out at the Outland.  You can use social media in an amazing way to figure out where people are playing and kind of plug-in to that.  Half the time I hate Facebook because I feel like it’s a big time suck, but the reason I stick with it is because I wouldn’t know when people are playing and I wouldn’t be able to tell other people when I am playing.