Music Therapist

What music therapists make

The published median is $77,930 a year, with the bottom tenth at $46,540 and the top tenth at $152,530. Read that top number carefully: the federal survey does not count music therapists on their own, it files them inside a residual group called Therapists, All Other, which also holds better paid clinical roles. A new graduate in a school or hospice job should plan around the bottom of this range, not the middle.

Your first job

Full-time salaried positions exist but are not everywhere. A lot of new therapists start by stitching together two part-time contracts in different settings.

Private practice and contracting

Contracting pays more per hour and carries all the risk: you buy your own insurance, chase invoices and get paid nothing for a cancelled session or a snow day.

What it costs to get there

Bachelor's degree in music therapy, in-state public

4 years, roughly $10,000 to $12,000 a year in tuition and fees

Clinical internship

Required, often unpaid or paid only a small stipend

Board certification exam

A few hundred dollars, paid to the certification board

Recertification

100 continuing education credits every 5 years, plus a renewal fee

Roughly, all in

$40,000 to $50,000

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

Both ends are a four year bachelor's degree in music therapy at a public university at in-state rates, at about $10,000 a year at the low end and $12,000 at the high end, plus the board certification exam at a few hundred dollars. There is no cheap door here, because only an approved degree program gets you the required clinical internship and the right to sit the exam. That internship is often unpaid or pays only a small stipend, which is a real cost the tuition figure does not show. Keeping the credential later needs 100 continuing education credits every five years plus a renewal fee.

File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) every year. Hospitals, school districts and nonprofit hospices are qualifying employers for PSLF (Public Service Loan Forgiveness), which cancels remaining federal loans after 10 years of payments.

What the job usually comes with

• Hospital or school benefits

  Health insurance, retirement plan and paid leave on a salaried position.

• Loan forgiveness

  Most employers in this field are nonprofits or public bodies.

• Continuing education paid for

  You need credits to keep your certification and good employers cover them.

• An instrument budget, sometimes

  Guitars, keyboards and percussion wear out fast in clinical use.

The path

One national credential gates the whole field: board certification. Everything else leads to it.

1. 1

   High school

   Grades 11 and 12

   Play an instrument well, sing, and take biology and psychology. Guitar, piano and voice are the three working tools of the job.

2. 2

   Approved degree program

   4 years

   A bachelor's degree in music therapy from a program approved by the American Music Therapy Association. You audition on your instrument to get in.

3. 3

   Clinical internship

   About 6 months

   Supervised clinical training in a hospital, school or care setting. It is required, it is full time, and it is frequently unpaid.

4. 4

   Board exam

   One exam

   Pass the exam from the CBMT (Certification Board for Music Therapists) to earn the MT-BC (Music Therapist, Board Certified) credential.

5. 5

   Work, and keep the credential alive

   Ongoing

   Board certification lasts 5 years and renews on 100 continuing education credits.

High school courses that help

• Music

  You need real playing ability on guitar, piano or voice. This is not optional.

• Psychology

  The clinical half of the degree is developmental and abnormal psychology.

• Biology and anatomy

  You will study how the brain and the nervous system respond to sound.

• Volunteering with children or older adults

  Programs look for it, and it tells you early whether clinical work suits you.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school

4 to 6

Tuition, in-state public

About $40,000 to $50,000 for the bachelor's degree

Paid while training?

No, and the internship is usually unpaid

Credential required

Board certification, and a state license in some states

Certification is national, licensing is state by state

There is no single national license for music therapists. What there is instead is one national credential: the MT-BC (Music Therapist, Board Certified), awarded by the CBMT (Certification Board for Music Therapists) after an approved degree, a clinical internship and an exam. Essentially every employer requires it. On top of that, a growing list of states now license music therapists directly, and a few, New York among them, regulate the work through a creative arts therapist license instead. Check your own state before you pick a program, because that decides whether you also need a master's degree.

Specialties that raise your pay

• Neurologic music therapy

  Training in using rhythm and music for stroke, brain injury and Parkinson's rehabilitation. Hospitals pay for this.

• Hospice and palliative care

  One of the steadiest employers of music therapists in the country.

• Autism and special education

  School districts write music therapy into individual education plans, which means funded positions.

• A master's degree

  Required for a creative arts therapist license in some states, and for supervising and teaching.

Nice-to-haves

• A big repertoire

  You need songs from every decade because you will work with people of every age.

• Improvisation

  Sessions rarely go to plan. Being able to play by ear matters more than reading well.

• Documentation skills

  Clinical notes, goals and progress reports are part of every session in a medical setting.

• A car

  Contract therapists drive between several sites in a week.

A typical day

Check the ward list, load a guitar and a bag of small percussion onto a cart. A morning group in the rehabilitation unit using rhythm to work on walking pace. A bedside session with a patient who cannot speak but sings every word of a song from 1962. Lunch, then notes. Afternoon in the children's unit, then a family who want a recording made while they still can. You write up every session, because in a hospital everything is documented.

The honest trade-offs

Work life

Typical hours

Daytime weekday hours in most settings

Remote work

Little, the work is in the room

Physical demand

Low to moderate, though you carry instruments all day

Unionized

Sometimes in hospitals and school districts

Similar paths

• Recreation TherapistYou use activity as treatment: getting someone back to cooking, gardening or shooting hoops after their life changed.
• Occupational TherapistHelp people do the ordinary things again: dress, cook, write, drive, go back to work. Six years of school, a license, and work in almost every town.
• PsychotherapistTalk therapy as a job. Most people get here with a master's degree and two years of supervised hours, not a doctorate.

It started with war veterans

Musicians played in United States veterans hospitals after both world wars, and doctors noticed the patients responded. Hospitals started hiring the musicians, universities built degree programs to train them, and the profession grew out of that.

Singing survives when speech does not

People with some kinds of aphasia, who have lost the ability to speak after a stroke, can still sing lyrics they knew before. Therapies built on that observation are a standard part of stroke rehabilitation now.

Rhythm moves feet

A steady external beat helps people with Parkinson's disease walk more evenly. It is called rhythmic auditory stimulation, and it is one of the clearest examples of music used as treatment rather than as comfort.

The credential expires

Board certification is good for 5 years and renews only on 100 continuing education credits. Unlike a degree, you can lose this one by letting it lapse, and almost no employer will hire a music therapist without it.