Stories and Songs from our Music Therapy Retreats
Music Therapy Retreats, once known as Music Therapy of the Rockies, offers veterans and others with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) evidence-based music therapy practices.
Our retreats, free for participants, promote mental wellness through music. We use goal setting, mindfulness, songwriting with professionals, and adapted guitar instruction as part of our best practices.
This approach assists individuals in recognizing triggers, mastering self-regulation, and reinterpreting their past experiences.
Every veteran in the Retreat receives a Breedlove Guitar, using it to develop psychological and physiological skills through music.
About Kenny Yates and “End in Reveille”
I was in the National Guard and did deployments in Afghanistan and Kosovo. I used to be on the funeral honors team, and I would do the last rites for veterans as they were laid to rest.
There are two common bugle calls in the military: Taps, which is played at military funerals, and Reveille, which marks the beginning of the day – it literally comes from the French word for “wake up.”
There was one funeral where the man being buried was a veteran and a minister. After Taps, he’d asked the musician to play Reveille. The songs are similar in the notes being played, but the meanings are polar opposites. One is about putting someone to rest, one is calling someone forth.
For this man, Reveille represented being called into heaven, the beginning of the next life. That always stuck with me.
When I got to the Music Therapy of the Rockies retreat, I was struggling with my mental health and had just found out that my dad had terminal cancer with days to live. I was an emotional mess and wanted to be anywhere but there.
But Mark, the songwriter I was paired with, was able to sit with me in that and overlay the story of the minister’s funeral with the news about my dad, who was also a minister. It’s remarkable what Mark did.
The songwriting process helped me a lot through the loss of my dad. I was able to deal with a lot of the grief and work through some of the sting of it even before he passed. When we did lose him, I was more prepared. It hurt, but I knew he was going to heaven and receiving his reward.
We played the song at his funeral. Reveille will always remind me that it’s not over when we leave this world.
Listen to a preview of Kenny Yates song with Mark Elliott here:
Support Mental Wellness for Veterans
Music Therapy Retreats has served more than 100 veterans and people suffering from PTSD at retreats in Tennessee, Colorado, Maryland, and beyond.
With just a $100 donation, you can receive this song — along with two full albums that give you an inside look at our retreats. The stories and songs compiled here highlight their experiences.
Listen to memories unfold, as the retreat attendee’s experiences are explored and captured in song.
