Compose, arrange, or adapt music for music therapy treatments.

“Compose, arrange, or adapt music for music therapy treatments.” is a core task performed by Music Therapists. Among the occupation's 30 rated tasks, workers place it 12th by importance (#19 most important). About 100% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Develop patient or client care or treatment plans. in Thinking Creatively

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E1. Direct exposure — a language model could plausibly cut the time to do this task by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 1.00. Automation potential label: T1.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Design or provide music therapy experiences to address client needs, such as using music for self-care, adjusting to life changes, improving cognitive functioning, raising self-esteem, communicating, or controlling impulses. · importance 4.9
• Design music therapy experiences, using various musical elements to meet client's goals or objectives. · importance 4.9
• Sing or play musical instruments, such as keyboard, guitar, or percussion instruments. · importance 4.9
• Communicate with clients to build rapport, acknowledge their progress, or reflect upon their reactions to musical experiences. · importance 4.8
• Customize treatment programs for specific areas of music therapy, such as intellectual or developmental disabilities, educational settings, geriatrics, medical settings, mental health, physical disabilities, or wellness. · importance 4.7
• Establish client goals or objectives for music therapy treatment, considering client needs, capabilities, interests, overall therapeutic program, coordination of treatment, or length of treatment. · importance 4.7
• Document evaluations, treatment plans, case summaries, or progress or other reports related to individual clients or client groups. · importance 4.7
• Assess client functioning levels, strengths, and areas of need in terms of perceptual, sensory, affective, communicative, musical, physical, cognitive, social, spiritual, or other abilities. · importance 4.6
• Observe and document client reactions, progress, or other outcomes related to music therapy. · importance 4.6
• Improvise instrumentally, vocally, or physically to meet client's therapeutic needs. · importance 4.5
• Gather diagnostic data from sources such as case documentation, observations of clients, or interviews with clients or family members. · importance 4.3
• Plan or structure music therapy sessions to achieve appropriate transitions, pacing, sequencing, energy level, or intensity in accordance with treatment plans. · importance 4.3
• Engage clients in music experiences to identify client responses to different styles of music, types of musical experiences, such as improvising or listening, or elements of music, such as tempo or harmony. · importance 4.3
• Participate in continuing education. · importance 4.2

See all tasks on the Music Therapists page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-19184,
  title  = {Compose, arrange, or adapt music for music therapy treatments.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-19184}
}