Archive | May, 2010

MythBuster Countdown #8: Making Music is Just for Kids and Professionals.

By on May 28, 2010 in Music & Wellness, Mythbusters

This post is included in a series of MythBusters about making music. A previous MythBuster post is MythBuster Countdown #9: Music Therapy is Therapy for Musicians, Right?

When I was a kid, one of the most poignant comments I remember hearing grown-ups say was “My biggest life regret was quitting music lessons.” The biggest regret in ALL of life pertains to music? Wow. That is powerful! I’ve found that many people feel this way. My thought response to this now is “Maybe you quit lessons, but no one ever quits making music.” We’re biologically programmed to make music, and we see evidence of this from birth to end of life.

A few years ago, I decided to stop short of getting my masters in piano at USC. I transitioned from classical piano performance to music therapy at FSU. Just a couple years later, some people asked, “Do you have regrets about giving up piano?” It was such a weird question because my state of mind was never one of “giving up” piano! How is it possible to “give up” something that is such a part of your core?

But I think I understand why people may see it that way. Perhaps if you don’t make it to the “big time,” if you’re not in a band, or if you don’t become a professor or a teacher of your instrument, maybe then it seems like you’ve given up. Actually there is a “Modern Rhythmaculture” (thanks to many including Arthur Hull) fostered by music therapists, drum circle facilitators, and music educators now. The philosophy is that people are musical beings, and music is in our DNA. We’re making music in our breathing, walking, and talking. Making music is equally as available to YOU or the average Joe as it is to a professional musician or a kid.

I recently had a barbecue at my house. I didn’t plan on making music, but someone picked up a guitar. Then people rushed inside to grab all my drums and drum along to the music. It all happened spontaneously. There were 3 formally trained musicians present and probably 25 people making music. 25 people making music who were not formally trained!

If you’re ever wishing you hadn’t stopped taking music lessons, then I recommend converting all the regretful energy into “sing, dance, and drum by yourself or with friends” energy. It’s really just that easy. All it takes is a hand to clap, a finger to snap, a toe to tap, or a voice to rap. Here are a few more ways to get started.

If music can be compared to happiness, here’s a great story. Once upon a time, an anxious, stressed woman went to a temple to see a wise man. She wanted peace in her life, and just couldn’t feel it, she couldn’t find it, she couldn’t make it happen. The wise man said “You want peace, then have it.” She replied, “But there is too much anxiety and sadness in the way.” The wise man said, “What is holding you back from having peace besides yourself?”

I heard another wise man say that if you look for happiness, then you will surely fail! Happiness is already here and now.

Have a comment? Throw it down! I’d love to hear from you.

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Bhangra Rhythm and Drumming with Indian Professionals

By on May 25, 2010 in Community, Drumming

On Saturday, I facilitated a drum circle for the San Diego Network of Indian Professionals in supporting Child Rights and You, an organization dedicated to restoring the rights of underprivileged children.

Here’s the play-by-play:

I arrive with the drums. We set up chairs in a tight circle.

I teach a couple of simple techniques in basic drumming.

Three of us start playing, passing the beat, calling and responding.

15 More participants join in. I teach the group a couple of simple world beats.

We sing a couple of songs to tighten up the rhythm. Passers-by pause, and some children join in shaking shakers and playing drums.

One of the NetIP participants starts playing the Bhangra and Garba rhythms from India.

We all start playing Bhangra with him and improvising over it. Keep in mind that only a few participants knew each other before we started playing, and no one was a formally trained musician. But everyone was from India, so these rhythms unified the group. Eventually, I exit the circle to take pictures while everyone sings Bollywood song hits of the 1990s in Hindi. They sing about 30 song hits! No facilitator necessary – Laughing, dancing, smiling… Beautiful community! I think they could have gone on singing all day. It was amazing to see how music connected and transformed the group in such a short amount of time.

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9 Tips: Drum Circles for Kids with Special Needs

By on May 21, 2010 in Kids, Z

Marilyn, one of my subscribers, recently asked me about drumming with kids who have special needs. She and her business partner have been hired to run a drum circle at a summer camp! Marilyn is a drum circle facilitator in Jacksonville, FL, she runs Heart 2 Heart Circles, and she blogs at Marilyn’s On The Move.

Here are some starter tips for drum circles for kids who have special needs:

1. Find out how many kids, and find out what the grown up to kids ratio is. It’s important to keep the ratio high on the grown up end. Then you can ask the grown ups to keep the steady beat and assist the kids. Also, the fewer kids you have, the more individualized you can get. Take it all into consideration when designing your drum circle experience.

2. Find out the theme and function of the drum circle. Is this for a summer camp, a birthday party, an end-of-year celebration? Choose songs and chants appropriate to the theme.

3. Find out the needs of the kids, and make sure you have plenty of adaptive instruments to meet those needs. Check out the adaptive instrument section of my inventory list. Two of my favorites are the mallet cuffs that you can velcro onto a hand and the adaptive instrument mount for wheelchairs and desks.

3. Find out what chants, songs, and activities the kids already know. Start with those to build rapport and bring everyone together in rhythm. I would encourage using tons of chants and songs with the drumming. And as always, encourage the grown ups to sing along.

4. Build relationships with the kids in small groups or individually before the larger event. I have found that the most effective drum circles blossom from already-established relationships with the kids. Work in smaller groups for days or weeks in a row prior to a larger drum circle. This way, the kids know the songs and chants that you’ll use, and they anticipate the final day when everyone comes together.

5. Demonstrate exactly what you are planning for the teachers/counselors/grown ups. They are your TEAM, so utilize them! Go through the drum circle with them first in preparation if possible.

6. Use call and response and rumbles as mini assessments of the group in the beginning. Observe the group’s response, and base the direction of the drum circle on your observation. Be present. Meet the kids where they ARE, and slowly take them elsewhere, always evaluating their response to your facilitation.

7. Try firework rumbles. Have everyone rumble softly, and tell them that when you extend your hand towards them, they should let out a firework on their drum! This rumble can last forever with different spotlights – You can facilitate a larger firework rhythm over the soft rumble in different areas of the drum circle.

8. Spotlight the kids, build confidence. Once everybody has a rumble down, you can ask if there is a child who would like to come to the center to give the “cutoff.”

9. End with rumble intentions. Invite participants to call out one word, invite the group to repeat the word, then rumble in honor of that word/intention. For instance, say “we’re going to rumble for unity!” Then, invite the crowd to shout “Unity!” at the count of three, then rumble for unity.

Extras: There are some great themed-songs for kids at Listen and Learn. The artist Rachel Rambach is a music therapy colleague of mine in Illinois. She does a stellar job combining social, community, learning aspects to music. Pull out a guitar and check out her songs! Several of her songs can be used to accommodate larger groups and coincide with themes.

Another great resource is the Erfurt Music Resource. You can peruse through EMR by clicking on the pages and labels that suit your needs. Find out how other people do it! Find songs that are good for larger groups, find adaptive instruments that are good for kids who have special needs, and you’ll be all set!

Got more tips? Throw down a comment!

Image above courtesy of Diana Burrows.

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MythBuster Countdown #9: Music Therapy is Therapy for Musicians, right?

By on May 18, 2010 in For Music Therapists, Music & Wellness, Mythbusters

Welcome to the countdown! 9 misconceptions about making music and music therapy will be unveiled in the next few weeks. My list is based upon my personal interactions with clients, friends, colleagues, and the general public throughout the years. If you’d like to contribute to the list, please comment below or contact me at Kat@SoundHealthMusic.com.

I like these posts because when I receive an inquiry about music therapy, I can usually answer the inquiry with a link to one simple, pre-written blog post. Please feel free to share links to these posts as answers when you run across inquiries regarding making music and/or music therapy.

Music therapy is therapy for formally trained musicians, right?

No and yes. Actually, no musical experience is necessary to benefit from music therapy. Most of my clients have no formal music training, but some do. In fact, it’s safe to assume that the majority of music therapy clients around the world have no formal music training. According to the Sourcebook by the American Music Therapy Association, the largest single category population served by music therapists is mental health. Mental health is followed by developmentally disabled, elderly & Alzheimer’s, medical/surgical, and neurological disorders.

Naturally, there are formally trained musicians in these categories. When I see patients and clients who are formally trained, they benefit from treatment, but not necessarily more so than others. For example, once I treated an Alzheimer’s patient in a hospital. The staff said “Good luck – She’s non-verbal.” I assessed the patient, then started singing a song that was popular when the patient was in her early twenties. (Research shows that Alzheimer’s patients are more likely to be familiar with music that was popular between the ages of 18 and 26.) Much to the staff’s surprise, the patient sang all the words to all the verses. The family witnessed the patient coming to life through song, and the family claimed that the patient was not a formally trained musician!

Remember: No musical talent or experience is necessary to benefit from music therapy.

Then, is music therapy ever therapy for formally trained musicians?

Yes! Music therapists often treat musicians. Some music therapists specialize in enhancing wellness and overcoming performance-related disorders. One such company is Performance Wellness, Inc. based out of New York, NY. The director Dr. Louise Montello (a licensed psychoanalyst and music therapist) has been treating professional musicians since the early 1990s. According to the website, Performance Wellness, Inc. is dedicated to meeting the mind-body health needs of performers and professionals from all walks of life.

A second example is one of my professional testaments. I treated a woman with Alzheimer’s who had played piano her entire life, but at the time of the session, she claimed that she couldn’t play anymore. With some gentle encouragement, she sat at the piano bench with me. I invited her to play anything. She kept repeating the same interval of a 2nd up, then down the keyboard. I improvised to provide a rhythmic and harmonic framework and support system for her improvisation. We performed for her family. Afterwards, she was smiling and laughing, and her family was in shock. It had been so long since they had seen her connect as coherently as we all had in that moment of her performance.

Read more about music therapy. Stay tuned for MythBuster Countdown #8 next week!

Please feel share any comments, thoughts, or insights below.

Special thanks for Salvatore Vuono for the image above.

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Say it so you can play it.

By on May 11, 2010 in Drumming, Kids, Music & Wellness

Arthur Hull always says “If you can say it, then you can play it.” It makes perfect sense. If you can say the rhythm with your voice, or if you can move the rhythm with your body, then you have embodied the rhythm.

None of my nuclear family members would admit that they are musicians. However, I started saying rhythms out loud as a young girl, thanks to my dad. When I was in 5th grade, my older brother Geoff went to fight in the Persian Gulf War. When he returned, my dad, my little brother and I had prepared a Welcome Home Beat Box Piece just for Geoff. Some of our influences included The Fat Boys (the Human Beat Box and Wipeout feat. the Beach Boys), Dogs Barking Jingle Bells, and chickens singing In The Mood. But we really wanted this original beat box piece to be just for Geoff. We rehearsed a lot, and it paid off because Geoff was in tears when he heard our live performance.

Our performance for Geoff sounded like this: Boom-che-Boom, BoomBoom-che-Boom, Boom-che-Boom-Boom-che, BoomBoom-che-Boom.

I recommend “liking” DrumCircles.net on Facebook by Shannon Ratigan. You get a new rhythm to say every week! I’m taking these to my two drum classes today for my students to say out loud. Some of my favorites include:

♫ Boom, sha-La-Ka-Boom-Boom (pause) Boom, sha-La-Ka-Boom-Boom ♫

Drum circle rhythm WaaHida in 4/4: 1+2+3+4+ ♫♫ Doum-tekkatekkaTek-tekkatekkaTek-ka-, Doum-tekkatekkaTek-tekkatekkaTek-ka-, ♫♫

♫♫ Boom – che-boom_che-boom-a-choc_o_late__choc_o_late, (dramatic pause) Boom – che-boom_che-boom-a-choc_o_late__choc_o_late ♫♫♫

Word association is a great way to get a 6/8 drum circle rhythm going. ♫♫♫ Fol-low-the-yel-low-brick-road-go-do-pa-ta-pa ♫♫♫

Special thanks to Shannon for sharing his rhythmic talents online!

There are examples of saying it and playing it in classical and jazz music. Because I am a classically-trained pianist, I’m especially moved by piano music. Here are some world-famous pianist examples of “saying it and playing it:”

*Classical example. Glenn Gould plays Goldberg Variations. Listen closely to #3. What’s that buzzing in the background? No, that’s not your home heater creaking or birds chirping outside your window. That is Glenn Gould himself. He was often criticized for his vocalizations during recordings, but somehow he managed to become one of the most famous and highest-acclaimed interpreters of keyboard music by J.S. Bach.

*Jazz example. Keith Jarrett plays the Paris Concert. Listen closely to the Blues excerpt. The recording engineers actually do a stellar job of covering up the voice, but, oh, it’s there. When I saw Keith Jarret play live in Philadelphia five years ago, he might as well have had a body double humming along up at the vocal mic.

What’s the last rhythm you said out loud? Share your ideas and comments below.

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