Music Moves

Archive Note: This post was written in April of 2011 after a very busy week at the ND School for the Blind and is a brief look at Music with the Visually Impaired, specifically in North Dakota.  If you like what you read here and want to learn more about the field of Visual Impairment and Music, consider reading THESE POSTS from the author’s week at the Overbrook School for the Blind’s Braille Music Summer Institute 2011 – Enjoy!

Welcome May! Leave it to North Dakota to do so with Snowfall!

This past weekend was the Dakota AER Conference (The “Association for Education and Rehabilitation” of the Blind and Visually Impaired is the Organization’s Full Title), hosted by the ND School for the Blind. I was unable to attend this event, but in my stead, the following video was played at Thursday’s banquet, detailing my work in the Music Department of North Dakota Vision Services/School for the Blind:

The Music Program at NDVS/SB (Youtube Link)

The video outlines two main areas of my work at NDVS/SB, the first being Braille Music, and the latter being Music Therapy. Assuming you’ve just watched the video linked above, let’s work backwards and start with Music Therapy. What can Music do for individuals with Visual Impairments?

Music to assist in Location of a Sound Source or Object

In one of the clips used for the video above, a little girl with low vision can be observed visually following (we call it tracking) a drum as I pass it in front of her eyes.  Born with a host of other cognitive and physical impairments, this student’s actual amount of visual capability I’m told was very difficult to assess before she started Music Therapy.  Her interest in and ability to track Instruments like the Paddle Drum I use in that video clip actually enabled her Parents, Vision Teachers, and other Professionals working with her to really begin to understand just how much she could and couldn’t see, something they had struggled with measuring previously.  Once they were able to determine just what she could see and at what distances, we could continue to use her interest and tracking ability to strengthen the vision she possessed to make better use of it in her everyday life.

Music to Motivate Movement

Some of the students I see are completely blind.  We can still use Music and Activities like the Paddle Drum Tracking Activity to locate objects in their space  through encouraging them to move and find things.  Children with Visual Impairments often are delayed in crawling and walking because they lack the Visual Cues that motivate typically developing children (“Ooh, I see Mom!  I want to go to her!”).  So, we encourage children who are Visually Impaired to move towards motivating sounds (“Ooh, I hear Mom’s voice, but she’s not getting any closer – I’d better move.”).  Sometimes we’ll just use voices, encouraging parents to sing and clap along to familiar songs to encourage their child to find them, other times I’ll use instruments like little clip-on bells to encourage children who are totally blind to find and sort their favorite toys.

Music for Sorting, Labeling, and Memory

Again, as children with Visual Impairments lack the ability to learn from vision as their typically developing peers do through imitation, etc.  The playing of Music can often provide a unique opportunity for children to learn to distinguish and recall things that are the same and different.  For instance, I will often ask children (typically developing or otherwise) to choose instruments to play from a bucket full of a variety of bells, shakers, and castinets we call “clappers.”  Typically developing kids will see what they want and grab it.  The child with a visual impairment, depending on their level of vision, may have to lift objects up close to their eyes to inspect them, or make a decision on hearing and touch alone, so I will often label the instruments they find as they find them and instruct them to then give it to other people in the room, to again address the locating of other people and objects around them (i.e., “You found a shaker! Can you give it to mom?”). This also works with adults, who we occasionally serve at NDVS/SB as well.  I will sometimes lead drumming events where I’ll introduce each instrument by passing it around the circle, then quiz the group later one what each instrument is called.  Many times the adults we see are new to being Blind or Visually Impaired and it really is a whole new skill to learn to recall objects by a different sense than you’re used to, not to mention techniques unique to the visually impaired to learn directional concepts like above, below, behind, in front, or the clock method (indicating where objects are as though they were set on a clock, like describing a glass at  dinner table as being set at “1:00″ in relation to the plate), etc.

Music for Pre-Braille, Tactile Learning

As I mentioned, some of my students are totally blind, and will eventually need to learn Braille.  When I work with them as infants, we address this need through the playing and exploration of instruments and textures that would be helpful to honing the skills necessary to distinguish the little dots that make up Braille.  In the second Music Therapy clip on the video above, one of my Low Vision students is playing a Cabasa (sometimes called an Afuche), an instrument made up of a cylindrical base surrounded by rows of beads attached to a handle.  It’s played by holding the base in one hand while you twist the handle with the other, making the beads on the base roll across your hand.  This instrument creates great opportunities for children to use both their hands to play an instrument, but the sensation of the beads rolling across a students’ fingers is also great practice for the experience of reading Braille.

Now, Braille Music

The standard Code invented by Louis Braille consists of 6 dots (3 on each side, think of how the 6 side looks on a domino), that are raised in a variety of combinations on pages that are read with the fingers and labeled as such:

When the dots are raised in different combinations, they create letters and symbols.  For example, here is the first letter of my name in Braille (the Large Black Dots indicate those that are raised, the small dots indicate the space maintained between the raised dots):

Now, there are only 64 possible dot combinations in this manner, so Louis Braille invented to Braille Music Code using the same combinations as are used for reading Literary Braille, resulting in the above Letter N also representing a half note C in Braille Music.  Confused?  I was!  And many of my children can be too – Braille Music requires the notation of all the things sighted musicians see vertically to be represented horizontally, or one concept at a time, so the services I provide as a Braille Music Instructor (on campus lessons, classes, and outreach services) can often rely heavily on my therapy background to encourage students to distinguish what looks the same as the letter N from what makes it a half note C, and educate their regular Music Instructors on the necessary adaptations for their Students who are Visually Impaired to participate in Band and Choral Ensembles (like receiving their music in advance to memorize it if they need both hands to play, etc.).

So…

As you can see, the program at NDVS/SB is very involved and growing.  It’s my pleasure to serve the population of the Visually Impaired and I hope to continue doing so for many years.  If you’re interested in learning more about ND Vision Services/School for the Blind, you can do so at http://www.ndvisionservices.com/, or contact me via the links in the sidebar to answer whatever questions I can about Visual Impairment and Music.

Next, Music with the Deaf? Oh yes!