About Making Music
"If the people live their lives,
as if it were a song, for singing out of light,
provides the music for the stars,
to be dancing circles in the night!"
About:
You have probably heard someone randomly banging on piano; you have probably heard someone stutteringly try to peck out a melody of an instrument; and you I hope have heard someone play or sing a piece of music that for a moment seems to make the whole world shine in a particularly resonant beauty and meaning.
Method of music making is aimed at giving students not just an intellectual understanding fo music making, but of an inner forging and alignment that helps them tap into the deep well of the source of music and bring that renewing water into their life and to the lives of those around them.
Purpose of these exercises / games:
All of these games involve:
- Ways to teach self-regulation and co-regulation by activating the ventral vagal system. See Polyvagal Theory.
- Expanding relatedness to others by learning to attend, to attune, to give, and to receive cues and signals.
- Refining one's giving and receiving cues. These cues are gross and subtle. Gross cues can include saying 'ready', lifting arms high up, raising a ball. Subtle cues can include lifting the eyebrows, a slight lift of the shoulders, a short in-breath.( Note many modern classical music ensembles give a general ready signal by shifting posture, the signal the start of playing by a short quick in-breath or inhale through the nose.)
- Rhythm, timing, and flow with self, a partner, and the group. These games require and develop attention, perception of, and attunement with others. Once we find the rhythm of a thing, we more deeply understand and master it.
- Coordinating and integrating students' gross motor movement of the shoulders, hips, and torso and increasingly using fine muscles of the hand and finger, as well as eye movements.
- Students' integrating seeing, hearing, and movement as well as posture proprioception, and interoception.
- Rhythm is the domain of our deep brain stem. By entraining the brain stem, many higher-order capacities harmonize coordinate to become more effective and efficient.
- Help in understanding and participating in the physical world! Many people have wonderful imaginations; when we can integrate our imagination with a working knowledge and mastery of how the physical world works, we can then truly be creative.
- Comprehend the physical world through the momentum, force, inertia, gravity, movements through space,- physics. This comprehension is on a physical, embodied level. Students probably won't have words to describe all these forces, but they will understand them. An example- if one throws a ball with X amount of force, it will go so far. If more force is added to the throw, the ball will go farther. If one hits a cymbal if little force, it will make one sound. If more force is added, if will make a louder sound. Understanding such principals extends into all ball games, riding a bike, driving a car, climbing, running, - ultimately, all our interactions with the physical world.
- One of the main tasks of early development is mastering interacting with the physical world, including: how to move from here to there, how to pick things up, how to throw, how to make sounds, how to remove or get around obstacles.
- As we become competent at mastering the ways of movements and rhythms of the physical world, we can then attend to learning the far more complex movements and rhythms of the social world. We can then learn how to use movement sound, gesture, language to interact with the rhythms and intentions of other persons.
- Boethius, an influential philosopher and musician, spoke of 'the music of instruments', 'the music of humans- psychology, sociology' and 'the music of the cosmos'. These three levels relate to each other and work analogously to each other.
- Engaging the whole body and the spacial and rhythm centers in the deep brain (cerebellum).
- Engaging the 'salience network' not the 'do/deal' ( see Network Balance Model )
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Games
Each game has a clear set of Parameters, Rules, and expectations. By meeting these expectations students expand their capacity.
There should also be time to play, improvise and explore.
Define:
- Physical space, boundaries. Where you can go, and where you can't.
- How you are allowed to and not allowed to: toss, bounce, and pass and how you can't ( velocity- how hard), height, underhand, overhand
- By clearly defining expectations, and having clear consequences, the structure becomes ordered, predictable and trustable. They also challenge and help student move through specific limitations.
Ways
Pass - hand(s) to hand(s). focus on gripping, Work on how hard or soft to place in partners hands.
Roll - ( stays on the ground)- easier for partner to receive, can take some focus to keep the ball on the ground. Focus on the directions of force to hit a target.
Bounce - Focus to have ball reach partner just after zenith of where the ball has the least velocity
Toss - underhand vs overhand- One handed, Two Handed. launch the ball/ beanbag or shaker with correct velocity and arc to reach your partners hand.
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Objects:
| Object | Details | |
|---|---|---|
| Bean bag | 3" x 3" | |
| Shaker | One that can be easily grasped | |
| Large Ball | 18", beachball | |
| Medium Ball | 6"- 10", volleyball | |
| Small Ball | 2"- 3", racquetball, tennis ball | |
| Sticks | Dowels 12" long, 5/8" thick |
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To Whom:
To Self,
Teacher Student
To Partner, ( also in trios, in foursome )
Around the circle,
Star Pattern
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Other aspects:
One handed,
Two handed
On a balance board
Claps
Hand over hand
With Steps
Balance Board - Standing on a balance board as an element of these exercises:
Standing on a balance board gives the brain enhanced vestibular(balance) information. The person adjusts to gravity, they know more of where they are. This enhanced vestibular information help to integrate and inform our, visual, auditory and kinesthetic understanding of the world. Simply put by doing these exercises students become more embodied, integrated and able to engage in learning and play.
Frank Belgau-[]
Integrating senses []
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Neuroscience and Psycho-physiology Basis:
Polyvagal theory. Co-regulation. Polyvagal Theory
Rhythmic Entrainment with the rhythm of the bounces
Cerebellum [rhythm organization]
Vestibular [Belgau]
Rhythmic Entrainment