Sounds Like Me in Houston, T - Sounds Like Me by Elisabeth Swim

Search

Sing Like No One is Listening

7/9/2019

... or 'my summer cleaning animal scat'

Right after high school, I was privileged to spend time in a small farming community. My job there was to take care of the children's petting zoo. Seems like fun, yes?

Most of the job was cleaning up after hundreds of animals, work that felt repetitive and never ending. So I sang. All kinds of songs every day until my work was through when I would walk cheerfully up a hill to my dorm to shower and study. Neuroscience confirms that the singing and not the scent of scat that made me feel so at ease. 😉

The extended out breaths you need for singing cue the heart to slow down, supporting a calm physiological state. The accessible and fluid sounds of singing send signals to the body-mind that support calm readiness to engage with self and life. (Stephen Porges)

Sometimes I do the same thing now while I'm stuck in traffic or doing anything that requires seemingly endless repetitive effort. I just sing.

You may know that I host a non-performance singing group for people who, like me, simply want to sing. I’m so grateful to have the support of the Houston Arts Alliance to continue our meetings throughout the 2018-19 season.
Our next meeting is coming up soon. Sign up here for more info!

Kids on the Block

6/10/2019

When I started piano in first grade, my mother and I lived in an apartment complex in the flats of San Francisco's East Bay Area. My two-block radius was home to kids whose families had moved to the neighborhood from a range of cities and countries. Neighbor kids and I played together outside or in each others’ homes, using our imaginations in combo with toys, big and small. I still have scars and bone warps from learning to ride a bike, roller skate, tumble and excavate. To be honest, I did not have a lot else going on. My mom raised me on her own and every structured activity was a luxury. She funded piano and choir inspired me to make the most of these. This included asking me every weekday whether I had practiced piano, doing her best to make sure I did that a few times every lesson week, and driving me to and from lessons and choir rehearsals in far-away parts of town. I'm so glad she did. There were times I would not play. Times when I practiced and ignored my teachers' instructions. Somehow I lived to tell you about what I call 'home play,' a brain-friendly term for 'practicing.' Looking ahead to summer, I hope you can build time into your family's schedule to rehearse whatever it is you love, whether it's piano, softball, painting or robotics. I’m not here to add another task to your already-full plate. However, I would like to make it easier for you get more joy through your family’s learning. As you may know from my last note to you, I made How to Home Play to help you do just this. Download it and apply these three simple things to ANYthing your family learns.

How to Home Play

5/21/2019

As a kid, I was NOT a diligent prodigy, practicing piano on my own with no help from Mom. Any home play I did, all the way through high school, was motivated by attention from my mother. If she didn’t sit with me while I played piano, she reminded me to play it and said encouraging words when I did.

Once I had built up certain skills, playing piano became its own reward. Its 88 keys became a place where I grew into myself, physically, emotionally and cognitively. The piano was a place for me to be myself, independent of my family. But my family's encouragement still fueled my efforts.

As we get ready to head into summer, I thought I would send you a few words about home play. These brain-friendly words mean 'practice' in my Playful Mindful Music studio. Home play does not have to happen every day in order to work--a lot of benefit can come from three mini sessions per week.

I made How to Home Play, an easy download that you can print and share with your loved ones as you plan for summer. No matter how busy your schedule is, these three simple things can make home play for your family fun and doable.

When Up is Right and Down is Left

4/26/2019

in Houston, TX, where I live, we don’t have a lot of hills. But, still, when I give people driving directions, I usually mention things being up or down the street from each other. Using 'up' and 'down' to describe something sideways is second nature to me as a piano guide.

Pitch is the quality of sound resulting from sound waves of particular speeds. All sounds have pitches, whether or not the human ear can hear them. Drum sounds, for example, have pitches that can be difficult to identify. High Pitches have fast-frequencies and Low pitches have slow frequencies.

The piano keyboard is made of 88 different sounds arranged from left to right from lowest to highest. Left is low, right is high. That’s what I said. I know—it can be confusing. Fortunately, the alphabet of music names has only seven letters. They repeat over and over again, with black keys in between, on the piano keyboard.

My students to hear and point out sounds 'up and down' the keyboard through fun and collaborative sound games. While my students are working on this, they are also learning to see and use different rhythmic symbols, and the notes’ letter names.

This learning happens without my students really knowing it because they are in a zone of creative flow otherwise known as fun.

Find Center with Low Sounds

4/26/2019

Could you use an extra tool for calm? I've got a mindfulness tip for you that's all about low sounds, which are different from quiet sounds as my students learn.

Let's start with high and low sounds. High-pitched sounds include birds chirping, swooping car alarms and kitten meows. Instruments that play high sounds include flutes, piccolos, violins and chimes. They are called high because their sound waves happen at a high frequency or quickly, and look a little like this:

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Low-pitched sounds such as a mature cow's moo, the chuff of a train engine or a tiger, or a ship's fog horn have lower frequency sounds waves, which means they happen more slowly than those of high-pitched sounds. Their sound waves look roughly like this:

/''''''''\____/"""""\____/"""""\____

Bass guitar, tuba, bass drum, bassoon and didggery-doo all make low sounds.

For kids, it's easier to hear high sounds with clarity than low sounds (because of the way both brain and ear develop). But adults can hear low sounds more acutely. And low sounds have deep emotional significance: they are the first steady rhythmic sounds humans hear in the womb as mama's heartbeat.

This brings me to your mindfulness tool. Because low sounds have such a harmonious relationship with the oldest parts of the brain, listening to low sounds can calm your system. In a celebrated relaxing song by Marconi Union, low-frequency sounds are used continuously. It's probably not a good idea to listen to this while driving, because it is so relaxing.

Even without cuing up a snooze-inducing sound bath, you can still experience the benefits of active listening to low sounds. Most mainstream music features some kind of bass or percussion sound that is steady throughout each tune. There are also a range of higher and lower sounds in the ambient noises of daily life, from the working din of a cafe to the sounds on a television to the noises of a busy street.

Your mindful mission, if you choose to accept it, is to listen for low sounds throughout your day. Want to train your ear to hear low? Listen to Bach's cello suites (mostly bass sounds) Chaka Khan's Tell Me Something Good or Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah (slower bass) or Charles Wright's Express Yourself (quicker bassline). Listen for the steady sounds that outline the beat of each song.

This will train you to hear and name low sounds. Over time, you will be able to use your ears, even in what seems like chaos, to find a focal point for your mind. This can reduce irrititation in the moment, and stave off overwhelm to keep you more contented all day long.

Say WALK, Say STANDING

4/25/2018

Rhythm is the first thing I work with in my students’ early lessons. We improvise (play spontaneously) based on fast and slow rhythms. I teach them the basic musical note shapes for 1 (one) beat and 2 (two) beats.

One Beat
To clap and count,
say WALK.

For young children, movement words are excellent to cue rhythm through speech. I teach my students to move in a walk and say “walk” with each step, while pointing to a quarter note (see above). Or I teach them to clap and with each clap, say “walk.”

Two Beats.
To clap and count,
say STAND-ING

For two-beat notes, I teach a child to step and stay to the chanted word “stand-ing”. To clap a half note, we clap on the first beat and squeeze hands together on the second beat.

Music is rhythm. Language is rhythm. Play is rhythm. When we improve rhythm, we make other areas of life easier and more enjoyable.

How to Slow Down

3/18/2018

The next time you find yourself in a state of stress or anxiety while talking with a loved one, try extending your “out” breaths, your exhalations.

With every sentence you speak, see how many words you can speak before you take your next breath. You may even play with slowing down your speech.

Read out loud, breathing at the commas:

The rain,
in Spain,
stays mainly,
in the plain.*

Now read this version of the sentence out loud, breathing at the commas

The rain in Spain,
stays mainly in the plain.

And, finally, breathe out, breathe in, and read:

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

How did each version feel? What did you sense as you slowed down with longer breaths out, or exhalations?

*from My Fair Lady by Lerner and Loewe

TBD

3/18/2018

Some of my favorite centering songs have 3 beats. What I mean is that their underlying pulse--akin to a heartbeat--is counted 1 - 2 - 3. This odd but centering rhythm has a swinging feeling and is used in ballads, meditations and waltzes alike. What happens when you listen for the 1 - 2 - 3 beat in these tunes:

*This gospel classic and this grown-up ballad sung by the late and beloved Aretha Franklin *Kermit's colorful question from the Muppet Movie
*My favorite waltz and love song from Viennese operetta
While you listen, if you like, find the pulse of each song. Once you can hear and tap along with the regular strong beats, try counting 1-2-3 over and over, along with the music.
How does this feel?

Bring Your Own Rhythm

3/18/2018

Make time regularly for a family jam session where you either play along with your favorite songs or make up your own. Any musical instrument can build skills that translate to success at the piano. Rhythm instruments are wonderful and you can even make your own … my favorite trick is to fill old supplement bottles with beans or rice to use as shakers. You can paint them or cover them with collage for extra fun!

Photo by Matthieu A on Unsplash

In your at-home jam band, everyone gets an instrument. Rotate instruments as needed for a sense of fairness. Start by taking turns leading the circle, by playing their name. (for example, I would play E-LIS-a-beth with four beats).

Do your best to avoid correcting the kids: simply follow their lead, especially while they are leading. Make sure they can hear your voice over your jam band sound for the next part: As a group, play fast, slow, medium, loud and soft. The main goal is to have fun … and if when you talk about the sounds you hear, try to use active listening (see the Listen Up! chapter in Piano Without Tears).

It’s fine to ask everyone afterward what their favorite part was, just try to use neutral language when talking about the music you make, in general. “We made loud sounds, quiet sounds, fast sounds, slow sounds … all kinds of sounds!”

How Long Can I Learn?

3/18/2018

One of the most important ways to respect your brain is to work within its optimal learning time frame. In my brain-friendly music lessons, I encourage my students to work within a time frame that’s appropriate for their body-mind system.

There is a simple formula to estimate this at any given moment.

The brain has optimal lengths of time for learning that increase with age. A good target to aim is your child’s age plus two. A child who is developmentally seven years old can practice, do a worksheet or any other task … for up to nine minutes optimally without a break. After that they may continue to work but mistakes will increase, a sign that the system needs a break or change of pace. This is, of course, provided the child’s basic needs are met and they are not hungry, over tired, etc …

The optimum attention span for adults maxes out at 20 minutes so if you notice yourself getting antsy in traffic or long meetings, you may now understand why.