Sounds Like Me by Elisabeth Swim
  • Studio
  • F.A.Q.
  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Listen
  • Studio
  • F.A.Q.
  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Listen
Search

When Up is Right and Down is Left

4/26/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture

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.

0 Comments

Find Center with Low Sounds

4/26/2019

0 Comments

 
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.
0 Comments

Say WALK, Say STANDING

4/25/2018

0 Comments

 
​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.

Picture
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

Picture

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.  ​

0 Comments

How to Slow Down

3/18/2018

0 Comments

 
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. 
Picture
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
0 Comments

TBD

3/18/2018

0 Comments

 
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?
0 Comments

Bring Your Own Rhythm

3/18/2018

0 Comments

 
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! ​​
Picture
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!”
0 Comments

How Long Can I Learn?

3/18/2018

0 Comments

 
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.

Picture
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 …
Picture

​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.
0 Comments

Get Your Kids to Play Music

3/18/2018

0 Comments

 
No matter how responsible your young ones are, they are still children, and they need support of the adults in their lives to help them build the new habit of home play. Your active interest and celebration of their efforts are invaluable to support them in this new and grown-up habit.
​

There are two things that you, as a parent, can do to increase the likelihood that your child will play on their own in between lessons. It’s simple, can be very brief, and requires no musical training on your part.

I. Show Active Interest, Without Judgement: Ask them about their lessons and what they are learning. Do your best to check in at least once during the week outside of lessons. About the sounds (or pieces, for older kids) they make and whether they are:

  • Slow, fast, medium speed? A combination?
  • High-pitched, low, medium? A combination?
  • Finally, ask:
  • What is most fun?
Picture
Photo by Clark Young on Unsplash
​II. Celebrate Effort: Praise your child's focus, effort and patience with themselves after you hear them complete a lesson or home play. Tell them, if you like, what you noticed about the sounds they played (from the ideas above). Time permitting, ask them to show you what they are working on, and show interest as they do so. Even if when they explain or show something to you, it’s obviously still new for them, avoid correcting them. You can share any bits of information like this with your teacher so she can use them in lessons to support your child’s understanding.

No one in the world can give your child attention the way you and your co-parent can. Because of your unique relationship, even a small gesture of positive interest from you will amplify their will to work at something!
0 Comments

Mistakes Help

3/18/2018

0 Comments

 
call now
Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
James Joyce
My students reveal their brilliance to me through what they call mistakes. They tell me which part of a student’s mind-body system has mastered a skill and which part is still learning it. As a teacher, I need my students’ mistakes in order to do my job well.
Picture
Learning naturally, in a way that is brain-friendly, should be like any other spontaneous human activity we do: There is a time to begin, a time to end, and a time to change pace or switch gears.

​No matter what my capacity for empathy may be, I am still a separate person from my students … I don’t get to feel what it is like to think their thoughts or be them.
​

This is why I need mistakes, cues that a student has gotten their maximum benefit for the time being, and that is time to switch gears.

Mistakes point out to me the gaps in learning that it is my job as a teacher to fill.

The mind-body system needs to repeat a skill thousands of times in order to master it. A common misconception is that if someone has learned how to do something in one situation, they should be able to apply this skill in all other settings or contexts.

Because people have different learning styles, they may take to something presented in one way, but it might take time for them to master it in other situations.


A mistake could tell me to present a concept in a different way, to work with a different part of my student’s personality, or to guide the lesson to a different task–to take a brain break. 

When a student makes a mistake in a session, I celebrate their courage to take a risk doing something that is not yet easy for them and knowing they might make a mistake. I do my best to model positivity and strong esteem for my students. We look at their mistakes as valuable information, rather than as matters of guilt or shame.​

Picture
call now
0 Comments

Play Now, Practice Later

3/17/2018

0 Comments

 

I tell my students to never practice the piano, but to always play the piano. When you think it’s fun, you do it more often.

Joe Raciti, pianist and music teacher ​

Children want to do what trusted adults ask of them. But asking for something before they are ready to trust me dooms the whole idea of home play (practicing) from the start.

Instead, I build trust during the first few lessons with healthy amounts of play, in the form of copying games, rhythm clapping and shared creativity. After a good amount of time building trust in this way, a child is much better prepared internally to follow directions from me when I am not there. Still, I avoid using the word practice in my requests as much as possible, at the beginning.
Picture
Enough of my students’ parents have their own childhood memories of word practice being used in unkind ways that I stay away from it altogether in the early years of lessons.
This helps my students and their parents develop an understanding of home play as the discovery of music and learning that happens in between lessons. Calling it home play frames it as a choice my students make, rather than a chore.

If students don't do their home play, they still enjoy their lessons. But they do feel excited and motivated when they have done it, because they can see and sense their own progress.​

Picture
After a few years of study, I do suggest calling home play practicing, but only after a student has gotten into the habit of consistently enjoying playing the piano on their own in between sessions. 
​

For now, though, the focus is on home play. If you, dear reader, have any habits or skills in your life that you need to practice, give the term home play a spin and see if it gives the thought of it more energy. Let me know what you find out!
0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Elisabeth C. Swim

    Playful Mindful Music Guide
    Founder of The Secret Choir

    Archives

    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All
    Education
    Kids
    Learning
    Lessons
    Music

    RSS Feed

Glad to Visit with You!

Sounds Like Me Inc. Houston, TX  77023

  • Studio
  • F.A.Q.
  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Listen