Discuss with the board

[Meredith Pizzi]

Discuss with the board the traditional and cultural music in your home community.

[Alison Barrington]

I’m not sure quite what to write here. Just to say that I am British so perhaps some of the nursery songs that I will learn in the USA may be a bit different from the ones I am familiar with when working with pre-schoolers.
I was blessed to be brought up in a musical family and so singing and playing was part of my childhood and I try to model singing and integrating music into my family life now I’m a mom. My personal upbringing focussed on classical music and I had a very formal classical training. I love jazz and pop too. Don’t tell any other music therapists but country and western style is not really my thing …. sorry!
Hope this answers this question.

[Anonymous]

Hi Alison, Meredith and Beth are asking you to look both at your own background with music and then the community you are living in and working with. This will help you to take a look at what your clients and families will be coming to you familiar with and inform your work.

[Elana Dietz-Weinstein]

I find that in my community, both at home and school, I use many traditional American folksongs, lullabies, and children’s songs. The simple structures and content really help facilitate language development, cognitive concepts, and connection. Many of the children I work with are familiar with and respond well to the “standards” – ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, Old Macdonald, etc. They will sing, participate, and engage in group and individual sessions when these familiar, traditional tunes are offered, while participating less during other musical interventions. Often these are the first songs they will begin to spontaneously sing and vocalize in our individual and group sessions, and serve as a point of connection and relationship.

[Jen Hinton]

Hi all! I live in rural/suburban PA but work in a downtown area that serves families of college and hospital employees. My breakdown of kids and caregivers (in my case, teachers as well as parents) – includes a variety of cultural experiences. My own cultural experience includes a variety of classical, folk, popular American music from 1910 to 2004(not too familiar with the newest stuff!), Christian, instrumental, vocal, and blues/jazz. I try to intentionally integrate as many different musical genres and types of cultural music as possible and love to learn from my clients. In our hello song we currently use English, Spanish, Polish, and Hebrew…as those are the different languages that my students and teachers have taught me to use! 🙂 I also love Ella Jenkins and found her to be a great resource for African music, call and response, and specifically Swahili. After using the song “Jambo” in my curriculum as a part of Black History month, I learned that one of my students’ families speak Swahili at home! I try to introduce music from around the world, as we do a bit of music education in the Music Enrichment services that I provide and have specifically explored Germany, Ireland, and Africa so far. I love to use American folk music as I think it is such a blend of musical cultures and think that Elizabeth Mitchell provides a great model for ways to arrange and songs to pass along. Blues and the blues structure are also something that I use a lot with improvised instrument playing and a sequenced movement song I wrote that we use weekly.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for taking a look at your background and your client’s culture backgrounds. You will find that your clients will appreciate and connect with you when you are incorporating their cultures in your work with them. I currently work in a private special school that is Orthodox Jewish and they regularly thank me for taking the time to learn and incorporate music from their culture. They see the difference it makes with the students.

[Kimberly Rodgers-Melnick]

Elena, I would agree with you that most of the children I work with respond well to the “standards”, many seem to especially love the ABCs 🙂 At the same time, I have learned to not be so assuming when introducing these songs, saying ‘here’s a familiar song that everyone knows’ is not always a guarantee. I met a 40 yo lady who had never heard ‘my bonny lies over the ocean’, and another of my colleagues led a group with a family from, I think it was Japan, and they have different traditional songs there, so she was not familiar with some of the traditional kids songs that I often associated with familiarity and comfort. I have a mix of families in my classes, most of the families that come to my particular Music Together class are caucasian, but it’s not the case for all of the classes. Cleveland is a major hub for medicine and the arts and there are people here from all over the world. I try to incorporate music from different cultures into my sessions on a regular basis. I also love the book ‘Around the World We Go’ by Margaret WiseBrown, it introduces cultures from all over the world, has adorable illustrations and Rachel Rambach actually wrote a song to go with! Highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already. 🙂

[Anonymous]

Excellent point, Kimberly, about not assuming people know the standards.

[Laura Pruett]

Most of the kids I work with are in schools, and the only schools I go to are on Native American reservations (outside of Phoenix). I’m honestly not sure how much exposure the kids have to their cultural music. I’ve heard some kids refer to the language of the reservation as Spanish (it’s not Spanish, it’s O’otham), which is not too surprising considering many of them also have Hispanic heritage. We sang Silent Night in O’otham last Christmas program, with lots of coaching for me from a culture teacher. Everyone speaks English, and many of the kids know very little O’otham or Spanish. I imagine the kids get some exposure to their cultural music in their culture classes at school. If they attend any community events, perhaps they would be exposed to their cultural music there as well. We used to do more drumming, but many kids were overstimulated by having several drums being played at once. A lot of the kids know and sing the songs they hear on the radio (pop, hip-hop, and some country), as well as songs from movies they see (usually cartoons). I think the biggest thing I am taking away from this is I need to educate myself more on Pima O’otham music!

[Carolyn Keenan]

I am working in a very similar music environment to the one in which I grew up and I use a lot of traditional folk songs, nursery rhymes, lullabies and children’s music. I find that using the familiar favorites is a great launching pad to introducing new but related music. The preschool where I work is suburban and primarily caucasian. Kimberly, I definitely want to check out that book you suggested, along with Rachel’s song. I had classical training in college and I try to integrate that into my practice as well, with listening and movement activities.

[Mabel Ortiz]

I have yet to work in early childhood as a music therapist, but part of my plan is to provide services to one of the cities in the county I am living where 80% of the population are of Hispanic descent. I plan to translate songs in English to Spanish, and incorporate lullabies and children’s songs in Spanish to my classes.

[Claudia Eliaza]

I have been using songs from my Haitian culture in the classrooms and at workshops for kids I work with. I love introducing them to new sounds, rhythms, instruments, and languages they might not have heard of. These songs have been a great way to tell stories, talk about culture, diversity, unity, teamwork and other developmentally appropriate themes.

[Anonymous]

Claudia what is the culture of the kids that you work with and community that you provide services in? I think it is wonderful that you are sharing about the Haitian Culture, this is great exposure for your students. It will continue to be an enhancement when you also include what is from their cultures in addition to what you are already providing.

[Claudia Eliaza]

Erika, I am just seeing your response! I provide weekly services in Newton, and travel to a school in Wisconsin where I am an artist in residence. Even if I don’t have Haitians in my class on a given day, I find that it’s a great way to teach rhythm and expose children music of different cultures and languages. My classes are comprised of 1st generation kids from Europe, Russia, China, Haiti and Israel. We use music from all of these countries as well.

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