How have you used these four music experiences in your practice?

[Anonymous]

How have you used these four music experiences in your practice?  Have you made any changes in these areas since beginning this course?  

Be sure to come back and respond to others as well.

[Rachel Sedmak]

When I worked with preschoolers and kindergartners with autism, I used all of these experiences on a regular basis. We would sing hello and goodbye songs, and also improvised songs to work on speech. One of my favorite group experiences, which incorporated instruments and listening, was having each child come to the gathering drum individually to play. They listened to each other while they were waiting for their turn to play. I reflected the child’s drumming on the keyboard and it was always exciting when the child playing realized that I was reflecting them. The drummer also had to listen in order to know when it was time to stop playing. We used shakers with directions to shake, high, low, etc, as a movement experience, while working on following directions. We also used scarves to dance to recorded music.

[Favor Chujor]

The gathering drum is such a great instrument to use with young children! Not only is it just fun to look at, but it provides each child with a big, safe (and fairly stationary) instrument to manipulate and explore while they play, too!

[Favor Chujor]

I’ve used all of these experiences, in some form! One of my favorite songs to do is a Blues Check-in, where I have each client share how they’re feeling with the group. After each response, I reflect their emotions through my playing style (eg. finger picking, slow/fast tempo, changing the meter). I also love doing instrument play with embedded directions in the song. It’s great to see the children pick up on the directions as the song progresses and go from passive to active participants in the music!

[Erika Svolos]

It’s wonderful to hear about your experiences and the work you are all doing.

[Mikelia Wallace]

I have not used these music experiences yet, however I will be using the transition songs later this week to help my kiddos with transition anxiety, I have one older child with ASD who is going to be moving homes and I will be finding a transition song for him as well. Gathering songs could be useful in some of my sessions, but I actually don’t see groups right now and the kids I see that need that structure are being seen virtually, I will be using these gathering songs for them and see how it goes!

[Amy Berggren]

I think the experiences I use the most are moving and playing. I work in a school for elementary schoolers with autism and many of the kids that have more sensory needs respond so well to movement interventions. Some of my favorites include “shake, rattle, and roll” with instructions on how to play their instruments, the “party freeze song” with instructions on how to move, and pairing different movements with different strumming patterns.

[Sophia Paravalos]

I use all of these musical experiences throughout my sessions. One thing that has come up recently working with lots of different kiddos is the concept of being more attached and comfortable to one experience. I have a kiddo who loves to sing and doesn’t feel as connected to instruments. I use many of the tools in singing through focusing on my timbre, rhythm, dynamics etc. to assist in the facilitation and we implement that a lot into sessions to reach goals that we could also do on an instrument or through moving; however, singing is the most motivating experience for this child.
Since starting this course, the importance of timbre awareness with little ones has been sparked more in me. I will definitely be more mindful in that category and am excited to see how my timbre affects future interactions with babies.

[Erik Hylan]

I have utilized all of these experiences at some point or another in my practice. However, I have used moving and playing songs the most with my early childhood groups. For gathering songs, I like to pair a hello song with drumming. The group members come up to play the drum when the group sings hello to them and then are given the opportunity to select a peer to play with. I think something that I would like to change in my practice is using gathering songs and transition songs that are separate from the hello song to help group members prepare for the experiences ahead. I would also like to be more aware of my delivery of music in terms of rhythm and timbre in order to provide a safe environment for little ones to engage in.

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