[Talia Morales]

Discuss the traditional and cultural music in the community where you work.
Here in San Diego we have a very wide range of cultural backgrounds represented in the county ranging from local native tribal Kumeyaay people, high influx of military families stationed here, immigrant and refugee communities who call San Diego home and the geographic location close to the border with Mexico. I love living in the culturally diverse melting pot of San Diego and musically speaking, I see this wide range of traditions and cultures represented in the school based work I do in SD County. Each region of the district i work with have it’s unique demographic pockets and this informs my sessions as I do bring my best attempt to incorporate culturally relevant music to the classrooms I work in, for example including a range of traditional and modern Mexican music such as banda, ballet folklorico, mariachi etc.. I also enjoy bringing in traditional and cultural music into my lessons and resources I create/compile and share with teachers in conjunction with calendar themes such as Cinco de Mayo, Native American Heritage month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Month.

[Talia Morales]

Sing
Awareness: will turn eye gaze toward the source of singing
Trust: will make pitched vocalizations in response to singing
Independence: will imitate animal sounds
Control: use selected sung words at the end of phrases/cloze
Responsibility:will use different qualities

Play
Awareness: turn eye gaze toward source of instrument
Trust: explore instruments with mouth and hands
Independence: use hands to play a drum head
Control: Use mallet to play drum
Responsibility: alternate tempo from fast to slow etc.

Move
Awareness: will tolerate body parts being moved
Trust: will move entire body rhythmically in response to music
Independence: will imitate simple whole body movement patterns
Control: will isolate body parts to move rhythmically
Responsibility: will used sequences of movement patterns

Listen
Awareness: will tolerate live music in the environment
Trust: will display affect changes in response to emotional content of music
Independence: will tolerate harmonic changes heard
Control: will tolerate changes in musical activities
Responsibility: will take turns singing/playing or listening with others

[Talia Morales]

How have you used these four music experiences in your practice?
I incorporate opportunities the four experiences in a variety of ways in the sessions I do in the schools. The “how i use” them ranges depending on the classroom settings and serve different functions depending on individual IEP goals being targeted, group developmental ranges, ages, group dynamics etc. Some ways and functions that each are used in my practice can include some of the following examples:
Singing:
Echo vocalization songs eg. singing similar melodies with different vowels song ‘ooo’ ‘ahh’ ‘eee’….
Song Stories: different qualities of voice for different characters
Drawing/painting while vocalizing (squiggles, high, low, straight, dots)
Singing familiar nursery rhyme songs
Singing familiar songs in different ways – choice making opportunity (eg. singing wheels on the bus slow, fast, loud, quiet, staccato, legato)
Playing Instruments:
start/stop instrument play song (MT as leader and/pr individual peers as the leaders)
Sequencing instruments: Each phrase of a familiar tune get their own instrument (eg. “Twinkle Little Star-bells “how i wonder what you are”-shaker “up above the world so high”- castanet…etc)
Moving:
As a regulatory movement song to either arouse or calm
As opportunities to follow one-step directions (ie. clap hands, stomp feet, stand up, come close, run, jump etc).
As shared social experience:eg. follow the leader
As communicative intent: eg. indicate choices of how to move
As a sequential activity: eg.first pat, then clap, last stomp..
As spatial/language concepts: up high, on nose, under chin, behind back…
Listening:
Start/stopping song listening activity (individual students are the “dj” and determine when the song starts, is paused, returns, get volume up/down etc)
Chrome music lab: song writing/choice making of different elements and listening to choices
As a way to convey the music session schedule and expectations: Every week I repeat listening to the welcome back to music song as part of the start of the session which reviews the familiar schedule pattern for the day. “welcome back to music, so glad you’re here today, it’s time to sing and move and learn and dance and don’t forget to play. My whole body’s ready, to listen to what you’ve got to say. I listen with my ears, my hands, my eyes, my heart is here today. Right here, right now let’s see what we’ve got to do. Right now right here, here is our preview, First we’ll check in; then explore; recharge; last it’s time to connect and then cool down our schedule is.
Have you made any changes in these areas since beginning of this course?
The theoretical framework has inspired some songwriting and new music activity ideas in Spanish, specifically for the infant series I’m currently creating.
Unfortunately not yet in the live setting, as I am out on summer break so not currently working with my students in the schools. However, I am pleasantly surprised, that through the analysis this course has offered so far, I realize how I have been naturally weaving these into my existing sessions, how I can beef up more opportunities, like listening, within my sessions AND also have another lens to look through when I do assessments for qualifying for MT via the IEP here in in the schools. I’m thankful to have the “four musical experiences” framework to think about and inspire me when doing my lesson plans in the future!

[Talia Morales]

I LOVE the simplicity and repetitive nature of these embedded songs! Great reminder of how to use musical elements that align with developmental levels to encourage joint attention, joint referencing and the beauty of music as an anticipatory cue. It inspired some songwriting in Spanish to target similar concepts and Im excited to try it out with my little nephew who is 14 months:)

[Talia Morales]

looking forward to hearing how it goes trying out those songs with your client this week Sarah!

[Talia Morales]

Specific to the awareness developmental level, I had the immense honor to be present as a doula during the labor and delivery of a baby this week, and had a chance to witness responses to music in the first moments of his life. I had worked previously with mom and dad on co-writing a personalized lullaby which they’ve been singing to him while in utero. On that first day, first moments of his life, he had his eyes closed during the golden hour of skin on skin time with mama. Afterwards the nurses swaddled him and when his lullaby was sung to him, he opened his eyes so distinctly, mom and dad were touched! On day 2 I came back for a visit and baby was fussy, squirming and crying and again, we sang his lullaby and he immediately stopped crying.

[Talia Morales]

Awareness:
Reaching for the music: Turning towards sounds, look away from sounds, move limbs
Vocalizing including breath sounds (sighs)
Move body part rhythmically
Trust:
Descending melodic contour in vocalizations
Matches pitch
Turns towards or away from the music
Explores instruments touch, feel, shake, hold, mouth with different parts of their bodies
Independence:
Touches, explores and maneuvers instruments
Pass instrument from hand to hand
Isolating body movements (hands, feet, head etc) to music
Control:
Dances spontaneously to music
Will follow along with movements modeled and imitate clapping
Pounding and/or banging on a drum
Responsibility:
Can match and maintain a steady beat
Can follow sequence of movements
Stops and listens to the musical play of others

[Talia Morales]

How fun Sarah! I agree, vocal work and play is so key:) I second the importance for us to experiment with sound not only as practitioners but also for the individuals we work with. Thanks for the book suggestion too Elizabeth!

[Talia Morales]

Hello to all and looking forward to getting to know our group! My name is Talia Morales and reaching out to you from San Diego CA. I got my undergrad in MT from University of Kansas and have a MA in expressive arts therapy from European Graduate School. I have had the privilege to work in school based settings for the past 20 years conducting assessments and providing direct and consultative services as part of the IEP for Pre-K-High School student sand love the collaborative aspect of working alongside students, teachers, slp’s, ot’s and parents.
My birthplace of Peru often calls me home and I enjoy visiting my family there and had a chance to work in school setting in the Andean town of Urubamba for a number of years and still lead retreats on our family farm in the Sacred Valley from time to time. My experiences have highlighted the need for Spanish speaking music resources for underserved communities, not only in South America but also here at home in San Diego and in the US. Inspired by this, I recently embarked on a new journey and started my own business ¡ÁnimoMúsica! which I am, little by little, building and have a long list of Spanish and Bilingual song ideas and lessons I’m working on! I am hoping that this training will inform the on-going development of the resource library I am currently building and it be a sound, evidence-based foundation to grow on.
Looking forward to our time together and learning from you all!
Talia

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