Practicing Safe Music (eBook)

CHAPTER ONE:

Key Spirit-Releasing Insight #1: Clearing the Emotional Path

When students discover their teacher is an “emotional sherpa,” they immediately relax, expand, and grow.

Staying one “emotional chess move” ahead of your students and previewing the discomfort they are about to feel can open the way for them to celebrate the wonders of their blooming musical selves and back away from their natural inclination to stay safe, small, and resistant.

You may be thinking, “That all sounds great, but what does this look like in real situations?”

Check out how Key Spirit-Releasing Insight #1: Clearing the Emotional Path can help you prevent or transform the following potential classroom nightmares:

What if you try to get a bunch of 13-year-olds to trust you enough to sing for you by singing something to them first, hoping they will sing back, but they just stare at you instead?

What if you choose partners for the kids who’ve been left out during partner-picking, and some of the kids you’ve partnered them with say mean things because they don’t like whom you’ve chosen for them?

Or what if your adult students, who have always wanted to play the guitar, don’t have confidence in their ability to learn? With this mindset, their constant second-guessing of themselves blocks their joy in learning and playing. Countless times, I’ve watched students’ fingers unconsciously go to the right chords or notes, but because it felt too easy, they then assumed they’d gotten it wrong. Then they bungle what they were playing and become discouraged on a whole new level.

What might it look like to stay one “emotional chess move” ahead of your students—from preschoolers to senior citizens—and preview for them the discomfort they are just about to feel?

No matter the student’s age, acknowledging their sense of reality can be astonishingly healing and affirming.

Example: “Do you know why it feels hard to do this at first? That’s because it’s hard to do this at first!”

Offering them such a targeted jolt of reality not only affirms their own sense of reality but also acknowledges that doing something well takes practice. It directly contradicts the unspoken cultural fantasy that we pop out of the womb with or without musical talent, and that some people are born luckier than others.

Clearing the emotional path is a way to inoculate students against the belief that their normal learning curve issues are evidence that, if they can’t do something well right away, they’ll never be able to.

Next, let’s look at how this concept can be applied to specific lesson plans.

1. Passing Out Instruments

If you don’t set up the process well, passing out instruments, whether to preschoolers or middle schoolers—seriously, we don’t change that much as we age; we just get taller and have more complicated issues—can literally take an entire class period. With each part of the following set-up, everyone can easily understand and participate in a way that feels safe: the instructions create a simple, doable way to offer inspiring clarity while being kind. By anticipating the potential moments of meanness (intentional and not), any teacher can facilitate a flow that gets everyone to the fun zone and keeps them there for the entire class period.

Set-up Strategy: Jam to the Blues in E Flat

A really fun way to keep a class of any age engaged while you’re passing out instruments to individual students is to teach the class to jam together.

Jam to the Blues in Eb Step-by-Step

• First, announce to the class that you’re all about to play a very special song called “Blues in Eb.”
• Explain that each student will have a turn to play the piano, only playing the black keys.
• Tell them that if they stay on the black keys, every note they play will be correct. If anyone asks why, explain that the black keys on the piano are an Eb pentatonic minor scale, and all sound good with the 1, 4, and 5 chords in Eb. Note: This explanation can trigger a stress response, so I usually add something like, “Doesn’t that sound like something you would need to take anti-biotics for? Like, ‘Why didn’t you come to school today? Oh man, I was home with a pentatonic minor scale in Eb…..’”. This is usually enough to help people over their fear hurdles.
• Then tell students that they can play fast, slow, loud, or soft as long as they’re as gentle with the keyboard as they are when petting a dog or a cat.
• Then I play “Blues in Eb’’ on another keyboard or on the guitar. I don’t do the full twelve bars for each turn because I want to ensure that there’s enough class time for everyone to get a turn during one class period. (I’ve usually done this with between 15 and 25 students at a time.)
• I use the pattern Eb / Ab / Eb / Eb / Bb / Ab / Eb / Bb.
• To keep students who are not at the piano occupied while they wait for their turn, have them support the jam session by playing rhythm instruments.
• On the last four beats of each student’s turn at the piano, I say, “One, two, three, instruments down! Everyone should have their instrument on the floor, hands in their lap.” Then I quickly call on the next person to play the piano. I either remind them to play only the black keys or ask them which keys they’re supposed to play.
• Let them know that they can only pick up their instruments again after you count off.
• Keep the flow and energy high by saying things like “Nice job!” and “You rock!” after each person’s turn at the piano.

A Fun Addition: Invite the Classroom Teacher to Play

After all the kids have had their turn at the piano, give their regular classroom teacher, if present, a turn—as well as a bunch of warm encouragement and assurances that it’s impossible to make a mistake. If this happens, the kids will LOVE IT. It also sets an excellent example by showing that people of any age can learn new things. Inviting their teacher to play is not only fun, but it also reinforces by experience the fact that anyone, given some simple instruction, can play music.

Set-Up Strategy: Establishing Your Protocols

It’s important to establish protocols for how you want your students to receive, play, and not play, their instruments.

Example:

“When I hand you an instrument, the right answer is, ‘Thank you, Ms. Feld!’ What’s the right answer?” When they give the correct answer, I say, “Excellent! That’s correct!”

For example: If you give an instrument to a student who says something like “I wanted the tambourine!” or “I wanted the blue one!”: Say, “I’m sorry, that’s the wrong answer. The right answer is, ‘Thank you, Ms. Feld!’ Try again, please!”

Remind students that when they’re not playing, they should gently lay the instrument on the floor in front of them, then put their hands on their laps.

Once you’ve explained this, ask them specific questions to reinforce the protocol: “Where do your instruments go?”

Wait for an answer from the class. If they’re not very loud or convincing, make your voice slightly louder and ask, “WHAT?!?!” When they give the right answer loudly enough, say, “THAT’S CORRECT!”

If you’re preparing to do the “Blues in Eb” jam session, be sure to also ask, “What do you do with your instrument at the end of each person’s turn at the piano?”

Call on individuals or ask for a group response to again reinforce what’s expected of them.

I also make it clear that anyone who doesn’t follow these protocols during a jam session will have their instrument taken away for one round (i.e., for the duration of a classmate’s turn at the piano).

Instruments will also be taken away from anyone who throws an instrument on the ground or at someone.

As you can imagine, I learned to do this the hard way. When I didn’t set up these protocols for passing out instruments, there was chaos and cacophony. Not fun for anyone.

Throughout this experience, complement the class whenever they do a great job following the protocols. It’s always a good idea to catch kids doing things right.

1. Picking Partners

Because picking partners in a group of any age can be stressful, I like to choose students’ partners for them. The setup is slightly different for each age group, but the overall themes are the same.

I begin by announcing that I’m going to pick partners for people. I let students know that if they get mad at me because they don’t like the partner I’ve picked for them, it’s cool. I can handle it, and I promise I’ll still love them. What I can’t handle is anyone getting left out.

The setup for picking partners is similar to the one I use when handing out instruments:

• First, I tell them, “When I tell you who your partner is, the right answer is, ‘Thank you, Ms. Feld!’ What’s the right answer?!”
• Then I follow up by facilitating a simple conversation about what you can’t say and do, and why. (“Because it’s mean, and it will hurt someone’s...