Creating an Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program

The piano is one of the best instruments to study, because it works every single part of the brain. Playing the piano involves the coordination of auditory, sensory, somatosensory and motor skills, because a piano player must focus on reading the musical notation while operating the keyboard and foot pedals. Therefore, playing the piano has many physiological benefits such as the following: it builds fine motor skills, improves dexterity and hand-eye coordination, increases muscular strength in the hands and arms, and improves aural awareness. Studies show that playing the piano can even have emotional

benefits such as reducing stress and anxiety. Studies also indicate that learning the piano can build neural connections in the brain thereby improving memory, attention, speech, language, bodily- kinesthetic skills, and spatial- mathematical skills. Therefore, it is important that piano instruction is offered in schools to every single child. Children with physical, emotional, and learning disabilities can especially benefit from learning how to play the piano. Therefore, it is essential that music teachers and private piano teachers have an Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program, so that all children ages 4 years old and above can receive the cognitive, social, emotional, and physiological benefits of playing the piano. You may be asking yourself, “how can a music teacher or a piano teacher include children with disabilities in their group instruction piano classes?” Well, an Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program should incorporate the universal design for learning through using hands- on learning methods and alternative learning methods that appeal to all types of learners.

An effective Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program should utilize alternative learning methods to teach the piano to all types of learners. One alternative method of piano teaching is to use color. The teacher can create a color-coded system of learning musical notation by having each piano key on the keyboard have a specific color that matches the color of the note on the sheet music. For example, all the C keys on the piano will have a green dot on them and note C in the student’s music will be a green note. The teacher should have the students do activities that reinforce their understanding of knowing how to identify the key C on the piano by completing a color-by- keys worksheet in which the students color each C piano key green. The teacher can also encourage their students to use color to make notes in their music; for instance, I provide each student with a pack of colored pencils, so that they can circle dynamic markings, tempo markings, and key changes in their music. According to Nicola Canten (2017) in her article “What You Need to Know to Teach Piano: Students with Special Needs,” color coding the music is especially useful for helping students with down syndrome, dyslexia, ASD, and ADHD. Color coded music can enhance a child’s ability to stay focused on reading the music and eliminate distractions and inattentiveness.

Music teachers must teach the information in their Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program in smaller amounts. Hammel and Hourigan argue in their Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Label-free Approach book that “providing structure, pairing abstract with concrete concepts, and sequencing in small steps are all music therapy concepts that can be applied to music education” (2011, p. 140). For instance, children will learn how to play one note in the proper rhythm first and then slowly learn how to play a three note scale and song and then a five note scale and song. Once the children have mastered playing a pentascale, then they will begin learning how to play a full octave scale and more complicated music. When they learn a new song, I break down each element of the music for them. For example, I will first teach them to speak the rhythm of the song on a nonsense syllable such as “ta” while they clap their hands to either the downbeats or the rhythm of the song. Then, they will speak the note names in rhythm to the song as they clap the rhythm of the song. Next, they will speak the words to the song in rhythm while they clap the rhythm. After that, they will watch me demonstrate the song on the piano and sing the note names and the words to the song as I play it for them. They will practice playing the song on the piano as I speak the notes that are supposed to play in the proper rhythm. Lastly, they will practice playing to a metronome on their own until they have mastered the song. I assess their mastery of the song by having them perform the song in front of their classmates.

In my Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program, I teach the curriculum through hands-on learning experiences that appeal to all learning types. In “The Carabo- Cone Method Series: A Sensory- Motor Approach to Music Learning,” Madeleine Carabo- Cone suggests to create a live keyboard. For this activity, I begin by having the students take white and black sheets of paper to construct a keyboard on the ground out of paper. In the next step, “the boys and girls on the white paper sheets are pretending they are white piano keys” (1971, p. 4). I also have each student hold a solfege syllable poster. The child who is standing on the C key is “do” and each consecutive key has the corresponding solfege syllable. For the next step, I point to the child on “do” and then they will sing “do” as they squat down. I continue pointing to each child as they go down the line to practice singing the major scale with their solfege syllables. Then, I ask the students: “Why is one little boy squatting down?” I instruct the students to place one of their fingers on a real piano key and press down, so that they see what happens when they press down a piano key. This activity helps to engage all learners, because visual learners practice building a keyboard out of construction paper and they see the different solfege syllables signs as well as the action of a student squatting and singing their solfege syllable. This activity is helpful to auditory learners, because auditory learners connect hearing the major scale to the action of playing a major scale on the piano. Finally, this activity engages bodily- kinesthetic learners, because children who learn through movement connect the squatting action to pressing down a piano key to make sound with their finger. Jessica Crump (2010) states in her “An Examination of Therapeutic Approaches Employed by Music Therapists Servicing Children and Teens with Behavior Disorders” that music and movement can increase dopamine in the brain, which can make learning music enjoyable. Learning music through hands- on learning experiences can also help students to focus on the task, because dopamine “regulates attention, working memory, and motivation” (Rodgers, p. 9). A hands- on learning approach to music also helps build fine and large motor skills. However, for children with physical disabilities, I would modify the instruction by having that student still be on a piano key with the rest of their class, but if they can’t squat, then I would allow them to pick a similar downward motion that they are able to do and have the rest of the students try the modified movement too. Therefore, I agree with Anita Louise Steele and Christopher Fischer that music “lessons should be rich in multi- sensory and eurythmic activities,” so that every type of learner can achieve the class objectives (2011, p. 24).

An effective Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program should adapt the keyboard instruments to include students with physical and learning disabilities. For instance, it is better to offer keyboards for students with disabilities, because the features of a keyboard are equipped with the technology to support various levels of support and self- assessment opportunities. Tim Archibald proved in his classroom that “using keyboards not only removed the barriers presented by traditional instruments, but allowed students to develop skills individually with scaffolded support and headphones before attempting to play in an ensemble” (n.d., p. 116). Keyboards also offer wheelchair accessibility as well as auditory cues, visual cues, and tempo adjustments. Students who are deaf can benefit from the visual cues of the keyboards and students who are blind can benefit from auditory cues to learn the music. Students who cannot operate a pedal with their feet can either operate the keyboard pedal by hand or through a switch. Students who are severely physically limited could play the keyboard through an app on their tablet. Keyboards can also be used to provide students with immediate feedback on their current accuracy to play the song in the correct timing. The keyboards should have a light up feature, so when the student(s) have mastered a song, the keyboard lights up thereby enhancing their motivation and offering a fun reward for their hard work. Headphones for each keyboard and digital piano should be provided to help students with hearing impairments as well as children with sensory and attentiveness issues such as ADHD and autism. Headphones can also help to decrease fear and anxiety, because no one else will be able to hear that student while they are practicing the piano. Therefore, I agree with Aaron Z. Lohmeyer that “if students do not feel safe, our music lessons that involve some degree of vulnerability (singing, improvisation, group projects, soloing, or creative movement) will not work” (2017, p. 6). The keyboards in your Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program should have different instrumental sounds for the children to choose from for children who have sensitivity to certain sounds. Keyboards also have a built- in metronome for students to use to help them practice playing the music in the correct timing. Keyboards also offer flexibility in learning how to play the songs at their own pace.

An effective Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program offers the chance for every child to enjoy creating music during after- school hours. Parents and children could sign up for the inclusive group piano instruction class for the entire school year. The class could be offered twice a week. All the students in the Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program should be offered the chance to show off their piano skills in a yearly winter, spring, and summer recital. Music teachers can also offer for students in this program the chance to volunteer to play their piano solos from class at nursing homes, hospitals, and orphanages. Music teachers can even offer a monthly jazz night when students could each practice their improvisation skills on the piano as a soloist while the rest of the students play non-pitched percussion instruments in the background. The improvisation nights could help build self- esteem, self- expression, and decrease frustration and anxiety for students who struggle to read and play music notation. Alice- Ann Darrow argues that “music classes and ensembles that include both dominant and marginalized groups increase the likelihood of cross- group friendships and unity” (2017, p. 10). Therefore, it is important that an Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program includes performance opportunities, because students from all diverse backgrounds will naturally desire to overlook differences in order to put on a good quality performance. Hammel and Hourigan argue that a music program that includes “strategies that honor the personhood of students with disabilities can benefit the entire school community” (2011, p. 102). An Inclusive Group Piano Instruction Program can benefit the entire local community, because students would be offered the chance to enhance their cognitive, emotional, and physiological skills while learning to play the piano in this program. Students who have participated in this program can then transfer the skills that they have learned from playing the piano and incorporate them into their everyday life. Therefore, it essential as educators that we do not discriminate against any child in our classroom instruction, so that all children have the opportunity to gain the necessary skills that they need in order live successfully.

About the Author:

Violet Mandic, soprano, began her education at Bucks County Community College where she earned her Associates Degree in the Arts in Music. She was a part of the Bucks County Community College Concert Choir, and Percussion Ensemble. She became a part of the International Dean’s List Honor Society in 2012. She graduated from Bucks County Community College with an honors in summa cum laude. She transferred to Moravian College to continue studying music. At Moravian College, Violet became a part of the Delta Omicron Music Honors Fraternity in the spring of 2016. Violet won the Charlotte E. Newcombie Scholarship in the fall of 2015, and the Louise Moore Pine Music Scholarship in the fall of 2016. She was a part of the Moravian College Concert Choir, Women’s Chorus, Song and Stagecraft Ensemble, and Salon Ensemble. Violet graduated from Moravian College with a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance in the summer of 2017 with an honors in summa cum laude. Violet did a church musician internship at Friedens United Church of Christ. Violet has taught private voice and piano lessons at Miss Cindy’s School of Dance. Violet was a general music teacher at The Stages Academy, which is a performing arts preschool with a kindergarten enrichment program as well as an afterschool program. She also taught group piano instruction courses as well as private voice and piano lessons at The Stages Academy. She currently teaches voice and piano lessons in her private home studio and workshops in singing, acting, and vocal health. Ms. Violet has taught students who have been accepted into the Lehigh Valley Performing Arts Charter School. She sings with the Palisades Community Chorus and at her home church. She is currently working on earning a certification in music education.

References

Cantan, N. (2017). What You Need to Know to Teach Piano: Students with Special Needs. Retrieved from https://colourfulkeys.ie/need-know-teach-piano-students-with-special-needs/

Carabo- Cone, M. (1971). The Carabo- Cone Method Series: A Sensory- Motor Approach to Music Learning. New York: MCA Music.

Crump, J. (2010). An Examination of Therapeutic Approaches Employed By Music Therapists Servicing Children and Teens with Behavior Disorders [PDF File]. Retrieved from https://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu:181187/datastream/PDF/view

Darrow, A.-A. (2017). Teaching Tolerance in the Music Classroom. General Music Today, 30(3), 18–21. https://doi-org.moravian.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/1048371316685134

Desoete, A. (2012). How to Support Children with Mathematical Learning Disabilities Learning to Play an Instrument? Education Research International, (2012), 7. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/346858

Glass, D., Blair, K., and Ganley, P. (n.d.). Univeral Design for Learning and the Arts Option. Retrieved from https://moravian.instructure.com/courses/11341/files/folder/Week%2010?preview=747784

Hammel, A. M., & Hourigan, R. M. (2011). Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Label-free Approach. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com /lib/moravianlibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=665403#

Lohmeyer, A. Z. (2017). Managing and Correcting Defiant Behavior Through Music. General Music Today, 31(1), 34–39. https://doi-org.moravian.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/1048371317699936

Overmiller, T. (2019). Benefits of Playing the Piano (+25 Reasons to Start Learning it NOW). Retrieved from https://www.pianodreamers.com/benefits-of-playing-piano/

Rodgers, A. L. (2019). Music Therapy: Sound Medicine for ADHD. Retrieved from https://www.additudemag.com/music-therapy-for-adhd-how-rhythm-builds-focus/

Steele, A. L., & Fischer, C. (2011). Adaptive Piano Teaching Strategies: For the Physically and Cognitively Handicapped Piano Student, American Music Teacher, 60(4), 22-25. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.moravian.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=49868bca-f760-4540-bba1-6086669dd9c1%40sdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=58028068&db=aph