Teaching Piano
to
Students with Special Needs
By
Mary Ann Froehlich
Dedicated to
my remarkable students
Copyright 2012 Mary Ann Froehlich,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0773-9
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
*Note: Teaching Piano to Students with Special Needs overlaps with some subject material presented in my book, 101 Ideas for Piano Group Class (published in 2004 by Summy-Birchard Music, Warner Bros. Publications). Teaching Piano to Students with Special Needs focuses on one-on-one piano instruction.
Introduction
During his first piano lesson Dylan told me, “My last piano teacher and I had a hard time. But I heard that you like teaching kids with tricky brains.” His description is the best one I’ve heard yet. I’m a “Tricky Brain Piano Teacher.” My goal with each of my students is to teach them according to how their individual brains work.
Trained as a music therapist, teaching piano to students with special needs was a natural step in my journey as a Suzuki piano teacher. I truly believe that the ability to make music changes people’s lives. I’ve also come to the conclusion that each of my students has special needs, whether he or she has a legitimate diagnosis, life crisis, or simply a bad day. Students of all ages and abilities need individualized nurturing and instruction.
You may be reading this book because you have students with special needs in your studio or are considering this avenue of teaching. Perhaps you are a music therapist who wants to teach keyboard skills to some of your clients. Special needs can take several forms. Some students may have Down syndrome, learning disabilities, or autism. Others may be blind or physically challenged. Some may be adults who suffer with depression or are recovering from childhood abuse. Others may be teens at risk who struggle with addiction. Some may be senior adults who are learning a new skill to keep their brains active and healthy. Whether you are a music teacher or therapist, you will realize that learning to make music through playing an instrument is healing in itself.
The population of special needs students seems to be increasing. Experts wonder if disorders, such as autism, learning disabilities, or bipolar disorder, are actually on the rise or if the diagnostic process is simply more thorough today. Whether you seek it out or not, you will probably have the opportunity to work with students who experience a variety of special needs. Hopefully this book will encourage you while giving you tangible techniques for facing this challenge as you enjoy the privilege of sharing music with special learners.
This short book is intended to be a concise, practical guide, a starting point for your own journey. It will not replicate the information already available in current outstanding books about music therapy and special music education. These resources will be listed in later chapters. This book offers one approach for teaching piano to special learners.
You may not know that J. S. Bach faced a similar challenge. You are probably familiar with the children of J. S. Bach who went on to become well-known composers in their own right, most notably C. P. E. Bach and J. C. Bach. J. S. Bach was proud of his musical family and talented offspring. Yet one of J. S. Bach’s children was a child with special needs. He was termed “feeble-minded.” I sometimes wonder if J. S. Bach tried to share his music with this less talented son. Did J. S. Bach attempt to teach this child to make music or did he assume that his son was incapable of learning? The question intrigues me. J. S. Bach was known to be an impatient, difficult teacher. Once he even drew a dagger on a student who frustrated him. J. S. Bach was not a nurturing educator with his students. Perhaps J. S. Bach was so gifted that he had no tolerance for teaching struggling students. Hopefully he was more compassionate with his own son.
May this path of exploring the world of music with special learners inspire and intrigue you. May having the gift of music encourage you to share it generously with others, especially those who find learning to make music challenging but revel most in its joy.
Music is the medicine of the mind.
John Logan
Song is the pen of the soul.
Rabbi Chaim Drizin
Chapter 1: Music and the Brain
Our everyday existence depends on the creative interpretation of our brain. The arts facilitate this process more fully than any other discipline.
Eric Jensen
First we need to lay a foundation for working with students with special needs. Before we can apply specific teaching techniques, we need to understand the why behind the how. Your first step is to take a crash course in how the brain processes music. We also want to understand how learning musical skills affects the brain. In reading books and studies about music and the brain for three decades, I have observed that terminology has changed, research methods have become more sophisticated due to current brain scanning technology, and concepts have been refined, yet the implications for music education have remained remarkably constant.
Brain-compatible Music Education
Effective education techniques lead the brain down paths it naturally follows. The brain simultaneously processes along many paths, more complex than our original understanding of left and right hemispheres. Music making connects multiple brain sites. Dr. Leslie Hart views linear activities which do not connect multiple brain sites as brain-antagonistic methods. Learning to play an instrument is the ideal cross-brain activity. It requires cross-modal learning, integrating auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic, cognitive, emotional, and social skills. Music education is a brain-compatible experience.
Dr. Mel Levine identifies these modes as eight neurodevelopmental systems: attention control, memory, language, motor, higher thinking, social, spatial, and sequential ordering. Dr. Howard Gardner views them as seven intelligences or problem-solving capabilities: verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, body/kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. You may know Gardner’s approach as the theory of multiple intelligences. Experts may offer different terms but most would agree with Dr. Levine’s concept that the brain is a tool chest filled with a variety of delicate instruments enabling us to learn skills and perform tasks.
Dr. Levine believes that our brains are uniquely wired, with weak and strong neurodevelopmental systems, each requiring regular exercise to stay in shape. Healthy adults have learned to compensate, capitalizing on their strong systems while working on their weak ones. Children need compassionate guidance in developing their tool chests.
As music educators, first
