Mozart and Seizures

          Hello, again.  Its been a long time since I posted anything.  I did find a medical artical worth sharing.  It is an artical i found on Pubmed.gov.  The United States National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health online medical library that our medical doctors go to for reliable irrefutable scientific facts.  It was study done about Mozart's K. 448 Piano Sonata for two pianos in D as a potential therapy for seizures.  There are other studies done with music on pubmed i haven't had time to read all of them yet.  But here is the link http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24410973.  I know a gentlemen who use to play Mozart for his son that had seizures and he claimed it helped.  That is when I went looking and found these articals on pubmed.  Like anything it is probably a good idea to let you doctor know if you choose to try this.  I would personally ask him about it first and see what he think.  Mozart's music is very cheap even for good recordings, the free stuff is usually low quality I have found.  I dont know if the quality of the recordings will have an effect on the effect of the music may have.  Classical music is much more enjoyable with higher quality record's in my opinion.  There is usually much that goes on that is offten missed and not picked up in lower quality recordings.  Also I am not aware of any bad side effects from listening to Mozart!  Cheap, might work, no bad side effects.  I would try it if I had seizures!  I am not a doctor or anything but if you have questions about it ask your doctor and he will be a lot more likely to listen if you say its a pubmed artical :) Here is another artical about Mozarts K. 545 mimicing k 448.  The K numbering system is just a catalog number of pieces.  Another tip about looking for classical music, a lot of the time, you can only find one movement or so of a piece of music.  So to know you are getting the entire piece of music look it up before you buy something. K 448 has 3 movements

What Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Has To Say About Arts education

“I believe that arts education can help build the case for the importance of a well-rounded, content-rich curriculum in at least three ways. First, the arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds that students will go on to graduate from college. Second, arts education is essential to stimulating the creativity and innovation that will prove critical to young Americans competing in a global economy. And last, but not least, the arts are valuable for their own sake, and they empower students to create and appreciate aesthetic works.” 
Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education

Harmony Project

I came across the Harmony Project while watching the TV series, "Turning Point" on BYU TV.   It is a very fabulous thing that is going on.  It is a music program that is, well I will let you read ir for yourself.  Go to
http://www.harmony-project.org/ and read about it there.  Below is some research that I have gotten off of that website.  There are more stories and research about music programs helping children in many ways like the Harmony Project does, through out the rest of my blog.  Also check out the video link in the left column of my blog "The Creativity Factor"  
 
Harmony Project programs are research-based. I developed Harmony

1. A robust body of literature shows the following. Tiny kids

want to learn everything, and they want to learn it now!

academic motivation (natural curiosity) of 3rd graders tends to be stably

and predictably high. For every year a child remains in school, however,

intrinsic academic motivation plummets. Ie., kids show up interested and

seeking mastery experiences, and the things we do with kids in schools

tends to extinguish their curiosity and desire to learn. (See 2, below, for

the exception.)

References:

Harter, S. (1981). A new self-report scale of instrinsic versus extrinsic

orientation in the classroom: motivational and informational components.

Developmental Psychology, Vol 17(3), 300-312.

Lepper, M.R., Corpus, J.H., Iyengar, S.S. (2005). Intrinsic and extrinsic

motivational orientations in the classroom: Age differences and academic

correlates. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 97(2), 184-196.

Makri-Botsari, E. (1999). Academic instrinsic motivation: Developmental

differences and relations to perceived scholastic competence, locus of

control and achievement. Evaluation and Research in Education, Vol 13(3),

157-171.

Intrinsic

2. Shirley Brice Heath, a linguistic anthropologist at Stanford

(now at Brown), wanted to learn what kids, ages 8 - 18, do in

their discretionary non-school hours.

conducted a 10-year qualitative research study, embedding ethnographers

in 124 different after-school programs throughout the country. She

transcribed some two million words of recorded conversation. All the

students involved in after school programs had benefited relative to peers

who had not engaged in after school programs. But, relative to students

who had participated in sports programs or community service programs

(like scouting, religious clubs, 4H, etc.), arts-engaged kids sounded like

they came from a different universe. Heath determined that, hands down,

arts-based programs produced the most powerful and enduring pro-social

impact on young people. The effect was particularly striking for

disadvantaged students, who tended to self-select into arts-based programs

at greater rates than did their more advantaged peers.

Heath's study demonstrates that arts-engaged students tend to remain

curious, engaged, and interested in the process of their own learning and

development -- a striking "exception" to the downward motivation trend

described in #1, above.

Reference:

To answer the question, shehttp://www.aep-arts.org/files/publications/ChampsReport.pdf

Imaginative Actuality: Learning in the Arts during the Nonschool

Hours Shirley Brice Heath with Adelma Roach, page 19 The article on page 1 of the compendium is also of note. It describes an analysis of data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey done by James Catterall and colleagues. Music-engaged high school students performed significantly better in math and language. Students with high levels of music engagement scored even higher. The effect persisted for disadvantaged students.

http://www.aep-arts.org/files/publications/ChampsReport.pdf

Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement and Intensive Involvement in Music and Theater Arts James S. Catterall, Richard Chapleau and John Iwanaga, page 1

3. The RAND Corporation followed up on Heath's work to

essentially answer the following question. "Do all arts programs

produce powerful and enduring pro-social benefits, or are there

specific factors within high-performing arts programs that

account for the powerful pro-social benefit observed?"

RAND's landmark "Arts and Prosocial Impact" studies answered the

question. Quality instruction was necessary, but insufficient to produce the

prosocial benefits observed. There were, indeed, a handful of specific

factors besides quality instruction that were common to the highestperforming arts-based youth programs.

RAND, Arts & Prosocial Impact:

http://www.rand.org/pubs/drafts/DRU1887.html

4. The question remains: How are quality arts programs

(containing the elements identified by the RAND study) able to

impact students' social and emotional well-being and improve

academic motivation?

University of Rochester researchers Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci.

Their "Self Determination Theory" posits three essential psychological

needs: the need for autonomy, for competence, and for relatedness. Using

an experimental design, Ryan and Deci showed that boosting students’

autonomy, competence, and relatedness resulted in statistically significant

increases in students' intrinsic motivation.

Quality arts education programs (that include the elements identified in

the RAND study) improve students' competence, autonomy, and

relatedness with laser-like precision. A student learns to play an

instrument herself (autonomy). Over time she develops the ability to play

it better, and to play increasingly difficult pieces (competence). And she

performs these pieces before family and peers -- either on her own or as

part of an ensemble (relatedness).

Reference: Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L. (2000). Self-determination theory and

the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being.

American Psychologist, Vol 55, 68-78.

Self Determination Theory:

The answer can be found in the work ofhttp://www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT/;

5. How Music Learning Shapes Students’ Brains

Dr. Nina Kraus, Director of the Auditory Neuroscience Lab at

Northwestern University has studied how music learning shapes the brain and the abilities of music students for two decades. She has found that, over time, music learning shapes the development of the brain and nervous system in a way that improves students’ language learning and acquisition and also improves a student’s ability to listen in a noisy environment and hear the important messages, despite the accompanying noise. The following link contains short videos that provide the opportunity to listen to Dr. Kraus describe her research.

http://www.soc.northwestern.edu/brainvolts/#

6. Grades, Behavior and Mood

In our most recent impact evaluation survey, a high proportion of students' parents indicated that - since joining the Harmony Project - their child has shown improvement in his/her Grades (82%), Behavior (82%), Mood (80%), and Health (70%). These responses were recently validated in a research study conducted by Michael Uy, a UC Berkeley graduate who was awarded the Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize to spend a year comparing The Harmony Project with Venezuela's world-renowned El Sistema youth orchestra program (i.e., the program that produced Gustavo Dudamel, incoming Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director). The study

– based on in-depth interviews with students and parents of both

programs – found that 90% of Harmony Project students showed

improved focus and discipline, 73% improved academic achievement, 71%

improved family communication, 44% improved self-esteem.

7. Preventing School Drop-Out; High School Graduation;

College Attendance

Below is a link to a recent study conducted by the University of California

Santa Barbara which reports drop-out rates for cities throughout

California. Drop-out rates for Los Angeles were reported to be 50% for the

entire city. Drop-out rates for low-income communities can be as high as

70%, or even higher. Harmony Project operates programs in four of LA’s

12 high crime “gang reduction zones”. Our students come from lowincome

homes (family income below 200% of the federal poverty level), yet

they all remain enrolled in school.

http://cdrp.ucsb.edu/dropouts/pubs_cityprofiles.htm

In 2010, 100% of Harmony Project’s high school graduates went on to

college. Each was the first in the family to attend college.

8. 21st Century Learning skills:

Harmony Project participation supports the following 21st Century

Learning Skills:

Core Subjects: English, Reading / Language Arts, Arts

21st Century Context: Global Awareness

Harmony Project students discover the world and other cultures through

the music they learn. They also participate in classes with students from

diverse cultures and backgrounds.

Learning & Thinking Skills Critical thinking & problem-solving

skills Communication skills Creativity & Innovation skills Collaboration

skills Contextual learning skills

The process of learning to play a musical instrument takes place over

multiple years, and develops student discipline, persistence, strategic

thinking, creativity and accountability. Ensemble participation develops

the ability to collaborate well with others.

Life Skills Leadership Ethics Accountability

Harmony Project students develop leadership skills as Teaching Assistants

and Peer Mentors within the program. They develop a personal ethical

framework and moral values through service-learning opportunities within

the program. And they learn accountability by participating in ensembles

and youth orchestras where the quality of the performance depends upon

each member learning and performing their part well.

21st Century Learning Skills (

http://p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Item

id=119

40 developmental assets from Search Institute

org/content/what-are-developmental-assets

);http://www.searchinstitute.

Focus group interviews of Harmony Project students and parents show

that Harmony Project participation develops 30 or more of the 40

developmental assets identified by the Search Institute. This reflects a

level of social support associated with personal resilience and a significant

reduction in students’ problem alcohol use, violence and school problems

There is this and more information at http://www.harmony-project.org/ Check it out! 

Harmony Project – Research Basis Summary Prepared by

Margaret Martin, MPH, DrPH Harmony Project Founder

Project as a youth development and mentoring program targeting students with the greatest needs and the fewest resources. Utilizing a public health perspective, we focused on the after school environment, when children are at greatest risk of accident, injury, assault, abuse, criminal activity, and substance use. I didn't know about Dr. Abreu or El Sistema at the time I founded Harmony Project, but I began this work for essentially the same reasons, and we continue to learn as much as possible from the work being done in Venezuela and elsewhere. The following is a narrative describing

key pieces of research upon which Harmony Project programs are based.

Micheal Ballam Videos

Don't forget about Dr. Ballam's Videos I have in the left column on the page. Good stuff!

More Info

Here is a link to more info Michael Ballam has. Some of the info can also be found in this blog, but there is some info that isn't in this blog too. http://www.ufoc.org/index.php?p_resource=about_ballam_music

Testimonial of Music Helping in the Learning Process.

I know a person who is attending college.  I gave her some music to listen to while she studies and does her homework.  I gave her some music from J.S. Bach and Mozart.  About a week later she came up to me and thanked me for the music.  She said that she could focus a lot better, she was more orginized, she remembered alot more, and got a lot more done then she would have if she didn't listen to the music while she worked and studied.  It helps me when I study, give it a try, it works!

Update on my progress

Like I have promised, I will update you on my progress of my listing to classical music again.  Well I am doing much better.  I can think and functions more and more clearly.  So that is all I have to say for this post, however, I am learing some new things that I am still studying and looking at and hope to have some new data to be able to post on my blog.  This data that I am working on is very interesting, I personlly am estactic about my new findings! I hope to post soon. 

Please Share Your Thoughts

I haven't writen posts for a while before today.  I hope that those people that read my blog will leave  comments about musical experiances or questions they have so others may be benefited by there stories and questions, If you have questions I will try to answer them, and if I can't answer them, then I will find where the answer can be found.  If you have any information that you would like to share, feel free to comment on post or write to me contact.blog.thepowerofmusic@gmail.com the more people that share beneficial information the more people that can be helped.  If you send me something by email i will need your permision to post it on my blog, or parts of the info you share with me.  So if you have some info that you feel comfortable to share, I and possibly other would much appreciate it.  You can leave yourself anonymous if you would like. 

Music In My Life

I recently havn't had much of an oppertunity to listen to classical and barouqe music, which I usually listen to for hours every day.  One of the reasons I listen to classical music for hours a day is because I have some problems that baqrouqe and classical music help me with greatly.  There were times when I couldn't keep a train of thought and barly remember things that were just said to me because of certain conditions that I have.  I would have to just lye down and do nothing because thats about all I could do, durring that time Bach's music seemed to be the most help and after a little bit, I could function more normally.  But all those problems just about went away when I started to listen to that music for hours a day.  Now that I haven't listened to that music for a couple of weeks now, I noticed a major change, I am almost back to where I was before that musicbecame such a large part of my life.  However, I am listening to music again.  I will update this blog on my progress.

Music, Colors and Emotions

Here is a letter that I have been sending to researchers that I thought might be a good read for my blog.  They are my thoughts, they are not Scientific Laws or anything (so far).  Just thoughts I have
(*'s are some things I left out)

Hello, how are you?  ******************************************************************************

********************I have a thought that might help in the field of music therapy.  Here it is, I will try to keep it short.  I learned that chemicals in the brain cause emotions.  But it is more then that.  I also learned that the chemicals have electromagnetic frequencies, and different frequencies produce different emotions.  I am not sure how it works, but that is in a nutshell, for that anyways.  Now by some kind of vibratory effect, different colors produce different emotions.  There is also color therapy, which has been around since ancient times and also a type of therapy still used today.  I believe very strongly that there is a great connection between color and sound (music) effecting our emotions.   So with that much in mind, this is what I did.  I went to Handel's Water Music Suite No.  Let me tell you why I did that before I go on. 

Handel wrote that music for a very specific purpose.  King George III or II, the King of England at the time when Handel was alive, was having a very hard time.  He practically was ruling the world at the time and felt his responsibility very keenly.  He was stress, couldn’t remember things, kept making mistakes and was troubled in his sleep.  He was reading a book that his nephew James was translating, (King James Bible) He was reading in the book of Samuel I think is was and read about King Saul.  Saul was ruling a very large kingdom too, and was having much of the same problems King George was experiencing.  Saul tried every thing, even sorcery, but to no avail.  Then one of his "cabinet” said that there was a young boy who had the ability to calm people and help them feel better by playing his harp.  So Saul sent for this boy (later king David) and David played the harp and it helped Saul.  After reading this George ask if there was a “Hebrew harp healer" around.  Handel met with George and George ask him if he could do the same, and Handel said yes, and then the Water Music Suite came to be.  Now, knowing that Handel's Water Music was written to help with relaxation, calmness, concentration, memory and whatever else the king needed, I thought "now the most important and most played notes (most of the time) are the tonic and the dominate in the key. 

Let me analyze, 

Handel’s Water Music

Suite No. 1 in F Major HWV 348

The frequency of F natural (the tonic) equals the frequency of the color violet (in a different octave).  According to my data, violet is associated with inspiration and creativity.  Benefits may be, calm nerves and reduced excitement.

Suite No. 2 in D Major HWV 349

The frequency of D and green/aqua are the same.  Green is associated with peace, renewal, hope, balance, harmony, self-control, growth and life.  Benefits may be stress reduction, rest, calmness, sense of balance and harmony, normalcy, and relaxation.

Suite No. 3 HWV 350

G major – Red.  Associated with courage, strength, vitality, vigor, ambition, alertness, pioneering spirit, willpower and aggressiveness.  Benefits may be, overcome negative thoughts, a sense of power, self-confidence, settledness, and a feeling of security and safety.

The correlation between the purpose of the water music and the relative colors to the tonic note of the suites are the same.  However music has more impact or “power” then just a single note.  Music has melody, harmony, and rhythm.  I think there needs to be some exploration in music as far as, the melody, the rhythm and harmony to find out just how it effect emotions so powerfully with my theory.  I strongly believe that knowing more about what I have suggested in this letter can greatly help in the music therapy and maybe bring us to new horizons of discovery.  I also strongly believe that with a deeper and better and fuller understanding of how music affects people, composers can also be brought into the music therapy sphere. 

Thank you for your time,

*********** 

P.S.  If you have questions please reply.  I am not to good with words, so I hope that the message I wanted you to receive is what the letter states.

             

Need Help

I am not getting much feed back from my readers, I would like to know what you think of my blog.  I am having a lot of views but very very little feed back.  I think one reason why might be some people may not know how to leave a comment.  At the bottom of each post there is a comment link where you can leave a brief message of what you thought about the post or experiances that you have had with music or you can ask a question.  There is also a reaction segment at the bottom as well.  All you have to do it click on a button weither you liked, disliked, or were indifferent to the post you've read.  I also have a my email you can contact me.  It is a link you can click on, however, it takes you a window that I my self do not know how to contact people through that outlook window that pops up.  So what you might try is copy the address down, then go into your email and send me an email from there.  So please take some time and let me know what you what you think.
Thank You 

Animals and Classical Music

I would like to share some experiances that I have had with animals and Classical Music.  I wanted to see what kind of response I would get out of animals when I played music to them.  Classical (barouqe, classical, romantic) era music was the only music that made the animals have any response and some hymns too.  I didn't play a variaty of music, but the music I could.  When other music was played besides the above, there seems to be no response or a definite one at least.  But when  Beethoven, J.S. Bach, Brahms, Mozart, Handel, or Hymns, the animals just layed down and poked thier ears up as though to listen to the music activly.  Someone I know had a sheep that just arrived to it's new home one day at this persons house.  The sheep was distressed and bleating very much and was pacing it's stall anxiously.  I suggested to them to play some classical music for it and see what happens.  When the music was played the sheep did not make another noise and layed down and seemed calm.  It would walk around abit, but mostly lay.  I witnessed it first hand, it was remarkable.  If you are wondering, the music played for the sheep what Handel's Water Music Suites.  Handel wrote that music for the King of England to help him calm down and to think and to remember better when he was feeling his resposibility of his possition very keenly of being the king.  I have a couple of older post that talk about Handel's Water Music titled,  "Handel and Healing", and "Words and Water Music" if you would like to learn more.

Bach and Black Birds

One day I was in my bedroom, which has a large tree just out side my window, I notice a group of black birds in the tree and on the ground.  I have lived around black birds all my life and have noticed that they bicker and squall with each other more then any other birds I have seen  they might of been starlings, the two look much alike.  Which ever they were they were, as usual, bickering with each other and picking at the ground and what ever else it is that birds do.  I then had a thought about the story with the whales Dr. Ballam talks about.  Let me quote "In 1968 a group of Beluga Whales were trapped of the shore of the Bering Strait under a blanket of ice. The winter had been more severe than usual, and the ice had formed quickly to entrap these remarkable endangered creatures of the deep under an icy barrier. Being mammals, they needed to surface regularly to breath, and in doing so found themselves trapped under a solid wall with no ability to get oxygen. The whales faced the potential for annihilation. Scientists and wildlife conservationists from the Soviet Union and Great Britain sent mighty ice breaking machines to open the way for the whales to get oxygen. They were successful in their mission to break the ice, but in doing so the whales had become frightened and submerged to the bottom of the sea to get away from the horrible sound of the ice crusher. They stayed on the bottom until some began to die. The scientists and conservationists thought of a way to bring them to the surface. They concurred that whales sing to each other through miles of open sea. In fact water is a better conductor of sound waves than air. Whales can communicate by song for upwards of 200 miles. They determined to “pipe” sound into the water in the hopes that the whales would find it interesting and follow it. They began by playing gentle lute music which had little or no effect on the whales. They tried American Jazz thinking the more sophisticated rhythms might stimulate their interest. It had no effect. In desperation they determined to blast heavy metal rock music into the depths of the deep. In doing so, the whales submerged deeper into the icy abyss. Someone had the ingenuity to try some Beethoven. For some reason the whales came forth following the music to survival."  So I wanted to play some music for the birds to see what response I would get out of them.  I played a Brandenburg Concerto, I believe it was #5.  Something very extraordinary happened.  In a few seconds it caught there attention and they started to just stand there and look around.  After a moment or two they went back to what they were doing.  It was very interesting to see them not fighting anymore when one would accidentally bump into the other or get to close to another one eating something.  They seems to just get along.  A feeling of peace came over me and the birds.  I can't describe it but I felt just a wonderful presence of peace that came about me.  Occasionally when a black bird or starling came from somewhere else and landed in the little flock it would squabble with a few then realize the music was playing and then looked around for it and then went about its business in a peaceful manner as the birds that were already there. It was the oddest thing I have ever seen in a group of that type of birds that I am so use to seeing bickering with each other.

New Info Michael Ballam is Sharing

I came across some info on http://www.ufoc.org/ that Michael Ballam compiled.  They are people's testimonials, including school teachers, about what they have experiance with playing classical music in there homes and classrooms.  here is a direct link to them
http://www.ufoc.org/index.php?p_resource=about_ballam_music_testimonials
I also found some other info about music, much like what I have already shared in my blog.  the link to that is, http://www.ufoc.org/index.php?p_resource=about_ballam_music  hope you learn something new!

Music's Effect on Water

Here something that stuck me profoundly.  A Japanese scientist Dr, Emoto took pictures of water molecules while different music was being played.  Here some examples of when classical music was played

<----Beethoven's Pastorale

 Bach's " Air for the G string " ---->

Now here is what happened when heavy metal music was played,

knowing that, now think about it when I tell you that about 72% of your body is made up of water.  I think it tells us a lot about how music effects peoples minds and bodies.  Not only this, but the countless scientific studies on how music effects us.

Thank you Readers

Hello to readers, I am still learning how to work a blog and as I was looking around today,  I found that I could learn how many people have been viewing my blog.  I am so pleased that people are viewing this blog.  I hope I am helping people with it.  That is my whole purpose for this blog.  Please leave comments if you have any you wish to share, or any advice to help me to learn more about my blog, especially how to share it more.  I would also like to see what my readers think about my blog.  There is one thing that concerns me. I share info about how music is used for a variaty of things.  I know some people that would turn a deaf ear to my blog when they see that I have shared info about things they don't agree with and that is okay if they do not agree.  I respect your beliefs.  I don't agree with every thing I read either.  But please do not quit reading, I am certian that you will find something that can help or interest you.  I have over a hundred pages of info so far given to me by Michael Ballam PhD popsted on my blog.  If you find something that you like on my blog, Please fell free to share with others so they can learn about these things too.  I don't like asking favours much, but please tell others about my blog.  On facebook, twitter or however.  I know that people can be benefited by what I have to share.  Thank you again for view my blog.  I don't feel that I am not reaching people anymore. 
If you have read from the oldest posts and noticed that the first few post that are data that I recieved from Dr. Ballam(as indicated at the top of the posts) All posts from those to the post right before this one are also his info that he gave me.  unless otherwise indicated. 

THE THREE C’S

(this is some information that I received from Dr. Michael Ballam, this information is unedited notes of Dr. Ballam, hence there are the spelling error and typos. It is my intent to not edit them for the purpuse of not risking to change the meaning of the text. It is my desire to inform you of these errors so as to not take away any credibiliy from Dr. Ballam because of possible impressions that these mistakes may have on people to lower his credibility.)
THE THREE C’S
We could distill the report above to be the three C’s 1. Community - the ability to work with others. 2. Creativity - the ability to make something from nothing, and 3. Communication - the ability to convey meaning Where in today’s expanding curriculum are we making room for these abilities to be nurtured and developed? Do we learn community and creativity in the math class? Do we learn how to communicate in the science class? No we do not. That is not the objective of those courses. They hold a different purpose. The U.S. Department of Labor goes on in their report to characterize math and science and the basic “R’s” of reading, writing and arithmetic as tools or means not as ends unto themselves. They warn th

I AM MUSIC

I AM MUSIC
Servant and Master am I; Servant of those dead and Master of those living. Through me, spirits of immortals speak the message that makes the world weep and laugh, and wonder and worship. I tell the story of love, the story of hate, the story that saves, and the story that damns. I am the incense upon which prayers float to Heaven. I am the smoke which palls over the field of battle where men are dying with me on their lips. I am close to the marriage altar, and when the graves open, I stand nearby. I call the wanderer home, I rescue the soul from the depths, I open the lips of the lovers, and through the dead, whisper to the living. One I serve as I serve all, and the king I make my slave as easily as I subject his slave I speak through the birds of the air, the insects of the fields, the crash of water on rock-ribbed shores I am even heard by the soul that knows me in the clatter of wheels on city streets. I know no brother, yet all men are my brothers: I am the father of the best that is in them, and they are the father of the best that is in me. I am the instrument of God. I AM MUSIC.

OPERA FESTIVAL

OPERA FESTIVAL
Since 1998, the Utah Festival Opera has presented a festival of these original operas by children in a beautifully restored theatre in Logan, Utah each spring. Most recently the opera company completed and presented 44 original operas by children from the ages of kindergarten to middle school. The results have been astonishing on so many levels. Not only has it caused the children to want to attend school more regularly as a result of creating their own works, but their interest and proficiency in other academic areas have been enhanced. Teachers have remarked about the core curriculum being easier to present and better retained when the children are involved in creative activity. The atmosphere in the class room has improved, discipline problems have lessened and participation in all areas of school have been enhanced. Some truly remarkable things have occurred from autistic children, who for the first time have participated and communicated as well, to children in middle grades having no reading skills all of a sudden finding the means to catch up with their classmates in reading. We have seen self esteem grow causing painfully shy children to open up and communicate with their peers and teachers. Some children have broken through learning plateaus and subject phobias to find success and joy in learning. I’m not sure I can articulate all of the reasons such wonderful ansillary things have occured through this work, but surely some of the reasons are enhanced self esteem (confidence), the strength and understanding that comes from working and sharing together, the cognitive enhancement of using both hemispheres of the brain, the non-judgemental environment of the arts, the creative opportunities to communicate beyond verbal expression. What ever the reasons, the results are clear.

OPERA FOR CHILDREN BY CHILDREN

OPERA FOR CHILDREN BY CHILDREN
Believing the theses above to be true, the Utah Festival Opera in Logan, Utah launched a bold new program in 1996 to empower teachers to assist their students in developing their creative abilities and magnify their capacities in the areas of working in a community, communication skills and creativity. The opera company’s educational personnel work with elementary classrooms and teachers in several school districts to assist children in the creation of their own original operas. The children write their own libretto, compose their own music, and in most cases, create and build their own sets and costumes. Each class then has the opportunity to participate in the “Children’s Opera Festival” where each children’s opera is fully staged with assitance from a professional technical crew which provides lighting and sound support Teachers are guided through every step of the creative process. Interested teachers are given step-by-step instruction in the process of helping children to create opera in a workshop conducted by the opera company each year. Teachers are provided with a manual detailing the process of writing the story and the music, building sets, props, and costumes. In this forum, teachers also learn how to work as teams and how to incorporate the program into cross-curricular studies. They also learn how to step back and allow the children to be the creators and to take ownership of their own work. The Utah Festival Opera provides free professional artistic assistance to the teachers in their classrooms. Music and drama specialists, as well as piano accompanists, visit classrooms and assist teacher and students in the creative process. Costumes, instruments and art supplies are also made available. When we first developed this program, I volunteered to be one of the first mentors to go out into the schools. My first visit was to a combined 2nd grade classroom that contained over 75 students. The three teachers left me alone with the children for nearly two hours. Such a fate would be dreaded by most anyone fearing that the discipline challenges would be beyond control. In this case they were not, because it became immediately apparent that this project belonged to the children. I was simply there to facilitate their creative process, not to direct it. The story would be theirs, the words their own. As long as they were in control of their destiny with the project there was no need to impose discipline from me. They did it among themselves. Once they took ownership of the project, they also took ownership of the process, which included keeping order and discipline. We determined by majority vote, which they determined to be 38 votes (a math concept beyond their years), that the story should be about dinosaurs. I asked if they knew enough about the subject to present it in a musical drama. They soon showed me that they understood a great deal about the subject. We proceeded to set the stage. How do we inform the audience that our opera is about dinosaurs from an age past? One child proposed that a narrator come forward and tell the audience what we were about to portray. I noted that such a technique was a good one and proposed that perhaps there was a way of telling the story without words. There was a moment of silence as the children determined how they could communicate their story without the use of language. Soon a child said “we will create a Mesozoic forest!” I asked how they would do that. Wonderful, extravagant ideas flooded forward about trees, mountains, etc.. I explained that Art was a means of telling a story in as much economy as possible. The less said the better. How could we tell the audience that they were in a Mesozoic forest without actually creating one? One child proposed that we paint a few Mesozoic trees on a back-drop. The class determined that this was a good idea. Now to the process: on what material do we paint this forest. “On plywood!” came one response. We determined to budget that possibility. I explained that every material that we used would require that we “earn” the money to purchase it. Part of our creative idea is to help young children understand that “things” have value. I fear that we have taught an unrealistic if not untrue principle that “things” come from nowhere. On the first day of school texts, paper, pencils, rulers, markers all appear on their desks from nowhere. When they are destroyed, used or lost they magically reappear from nowhere. The opera company wishes to help children understand that this is not a realistic paradigm under which to operate. Everything has a value. “Does anyone know what a piece of plywood costs?” I asked. No one had any idea, neither had they ever thought about the fact that plywood had a cost. We “guesstimated” that they were valued at about $20.00 each and that we would need 10 to cover the back of our “stage”. I asked how much money we would then need to raise. In a matter of seconds the correct response of $200 came forth from the group. Our project was now taking on multiplication principles beyond their years. “Fine,” I said, “How will we earn the money. “We’ll bake cookies” was one response. “We’ll wash cars” was another. We voted and the washing of cars won out. I asked what we would charge for the service, and the response came back “one dollar per car!” We then determined how many cars would need to be washed to equal our need. With fallen voices and countenances they determined that 200 cars were too many to wash. Within a moment another idea was proposed. “My uncle has an appliance store and he has lots of big boxes. We can cut them up and make a backdrop from them.” We determined that this was a great idea. How would we stand the cardboard up. Interesting engineering ideas were postulated, but before we could decide on the best proposal, another idea come forth. Why don’t we keep the boxes intact and paint the scenery on one of the sides towards the audience. That brought forth another idea that we could turn the boxes and have the potential of four different scenes painted on the boxes. Now that is creative thought, community work and communication at it’s apex. I defy any science or math teacher to come up with better problem solving skills and more creative solutions. All of this took place within the first 20 minutes of our process. Why such high level creative thinking, because the children were all united in the creative process of the Arts. There is nothing passive about this process. This is not about watching a play or visiting a museum or listening to a concert. This is doing, not watching. We assigned a group of students to investigate the box solution to our scenery need. Within moments another idea came forth. “What about painting the scene on sheets?” “We could hang them on a wire and move them across to change the scene” came another response. We agreed that sheets were also a good idea. I asked if anyone knew the value of sheets. No one had any idea sheets cost money. Again we had led them to believe they appeared from no where. We determined a committee to take an after school visit to one of our local department stores and survey the costs and report back to the class. Another student said “what about the D.I.?” one of our local second hand stores equivalent to a Salvation Army thrift store. It was determined to be a great alternative plan. Another investigatory committee was established. Another child said, “we don’t need to buy sheets, my mother has a whole closet full of them she’d never miss!” I explained that theft was not part of our plan, but his comment prompted a little girl who had not made any comment throughout the morning to come forth with one of the best ideas of the day. She timidly said. “We send out a newsletter every week and we never know what to say in it. How about saying...We need your old sheets for our opera, please save them and donate them to us!” Now there is conservation, economy, community participation and creativity rolled up into one press release! Had we not done anything more that day it would have been sufficient! But there was more. Now that we felt we had materials upon which to paint our scene we had to determine where to get the paint. How many colors do we need? At first a multitude of colors came forward, then one of the children reminded them that with three colors, (red, yellow and blue) a rainbow of colors could be mixed. We determined that a quart of each of these colors could complete our project. How much would that cost? We determined that a local paint store might be willing to donate the paint. I asked what we could offer to the owner of the store that might cause him to want to help us out. I explained the principle of quid pro quo (???) which they understood immediately. One child suggested that we offer tickets to our opera in exchange for the paint. Another child suggested that we print a program and put an “ad” from the paint store in it. All this from 2nd graders! I don’t worry about the future of creative community work provided children have a regular creative opportunities of this nature. My next stop was at another school in our county where an anxious teacher awaited my arrival. Our standard formula is to have three acts or scenes. Act one is an introduction of the characters, act two is the conflict that develops from the traits of the characters and act three is a resolution of the conflict. We identify the characters by adjectives, which children of pre-school age can understand. We use five adjectives for each character. We have learned from experience that at least 3 of the 5 need to be positive adjectives. Children are more prone to find negative adjectives and need to be guided to balancing it with positive adjectives. Children learn that certain character types can create conflicts with other types, but that there is also means by which those conflicts can be resolved in a mutually beneficial fashion. We can a great deal about a character by the way they communicate. As we began to introduce one of our characters by allowing the students to submit dialogue out loud one of the students shot forth very “creative” language. All of the words consisted of four letters and many of them were compound words. His language was “blue” enough to make a sailor blush, and the teacher buried her shaking head into her hands. Much to her shock and that of the class, I wrote his words on the board. There was an audible gasp! I acknowledged that these were real words that some people use. I asked the young man who he wanted to come to our opera. He said “grandma.” He admitted that he loved his grandmother and wanted her to be there when the opera was performed. I asked him if he thought his mother knew what these words meant. He acknowledged that he believed she did. I asked if she used the words herself. He reluctantly said no. I asked if it might be possible that she might be offended by the words. He supposed that she might. I pressed him to see if she might leave our production. He acquiesced that it was a possibility. I asked him how he would feel if she left our production. He said that he would feel badly if she left. I explained that there are some strong words which can alienate or offend people and cause them not to hear our message. I asked him if words like that really have strength if our message is not received. He said no. I asked him if he could think of words which have the same amount of power but might not offend. He replaced each of his words with appropriate ones. When we took our break the teacher confessed to me that she had tried all year long to impress upon him that his language was not getting the response he really wanted, but to no avail. The more she objected to his language the more he used offensive words. In a matter of minutes we did more through the opera project than she had been able to do all year. The reason was two fold: the arts should create a “safe” environment for expression. We were examining character “A”’s language, not this young man. We were able to analyze the use of language without “attacking” the young man or causing him to “stonewall” his position. Secondly, from a position of detachment, he was able to hear, perhaps for the first time, that his colleagues in the class were not impressed by the language. Their reactions of shock were a result of repulsion not impression. One overriding rule in our program is that “no one gets hurt” in our operas. This means both physically and emotionally. We openly discuss the power of language to injure and offend. It helps children understand the importance of communication and respect language. Another class came up with a very interesting conflict for their opera. The plot was strongly led by the smallest child in the class. She led them to draft a plot that involved a very small girl who was not allowed to go into the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. She was too short to gain admittance. She sought revenge for being turned away. The third graders identified very well to the conflict. The little girl determined to blow up Disneyland by filling a school bus with explosives and driving it into the park. I allowed them to continue and wrote down all their ideas on the board. She girl succeeded in her project and Disneyland was destroyed. The class cheered! I asked them how the conflict was resolved. Who won? They purported that the little girl won. I asked how she won, did she get into the ride? Is revenge a real form of winning? Did anyone else win? No one could ever ride again. There was a thoughtful silence in the room. They all determined that no one won from this scenario, and they determined to abandon the plot and move to another. It would take a great deal of reading and discussion of the elements of revenge and terrorism to haveaccomplished the same understanding as working through this drama.