Exercises for Developing the Awareness of Feelings
The following is intended as a model for one possible approach for filling the “Missing Link” in the early school experience. The primary goal of these exercises is to cause the child to become aware of their own feelings, something the expression of which their own home life may not have encouraged and something the school environment does not encourage. If we can help young people to become better aware of their own feelings the result will be better musicians and for everyone else a richer awareness and participation in life – become better speakers and freer in participating in conversation, for example.
The target I have in mind for these exercises is the elementary age student, a “normal” student without specific training in music. I am assuming that the student, even without training in music, will be innately able to distinguish differences in pitch. For example, given one pitch and then another, is the second pitch higher or lower than the first one? If a child at first refuses to answer, or if one child in a group refuses to participate, this should not be a fundamental concern at the beginning for that child is still hearing the focus on feeling which is the educational purpose here and not judging the correctness of their answer.
In doing an exercise remember our purpose is to help the child focus on awareness of their feelings. The teacher should always keep asking, “What did you feel this time?” The exact words in an answer should not be an obstacle for the training because the words are in the left hemisphere and we are working on the right hemisphere, which is to say, feelings cannot be expressed in words anyway, even in the most experienced adults. So the teacher should take whatever feelings or comments the student makes and work from there.
I recommend the teacher use solfège, in major, not in minor, and without respect to actual pitches; just use “Do, Mi, Sol” in an appropriate vocal range for the child. Relative pitch is all we need and in the beginning even precise pitch relationships should not be a concern, just that the child can imitate the direction of one pitch from another. Our focus is in getting the student simply to become aware of the differences in the pitches, together with an awareness of their feeling. We are not concerned with the actual pitches the student may produce, although unknown to the student we are at the same time involved in beginning ear training. Wait a while before surprising them with the famous song from The Sound of Music.
I recommend not using numbers for the exercises, thinking that all children already know their numbers one through ten, because the use of numbers invites the left brain to interfere. Solfège provides a more pure vowel sound and the child should be able to learn these few symbols.
Following is my suggestion on how to begin this fundamental goal in helping the student to become aware of their own emotions. I begin with a simple triad. The comments in brackets are the “universal” feelings associated with these diatonic movements as found by Cooke (The Language of Music) after studying several centuries of actual scores. But, again, it is important to take whatever the student feels and work from there. This is not a test.
Do – Mi – Sol [Outgoing joy or happiness]
TEACHER: Sings Do-Mi-Sol slowly and then asks the student to imitate this after the teacher sings it again.
TEACHER: Very good! Now can you sing it again and this time tell me if you feel anything as you sing it.
Once more, the teacher accepts anything the student says if it suggests they were actually thinking about their feeling as they sang. You may need to repeat this first step several times with encouragement until the student responds with identifying some feeling.
TEACHER: That’s very good. Now let’s try moving our arms up while we are singing this. Demonstrate. Then try with the student joining you.
TEACHER: Did moving your arms change or add to your feelings while you sang? (should make the feeling stronger)
TEACHER: Can you think of any words you might add to these notes? (If the result has been some sort of “joy,” for example, the teacher might suggest a reference to the student’s mother, “I love you!,” or “I love school,” etc.) and have the student try this.
Optional Variations
Teacher always asking about changes in feeling or new feelings.
- Do – Mi – Sol – Mi (could be an added sense of satisfaction)
- Do – Mi – Do (brooding or doubt)
Teacher introduces the 2nd and 4th scale steps, Re and Fa
- Do – Re – Mi [timid joy]
- Do – Re – Mi – Fa – Sol [a stronger feeling of joy?]
- Do – Mi – Sol – La – Sol [an added sense of innocence or a feminine quality, like Humperdinck’s, “Fourteen angels guard my sleep”]
More Possible Figures, from the upper Do moving down
- Do – Ti [longing]
- Do – Ti – La – Sol [consoling, a feeling of peace]
Next level possible projects
- Introduce notation on soprano clef, no accidentals (visually C major, regardless of actual pitch you have been using in the range of the students.)
- Give the student the text, “I have a dog at home” or some descriptive text and ask them if they could create the notes/pitches to represent this on the staff?
- Have the student think of a line of text and notate it (They are now a composer!)
The goal is to introduce the student to the idea of thinking about their own feelings. If successful their awareness of their own feelings will become part of their self-identity which they will carry forward.
Fine
