2 Black Keys

Piano, my oldest friend, I have known you since my seventh year.  My first instrument loaned from a neighbor's, while they were far overseas.  I used to go to their home and treat myself to your black and white keys, as if you were a candy treat.  I chose you, my oldest friend, but little did I know that this was going to be a life long friendship, like the 2-colors of your ivory keys.  Or maybe, it was you that chose to help me find my path: to help me express things without having to find words, without labels, without making things fit into boxes.  Not even needing to see pictures in my mind, I only need to hear your resonating sound, and my spirit is ever uplifted.

How could I not share music with my kids?   

Growing up, I always thought that when I have kids, I would of course teach them to play the piano.  Having taught piano lessons for over twenty years (hard to believe how fast those twenty years have flown), it seemed even more natural for me to want to do that.  With Jake's autism however, it wasn't going to be that straight forward, as nothing usually is with autism.  Even teaching the basic recognition of the two different colors of the keys, and that the black keys were grouped in alternating groups of twos and threes, was not so simple as it typically was when teaching others' kids.   If I ever encountered behavioral challenges of young kids, it was mostly because they didn't want to sit through a lesson.  With Jake's autism, it wasn't an issue of him not wanting to be there.  It was the challenge of finding a new unfamiliar way, that would work for him, to teach him what I have taught for years.

 

 Piano For Autism

I decided that I wanted music to be a part of Jake's ABA therapy.  I have his therapist use a toy baby grand piano as well as our upright acoustic piano, to have him repeat short basic rhythmic patterns that she plays.  This develops pattern recognition and aural skills.  Through his therapy and music being taught in an ABA manner (Applied Behavioral Analysis is the most common autism therapy that instructs with lots of short repetitions) I figured that he would build some tolerance to eventually sit through a real half hour long lesson with me.  I also did a bunch of experimenting, to see how long of an attention span I could get from him.


I did a lot of hand over hand instruction, so that he could feel the keys move under his fingers; tapping into potential muscle memory.  I tried to not speak a whole lot, since his attention span was short already.  When I did speak, I would do so in a consistent rhythmic pattern.  For example, I took the pattern of short-short-long while simultaneously saying "2 black keys" at least two times in a row.  I positioned his index and third fingers to make a V shape/peace sign, and with hand over hand did the "2 black keys" exercise with him.  He eventually followed along and started chanting those words in that short-short-long rhythmic pattern.  Since then, he has on several occasions, sat on his own at the piano, and did this pattern by himself while using his words.

I used the same type of teaching with the twins, even though they are not living with autism.  Using ABA teaching techniques can be used to teach anyone.  Kids living with autism will benefit from it the most, because they don't pick up on many things as naturally as their neuro-typically developed piers, especially social things (but that's saved for another blog post).  The teaching style of breaking a task down into several smaller/shorter steps with many many repetitions, is what gets optimal results.  

The twins are only three years old, so their attention span is not very long.  They just mostly want to play on the piano for a few minutes and move on to somethings else.  I don't push it on them or Jake.  I want to expose them to music and have them take interest by seeing me playing the piano.  I then have them play at their request and just interject brief spurts of teaching moments.  The other day, they were both fighting over playing the piano.  They both wanted to show me that they can do the "2 black keys" in rhythm.  So far, they have not differentiated between the groups of 2s and 3s, so they chant "2 black keys" while playing on the 3 black key group with an open hand.  Forget that peace sign Mom.  I don't force correcting them very much, because they want to be independent so much.


For now my old friend, I'll keep exposing the kids to your two-toned steps, and as their attention and tolerance develops, more teaching will take place for the musical Roses.  A moment of reflection puts things into new perspective for this one student.  Just as the two black piano keys repetitively resonate for my kids and unlock a world of possibilities; with one key turn I wave goodbye to my childhood piano lessons.  The second key turns, unlocking a door to a hope with new possibilities.  Once again, I am ever uplifted.

Musical Strings

Music ~ acrylics

Listening to Andras Schiff performing some of Bach's Prelude and Fugues on my drive home from the base today brought up some emotions to the surface for me - the main one being gratitude.  The genius of Bach never ceases to amaze me.  His musical thread initially starts out with direct sincerity, as if it were as simple as black and white, and then before we know it, a multitude of colors spin out majestically, leaving us at awe of what had just transpired.  They unravel multi dimensions of emotional depth.  Each layer pealed back, reveals gratitude for all of the little intricate details that connect our life's fabric.  A single spool spins out one seamless piece of string.  As it unravels, it unfolds for each one of us, our individual life's path.  

A man who had lived his life not being appreciated for his gifts yet, is only later appreciated and glorified after his passing - much too late.  As we reflect on what we not knowingly let slip through our hands through the cracks of music history, we ought to not let that happen with the little intricate details of our daily lives.  Some of the challenges that spin out our inner struggles, not yet capturing the lessons to be learned from their journey, may only seem black and white to us now.  However, if we let them slip through the cracks of every day's burdens, we may miss the later multitude of splendid color that would spin out too swiftly for us to appreciate.  Once the string completely escapes the grasp of its spool, there would only be a shadow left behind - only an afterthought.  It is with this mindset, that we'd only appreciate things after they are gone - much too late.

Clefony ~ charcoal pencils

Hold on to that piece of thread and take note of every unraveling rotation of that spool, because once the colors start flowing, it's hard to appreciate all of the detailed intricacies that turn that one piece of thread into our personal life's path.  Hold on to the little details with gratitude while they present themselves, and not after they spin right by you.  

There are many lessons to be learned from the life and artistry of one man who was too precious to be recognized during his life's spool of thread.  He was a visionary - ahead of his time.  If we had only known back then what we know now...imagine all the possibilities....all the musical strings yet to be played.

Clefony

Music - inspired art

Clefony ~ charcoal pencils

  My drawings in charcoal pencils are my latest Creations.

  
 The two additional smaller drawings of Clefony, 
are a couple of the earlier stages of this piece.

 

Completed drawing

CLEFONY

The term Clefony is my made up word for a symphony of clefs.  It is an artistic-inspired word since bass and treble clefs intertwine in this abstract creation.  It is a word-play on the coupling of clef with symphony.  In Clefony, I fuse together non moving images such as the musical clefs, in contrast to moving elements, such as the small music notation.  The treble clef endings resemble bows of the string family, adding a more angular contrast to the roundness of the clefs, as if playing them like they were instruments.  The angled treble clef closest to the top spirals downward, glistening in imitation to the brass wiring of a french horn.  The hook of the top bass clef rounds-off into a pear's seed, hinting at the notion that music and art appeal to many of our senses, causing us to feel more alive.

The Inspiration for Creationlily

A blank canvas is full of potential.  
It opens up a spectrum of limitless possibilities, 
and that is enlightening to me.

Photos from the score to my oratorio, The Last Days of King Saul  
(I will feature the piece in a blog post of it's own).

Creative Impulses

Creativity can come in all sorts of forms and inspirations.  I hope to share this with my children throughout their life, with music and art, being a form of expression and in reaching inner-peace.  Growing up, I was involved in art, music and dance.  Music eventually took to the forefront as my career and life-passion.  I became a pianist, composer and music educator.  Art was something that I continued to do for pure enjoyment.  It became my downtime activity and enabled me to have boundary-free canvas for a creative platform. 

We all see and perceive things differently. 

How does creativity play into your life?

Above is a mask that I made a few years ago.  I edited its photo with several effects to illustrate how we can look at the same object and view it with slight differences.  One piece of art will speak differently to each one of us.  We are all different, and we perceive things in different ways, even if we tend to agree on the same general idea.   This especially speaks volumes with raising a six year old son that lives with autism and sees things naturally in a different light.  My son Jake, has reinforced this idea for me of how everyone perceives things differently and learns differently.  To me, this is the basic foundation to creativity and self expression.  One image or a piece of music, can tell a story that holds a different meaning to its observer or listener. 

Movement-Inspired Art

My love for dance intertwines itself in my music and art, by inspiring me to compose a piece of music or art that captures an element of movement.  I often like to juxtapose the illusion of movement with still-life imagery.  Some of my art creations are inspired by my music.  I love to couple music with art by using musical imagery in the form of an abstract.  I often think and write in an abstract way, and perhaps this is why I am so drawn to this genre.

    Synesthesia 

Through the years, art has weaved itself into my musical fabric in the form of synesthesia - the ability to associate colors with music.  Due to my perfect pitch with piano and other instruments, since very early on, I associated colors with the white and black keys of the keyboard.  I associate certain keys with colors and their various shades when I hear one pitch at a time, or if a piece of music is written in a certain key: For example, C -reds, D - oranges, E - pinks/purples, F - greens, G - blues, A - browns, B - yellows.  Mozart had favorite keys that were meaningful to him, and I wonder if it may have been because of synesthesia.  I often gravitate to composing music in some of my favorite keys: B minor - yellows, E flat minor - pinks/lavenders/purples, and C minor - reds.  

Musical Imagery in Art / Visual Imagery in Music

Music evokes much imagery and movement for me, so I am connected intuitively to art and dance when I play the piano, and when I compose a piece of music.  I often think of my fingers dancing on the keyboard while I play the piano, and how every movement I make is done for a specific purpose, such as getting a certain tone, or a certain type of articulation.  I think about the release of my hands from the keys, and how it causes the follow-through to my arms to create a wave-like motion.  It also reminds me of Tai-chi movements (the ancient discipline of Chinese meditative movements practiced as a system exercises) as well.  I sometimes think of the sound of the ocean when releasing my hands off the keys and visualize the base, crest and downfall of the wave.  I teach the visualization of the wave to my piano students when teaching how to release the hands off the keyboard.  I incorporate visual imagery when playing and teaching music in order to achieve a particular sound, technique or effect.  It helps me internalize what I am doing, enabling me to personalize the story that I am telling without the use of words.  

Tapping into elements from art, music, dance and photography enables me to cross over and create in various genres, with a multitude of connections across the creative spectrum.  I find myself alternating between music and art when I need a mental or emotional break from one or the other, as well as a way to decompress from other stresses.  It is wonderful to be able to make this type of shift and to be able find a creative outlet at any time.  

Travel and Creativity 

My husband, Alex and I love to travel.  Since we've had our three kids however, (our darling 3 year old boy/girl twins, Max and Miriam, and a wonderful 6 year old son, Jake) it's been harder to do.  We try to take one trip away from the kids once a year to have some time to reconnect, see some new sites and get some much needed rest as well.  Travel is one special means to creativity for several reasons.  When we are taken out of our daily structure, are exposed to a new setting with new scenery, new cultural nuances, different foods, smells and a different language, it puts us in a perfect circumstance through this new experience, to see things differently than we normally would.  It makes us have to adjust to big and little cultural differences.  In doing so, we often have to abandon old rules and accept new ones.  Having new sensory experiences provides us with new ways of viewing things.  This enables us to find new paths to creativity, just by changing our perception a little bit.  My favorite thing to take home as souvenirs from a trip are masks and art.  For me, masks are the embodiment of a culture.  Taking home a piece of art, is like taking a piece of a country's heart back home with me.  It is taking something very personal, that someone had created as a precious gift for its future possessor. 

Bellow are some of my travel "souvenirs" 
from Japan from December 2011

Mt. Fuji

The Tokyo tower

Pagoda in Kyoto

Shiraito Falls, near Mt. Fuji

Fruit drying - Mt. Fuji in the background

Picturesque street of Kyoto shops

The grand tori (gate) to Tokyo's Mejii shrine