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.

Stained Glass Windows

I have always loved stained glass windows.  

They fascinate me, whispering stories through their mosaic webbing.

At different times of day, the quality of light coming in through the glass saturates the room 

with magnificent hews, and at other times, more subdued tones.

This winter holiday break our family took a long road trip from Montgomery, AL to Pittsburgh, PA for my husband, Alex cousin's wedding.  Being a not so typical family, with twins and a special needs child, we decided to break up this trip a bit, to make it more conducive for our bunch.  We spent a couple of days in Chattanooga, TN to see some of the famous local sites: the Chattanooga Choo Choo, Ruby Falls, and took the Incline up to Lookout Mountain.  Alex's mom met up with us from Atlanta, and we had an extra pair of hands to help out and share in the little adventure.

From there, we had some eleven hours on the road to Pittsburgh, which were shared between our boys with potty breaks about every seventy miles.  This made for a pretty tiring trip for us.  We hoped that the way home would go more smoothly and prayed for fewer breaks (and smoothly it did luckily go).

In Pittsburgh, we stayed in the hotel which hosted the wedding.  This was the oldest hotel in town, and was in a great downtown location.  We spent one morning at the children's museum, which was the best one that we've been to so far, and we highly recommend.

This trip was very special for us, not only because of the wedding, but because much of the extended family there had not met our kids yet.  We all enjoyed the reunion and watching the kids interact with everyone.  Other than a single baby, they were the only kids at the wedding and were a big hit.

We took a drive to Squirrel Hill, one of the Jewish enclaves in Pittsburgh, where Alex's grandmother lived growing up.  It struck me that Pittsburgh is one of the older cities that I have visited.  I had always been drawn to old buildings, and would rather embrace history, than see newer architecture on any given day.  I found myself snapping away photos as our car drove through brick roads, snowy streets and old houses.  I later had to go back and delete way too many photos.  I found the city to be culturally inviting, and I was only too happy to drive by several synagogues and Jewish establishments on these old city streets.

The wedding ceremony followed a Jewish Orthodox tradition, and a lively Klezmer band (Jewish East European music) delighted guests in the reception.  I vividly remember in the reception that I felt very fortunate to be visiting a city that had a thriving Jewish community and culture.  I was so happy to listen to the band, dance with my husband and children, and celebrate with everyone at the simchah (Yiddish, meaning a happy occasion).

A cozy brunch for family took place the morning after the wedding at temple Rodef Shalom, (translated from Hebrew - one chasing peace).  This synagogue is over a hundred years old, and is a nationally recognized historic landmark.  As we walked up the stairs to get to our destination, we passed by window displays of Judaica, that I knew I'd be coming back to visit more closely, shortly after the brunch. We sat in a lovely sunny room that used to be a little courtyard, but now was covered.  What was meaningful about this synagogue to us, was that several of Alex's cousins had also gotten married there, as well as his grandmother, many years ago.

After brunch, we returned to the window displays of Judaica.  One display spoke to me in a most haunting way.  There were two displays of linked arm bands that Jews were made to wear during the holocaust, with the yellow star labeled "Jude" and other concentration camp arm bands.  I had never seen this type of display outside of a museum.  It moved me to the core to find something so precious being preserved and valued at this beautiful old synagogue.

We ended the morning strolling through the sanctuary with some cousins.  The ornate space had colorful stained glass windows on the walls and ceiling,  menora chandeliers and a grand pipe organ on the bima (stage).  Our kids gravitated towards the grand piano and had fun exploring the acoustics of this high ceiling space.  The place resonated to me of its history and traditions.  I was taking it all in, marveling at all of the details of its decor and presence.  The mosaic webbing of it's stained glass windows spoke to me of our connectedness to family and our past.  While coming here for a family event, I had also found yet again, a renewed connection to my heritage and culture in an unexpected way.  These are all connective elements in my life.

I have always loved stained glass windows. 

They are usually placed in hard to reach places,

reflecting our personal struggle to climb up to the light.

They are therefore hard for us to truly see through, 

but we can only see the light that enters down through them.

The light coming into its encapsulating space shifts mysteriously, 

not giving away its past secrets to us all at once.  

One has to be there at just the right moment, 

not to miss that certain hew that may never 

pass through that space twice in quite the same way.

Stain painted images on glass crave light to breath life into their mystical presence, 
as do individual moments in our lives seek shade to be stored into our memories.

Let our new year be filled with a mosaic of splendid colorful light, 

gracing us with its blessing of peace, and shading us from harm's way, 
placing us in the moment, 

to appreciate the very few things that truly matter,

never to pass that time twice in quite the same way.