A MUSICAL EXPERIMENT WITH
MALADJUSTED
CHILDREN In Education (20th January, 1956) there was an interesting article by Frank E. Knight, then Warden of the Dorset County Education Committee's Boarding Home for Maladjusted Children, describing a musical experiment which had very happy results.* It began with the purchase of a set of chime bars consisting of 20 different notes with a compass of one and half octaves upwards from middle C. The board can be arranged as one complete instrument to be played by a single child, in small note groupings with a child for each, or for use simultaneously by 20 children each holding and playing only one note. The tubular resonator bodies are painted red, and the tuned steel striking notes are arranged in two rows with the white notes in front and the black (indicating sharps and flats as on a piano) behind.
For about a week after its arrival the children had a great of fun experimenting with it, taking turns in playing the C. major scale, then the common chord, and then using the black notes. Next they began to discover that they could make the ^strument play familiar tunes of songs and hymns. One severely disturbed child, "hitherto full of aggression coupled with a fear of
deal
attempting anything
in
case
it
might
be
wrong" began playing
a
few bars of a theme from the Pastoral Symphony. When she needed the first black note she fumbled and stopped, but instead of, as Usual, flying into a tearful rage, she said quietly that she liked the tune and could she learn it and
play
it
to
her Mum? Thereafter
when on the radio she heard an orchestral performance of the last Movement of the Sixth Symphony, she would say "Shsh! That's my tune they're playing". Another child found more satisfaction in
striking
the
right
notes
than he had
?ther children.
gained
hitherto from
striking
The children then began claiming equal rights in possessing own tunes, and there followed questions and demands for information to satisfy the newly stimulated musical curiosity and
their
Memory.
In less than a month, co-operative playing became possible. the children arranged themselves into a group called the Piano"?white notes in front, black behind, with appropriate home-made white and black top hats and one child acting as conductor. This co-operative music making was found to give ?reat joy and satisfaction, as well as to improve concentration, Memory and hearing. But a trouble arose over the black notes which ?for some probably significant but undiscovered reason?
]|or
this, Human
*
Summarised
by
kind
permission of the Editor of "Education". 11
all the children
to white. They found that the white in use than the black which seemed to them to be "unfair", and this attitude presented a problem which had to be tackled. So had a growing desire to learn to play from music. But any attempt at teaching them to do so would, it was thought, cause frustration and discouragement and so a more easily understood system of musical notation was introduced?known as "Klavarskribo". This was quickly learned by the children without tears and fears, and their "beloved black notes were no longer back numbers". notes were more
preferred
MALADJUSTED
CHILDREN In Education (20th January, 1956) there was an interesting article by Frank E. Knight, then Warden of the Dorset County Education Committee's Boarding Home for Maladjusted Children, describing a musical experiment which had very happy results.* It began with the purchase of a set of chime bars consisting of 20 different notes with a compass of one and half octaves upwards from middle C. The board can be arranged as one complete instrument to be played by a single child, in small note groupings with a child for each, or for use simultaneously by 20 children each holding and playing only one note. The tubular resonator bodies are painted red, and the tuned steel striking notes are arranged in two rows with the white notes in front and the black (indicating sharps and flats as on a piano) behind.
For about a week after its arrival the children had a great of fun experimenting with it, taking turns in playing the C. major scale, then the common chord, and then using the black notes. Next they began to discover that they could make the ^strument play familiar tunes of songs and hymns. One severely disturbed child, "hitherto full of aggression coupled with a fear of
deal
attempting anything
in
case
it
might
be
wrong" began playing
a
few bars of a theme from the Pastoral Symphony. When she needed the first black note she fumbled and stopped, but instead of, as Usual, flying into a tearful rage, she said quietly that she liked the tune and could she learn it and
play
it
to
her Mum? Thereafter
when on the radio she heard an orchestral performance of the last Movement of the Sixth Symphony, she would say "Shsh! That's my tune they're playing". Another child found more satisfaction in
striking
the
right
notes
than he had
?ther children.
gained
hitherto from
striking
The children then began claiming equal rights in possessing own tunes, and there followed questions and demands for information to satisfy the newly stimulated musical curiosity and
their
Memory.
In less than a month, co-operative playing became possible. the children arranged themselves into a group called the Piano"?white notes in front, black behind, with appropriate home-made white and black top hats and one child acting as conductor. This co-operative music making was found to give ?reat joy and satisfaction, as well as to improve concentration, Memory and hearing. But a trouble arose over the black notes which ?for some probably significant but undiscovered reason?
]|or
this, Human
*
Summarised
by
kind
permission of the Editor of "Education". 11
all the children
to white. They found that the white in use than the black which seemed to them to be "unfair", and this attitude presented a problem which had to be tackled. So had a growing desire to learn to play from music. But any attempt at teaching them to do so would, it was thought, cause frustration and discouragement and so a more easily understood system of musical notation was introduced?known as "Klavarskribo". This was quickly learned by the children without tears and fears, and their "beloved black notes were no longer back numbers". notes were more
preferred
