Dulcimer Playing for Defectives
CORRESPONDENCE Dear Editor,
I think you may be interested to hear of my method of teaching mentally defective children to play a dulcimer, with a range of two octaves. On the notes of the first octave I paste a disc of coloured gummed paper, each note having its own colour.
On the notes of the second octave, I paste similar coloured discs but with the addition of a green base, i.e., say, a red disc is chosen for the middle C, then a red disc on a green base is put on its tonic octave. I write out simple tunes, using the stave as in ordinary music, but in place of the black notes I substitute coloured ones to correspond with the coloured discs pasted on the instrument. Thus the child sees a red C and strikes the note bearing a similar colour on his instrument, etc.
The rests are written in black.
I also mark the time above the stave?1, 2, 3, 4, for common time using the word ” and ” for shorter notes, e.g., 1, 2, and, 3, 4. Before practising a ” piece ” on the instrument, I let the children tap out the rhythm with a small stick on a wooden board or drum. Needless to say, when they can manage to play simple little tunes, they derive a lot of joy from their accomplishment, more especially when they are able to accompany whilst other children march, etc. A dulcimer player is also a valuable addition to a percussion band group. Yours etc.,
Elsie E. Billington. ” Glenora,” Well Bank, Haslingden, Rossendale, Lanes.
“The refined feeling, intellectual discrimination, and artistic initiative of the mature musician will not, as a rale, be found even in the higher grades of mentally deficient instrumentalists. The music that they make has a mechanical, imitative quality and is of a superficial type. Its function in their lives is not that of a vocation, but a socializing recreation: thus its final evaluation should answer this question: In how far have musical activities brought out the maximum of the patient’s physical, mental, and social assets, and to what extent have they, in doing so, contributed to his happiness? ” Wu.i.EM van der Wall.
IVe hope in a subsequent issue to publish some notes on the value of music and rhythm in the education of defectives, from material collected from papers presented at the recent Conference on the Musical Education of Defective Children held in Switzerland, and from other information supplied to us.?Ed.
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