Happy February! This month, we wanted to share about one of our amazing musicians, Mason!
Mason is full of joy and energy, and he always brings a smile to the faces at Healing Harmonies. He enjoys swimming, biking with his family, building Lego sets, exploring maps and geography, going on road trips, and video recording and editing! Since starting music therapy at Healing Harmonies, Mason has found he really enjoys playing piano. He even performed two songs on piano at our Healing Harmonies Recital last year. Now, he is working on some of his favorite songs, “Double Life” and “I’m Still Standing.”
For Mason, playing piano provides opportunities to work on many different goal areas. Here are a few examples:
- Sustained attention: playing full songs without getting distracted or losing focus
- Expressive communication: requesting songs and sharing observations about the music. For example, using the phrase, “I want to play the treble clef notes” when playing a duet.
- Following directions: playing piano involves both following directions in the sheet music and directions from the music therapist
- Spatial and temporal awareness: learning how to time finger movements and where/how to move them- which is especially important when playing with another person!
- Impulse control: learning when it’s time to play, time to stop, and time to listen to what others have to say about the music
- Fine motor planning: working on using all 5 fingers on both hands
- Social skills: piano games and duets encourage teamwork and collaboration!
Mason also learns in SO many different ways. His sheet music has color-coded notes, which correspond to keys on the piano. He also uses an app called GarageBand to practice his preferred songs, and he records them, too! Mason has also learned how to make special sounds on the app to reflect his unique style! He shows us how to keep exploring music, stay curious, and be excited about trying new things.
Mason also uses many of the skills above to play duets with his music therapist. Please enjoy this piano duet of “Double Life” from “Despicable Me 4!”
