Thursday, January 27, 2011

Digging deeper into visual learning style:
The story behind Violin Scale Charts™

This piece was also posted on violinist.com Tuesday, February 1, 2011


Eyes are vocal, tears have tongues,
And there are words not made with lungs.
Crashaw

The gaps are the thing. The gaps are the spirit's one home, the altitudes and latitudes so dazzlingly spare and clean that the spirit can discover itself like a once-blind man unbound. The gaps are the clefts in the rock where you cower to see the back parts of God; they are the fissures between mountains and cells the wind lances through, the icy narrowing fiords splitting the cliffs of mystery. Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock -- more than a maple -- a universe.
Annie Dillard

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.
Shunryu Suzuki



Th ink, if you will, of Beethoven.

Do you hear G - G - G- Eb----------?

Or do you see that face: eyes piercing, hair tousled, mouth scowling?

Either way, you activate your 'right brain.'

It's this side of your brain that had historically been overlooked in the traditional academic presentation of lectures and reading, employing left brain and linear thinking, but today many modern educators realize just how productive right-brain, visual, holistic learning can be. They take steps to incorporate it into the learning experience.

As Linda Verlee Williams notes in her book Williams Teaching for the Two-Sided Mind (Touchstone Book: "Visual thinking [should not be only] associated with the visual arts and relegated to a single area in the curriculum; it [should be considered] a part of every subject because it is a basic way of obtaining, processing, and representing information. To ignore its role in any subject is to fail to train students in its use and to deny to those who are primarily visual processors the opportunity to learn in the mode which comes most easily for them."

"Any subject" can even include the 'sound' and serial note world of music, I learned as a Suzuki parent.

Supplementary scales

Expanding on our regular Suzuki regimen, our teacher, Susan Rozendaal, assigned scales to my daughter, Sharika, then 9. To aid her learning, I devised a simple, visual chart of the notes, much like a chord chart common in the guitar world. I used the Hypercard program for the Macintosh -- a graphics and text processing program. Each week she would be assigned a new scale, and each week I would draw up one new chart. I titled these, simply enough, 'Violin Scale Charts.'



So, instead of presenting the information serially, (left brain), as traditional notes on a scale, or aurally, on tape, as pure sound to imitate, Violin Scale Charts™ presents the scale and arpeggio information as a simple (right brain) picture, a map of where to put your fingers.

Sharika used these charts regularly. Her tone, confidence and specifically, `4' finger were noticeably enhanced.

When our Suzuki teacher happened upon my charts in the pile of Suzuki volumes, Applebaum, Auer, Dofflein, Schradieck, Trott, and Wohlfahrt, at our weekly lesson, she said `What a great idea! You must publish these!' Flattered, and thinking that the worst case scenario would be that my daughter would have a full, finished set, I set about to develop a complete set of scales and arpeggios, two octaves, major and minor keys.

Preparing the charts was a formidable task. Just as there is no one way to process information, I learned there was no one way to present scale and arpeggio information. Therefore, I began the Violin Scale Charts™ with the following preface:

While every effort has been made to make this graphic reference work authoritative, it must be noted that there is no single, one and only, and exclusively "correct" way to finger a scale. Different scale passages in different repertory may call for different approaches. Different scales may be, and in fact, must be, played in different positions, different finger patterns from time to time. On an even more individual level, one player's high "3" may be another player's low "4." G major is a good example. Some violinists ascend on open strings D, A and E, and descend using "4" for those notes. This is the most common teaching. Nevertheless, other players go up and down with "4." Still others go up and down with open strings. You see what we mean, of course . . .

These elementary level Violin Scale Charts open the door to various positions and finger patterns. By all means, experiment. Should your teacher differ with anything presented here, please follow his/her approach. What's the position of your editors, you say? As you play through the book, you'll notice your editor has stressed the use of "4" versus open strings in order to develop your facility and confidence in this often called for, and sometimes insecure finger. Indeed, one of the greatest benefits of using Violin Scale Charts, especially at the elementary level, will be to build a strong and secure "4" finger, a more beautiful tone, and stronger and more confident expression.

After all, as a musician who happens to play the violin, expression is what you are all about anyway, isn't it? Have fun with these charts. They will make you a more expressive, more confident musician.

My initial effort was edited by teachers at the Music Center of the North Shore (Chicago), and Washburne Middle School, both of Winnetka, Illinois, including Enid Cleary, Milton Goldberg and Kathleen Paramore.

Hands across the water

Subsequently, two fellow denizens of the Internet global village also made significant and creative suggestions of their own: Klaus Pfefferkorn, Conductor, Bludenz Youth Orchestra, Bludenz, Austria and Christopher Hoff, Violinist and Attorney-at-Law, Germantown, Maryland.

Next step was to make the Charts available to the larger violin world. A mailing to Suzuki trainers and teachers yielded positive results. The large catalog company, Shar Products, expressed interest in carrying the project if I would develop mailers, which I did. Finally, reaching out to string players around the globe, the Violin Scale Charts™ worldwide web site debuted in 1995:

http://sarkett.com/vsc/violin_scale_charts.shtml

The Violin Scale Charts™ are now used by players across Europe, North and South America, remote islands of Hawaii!, Australia, the Far East. It is offered by major distributors such as Shar Music.

What is it about this presentation of scales and arpeggios that makes it effective and helpful? Actually, there is a good bit of educational psychology behind it, the power of right brain learning, though I didn't realize it per se when I was drawing up these charts.

Developing the inner eye

It was in 1865 that Paul Broca reported that injuries to the left side of the brain almost invariably produced speech disorders while injuries to the same area of the right hemisphere did not. His report was confirmed, in 1874, by German researcher Carl Wernicke. A number of researchers followed in their footsteps, but the next major ground-breaking study came in the early 1960s when Cal Tech's Roger Sperry performed a series of operations which made it possible to study the two brain hemispheres in isolation from each other. His work received the Nobel Prize in 1981.

Sperry was working with patients affected by severe epileptic seizures. Sperry believed that by cutting the thick bundle of nerve fibers (200 million !) connecting the two brain hemispheres he could prevent the seizure from spreading from one hemisphere to the other. Subsequently, he and his team conducted a series of subtle experiments to identify characteristics of the right and left brain hemispheres. Briefly summarizing this complex work, he identified the sides of the brain with the following functions:

Left Hemisphere
Right Hemisphere
Verbal
Spatial
Parts
Patterns
Language
Musical - Visual
Serial processing
Holistic processing
Analytical
Relational, constructional


While subsequent research indicates a much greater complexity within the hemispheric model, (e.g. ability of the right hemisphere to process words, individual variations, variations for left-handed individuals, male-female variation), nevertheless, a path was cut through the mysterious forest of brain function. The importance of the right hemisphere, i.e. musical, visual, spatial mental processing was laid down.

The implications for education cannot be overstated, and in the last 30 years or so, extensive changes have been made to incorporate visual learning into our school systems. Students today, as a matter of course, supplement book-lecture learning with the production of charts, graphs, artwork, and demonstrations. Film and video are considered teaching tools no less than books and monographs, and in some case, possibly superior in their ability to make a lasting impact on the mind's eye.

As author Williams Teaching for the Two-Sided Mind (Touchstone Book) notes, it all begins with seeing. Students must learn to see, they need to know what to look for, and how to interpret what they see. Next, they need to learn to represent information graphically. Some information, such as the spatial relationships between notes in a scale or arpeggio, can be better represented in a picture than via a verbal description. Finally, students must develop their inner eye. Visualizing helps with a wide variety of tasks that go beyond scales and arpeggios, and include remembering information, spelling, math, and solving problems with spatial relations.

From this base, they may gain facility with fantasy, metaphor and self-expression in any mode, including old-fashioned, left-brain, verbal. They may integrate and maximize the dual functions of the brain for maximum creativity and productivity.

Not just for kids

Interestingly, though Violin Scale Charts™ was developed for a young Suzuki student, many of the users are adults.

While Suzuki has traditionally been a children's program, I believe it holds potential as an adult enrichment educational experience as well. From my experience in corresponding with and talking with adult string players around the globe, mature learners -- adult beginners -- are some of the most interested, motivated and passionate musicians around. They are hungry for tools to realize the sounds that are bursting forth in their inner ears.

The other beneficiaries are traditional Suzuki parents. "All my students use Violin Scale Charts™ . . . parents benefit, too!" Laura Polick, Violin Teacher, Wheaton Suzuki Institute, Wheaton, IL., wrote me some years ago. Some parents may lack music and music theory training, but pictures -- well, anyone can understand a picture, it seems. Anyone can read a map. They can see what is to be played, and they can easily enough repeat it on the violin themselves, or check to see if it is being played correctly by their young Suzuki musician. For many parents, the material is less forbidding, less technical if it is presented in a picture.

Summarizing, visual thinking is so basic a part of our daily lives that we use it all the time, whether we are aware of it or not. Violin Scale Charts™ presents another way to literally look at musical information. It takes advantage of everyone's ability to learn through seeing pictures. It is especially helpful for the predominately visual learner, the adult beginner and the Suzuki parent. Finally, it stimulates whole brain productivity, and opens the door to the larger world of fantasy, metaphor and self-expression.

As Lao-Tzu advised so long ago in the Tao Te Ching:

            Give them Simplicity to look at, the Uncarved Block to hold,
            Give them selflessness and fewness of desires.


John A. Sarkett may be reached at jas@option-wizard.com or Violin Scale Charts™. Technical research for this feature was provided by educational psychologist Karen Kurtzon, M.S., Evanston, Illinois.



LEARNING STYLES
VISUAL Clues VISUAL Learning tips
NEEDS TO SEE IT TO KNOW IT USE OF GRAPHICS TO REINFORCE LEARNING: FILMS, SLIDES, ILLUSTRATIONS, DIAGRAMS
STRONG SENSE OF COLOR COLOR CODING TO ORGANIZE NOTES AND POSSESSIONS
WRITTEN DIRECTIONS
LIKELY ARTISTIC ABILITY USE OF FLOW CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS FOR NOTE-TAKING
DIFFICULTY WITH SPOKEN DIRECTIONS VISUAL SPELLING OF WORDS OR FACTS TO BE MEMORIZED
TROUBLE FOLLOWING LECTURES USE OF FLOW CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS FOR NOTE-TAKING
AUDITORY Clues AUDITORY Learning Tips
PREFERS TO GET INFORMATION BY LISTENING - NEEDS TO HEAR IT TO KNOW IT USE OF TAPES FOR READING AND FOR CLASS AND LECTURE NOTES

DIFFICULTY FOLLOWING WRITTEN DIRECTIONS
LEARNING BY INTERVIEWING OR BY PARTICIPATING IN DISCUSSIONS
DIFFICULTY WITH READING HAVING TEST QUESTIONS OR DIRECTIONS READ ALOUD OR PUT ON TAPE
KINESTHETIC OR HAPTIC Clues KINESTHETIC OR HAPTIC Learning Tips
PREFERS HANDS-ON LEARNING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING (MAKING MODELS, DOING LAB WORK, ROLE PLAYING)
DIFFICULTY SITTING STILL FREQUENT BREAKS IN STUDY PERIODS
MAY BE VERY WELL-COORDINATED AND HAVE EXCELLENT ATHLETIC ABILITY TRACING LETTERS AND WORDS TO LEARN SPELLING AND REMEMBER FACTS
CAN ASSEMBLE PARTS WITHOUT READING DIRECTIONS EXPRESSING ABILITIES THROUGH DANCE, DRAMA, GYMNASTICS, ETC.
LEARNS BETTER WHEN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IS INVOLVED USE OF COMPUTER TO REINFORCE LEARNING THROUGH SENSE OF TOUCH, MEMORIZING OR DRILLING WHILE WALKING OR EXERCISING




This piece was also posted on violinist.com Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Everybody's not so fine here, after all

Film review: EVERYBODY’S FINE (2009). (Netflix allows all of a 2,000 character review, which to me is like a long tweet, and doesn’t even break a sweat, so permit me to vent my spleen here……..as follows……)

Leaving behind the world of the Fokkers, and the smash box office and cash flow that has provided, our protagonist, Robert De Niro, sets about making a serious movie here, for which we can only applaud. He loses his wife, and after months or solitude, embarks from his modest, neat, well-tended (“I didn’t know your mother did so much work.”) Elmira NY home on a cross-country trip to visit each of his four grown children, with stops in NYC, Chicago, Las Vegas and San Francisco. Everything about the film very good: the acting, the cinematography, the script. (We especially liked how the telephone line theme – connection, communication -- is employed top to bottom, and in different ways, plot, dialogue, graphics.)

Except one thing. The tone. More oppressive than the oppression it purports to stand against. The father figure here vacillates between decidedly unappealing sad sack “pitiable” all the way up to and through “villainous.”

Why? Because, as a factory worker (he put the coating on telephone lines), he dreamed of a better life for his children, and apparently, pushed them a bit. (How exactly, or how bad, we’re never told, we’re left to dream it. After all, your imagination will make it much worse than it might have been in reality – same way you dread going to the dentist, the reality isn’t as bad as the dread.) But in the esoterica of political correctness law, section 101022.subsection A123B22, this makes De Niro not as bad as a serial killer, no, but worse than, let’s say, a drunk driver.

Why? Because the innocent have been slain. By asking his children to dream and achieve, he has killed or nearly so that beautiful pristine spirit that is resident onboard each and every one of us. So Dad is insufferable because he wants his four children to do better in life than himself. “Mom was nice, she listened to us,” the message from the kids said. “You were hard, you pushed us.” So, after having to endure this indignity, how did they turn out? The kids themselves in this movie are a bit of a mixed bag: the eldest is a successful NY artist with a drug problem. No. 2 is a mega-successful ad agency owner. No. 3 is a percussionist, not a conductor (after seeing him rehearse, in sad sack mode, out behind the concert hall, during a break, De Niro asks him what seems like 22 times, “are you sure you’re not a conductor, I thought you were conducting” --- just to be sure you, the viewer, can plainly see what an ass he is, only trouble is, in straining so hard here to bend your mind for you, the filmmaker loses his credibility, even the believer here knows he’s being manipulated). No. 4 child purports to be a successful and wealthy Las Vegas showgirl, but in reality, is a restaurant hostess with child and no husband (but in a thoroughly modern touch, has instead a girlfriend, another sidelong blow vs. the male in our society, who needs ‘em?).

Doesn’t matter today if you are on the left (this film) or the right (remember the little Cuban émigré, Elion Gonzales) side of the political spectrum, we can all join hands and agree that fathers, father figures, and authority, use your imagination --- evil. Best dispensed with. Anything is better than hanging with Dad, whether it’s freedom or capitalism or whatever. So let’s extrapolate a bit. Why do we so hate authority? Because it requires us do something. Your gym teacher was an authority figure. He/she wanted you to be fit. That takes work, discipline. So where is our nation in terms of fitness? Terrible and getting worse. Obesity is now called an “epidemic,” like it’s the bubonic plague or something and it leaps on and kills people. We have entire NBC serials about it, with lead actors > 500 lbs. So we watch, on our couches, eating Tostitos all the while.

Let’s jump over to financial fitness. Work hard, budget, save. Is that where we are? Or is our nation $14 trillion under? Are our states just as bad – Illinois, California and the rest? The housing crisis – live in a mansion you can’t afford (wink, wink). Didn’t turn out well. Yesterday I heard an NPR radio report that said in Oregon the statewide high school tests you must pass to graduate will no longer require speling (sic) skills. Duh. Let’s keep lowering the bar. Hell, let’s throw the damn bar away. I could go on and on and on. Make it easier, make it softer, fuzzier. Don’t ask me to get up off the couch. Don’t make me get to work on time. In fact, don’t make me work at all. If I have sex and have kids, don’t make me get married. It’s invidious but the vibe is everywhere around us. It’s in the air, it’s in the water. The oldest son here, (I won’t betray his fate, maybe you’ll guess anyway), says “It wasn’t your fault, Dad.” But the other 99% of this film screamed that it was. I don’t believe this film, it’s way too facile an explanation for the ills that beset us (blame Dad). I think step one in building a life is to take responsibility for yourself. We need more benevolent coaches, trainers, teachers, believers, dreamers, hands-on Dads – not fewer. Just don’t tell the PC police I said so, ok?

PS The ending contains an original song by Paul McCartney, created for this movie. Watch the extra on the making of it, excellent. Sir Paul never says why he did the song other than that he was asked through "his office". I think it wasn’t for the money. I think it was for the creative challenge, pride, if you will. Something inside the former Beatle that keeps him going long past 64…..wonderful antidote to the ‘woe is me’ tone of the previous 120 minutes…..(he turns 69, btw, June 18, 2011). Paul, we all still love you, way past 64.........

Paul Mccartney - I Want To Come Home

For so long I was out in the cold,
and I taught myself to believe every story I told.
It was fun hanging onto the moon, heading into the sun,
but it's been too long. Now I wanna come home.

Came so close to the edge of defeat.
But I made my way in the shade, keeping out of the heat.
It was fun shooting out of the stars, looking into the sun,
but it's been too long. Now I wanna come home.

Home. Where's there's nothing but sweet surrender,
to the memories from afar.
Home. To the place where the truth lies waiting,
we remember who we are.

For too long I was out on my own.
Every day I spent trying to prove I could make it alone.
It was fun hanging onto the moon, heading into the sun,
but it's been too long. Now I wanna come home.


For so long I was out in the cold,
but I taught myself to believe every story I told.
It was fun hanging onto the moon heading into the sun,
but it's been too long. Now I wanna come home.
Yeah, it's been too long, now I want to come home.
Been too long, now I want to come home.


====================================================================

And words to the classic, "When I'm 64..."


When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now.
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine.

If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door,
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four.

You'll be older too,
And if you say the word,
I could stay with you.

I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride.

Doing the garden, digging the weeds,
Who could ask for more.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four.

Every summer we can rent a cottage,
In the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck & Dave

Send me a postcard, drop me a line,
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away

Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four.


Sunday, January 09, 2011

Digging Deeper like the name of the blog says: so why is it we love music so much?

Love music? Thank a substance in your brain

What is it about Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Bartok that makes us feel pleasure? Turns out the sounds they create makes the brain release a chemical that gives us pleasure, a new study says.

The brain substance is involved both in anticipating a particularly thrilling musical moment and in feeling the rush from it, researchers found.

Previous work had already suggested a role for dopamine, a substance brain cells release to communicate with each other. But the new work, which scanned people's brains as they listened to music, shows it happening directly. More....

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Review: FREEDOM, Jonathan Franzen

FREEDOM. By Jonathan Franzen. I acquired my copy of FREEDOM about the same time I did the GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. I really wanted to like the latter, the backstory is so compelling, guy labors in obscurity, dies, goes viral, that sort of thing grabs the imagination, then there is the film version. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to go on a 562-page trip with Mr. Franzen, however, the so-called diffident one (remember the Oprah fiasco? Turns out he’s not diffident, btw).

As things happen, I bonked on Lisbeth Salander et al after about 50 pages. The character(s) just didn’t grab me, at least not during my intial foray. Franzen’s tome I couldn’t put down. The characters, too compelling. The slow train wreck of their lives, in process, I couldn’t turn avert my eyes. The intercut narratives of the different generations – the modern cliffhanger – it surely did its job, and kept you onboard for the whole trip. And the inherent bedeviling Paradoxical nature of the event (yes, capital P Paradox, industrial strength paradox going on here) – it was all just too compelling. I was sorry to reach page 562. What better compliment to an author than that?

Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. Frrrreeeeeedddddddddom! – Wm Wallace, Braveheart. Land of the free. And now FREEDOM, by J. Franzen. What do we mean by Paradox? We were surrounded by paradox at every page, or so it seemed:

• Just the length of it is a paradox today: a 562-page novel telling the story of three (and one-half?) generations in the age of the 140-character Twitter.
• A harrowing look at relationships, marriage, family – that reaffirms the merits of each, come what may.
• Franzen, interestingly however, himself is divorced, no children.
• A storyline that is consistently anti-religion, even anti-spirituality – yet ends in a faith-affirming modus operandi.
• A book whose main character realizes that “nothing matters,” – then proves that ‘everything matters.’

And the greatest paradox of all, the much vaunted ‘freedom’ that is so sought after ---- is unbearable.

August 12 2010 TIME put J. Franzen on its cover, an honor accorded to very, very few writers over the years. Then they dubbed it No. 1 in fiction, year end. This book is that significant, imo. I really doubt that texting, Twitter, Facebook, or youtube rainbows have the power to move you, to explain yourself to you, and dare I say it, explain something of this thing, life. In a way that sticks. That, dear reader, remains in the realm of art, and that is what Franzen can do and, in fact, does. In so doing, he proves that the novel, that literature, is not only not dead, but more vibrant an experience than ever, juxtaposed against the 24/7 onslaught of noncommunication communication we must all endure now, that is, for those still relatively few who seek it out.