As a paperback:
http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Overcoming-Whiteness-Without-Trying/dp/1481195387/

As an e-book on kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Whiteness-Without-Trying-ebook/dp/B00AR05TIQ/

Please donate to my kickstarter fund so we can make a music video! Thanks! —->

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1871950953/circles-music-video

THROUGH USE OF MELODY’S METHOD

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a musically based intervention for young children with disabilities, ages 2-5, developed at the Melody Arons Center in Teaneck, New Jersey. It was developed from an abiding interest in the healing powers of music, as well as a career in teaching children with disabilities. The target population includes children with borderline to above average intelligence with language, moderate movement disorders and secondary behavior problems.

Melody’s Method was tested on ten children with disabilities from 2001-2011 whose primary problems were expressive language and sensory integration. Referrals were made by neurologists and various clinicians. Results ranged from slight to dramatic improvement in all cases with children unresponsive to other interventions.  Their written case studies are now being completed. Meanwhile, educating special education children is increasingly problematic with declining school budgets and an unmet need for quality early intervention programs. The outcome of this research over a ten year period suggests a strong and affordable potential to improve early functioning in children with specific developmental delays. As a result, this introductory paper is written.

Literature Review

Music therapy dates back to Aristotle and Plato as a generic category of therapy. Today’s music therapists assess individual need and design specific music sessions to improve or rehabilitate a target area of disability through music improvisation, listening, song writing, imagery and performance.  In 1994, music therapy was identified as a reimbursable service under benefits for Partial Hospitalization Programs, falling under the category of Activity Therapy. “Music involves a unique, integrated sequence of actions (playing or singing) locked into a self-sustaining loop of motor actions accompanied by stimulation of the visual/tactile and auditory senses glued together by emotional processes.” (http://www.fastthinking.com.au/the-magazine/spring-2007/we-got-rhythm.aspx ). It is defined as:

The prescribed use of music by a qualified person to effect positive changes

in the psychological, physical, cognitive, or social functioning of individuals

           with health or educational problems (American Music Therapy Association 1999).

It can be a diagnostic tool to identify problem areas including developmental delays, emotional issues, family interaction, pain management, and decreased environmental awareness in both verbal and nonverbal people. (http://www.musictherapy.cc/page3.html).  Types of music therapy include:

1. The Interactive Metronome, IM

The Interactive Metronome (IM) is a rhythm based treatment for a wide variety of clinical disorders.  The concept of mental time-keeping across large groups of clinical disciplines supports its importance in human behavior.  There is clear evidence for some kind of neural-based brain timing, or temporal processing. (http://ticktockbraintalk.blogspot.com/2009/08/brain-rhythm-treatment-efficacy)

Keeping a beat increases the efficiency and speed of information processing. The IM uses a patented auditory guidance system plus the experience of movement to improve basic skills needed for learning and development, improving motor planning and sequencing. Through repetition and interactive exercises done in 12-15 one hour sessions, it is said to develop and sustain focus and attention for longer periods of time, increase physical endurance and stamina, concentration, coordinated motor control, regulation of frustration and anger, as well as rhythm and timing. It helps recall of information, language processing, reading, math fluency and executive functioning (http://mindyourbodytherapy.net/interactive_metronome.html) Publicly recognized in 2001, it is said to improve processing speed because it integrates the hemispheres of the brain.

2. Melodic Intonation Therapy, MIT

Melodic Intonation Therapy uses melodic and rhythmic components to improve speech recovery for patients with aphasia.  Beginning in the 1970s, it is still considered to be a relatively new and experimental therapy that uses elements of melody and rhythm in the production of speech.  In early phases of treatment, patients are encouraged to sing words rather than speak them.  PET scans have shown Broca’s area, a region in the left temporal lobe where language is located, is reactivated through repetition of sung words (http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/melodic-intonation-therapy). It is noted that there is little research to support success, the theory that its method stimulates activity in the right hemisphere in order to assist in speech production.  Common words and phrases are converted into melodic phrases that mimic speech intonation and rhythmic patterns.  Connections improved between the right and left hemisphere in right handed people after use of this therapy.

3. Neurologic Music Therapy, NMT

Neurologic Music Therapy, NMT, uses music to address specific aspects of an individual’s neurological disease or disorder.  Its techniques are based upon a neuroscience model, theorizing the influence of music on functional changes in the brain and behavior. Advanced training is required on how to use music therapy to address cognitive, speech and language, and sensorimotor needs. Techniques are research based, standardized and adaptable to individual needs (http://neurorhythm.com/What_Is_ Music_ Therapy_R1C6.html)

4. Dance and Movement Therapy

Dance therapy is defined by the American Dance Therapy Association as “the psychotherapeutic use of movement as a process which furthers the emotional, cognitive and physical integration of the individual”. (http://www.nccata.org/dance_therapy.htm).   Dance therapists have rigorous training and licensing requirements, as well as a code of ethics. It is based upon the premise that body, mind and spirit are interconnected and mobilizes internal resources from that place where mind and body are one. (http://www.adta.org/Default.aspx?pageId=378213 ).  Dance is a fundamental form of human expression, one area of the brain housing a representation of the body’s orientation and helping to direct its movements through space.  Another part acts like a sort of synchronizer, helping to pace our actions to music.  Instinct for dance, the process that causes us to unconsciously tap our feet to a beat, bypasses higher auditory areas of the brain so that subcortical regions communicate with each other in nonverbal activity (http://www.dantzan.com/edukiak/the-neuroscience -of-dance/ ).

Children under the age of 8

It has long been known that children under the age of 8 do not integrate information from their senses.  In a 2008 study (Current Biology, David Burr, Marko Nardini, Cell Press, 5/1/08) findings suggested that perceptual systems of developing children might require constant recalibration by using one sense to fine-tune another.  This might also reflect the limitations of a still developing brain.  Prior to the age of 8, integration of visual and touch-delivered information is far from optimal, with either vision or touch dominating. Adult functioning was best explained by sensory integration, while children’s behavior suggested that they did not integrate different kinds of spatial information. (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/106117.php)

Melody’s Method, Theoretical Foundations

Melody’s Method is derived from fundamental agreement about human development from ages 0-5, all of which is based upon sensory motor movement, experience, and social connectedness. Language is the second developmental stage as the body gains independence and coordination. For children with disabilities, the way the body internalizes and understands sensations, combined with the pressure of gravity upon it, can have a profoundly negative effect on every aspect of their lives. Music is the ultimate sensory tool with vibrations, sounds, volume, visual and spatial experiences, movement, melody, and above all, a beat.  This beat aides in understanding and speaking words due to emphasis on stressed syllables within word(s), phrases and sentences. Finding connections between music and linguistic rhythm, and using those sensory connections to improve language input and output through individualized programming provides half of theoretical basis for Melody’s Method.

The other half is premised upon right and left hemisphere brain functioning.  Simply put, the right side of the brain is nonverbal, intuitive and creative, grasping the entirety of an idea in a holistic way.  The left side is made for analytical language.  Melody’s method “loads” the right hemisphere with traditional children’s songs which are processed as a holistic package and loaded through individually selected sensory motor activities in combination with the song. As body systems and language become coordinated through rhythmic activities, there is gradual introduction of the verbal analysis of song lyrics by asking who, what, when, where, why.  A gradient theory is hypothesized between the hemispheres by converting holistic information (right hemisphere) into analytical, verbal categories (left hemisphere). This hypothesis is based upon the existence of a large number of nerve fibers, the corpus callosum, that connect the right and left hemisphere and is responsible for most of the communication between the two. Once the right hemisphere has been “loaded” with memorized songs, combined with motor memory from sensory activities, lyrics are gradually “rolled over” the gradient to the left hemisphere by asking specific questions.  For example, in Mary Had a Little Lamb, the teacher asks, “Who had a lamb?”  In Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, a question is, “What twinkled in the sky?”  It is theorized that these songs are held in right hemisphere memory, subsequent questions requiring the child to listen and think differently to his/her singing in order to find the answer.  This is interpreted to mean that information crosses from the nonverbal hemisphere to the verbal hemisphere, thus creating the ability to analyze language in specific units and build skills needed for school and later life.

Definition of Terms

Sensory Integration- This theory is based on senses normally below the level of our awareness. Input from sensory systems learns about the environment, synthesizing that information to make proper responses to stimuli.  There are seven different sensory systems: visual, auditory, smell, taste, and touch. Balance and movement are controlled by the inner ear, while body position in space is controlled by muscles and joints. (http://www.ehow.com/about_5098852_definition-sensory-integration.html).

Vestibular system- This is housed in the cochlea of the ear and detects motion, gravity, and provides our sense of balance.  It has many connections with the rest of the brain, influencing muscle tone, and fine, gross and oral motor coordination.  It supports the ability of the body to use both sides in a coordinated way with many connections involving auditory processing and language.

(http://spectrumcenter.net/dyspraxia.html)

Proprioception- This system gives us information about the position of our body parts, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints, and equilibrium. (http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articleket=6393)

Scaffolding- This is an instructional method that gives a support structure to the child in order for him/her to accomplish a task slightly beyond current ability.  As the child is able to perform the task, the support system is gradually withdrawn. (http://www.scaffoldingineducation.org/scaffolding_definition/)

Consolidation- This is the process of having information in short term memory placed into long term memory storage through spaced repetition. (http://www.human-memory.net/processes_consolidation.html)

Self-regulation- This term refers to the child’s ability to alter behaviors in accordance to either internal or society’s expectations.  It requires the child to adapt to the situation and to be flexible, inhibiting impulses to do what is right rather than what they want to do. (http://www.yourdictionary.com/self-regulation)

Low tone- Also called hypotonia, this occurs when the muscles resist movement and feel soft and doughy, flopping like a rag doll.   Symptoms include shallow breathing, feeding problems, failure to develop motor related milestones, delayed speech, and lethargy. (http://www.childrenshospital.org ).

Melody’s Method Goals

1. Improve receptive language                             2. Improve expressive language

3      Improve memory                                            4. Improve motor planning

5      Improve affect                                                6. Improve self-regulation

7. Improve bonding and attachment

History & Overview

Melody’s Method results from a shared observation.  Young preschool children learn the alphabet song, starting between ages two and three.  By age 4, they are asked to say the alphabet without the song.  Most cannot, unable to separate the music from the words and letters. Examination of that song, in addition to the large repertoire of traditional children’s songs in America, reveals similar critical elements.  There is a strong rhythmic pattern of either two or three beats per measure, the most used rhythms in Western music (http://www.ehow.com/list_6693614_types_meter-music.html). Phrases are short and end in rhymed couplets. Contours of the melodies are within the interval of a fifth, ranging from middle C to an octave above, the range of the child’s speaking voice (http://speech-therapy-information-and-resources.com/voice.html).  Example:

The Alphabet Song

(Note: The highlighted letter is the stressed syllable of the lyric.)

A, B, C, D,

E, F, G.

H, I, J, K.

L, M, N, O, P.

Q, R, S,

T, U, V.

W, X,

Y, and Z.

Now I know my A, B, C.

Next time won’t you sing with me?

The stressed syllables are on G and P.  Each gets two beats and is a rhymed couplet, as are V and Z, and C and me. Rhymed couplets reinforce the accented two count beats of the line, Gee and Pee. In listening to hundreds of children sing this song, one knows there is a spot they do not forget. It is L, M, N, O, P, the rhythmic doubling of rhythm that is different from the rest of the song. Its novelty within the strong duple meter appears to hook it into memory. When children try to say the words after learning it musically, they neither carry over the rhythmic phrasing nor the stressed syllables.  That is the holistic structure needed for recall. Similarly, short television jingles, theme songs, or commercials are rhythmic, heard holistically, and remembered by very young children.  Matching of language sounds and melody within a steady beat is a shared cultural experience. Apart from cost, it is the reason that traditional children’s songs are used for the most part in Melody’s Method.

The Play-Based Student/Teacher Relationship

You can’t make a two or three year old do what they do not want to do,  particularly when the task is difficult. They will say “No”, walk away, or throw a temper tantrum. Therefore, it is important to understand the nature of a play-based relationship, what it is and what it is not (http://teachplaybasedlearning.com/8.html).  Learning is meant to be fun. Though it is axiomatic, play is the way children learn at their own rate and in their own way. Play integrates all skills, using small and large muscles, language, creativity, eye contact, social skills and emotional expression.  It does not mean that children do what they want all of the time.  They participate in teacher directed activities and learn to follow rules, followed by free time to select an activity of interest. Melody’s Method agrees that the environment functions as the third teacher (Samuelsson & Williams, 2007, p. 19), its contents continuously supporting the child’s interests as well as the improvement of deficits. Choices are determined by the teacher with limits based on safety, developmental age, and temperament.  Children are encouraged to express their own ideas in order to better understand their world.  This may lead to unexpected areas, (http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=453), but those adventures are to be encouraged and developed.

The teacher guides and initiates certain activities but never dominates. Watching the child play, body coordination, the verbal or nonverbal language used, and length of attention span is both an educational and diagnostic imperative. Strengths and interests of the child are woven into individualized, teacher directed activities designed to improve specific areas of deficit. The teacher also functions as a play mate by turn taking, saying/modeling “Please”, “Thank you”, and “Can I”, either verbally or with gesture.  Materials are gradually added to extend the play, selected for therapeutic or educational value. Boundaries are established for both teacher and child so that neither is forced to do an activity. It is the teacher’s duty to figure out how to get the job done within the child’s comfort zone.  He/she can stop an activity by saying “All done” and that is honored by the teacher.  Similarly, the child learns to respect the teacher’s use of “No”, “Not now”, “No more”, or “Try this”. The child must always feel safe, loved, and respected.

Improving Receptive Language

 Receptive language develops before expressive language and refers to language comprehension skills.  A common marker for concern is the inability to follow directions. (http://teachmetotalk.com)  Young children with disabilities often have auditory processing problems, perceiving human speech as a continuous flow of sound without stressed syllables to delineate beginning, middle, or end. It is also common for such children to experience sensory integration problems which may impact on how they process sound. Their understanding of the world is confusing, the child not feeling comfortable or safe in his/her own skin. Whether the problems are receptive language alone or in combination with sensory issues, Melody’s Method helps to organize the sounds into meaning. Tapping beats to music or rhyme, dancing to one and two step directions given rhythmically, or doing finger plays with listening combines a motor and auditory stimulus as a way to understand speech. Rhythmic activities paired with receptive language should be done on as many surfaces as possible with as many parts of the body as possible to connect language with sensory integration. For example, making rhythms in water, on sand, on bubble wrap, on any surface simultaneous with auditory input are components of Melody’s method.

Putting the ear in an upside down position has shown enormous benefits to children with receptive language and sensory integration problems. The gravity point in the language area is changed with improved blood flow, similar to a headstand in yoga. Done on a limited basis to songs and dances, this inverted head position lifts the child off the floor and puts them upside-down, playing wheelbarrow, hung by their ankles or with head down from monkey bars. The goal is to find a safe, enjoyable activity that briefly inverts the placement of the ear. Words and phrases are spoken to the child in this position. Then stood upright they are asked to do what was said to them while inverted. Most respond positively and with improved receptive language that lasts.  Since this is also fun and feels good to them, children commonly enjoy this activity and ask for more.

Dancing and jumping rhythmically also improve receptive language.  These are proprioceptive activities, the thud of the feet on the floor helping muscles and joints of the body to communicate more efficiently to a beat. This motor movement links with accented syllables of words or phrases to organize input into better understood sequences. For children who cannot jump there is a “monster walk,” heavy feet walking to a musical or spoken rhythm. These efforts integrate the body’s internal systems and improve motor planning, all of which support receptive language. There are several ways to dance with a young child, such as holding at eye level, spinning, and dancing on top of adult feet. This provides the sensory comfort of pressure while moving to music and feeling the rhythm of the teacher’s or parent’s body next to them. Ultimately, the child is transitioned to the floor and to independent rhythmic movement.

Other factors affect receptive language.  Volume, pacing, and distractions occur throughout all natural settings. Interventions must be interesting and short in duration. The teacher must be constantly attentive to environmental stimuli that limits improved receptive language. Fatigue is another consideration that limits attention. Interventions are always followed by free play so as to balance exertion with relaxation. The observable measurement of successful balance is that the child will smile, laugh, appear happy, and often ask for more.

Improving Expressive Language

Expressive language combines body and brain in a uniquely coordinated way. Body parts involve lungs and air flow through vibrating vocal cords that make sounds.  The physical production of speech, articulation, refers to muscles and structures in the face and mouth to shape sounds from exhaled air. This includes lips, teeth and tongue. Articulation weaknesses often affect understandability and stamina. Other factors include vocal pitch, volume and vocal quality.

(http://www.education.com/reference/article/specific-speech-language-development/)

The brain’s power of expressive language retrieves, remembers, and organizes spoken words through coordinated use of the physical structures of the body. Specific things to listen for when assessing the development of a young child’s language are:

1. How many single words are used?  What is the grammatical relationship of those words to each other?  For example, noun-verb, adjective-noun.
2. How diverse is the vocabulary?  Is there a specific area of interest that sparks output more than another?
3. What words are used incorrectly?
4. What sounds can the child imitate and produce spontaneously?
5. When words are not intelligible, is there a pattern to the speech error?
6. How long is the language phrase, word or sentence?
7. Does the child initiate language?
8. Does the child stay on topic?
9. Does the child have social language as well as content language?

Melody’s Method initially works with the body to support spoken language output. Singing requires deep breathing and coordination with “articulators” in the mouth.  Breathing changes from shallow to diaphragmatic by characterizing it as an “upbeat”, similar to “Get Ready” (inhale) and “Go” (exhale), and is easier to do lying down. Initial work lasts no more than a minute because of potential for dizziness. The jaw must not droop, the mouth in a pucker similar to the shape of a kiss. Sounds are made with an “ah”, “oo”, or “ee” to strengthen the lip and mouth muscles for improved articulation. Use of exclamatory words in music to explode sound is a first connection between breath and facial and mouth muscles, and is fun to do.

Example:

Pop! Goes the Weasel

Peek-a-Boo

Hick-o-ry Dickory dock

Pat-a-cake

Rhythmic patterns are made with lips and tongue that create sounds and blow air in a variety of positions while listening and responding to music. Oral-motor skills are strengthened and become responsive to what the child wants to say. Gestures and motions combine with sound production, providing simultaneous sensory experience with language output.  For example, clapping, stomping, or tapping the chest at the same time the sound is made makes output easier for the child. By learning traditional children’s songs with actions, remediation occurs because the experience is fun, self-reinforcing, and happens spontaneously. These songs also provide language models for grammatical relationships, vocabulary, and length of phrases that are stored in memory for later use.

The use of specific duple and triple meter songs and phrases provides the context for expanded lengths of utterance by the child.  Two beat songs (duple meter) begin this intervention. Because humans have two feet, duple meter and the resulting walking rhythm reinforces the stressed syllables of the words of the song. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is an example. It has the strong, two beat pattern with alternating stressed syllables, reinforced with the rhymed couplet.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Twinkle, twinkle lit-tle star,

How I wonder what you are.

Up above the world so high

Like a diamond in the sky.

Twinkle, twinkle little star

   How I wonder what you are.

Each child learns this song in a different way. Articulation errors may occur, but they never get the rhythm wrong. Basic two beat phrases are used while dancing, playing, or anywhere it can be naturally inserted. Gradually by keeping the beat, the articulation and vocabulary come together, frequently with fluency and ease.

The use of triple meter, or a waltz rhythm, is preferred by some children.  It provides an extra syllable for each strongly accented downbeat.  The most common example is the Happy Birthday song.  The word “Happy” is on an upbeat, the “H” expelling air toward the downbeat of “Birthday”. The following example illustrates the three beat patterns.

Happy Birthday Song

Happy

                                                                    3

Birthday to

                                                                1       2    3

You, Happy

                                                               1    2     3

Birthday to

                                                                1     2      3

 You.  Happy

                                                                1    2     3

Birthday to

                                                                 1     2    3

_______  Happy

                                                                1     2     3

Birthday to

                                                               1       2     3

You.

1    2     3

The strong downbeat of each three beat pattern seems to bounce the next two beats off of the tongue toward the next downbeat, involving the entire body differently than a duple meter.  There is a uniquely different look and sound when children handle three beat patterns as contrasted to two beat patterns.  A recent study showed that people tend to operate in three second bursts, or the duration of a hug.  This may reflect that temporal units of life that define perception of the present moment are in three beat units. (http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/01/hugs-follow-a-3-second-rule.html).

As the number of children’s songs and movement increases, their rhythms are used to expand vocabulary and length of phrases and sentences without song.  A common device is use of a bouncing ball simultaneously with saying the phrase.  For example:  Boun-cing-the ball is a three beat phrase.  A ball is bounced on the first syllable of the phrase.

Gradually, more three beat phrases are added as the ball is bounced back and forth. Example:  Bouncing the Ball to my Daddy. The same occurs in two or four beat patterns. Other sensory experiences are equally successful in extending the length of utterance.  For example, a child may learn Yankee Doodle on a rocking horse.  The rocking of the horse, back and forth in duple meter, combines with the lyric and melody to provide a full body experience. The stressed syllable of words in the lyric matches the back and forth rocking on the horse. Problems may occur during the session if there are switches between duple and triple meters.  Therefore, consistency of motor and linguistic rhythms is important during initial phases of instruction.

Inflection of the language, or the rise and fall of the contour of the sentence or phrase, is the last thing to be addressed instructionally in expressive language.  Often it occurs naturally through modeling. When it does not, a variety of musical games and sounds are done. Sirening, imitating the rise and fall of the police siren, doing “opera” or “movie star”, and animal imitations are activities that promote inflected language through Exaggerated vocal pitches with dramatic flourishes.

Improved Motor Planning

Movement provides joy and happiness from the moment of birth. Motor skills are (http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+study+on+gross+motor+skills+of+preschool+children.-a) divided into two major categories, small muscles (fine motor) and large muscles (gross motor), which are divided into six subgroups: body awareness, balance, locomotion, spatial relationships, manipulation, and rhythm and timing. (Munro, 1985) Movement requires an idea of what the child wants to do, a plan of how to sequence and time movements, and performing the action (http://spectrumcenter.net/dyspraxia.html).  Many children with disabilities have problems in planning the movement sequence and then carrying it out. As language becomes more complex there are faster movements of tongue, lips, and jaw in coordination with breathing.  In addition to the sensory integration earlier described as integral to the method, other specific motor planning activities are utilized.

Each child has a name rhyme, written specifically for them, that is in duple meter. This is done to coordinate movement of the feet with language output. Before entering the session room they stamp their feet to a strong marching beat while saying their name rhyme.  Once the marching pattern with the rhyme is completed, the door opens and they march into the room. For example:

Lucas is my name,

 And music is my game!

Jack! Jack! My name is Jack!

When I’m done I’ll be right back.

Marching stabilizes the child physically and emotionally, providing a consistent motor pattern of movement and language so that he/she enters the room in an organized way.  The entrance sequence of activities provides their bodies and brains with control, coordinating multiple systems required for improved functioning. They enjoy saying their name, as well as the structure and safety of the experience which carries over into the rest of the session.

The scooter board is widely used. The child lays on his stomach, hands on the floor, listening to or singing “So You’re Goin’ for a Ride”, a Sesame Street song. The child propels himself with his hands across the floor, head up, to the strong duple meter.  The preparatory upbeats, “So you’re going for a” helps the child to breath, moving his arms and hands on the floor to the downbeat.  When the forward movement is mastered, every conceivable combination of movements follows. This includes going backwards, lying on the back with head down and moving the board with the hands, sitting upright when balance is established and using feet or hands to move to the music.

A full size, adult drum set is utilized with each child. Children stand or sit on the drum stool, dependant on height, drumsticks in both hands. Each is encouraged to explore the separate drums and cymbals while a song is played on piano or a recording. No limit is placed on how hard they strike the instrument. Use of drumsticks in both hands, in combination with learning to strike the instrument in rhythm, helps them organize movements to make sounds they enjoy.  Cymbals have particular importance. The child actually feels their vibrations by touching the cymbal after striking it, which immediately stops the sound. Drum patterns include having them cross arms over midline to the drum on the opposite side.  Some children pound as loudly as possible, others play softly with smaller drumsticks or fingers. This is an intense sensory experience which the child controls. Responses to drum sounds also provide an instant diagnostic tool for sound sequencing, motor control, and sensory needs. Additional rhythm instruments are also used. The teacher plays piano and accompanies the child on drums, introducing keyboard in addition to child sized pianos.  Playing piano provides a transition to fine motor movement, the child modeling what they see the teacher do during drum time. Visual motor skills increase when children begin to identify groups of two and three black notes on the piano in both directions. A series of books were written to introduce piano sounds and the vocabulary for its parts.

A swing is used in a variety of ways. Its back and forth movement provides a beat, the torso moving with the rhythm of the swing as the child balances, feet off the floor, hands holding onto the chain. Feet are grabbed or held on the upbeat with a strong push on the downbeat.  This coordinates the upper body with the legs and lays the foundation for learning to pump the swing independently. The body functions like a metronome in the swing by keeping the beat while the child sings the song. The swing can also be used to improve facial muscles by having the child balance from their stomachs with head and feet down, doing “mouth sillies” with tongue, lips and teeth, such as making a “raspberry”.

The bow is learned by every child since performance is an experience they share with parents and each other.  This bow is not a curtsy. It is an adult bow with feet together, hands at sides, and head dropping down to the knees. This involves complex motor planning, control, and attention.  It also centers the body at midline. The importance of bowing cannot be overstated because it is completely positive and reinforcing, giving applause for something earned. Once learned, children sometimes coach their peers through the activity.

 Improvement of Memory

All parts of our body have memory, a vast and complicated area. There is short term memory and long term memory. Short term memory temporarily stores information from all of the senses throughout the entirety of the brain, initiating or stopping input according to category and either positive or negative sensations. The number and order of things remembered lasts about 20-30 seconds (http://psychology.about.com ).  In order to retain the information, the activity must be repeated several times with breaks between. (http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Short-term_memory)  Repetition is also occurs through a predictable schedule of activities and by sensory or motor pairing with a verbal activity. Predictability, comfort and ritual help a child to improve memory, as do context so that environment does not fundamentally change. Any strongly negative experience codes with other input, effort made to avoid anything that upsets the child’s system. Once that occurs it is sometimes impossible to erase the memory and to continue work because of the child’s fear that the experience will happen again.

Long term memory is lasting memory (http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/long-term+memory).  It recalls previously experienced sensations, impressions, information and ideas.  It holds and applies knowledge and skills learned from past experience and often lasts a lifetime. A time worn example is riding a bicycle.  In language, phonology, or the sounds of the words used in natural language, is central to long term memory. The canon of children’s songs provides that phonological component through its lyrics through use of the rhymed couplet. Use of rhyme appears (http://www.sil.org?linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsPhonology.htm) to enhance word recall. It assists in lengthening phrases and sentences because of what can be characterized as an auditory “aim” toward the couplet, words organized and sequenced with the couplet as the end point.  Original rhymes invented for each child are written to maximize areas of interest, oral-motor, and cognitive skills.

The session’s structure addresses short term memory and its transition into long term memory. Periods of direct instruction through play are very short, depending on attention span, interest, and enjoyment. This is always followed by free time.  Juxtaposition of structured versus unstructured play permits short term memory to process into long term memory.  This is repeated throughout the session, so that short term memory cycles into long term many times, resulting in improved and expanded recall.  The rhythmic underpinning of music and language provides a long term memory motor prompt. For example, it was observed that when a 4 year old attempted to retrieve words to a song, he first tapped the rhythm on his chest with his fingers and was then able to recall the words.

Every child has a sense that will hold in long term memory longer than another.  For some children that is smell. One must experiment with all of the senses to find those which store information most efficiently.  That sense is then linked with language, movement and music activities for increased long term memory and language output.

                                                       Improvement of Affect

Affect describes the way people grow emotionally and feel another’s happiness or sadness.  It deals with values, motivations and attitudes, having five components: receiving information, responding, finding worth in it, organizing new information to make sense with what is already known, and becoming an advocate for what is learned (characterization). (http://www.nwlink.com) Melody’s methodology is designed to create good feelings in the child about themselves, their relationship with the teacher, and encourages them to try new things.  This feeling of safety, curiosity, and pleasure positively impacts upon learning as new skills are accomplished with increasing independence. If a behavior is unacceptable, the play partner teacher is withheld as a last resort. Careful control of the teacher’s voice, touch, and facial expressions is required due to the child’s close interpersonal relationship and modeling. Sensory, musical, rough play or pretend commonly mediates poor behavior through emphasis on personal boundaries. Affect involves the entire child, its improvement a significant marker of the method’s success.

Receiving- Melody’s Method provides intervention methods that are received by the child’s vestibular and proprioceptive systems, ears, eyes, taste, smell, and fine and gross motor systems.  Language is received on streams of rhythm.  There is laughter and silliness, hard work and seriousness. None are forced to do what they refuse, controlling their environment with “All done” or “No”, the activity then reframed within another context. Affection and respect are received through hugs, kisses, handshakes, cheers and applause.  Reception occurs on the child’s internal developmental schedule so as not to overload or frustrate.  New tasks are slightly beyond their comfort zone. But with teacher support, combined with the intrinsic fun of an activity, the child tries and ultimately succeeds without assistance, thereby receiving success. They receive the teacher’s help to verbalize frustration, fear or anger, learning words to express the problem and given a comforting sensory or music activity.  They receive no sudden surprises, transitions carefully scripted in song and rhyme. Melody’s Method seeks to avoid a problem rather than fix it.

Responding- Responding in very young children is often on an all or nothing basis.  Learning to grade or modulate a response is part of a maturing system.  But in the beginning, a response of any kind is sought. No response is the worst response.  All parts of the body and brain respond to music, dance, and verbal and nonverbal language. In some, the first response will be eating food, in others spinning a top. Whatever triggers a child’s response is where the method starts. Often a physical experience is needed to “prime the pump” of response. For example, after an activity the teacher waits for the child to talk, saying “Talk to me.”  Nothing happens.  He/she may be picked up under the arms, swing in a circle, and put down with giggles and fanfare.  The teacher says “Tell me.” This sensory intervention often elicits response, words and ideas there, but a sensory stimulus needed to “shake them out”.

Value- The child must experience worth in the intervention experience in order to use it.  There are many different kinds of value. Accomplishing a difficult task, “I did it!” shows value. The ability to control their body has value. The ability to be understood has value.  Making a friend because you have things to say has value. Learning a song you like has value. Feeling good has value. Performing has value.  But doing a task to please the teacher has little value.  Value is not compliance. It is the intrinsic, internal emotional and physical value to the child that constitutes value.  Whatever they value becomes part of their preexisting concepts, enlarging and changing their world for greater independence and autonomy.

Organization- Each new skill is internally merged with all of the other child’s skills and ideas. This includes organization of large and small muscles for improved motor functioning without reminders from the teacher.  It refers to mouth and facial muscles used for intelligible speech. Included in organization is timing, or rhythm. It is the sequence of breathing before speaking or singing.  It is organizing your movement so as not to stand too close or far away from another person.  It is the integration of actions that become automatic so that new ones can be added. Organization is externally modeled and an internal process.  The teacher must be visually organized and purposeful, using an inherent task analysis with one step leading naturally to the next. This task analysis changes with each child, determined by baseline functioning.  An analysis of the steps needed for mastery is then determined and implemented.

Characterization- “Look at me!” “Like this!” “My turn”. Performance is a meaningful way for the child to advocate and expand his/her set of skills. Correcting peers, siblings or parents about basic courtesies, songs, or dances is another. One five year old boy of Hispanic origin, corrected his parents during a family salsa game, shaking his bottom and hips, saying “No, Mommy. Like me.”

Improved Self Regulation

Self-regulation is not the same as affect. It is the ability to control emotions and behaviors, inhibiting impulsiveness by maintaining balance. It is waiting your turn, being able to delay gratification and showing self-control.  This is based on brain functioning and not something a child chooses or does not choose to do. Through intervention they learn to control their urges with a repertoire of strategies that help the child interact with others and the environment.  The entirety of the work of occupational therapists in sensory integration deals with self-regulation.

Melody’s Method uses sensory integration techniques to increase the child’s ability to delay gratification, do new tasks, and gain increased pleasure through new accomplishments.  This result is called “The Joy Principle”. A constant factor in the ABC neuroscience study of ten children was the change in self-regulation between the tenth and fifteenth session. Each was required to pair utterances with motor and sensory tasks, done in short, incrementally expanded periods. Initially some resisted shown by walking away, refusal, tears, or remaining in an activity of their choice. But as skills increased most became more confident and inhibited the need to go into free time. On average by the fourteenth session there was a kind of “explosion”. Their words and muscles coordinated, and they moved with exuberance and abandon in a purposeful way until exhausted.  For example, one five year old girl with significant oral motor and sensory difficulties had refused to do certain dances or songs, sitting on the floor and pouting.  A primary goal was to coordinate the downbeat of her hands and feet with the stressed syllable of the word. A floor piano was used on the day in question, her fourteenth session.  She refused to work.  Then of her own accord, the child rose, went to the piano and sat on the floor again. She threw her head and arms back, singing and playing Row, Row, Row Your Boat in perfect up-down coordination with her hands, striking the piano on each downbeat. This lasted approximately two minutes.  She stopped, looked up, and smiled, “I did it!” Her ability to inhibit the fight or flight response led to this spectacular performance. The multiple systems involved with language and movement synchronized into The Joy Principle.

Improved Bonding and Attachment

Bonding is a reciprocal attachment that usually refers to the connection between mother and child (http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/bonding). It forms the basis of affection that later influences the child’s life and involves seeing, hearing, touching and interacting. It occurs when the child acquires a basic trust in the response of others, with the ability to communicate needs and limit setting. (http://attachment.adoption.com/bonding/what-is-attachment.html)

Attachment is about affection, whereas bonding is about trust.  It is a person specific relationship dominated by affectionate exchanges.  Developmentally, the person receiving the child’s attachment is the one to whom the child goes when outside of their comfort zone, returning to check in before going further out. Wooing (solicitous behavior), shadowing (following you everywhere) and darting (rapidly moving forwards and away) are the toddler’s attempts to remain connected while extending their territory.

Melody’s Method has strong footing in bonding and attachment theory.  It involves physical exchanges of affection as appropriate, and child led play to maintain security, comfort and trust.  The child can stop the activity at any time and explore the environment at his/her own pace and level of interest.  Emphasis is placed on safety. Limit setting is done through the juxtaposition of intervention with free play so that by the nature of the activity, limits are set. Structure provides trust and predictability as a framework for new experiences within a 60 minute time frame. The schedule includes:

1. Entrance greeting and eye contact
2. Hang up coat
3. Go downstairs to song “Here We Go Down the Stairs”
4. Attendance. Pictures of the child and family hang at eye level, are turned over, the child saying “Here” or “I am here”, “Mommy is here”, etc.
5. Name song march outside classroom.
6. Going inside to classroom with preplanned activities/materials in place.
7. Implement individualized lesson plan.
8. Pick up toys to song, “It’s Time to Put the Toys Away”
9. Sing Bye-Bye song, naming those in the room, working on eye contact and engagement.
10. Leave classroom, go upstairs, put on coat with reciprocal verbal “Bye-bye” as the child leaves building.

Summary

Melody’s Method is based upon neuroscience theories of language, movement and self-regulation.  This paper explains basic components which can be used by any teacher with minimal training in music and movement.  Traditional children’s preschool songs are used, their melodies and rhythms helping to expand verbal language use. They are paired simultaneously with motor movement for integration of language with the muscles and senses of the body. Added benefits for teacher and child are improved affect, self-image and esteem, and the inhibition of impulsive behaviors.  It is not intended as a replacement therapy, but as an added support for children with disabilities ages 2-5.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marilyn Arons is the Director of The Melody Arons Center for Applied Preschool Research and Education, and a life-long musician with fifty years of teaching experience. Melody’s Method is named for her daughter, Melody, who had cognitive, language, memory, fine and gross motor coordination problems and attention deficit disorder. Mrs. Arons received a piano and voice degree in 1961. She taught English and music from 1961 to the present with diverse populations, non-English speaking, emotionally disturbed, and general education from kindergarten through ninth grade. In 1980 she matriculated in the Neuroscience and Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University, where parts of Melody’s Method were formed. She taught piano and voice privately, all students participating in two recitals a year. From 1975-2000 she did special education advocacy work with specialists in all therapeutic and medical fields associated with child development and neurology. These included occupational therapists who introduced her to the importance of sensory integration.

She returned to school in 1999, obtaining a degree in early childhood education from Bank Street College in New York City.  Melody’s Method was formalized there to improve language and movement skills in children ages 2-5. Tools were to be affordable, and user friendly, offering additional interventions for teachers and parents at a basic level, or prescriptive use for movement and language therapists.

For more information, go to www.melodyaronscenter.org

But I am none of these. I am the party starter. When I dance, I dance hard, I go all the way in. Committed. And I’ve got soul. I’ve got rhythm – things often unexpected from a middle class suburban upbringing.

My whole life people have asked me how can I dance the way I do and not be black or gay. I’ve always loved Soul RnB because I find its rhythm is as steadily relentless as my drive to express myself. And there has always been a place in my heart for the flamboyant moves and music of gay clubs and musical theater, where proud vulnerability and shameless softness are powerfully expressive substitutes for being the ultimate macho man and athlete, which I am not.

Trombone in many ways has been an afterthought, though a uniquely defining one. I really only picked trombone because at twelve years old, it was the only instrument available to me and I was insecure about my singing.  And while I grew to love trombone, studied it in college, and even eventually won a Grammy as a professional, I was still was always jealous of what other instrumentalists could do and of singers who were more secure in pursuing their dreams.

Nevertheless, I am so appreciative of my experience as an artist – both professionally and socially. It’s truly been a privilege. A privilege. “Privilege” is a word that gets thrown around a lot in our modern age of hyper political correctness.

When it comes to the complex issues involving race, class, sexuality, gender and the like, privilege seems to be a word that’s mostly reserved for straight white upper middle class males, usually referring to having the best opportunities to gain money, quality education, and a relatively care-free life.This is usually the extent to which the word privilege is defined in our modern culture.

My experience as an artist, however, has allowed me to see what’s missing from this popular perception of “privilege”.

We never seem to discuss the privilege to feel.

This includes the privilege to express, everything from rhythm to emotions.

The privilege to have angst, to be warrantably rebellious.

The privilege to be the squeakiest wheel that demands and needs the most attention.

These “privileges”, I can tell you from first hand experience, are often least associated with being “white”.

And consequently these taboo privileges seem to be what white people are the most envious of. We can see this in the phrases, dances, and expressions used both seriously and comically that are culturally appropriated from minorities of all colors and preferences who have the most of these taboo privileges.

The “great white hope” was a phrase first coined in the 1967 play of the same name by Howard Slackler about a character loosely based on Jack Johnson, the first African-American World Heavyweight Champion who won the title in 1908. After winning the title from a white man in Australia, Jack Johnson defended his title until losing it 1915. Based on real life rumors, in the play and later movie starring James Earl Jones, Johnson throws the fight buckling under the social pressures against him from a resentful white society. Johnson was the first to deal with the issues of being a black superstar, everything from his open affection for white women to his outspoken taunting of his opponents, many of who were hoping to become the next “great white hope” by defeating him.

Often, there seems to be nothing more thrilling for white audiences than to see a white artist or athlete competing and dominating in American sports and entertainment. It is even more thrilling because of African-American dominance in both of these areas. White athletes dominated in the early history of sports in America, during the existence of separate racial leagues, with whites originally labeled as more athletic and intelligent. With integration in sports came the phenomenon of great African-American athletes who not only broke the color barriers but also raised the standards of athleticism.

Ultimately, the white hope concept exists because of how color often defines people before their experience, as if they are one in the same. Since analogies teach that experiences are universal and transcend color and “race,” it is no wonder why music and art programs, which encourage analogous critical thinking, have been cut so heavily in public education available to poorer people. Without an education teaching how relative the human experience is in all of its colors, shapes, sizes, and sounds, people, especially the poor, become more vulnerable to what seems to be a systematically limited exposure of experiences associated with certain colors (such as uncontrollable rage with blackness or stiff rhythmic expression with whiteness). A well-oiled Uncle Tim system keeps different colors (and other divisions) polarized enough to sell to each side mechanisms that help cope and survive with the other, including drugs, weapons, and even music.

In addition to making white people feel more entitled to enjoy black influenced pop music, hip-hop and R&B, “white hopes” of these genres arguably facilitate the sales of black artists albums of the same genres. From my experience and from what I’ve heard from others in the business throughout my career, most white pop/R&B artists make (and pay their musicians) a lot more than black pop/R&B artists. Perhaps many of these black artists would not even have as big a white audience, and as big sales, without white hopes in their genre. Perhaps without the advancement of artists like Justin Bieber, Eminem, and Justin Timberlake, black artists like Chris Brown, 50 Cent, and Usher would not sell as well to white audiences. And without an Adele, Britney, or Gaga, artists like Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj may not be as readily embraced either. Let us not forget after so many years being known as mostly a hip hop group in the 90s, how much more quickly the Black Eyed Peas became pop after the white female member, Fergie, joined their group. Generally, it seems white audiences need white hopes in order to better relate to a more talented pool of black artists.

Ironically, behind nearly every great white hope of black music these days, there is a black producer/mentor. Eminem had Dr. Dre, Timberlake had Timbaland, Pharrel, and Questlove. and Bieber has Usher. This relationship is reminiscent of the relationship between Huckleberry Finn and Jim, Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed in Rocky III, Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption, Tom Hanks and Michael Clark Duncan in The Green Mile, and the list goes on an on. Yes, America has a love affair with black men that can lead the way for white boys, and the love affair continues with these gifted black men producing and molding our great white hopes, hopes that can make them a lot of money.

Interestingly, having a black producer does not mean that their white protégés sing about material that would benefit the disenfranchised black community. Their goal is to make pop music, not socially conscious music. Eminem’s anti-authoritarian, cynical, often juvenile, misogynous, and violent material seems to be less about uplifting disenfranchised youth and more about seducing them into buying his controversial music. Timberlake’s crooning and rhythmic singing is mostly about relationships and seduction. Bieber gets a pass because he’s not even 18.

It’s interesting how few white hopes in soul music today intelligently question or criticize society. The most socially conscious song by a white soulful artist in the past ten years is John Mayer’s “Waiting for the World to Change.” Even then, the emphasis, (ironic or not) is how the “fight isn’t fair,” that the system is too strong and there’s nothing to do but wait, which is exactly what the system wants. In a sentimental haze, listeners (especially gaga girls) end up doing just that, “waiting for the world to change.” “When they own the information they can bend it all they want,” is a good case for why it is hard to find popular white socially conscious songs in the mainstream today, unlike the days of say Bob Dylan and Janice Joplin.

Artists of the 60s and 70s like Dylan and Joplin, who wrote and sang some of the most powerful and socially conscious songs were not the most photogenic people. Perhaps systematically, an Uncle Tim system has watered down socially conscious messages (audio symbols) along with increasing eye candy (visual symbols) to distract people from the real problems that ail the world. For example, in the documentary Before the Music Dies, legendary singer/songwriter Bonnie Raitt, and musician Branford Marsalis are interviewed discussing how the music industry has changed.

Raitt: Sex has always sold and beautiful people have always been at the helm of pop music, but in the late 60s and 70s [unlike today] you could be a singer/songwriter and not be cosmetically George Clooney and be able to have a hit record.

Marsalis: Superficiality is in. Depth and quality is out…Today Ray Charles would not get a shot. Today Stevie Wonder would not get a shot. They’re blind.

Or consider Eryka Badu’s tirade the business in the same documentary: “First you need to get some breast implants. What’s hot is the butt implant. You really want to rock somebody’s world and make it in this business you better get you an ass implant. Get you some calf implants too if you’re going to be wearing those stilettos…Create your own publicity. Do some ho shit. If you are a woman you have to tongue kiss another woman. If you want to make it you’ve got to do it… Just be butt naked somewhere. Butt naked with glitter on you and a beeper…”

However, while the 60s/70s era may have had more socially conscious music, while it may have been an intensely revolutionary time when people challenged stereotypes and entitlement issues, it was also a time popularly known for extensive drug use – the fashionable coping escapist mechanism/ritual of that time. It’s a shame that the revolutionary spirit of this era is so closely associated connected with drug culture; it seems that whenever people call for the same type of peaceful rebellious ideals, they are often believed to use drugs. There are plenty of people, including myself, who share these ideals who don’t smoke or drink. Like everyone else, I have my own vices, but vices do not define a person’s morality.

As much as civil rights progressed during that era, it is a shame that the morality of that era is so inextricably linked to the looks, sounds, and rituals of the time. If a cultural revolution, like the 60s/70s were to happen now, it would have to have its own symbols. The music would have to be more self-aware, have a healthy amount of cynicism so as not to get caught up into the unsustainable path of free love, and answer hard questions about race, division, and authority this era failed to answer that even with all of the progressive movements, marches, and speeches. These questions most likely could have been answered in full if the most revolutionary leaders and artists of the time lived long enough to help confront and answer them.

Unfortunately, many of these brilliant minds (politicians, religious leaders, and musicians) fell victim to an unsustainable drug culture an authoritarian system encouraged by demonizing it, or were assassinated often under mysterious and incompletely understood circumstances. Whether it’s the Kennedys, King, or Malcolm, there always seem to be unanswered questions. If there were inside jobs that killed so many activist people in that era, perhaps those responsible were Uncle Tims and the people they controlled. It seems so many of those activist contemporaries (artists and politicians included) who ended up living past that revolutionary era, ended up getting old, and being assimilated and marketed within the system as hopeful figures of change, but change as a sentimental idea and feeling, not one of action.

The difference between a “great white hope” and a regular “great hope” is whether or not one addresses how “the problem of the Twentieth Century [was] the problem of the color line.”[1] Like so many of the popular white soul singers today, “great white hopes” do NOT address this problem, one that continues into this century. I am often baffled by how one never hears mature talented white male artists like Timberlake and Eminem discuss the racial dynamics within their music careers or life. Aside from Eminem’s Hollywood-ified watered down autobiographical movie 8 Mile, and admitting to knowing his place in society by refraining from the use of the “n-word,” his most honest admission as a white guy doing black music seems to be in his song “Without Me,” when he claims to be the “worst thing since Elvis Presley to do black music so selfishly and use it to get myself wealthy.” Still, this is more than I have ever heard from Timberlake relating to black music on black people’s terms, whose only discussion about race I’ve observed was by default in a Rolling Stone interview about working with Al Green: “Hearing Al as a kid made me want to become a singer and showed me that it was OK to have a softer, more falsetto voice.[2] However as an 11-year-old kid in 1992, it was hard to see Green’s R&B influence when Timberlake sang country songs on Star Search.

Historically, white pop artists, since Elvis and even Paul Whiteman before him, have had difficulty openly discussing the racial dynamics of popular music or its black musical heritage except when naming white influences in the same breath. Sometimes this lack of discussion brings to question whether or not these artists even realize the depth of that heritage. It seems that black people’s influence on white popular music often is not given much credit beyond what amounts to be a referenced footnote or sound byte summarizing the hundreds of years of struggle under white oppression it took for these influences to occur. The same ambiguity many of these “great white hopes” have in discussing the race issue reflects the ambiguity generally white audiences seem to have when relating to the more “black” influenced elements of popular music. Important to remember is that even the most white-sounding American popular music has blackness in the sense that pretty much anything with a backbeat on beats on 2 and 4 is black influenced (African).

Even on the occasion of recognizing black influences, it often seems white Americans are too quick to note how universal music is, conveniently disregarding how the specific struggles that contributed to these influences were far from universal. Just as we never hear “great white hopes” like Timberlake, Eminem, or Bieber discuss how race applies to their music or life, features and biopics like VH1’s Behind the Music and Inside Hollywood shy away from the issue as well. Instead, these shows focus on less taboo subjects that influence their music and movies – their intimate relationships, issues with parents, bad management. All the while, the public, especially young girls, excitedly awaits their white prince in shining black armor (or princes if it’s a boy band) to perform their black music for them.

Our hypocrisy may be hidden in our language, but not in our actions. These actions can be observed in how both white and black people enjoy black influenced popular music. Generally, average white people do not equally express their joy and feelings in hip hop or pop with the same skill level or conviction that Eminem, Timberlake, or most black people seem to. In fact it often seems that white people (with the exception of white novelty super athletic b-boys on dance competition shows/movies) change how they relate to black influenced pop music when in the presence of black people. This Uncle Tim behavior is commonly seen on television, movies and advertisements, when white people are shown shamelessly dancing (awkwardly) and singing along with every black American vernacular lyric in pop/hip hop music only to suddenly stop and be embarrassed when surrounded by one or a group of black people. Perfectly parodied examples of this are Andy Samberg’s Saturday Night Live musical skits, “Ras Trent” and “Shy Ronnie.” I commonly witness this dynamic at the many bar and bat mitzvahs I perform, where young white adolescents “wild out” in a joking and often spastic manner, especially when in the presence of their black friends, who contrastingly often dance more relaxed, skillfully, and rhythmically. It gives one pause to contemplate how conscious adolescents are about relating their personal “race” to the black music that has become so popular.

Instead of addressing this issue, popular media geared towards white youth seems to encourage these tendencies. On a January 7, 2009 episode of MTV’s Wild’N Out, a television show featuring Nick Cannon and a bunch of guest comedians, there was a skit featuring a few of the white comedians dressed in stereotypical hip hop attire performing an original rap called the “black” walk. The video basically made fun of white people who try to look, sound, and walk black. It’s classic white people making fun of how they relate to black influenced popular culture and music, politically correct humor at its finest.

The most interesting aspect about white comedians making fun of white people doing “black things” is that they end up looking like incredibly awkward caricatures so far removed from anything that looks “black.” I have never seen a black person walk the way that these white comedians claim is “black.” I don’t think white comedians or satirists are even aware of what they are making fun of. It seems to have come to a point when any silly looking movement a white person does to black music is a white person trying to be “black”, when in reality they aren’t coming anywhere close to a passable caricature. The difference between these white comedians and 19^th century minstrels is that instead of imitating stereotypically childlike black culture by dressing in blackface, these white people imitate stereotypically white soulful impotence by dressing in caps and jerseys. Interesting how just as black minstrels like Amos ‘n’ Andy were black performers who imitated white caricatures of black people, these white Uncle Tims seem to be the next imitation of an imitation, only this time the focus is the imitation of a white person imitating a black person, perhaps more accurately the imitation of a black person imitating a white person imitating a black person.

Speaking of comedic caricatures and white hopes, Justin Timberlake walks a very fine line between the two. At least to me, it is gets confusing whether he is supposed to be taken seriously or laughed at. It all seems to depend not upon on his material, but upon how he is being packaged at the moment. For example, one moment he is the white hope singing and getting down with all of the black producers everybody idolizes. The next moment he parodies white hopes like the Bee Gees, 90s white boy bands, appears in Andy Samberg’s white caricature SNL videos, and then turns around to help Jimmy Fallon on his Late Show shamelessly celebrate the mostly black history of hip hop. Arguably, over the past few years Timberlake has done more acting in movies and satirizing on television than writing/singing any chart topping hits. It would be interesting to know where Timberlake himself draws the line.

It would be interesting to hear Timberlake’s take on when he thinks his performance should be taken seriously versus when they should be laughed at. After seeing so many of his parodies on SNL, when he was featured on Timberland’s single Carry Out (2010), I wasn’t sure whether to take him seriously or not. Where does the joke begin and where does it end? Are the vocal falsetto runs supposed to be a parody of Barry Gibb, or is he really feeling it? Are his neck and shoulder movements supposed parodies of white wannabes or is it now supposedly legitimate “swag”? I guess for me it is personal, because these are hard questions for myself to answer and many people often think of me as funny before thinking I have serious dance or musical skill. I often need more than two minutes of rhythmic, soulful relentlessness to shake off all of the Uncle Tim white caricatures audiences are used to seeing in order to let them know I’m for real, I’m not joking, and I take this music very seriously – flamboyance and “smizing” included, thank you very much. I’m just wondering how Timberlake does it. It probably helps to have handlers, producers, and a whole industry to provide the proper contextual cues.

Within the context of giving back, it is surprising that “great white hopes” do not take more photo ops working with black youth in poorer communities. A PR person would think that in this day and age of being politically correct, giving back to the communities where so much of this musical heritage originates would not only legitimize these white artists’ talents, but also their patriotism. One would think these artists could afford the charity and use the tax write-offs. They could give a master class, a seminar, and inspire some children who don’t get many opportunities to be inspired especially by people of a different class and color. The very least these “great white hopes” could do is say thank you to the black community not only for embracing them but also for providing the history that has created the music they express and profit from. Imagine if one day, two page ads were taken out in the Rolling Stone, New York Times, Daily News, and The Post thanking the African-American community and promising payback, and then were signed by every living great white hope in soul music from Michael Bolton and Michael MacDonald to Bieber and Eminem. Imagine the kind of dialogue that would inspire, the pathways of communication that would open, not to mention the white guilt that would be released by such a simple action. How much more easily would such an action facilitate constructive dialogue about race and entitlement than silly white comedians with their sports caps, jerseys, doing modern day minstrel walks?

The reason why great white hopes do not contribute to a constructive dialogue about race or other divisions is because it goes against political correctness within an Uncle Tim system. Political correctness within an Uncle Tim system means giving lip service and flirting with racial equality and justice without really doing anything about it. This hopelessness is echoed all over popular culture. For example, in the ending of South Park’s episode, “My apologies to Jesse Jackson,” Stan finally says to Token, the only black kid: “Token, I get it now. I don’t get it. I’ve been trying to say that I understand how you feel but I’ll never understand. I’ll never really get how it feels for a black person to have somebody use the ‘n word’. I don’t get it!”

Token happily replies: “Now you get it Stan.”

Stan: “Yeah I totally don’t get it!”

Token: “Thank you.”

Cue ending credits.

This comic example of hopelessness and fashionable cynicism feeds the system in two ways. One, there is a sense that there is no way to equate any type of relative pain between black and white, that there is no hope of finding a universal human commonality to bridge the gap. Two, while Stan, the white kid, admits he cannot relate to the black kid, Token’s smugness (actually the smugness of South Park’s white writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone) leaves us with the impression that everything within the white experience (Stan) is completely relatable, that there is nothing within a white experience as mysteriously painful and exclusive, or can come as close to being a comparably red (or in this case black) badge of courage like hearing the “n-‘word” as a black person. While this morality seems to be progressive, it slickly perpetuates the same old Uncle Tim system that encourages visual symbols (like race) representing insurmountable separations— separations that cause anxiety, competition, and envy, which trigger the desire to consume various coping mechanisms the system is glad to provide either during commercial breaks or real life.

In order for a person to become a “great white hope,” they have to prove that they will not get in the way of these profitably divisive symbols. The rises of Timberlake and Eminem seem to point to two main vetting processes for proving worthiness. While both of these men are extremely talented, the symbols of their race seem to encourage, however temporary, fantasies that an equally accessible sensual utopia exists and that all material differences between black and white have been confronted and fully diffused.

While both artists perform and make “black music” rather well, showing the potential of such a utopia, they stay out of the system’s way by the things they leave unsaid, namely issues of BOTH race and class, the causes behind those issues, and their personal investment in them. What is left out in all of these great white hope’s stories, among other things, is an honest discussion about social chemistry with black friends, teachers, producers, and black artists within the same industry. What do their black friends and contemporaries really think about them becoming so successful singing and performing black music? The media never addresses these subtle but powerful social issues that keep white and black people forcefully smiling at each other and making polite conversation while some monetary or social exchange ensues – a pat on the back, and arm over a shoulder, a signing of a check, a crack of the whip. No, we never hear our great white hopes discuss these issues in the mainstream. The closest we get to is seeing images of Eminem doing rap battles in front of hostile black crowds taunting his artistic virility. Of course, he overcomes in true “great white hope” Hollywood fashion.

The first vetting system for crowning great white hopes is by keeping an eye on young talent that go through the ranks of Disney or any other kid television company (Nickelodeon, for example) Timberlake, many of his former boy band members, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Miley Cyrus, and the Jonas Brothers all had careers in Disney and Nickelodeon television before turning into pop icons and great white hopes. An artist steeped in the television tradition is less likely to make waves with big corporate interests, automatically learning how to play the game, saying the right things at the right time, and doing what they’re told. Also as a result of being raised in the climate of the cutthroat entertainment business, they also have a better chance to be fully consumed in their own ego distracting them from how the system uses them to turn profits.

The second vetting system for crowning a white hope, as in the case of Eminem, is by backing extremely talented, raw, edgy, and anti authoritarian artists ONLY if they are ALSO a walking soap opera, an unstable emotional train wreck waiting to happen. God bless her, Amy Winehouse was another example of such a great white hope. These are individuals who often come from very rough, poor, or abusive upbringings, who put their own urgency, fire, and rage into black soul music, and burn up everything around them in the process, going in and out of rehab, and often having tragic family and relationship disputes. As much as they have issues with the injustice in the world, they are often too consumed by their own issues to address the bigger picture. The system crowns these hopes as much for the potential gossip they will create, which make it on various news programs to keep people glued through commercial breaks, as their actual soulful talent.

A third vetting system, as in the instance of Justin Bieber, is YouTube. Just as “video killed the radio star,” many have noted how “YouTube has killed the video star.” Again, this is relative. Ultimately, it seems that the system in the form of big business is on the lookout for “white hopes” and anybody else that feeds into the profitable balance of “jokes, stereotypes, or novelties” to be sold to a dumbed down public. Evolution of Dance Guy is a stereotypical joke white hope. Bieber is a great white hope novelty in his ability to sing soul. Even an argument can be made that the Far East Movement’s “G6,” blew up on YouTube because of the novelty of Americanized hip hop influenced, tech saavy and fashionable young Asians Or is that a stereotype now? Other artists who “blow up,” and get record deals from YouTube are extreme stereotypes of their symbols, like Soulja Boy’s “Superman” who introduce the latest black urban vernacular, dance, and fad, or Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” the latest incarnation of sexually explorative ingénue eye candy. As mentioned before, the relative viral YouTube status of my own internet videos over the years hits are due to my novelty status as a funky dancing white trombone player. Just look on how many comments and posts mention me being a white guy.

Great white hopes exist not only in music and sports. White hopes are also people who comment and promote these stars, especially when they incorporate dancing and black music on their shows. Ellen Degeneres and her talk show is arguably one of the biggest promoters of white hope in media. Even a commercial for American Express, which features different successful and philanthropist Hollywood stars to promote its credit line, uses the image of Degeneres dancing with a caption underlying it reading “dance to the beat of your own drum.” As much as I feel Degeneres is a brilliant comedian, social commentator, observer, and helps many people on her show, the interpretations of how people dance on her show including herself are true testaments to the “emperor not wearing any clothes.” How many times is it going to take for the public to tire of seeing white people in business, politics, and Hollywood suck at dancing while Timberlake, Usher and president Obama become the unattainable dancing/singing ideal for “natural” soulful integrity?

Ellen and most of her non-musical guests are terrible dancers. This doesn’t make them bad people. Ellen is the perfect example of a white person who is so enthusiastic about dancing to black influenced pop music, that people are enamored with the enthusiasm and the almost scandalous idea of white people enjoying black music on national television without any “noticeable” embarrassment or shame. After all, it’s been a long time since Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, a show that used to feature many white people dancing for fun. It last aired in 1989, though and most likely could not compete with the more fashionable MTV. So with VH1, MTV, and BET, featuring well-directed, edited, and airbrushed images of sexuality in hip hop/pop videos with formally educated hip hop dancers, Ellen is one of the few shows on today that regularly features everyday average people dancing.

The issue that stares everyone directly in the face on Ellen is how differently and awkwardly white people generally dance from the minorities on that show. Since the dancing is featured as a sideshow, before any interviews happen, the dancing never becomes an issue for deeper discussion beyond noting it as novelty. How groundbreaking it would be if Ellen would dedicate a show to the deeper issues that influence the ways people dance that have made her show so welcoming, and comforting and non-judgmental. Perhaps the producers are afraid of just that – judgments, or even worse – realizations.

Maybe Ellen could discuss why people dance differently on her show than just showcase how. Instead, the show could focus on how race, culture, and sexuality affect the ways people move to music, this big un-discussable taboo issue which has made her show so popular. Maybe it is being a white lesbian that makes Ellen dance like a white man. Because of her glorified Uncle Tim abilities inside the body of a white lesbian woman, Ellen seems to enable and excuse the majority of white people, soulfully inferior and shamelessly out of touch with rhythm to people who are stereotypically more skilled – people of color. As inviting as the “great white hope’s” ignoring of these issues seem, in order to really claim being a champion for the people (the oppressed, the working class, LGBT, and any race) these issues– material, sensual, and ideological – need to be addressed openly to truly facilitate respect of everyone’s entitlement to do everything.

On a personal note, to fully include myself within the great white hope issue, there are many reasons that could be given as to why I haven’t gotten as famous or as much backing within the system as comparable to some of those mentioned above. Perhaps it’s just because I am a trombonist, a not very marketable instrument compared to guitars or singers. Maybe it’s because I’m not as handsome, charismatic, or young; maybe it’s simply because my vibe is not right. Maybe I’m just not as talented. Or maybe it’s because I’m too aware of my symbols, which scares the system and makes me off-putting, Maybe my awareness and desire to call out how the system works is destructive to those who support it so that nobody will let me talk for more than thirty seconds on camera. Maybe that’s why I’ve never been on Ellen. Maybe I’m too much of a radical, but not a marketable one like Lady Gaga or Eminem. I do not have enough issues to be both “soulful” AND a walking soap opera. I don’t have enough anti-authoritarian appeal as a drug addict, a promoter of violence, a fashionista, or a hypersexual icon to be gossip worthy. That’s okay. I’m writing this book to expiate my own demons and tell my story whether the system supports it or not. Besides sometimes we need to work through and expiate all our demons and delusions before we get to the truth anyway.

Don’t get me wrong. I am very grateful and humbled to find comfort in the music I play and dance to, to find my escape, my refuge, my platform, my expression, all of which is worth more than the largest mansion or the ability to go to the most exclusive parties. I’m just grateful to be able to pay my bills, while the feeling of music – the rhythm, the tonality, and its rituals – gives me all the recognition and self worth I need. I’m prepared to admit after all is said and done that all of these theories and observations are only in my head as a result of me trying to deal with not being as materially successful as I wanted or thought I would be. But what if it’s not all in my head? Ultimately, perhaps I have not become a “great white hope,” like so many have expected, because I would rather stand up for something greater.

Related show

• Artist: Jonathan Arons
• Date: Saturday, February 25th 2012
• Time: 1:00pm
• City: Jonathan Arons in NYC, NY
• Venue: Columbia Social Cafe
• Address: 4009 Broadway, NYC, NY 10032
• Country: United States
• Notes: Singing and playing Jazz standards and show tunes for Saturday brunch! Come on out. The french toast is amazing!
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