Iiimusictherapyjuly2012

Music Therapy Case Studies III

KUIS

July 2012

Case Histories from “The Importance of Music and Song” Class Slightly Edited and Introduction by Tim Murphey This book belongs to___________________________

Music Therapy Case Studies Spring 2012 KUIS

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Š Kitakai Press Kanda University of Foreign Studies

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Music Therapy Case Studies Spring 2012 KUIS

Musical Therapy through Affirmation Songs The experiences of 28 students at KUIS June 2012 Table of Contents

Introduction 1) Yumi Kataoka: 2) Hiroka Tanaka: 3) Eisuke Murakawa: 4) Shiori Enomoto: 5) Suzune Fujisawa: 6) Yukina Koge: 7) Saori Kuriyama: 8) John Kato 9) Misaki Komatsubara: 10) Chihiro Mitsuhashi: 11) Yohei Tsutsui: 12) Ayano Yokohara: 13) Misaki Kudo 14) Natsuki Ito 15) Yukimi Katsura 16) Teppei Shimogawa 17) Kohei Obata: 18) Yurika Shimizu: 19) Yuki Okada: 20) Chiharu Takimoto: 21) Shiori Hiroshima: 22) Hinata Tokuyama: 23) Asami Ito: 24) Moe Saso: 25) Shigemichi Nakajima: 26) Akiko Gonda: 27) Misaki Kamoda: 28) Mayuko Kimura: Appendices:

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Assignment Sheet / Affirmation Song Handout for Teachers

Kanda University of Foreign Studies

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Music Therapy Case Studies Spring 2012 KUIS

Introduction To Some

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Amazing Case Studies

Tim Murphey, (July 26, 2012 Kaihin Makuhari) I am very proud of these students of mine!

In every class, they gave their best effort to learn new songs and information about the benefits of music and song, how songs work, linguistically, socially, neurologically, and emotionally. Then they took this information, energy, and enthusiasm and went out and changed other people by asking them simply if they could teach them a song – free music therapy in action! They dared to teach grandmothers, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, best friends, classmates, and in some cases the depressed in need of help. Because my students truly wanted to help people be happier, more relaxed, and healthy they dared to spend 15 to 45 minutes initially teaching an affirmation song and following it up with repetitive reinforcement and feedback over a period of days.

Because they were convinced from their studies and experience that songs might help people, they dared to sing with them. If it would have ended here, that would have been enough, but that is not all that happened.

As you read these case studies, you will see that many deepened their relationships with family and friends, many gave the gift of agency (control over one’s feelings) to their partners, many learned valuable lessons about teaching and how to match the student and get into rapport with them.

I have learned that giving valuable things to students to teach to others outside the class is indeed a very valuable activity and I will do more of it in the future.

My research group (Nena Nikolic, Tara McIlroy, and Shelley Wright) started to call these Portable Extended and Embodied Self Sourcing (PEESS). When what they are learning is truly valuable, then why keep it in our schools? Set it free, and let it go, let it grow. I thank them for teaching me and learning with me.

My mirror neurons are firing and crying with awe!

[N.B.; All the affirmation songs mentioned are in the appendix at the end of the booklet!]

Kanda University of Foreign Studies

Music Therapy Case Studies

1) Yumi Kataoka:* Song Teaching Case Study I chose my mother, Mieko. The reason why I chose her was that she likes singing songs. I chose “the 5 ways to happiness”, because I thought that this song’s lyrics were easy words and when we sing this song, we use gestures, so it’s easy to remember the song lines. Also, it’s more enjoyable because of gestures.

I taught her “the 5 ways to happiness” for the first time on May 28 at 4:40 pm in the living room. Before I taught her, she seemed to be interested.

First, I explained to her about affirmations and how this song affects us. She understood soon. I said the song lines in English. Next, I translated the song lines into Japanese and I wrote the song lines both in English and Japanese on a paper, and then I taught gestures of each line. After I taught one line with gestures, she repeated after me with gestures. She memorized and practiced by herself about 30 minutes. She said that “I already memorized this song”,

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so I said to her “sing it without looking at the paper.”

She could do all song lines’ gestures and understand almost of all Japanese meanings but she couldn’t say the song lines in English. I taught English song lines again.

We sang this song together several times. She checked the paper and started memorizing and practicing with gestures by herself while looking at the paper again for about 20 minutes. By the end of the day, she had learned“the 5 ways to happiness.” I thought that she enjoyed singing this song with gestures. Also, she seemed to be happier while she was singing this song. I also could enjoy teaching this song. The next day, I asked her “What are the 5 ways to happiness?” She couldn’t sing it all in English. It was difficult for her to remember this song in English in only one day. I thought that memorizing English was a pressure for her, so I said to her “sing with gestures and it is OK to look at the paper.” She seemed to be reassured. She sang this song happily. She seemed to be happier than before.

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After doing this case study, I asked her about this song. She answered “I thought that singing a song in English was difficult at first but this song had gestures, so I could enjoy singing it and I want to sing other affirmation songs if I have the opportunity.” I was happy to hear this.

It was good that I could teach an English song and help to make her happier. I would like to teach other people affirmation songs.

2) Hiroka Tanaka: Song Teaching Case Study I taught the “What do you like” song to my co-workers because this song is one of my favorite songs. My coworkers occasionally ask me about English and they try to get me speaking in English for their use in work. I believe this song has a lot of positive energy with delightful phrases. I guess that praise has good effects on everyone and all of the phrases

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in the “What do you like?” song make people happy. That is why I love to sing this song to myself and I wanted to share this song with my friends.

On March 26th, I began talking about “What do you like?” song when we were on our way home from work.

When they listened to this song at first, they did not understand the meaning of the lyrics and also they laughed at the melody and rhythm of it. That atmosphere made me feel good to share the song with them and I sang it a number of times to let them remember the melody. Before that, they copied my singing and we sang the song together a couple of times even if they did not know the meaning of lyrics yet. At that time, we just enjoyed singing the melody but it was such a good time for us. We laughed a lot. And then they gradually found out the words in the song by themselves and understood the meaning mostly.

I only taught about “the way you do your hair.” Finally, we sang the song together perfectly. I’m not sure that singing together is a good method to learn English or not

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but it definitely makes us feel happy. On June 9th, I asked them about the song again. At that time, they didn’t remember the song totally but after I sang the melody to them, they were reminded. We could sing the song together again. It was also really fun!

To tell the truth, I’m not good at teaching and like to do things together with my friends. Therefore I wanted to sing the song and have fun only at this time. However this experience could create a good mood and teach my coworkers some English words. This experience let me think that there are many ways to teach or learn new things. If I have a chance, I would like to share more songs with my friends more.

3) Eisuke Murakawa: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my mother who is 55 years old. She works at a clothing store. Recently, our economy is in recession. So, I think it is a difficult time to sell

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clothes. However, she has to sell them to contribute to her company and she always says “today’s proceeds were not good.” So, I decided to teach her “5 ways to happiness” in order to make her cheerful.

She doesn’t know English at all but she likes foreign music such as Beatles, Eagles and ABBA. I thought that although she can’t understand English, she must like it.

At first, I told her what an affirmation song was. Then I taught her the lyrics. But she could not understand what I said. So I tried to sing once. So, I sang a melody. After that, she could remember the song’s melody easily. I thought she liked the music. She said “It’s easy to remember and love this song”. Moreover, her singing was good. It surprised me. Two days later, I asked her “What are the 5 ways to happiness”.

However, she could not remember all of things about song. So, I tried to teach her what is “5 ways to happiness” completely from the beginning and she could remember her previous day. Then, I asked her to sing the song again and she only sang melody of the song

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completely. I thought the problem was remembering the lyrics. So, in this time, I taught her the song with using the body again. When I was teaching, she seemed embarrassed. Few days later, I asked her same question.

Finally, she could sing the song completely and said, “ I want to learn more songs.”

I learned a lot of things and found that teaching is difficult.

Though my mother had interest in English music at this time, I don’t know how to motivate people who are not motivated.

If I were to teach this song again, I would to try teach such a person. I will try to teach my mother other affirmation songs.

4) Shiori Enomoto: Song Teaching Case Study I chose “What do you love?” to teach. I taught this to my mother. Her name is Michiyo. I chose because I wanted her to be happy.

Moreover I like this song. I manage my stress by singing it,

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so I selected “What do you love?” for this time. I sang with my mother three times.

First day, I taught content and meaning to my mother. My mother didn’t understand meaning of interacting, so I taught meaning by using dictionary. After that, she could know clearly. I looked over the lyrics with her a few times. She had a question about the laughing part, for example, “Ha ha ha ha, Ho ho ho ho”. Next I sang the song again and explained it to her satisfaction. After that we sang together. I tried singing slowly first because I wanted her to understand easily. First I sang “I love us playing”. She repeated the same line. Next I sang, “I love us singing songs”.

She repeated the same line the same way as with the first line.

Laughing part was too embarrassing to sing at class.

However I didn’t feel embarrassed at home with my mother. Rather I enjoyed singing it with her. She sang smoothly. Her singing was good. That went beyond my imagination. This day I taught her five times.

The second day, I asked

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her “Do you remember the song that I taught you?” She answered, “I forgot it”. So I taught again the same way as the first day. When I sang a little, she looked like she remembered the song. So I asked again. She said, “I don’t have confidence, but I remember a little”. That is why I decided to sing with her slowly.

After she got used to singing this song, I sang faster than before, little by little. She said, “It is fun”. I became happy because I could hear her positive feedback.

The third day, my mother and I sang together without teaching. Moreover she sang alone. It was very surprising!

She enjoyed singing. Also I sang with joy. I asked, “Did you enjoy this experiment?” She answered “Yes, of course”. I asked, “Are you interested in English more”. She said, “Yes, you are taking interesting class, aren’t you”. I was very happy to hear that. I think teaching was difficult, but was good to sing with my mother. We could share a lovely time by singing “What do you love”. I appreciate my mother.

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5) Suzune Fujisawa: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my young sister.

She is 2-years younger than me. In fact, she isn’t interested in English. She doesn’t like to study at all. So I chose the shortest one, ‘How are you?’

And also my sister and I have been practicing Baton twirling for 10 years. We have used Mary Poppins’ song before. So she already knew the melody.

So I chose it.

I first taught my sister on May 28th for about 15 minutes. We were sitting in a living room. She seemed not to be interested. But I taught ‘Super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious’. It was easy to remember the melody. But she didn’t understand the meaning of ‘prodigious’. So she was confused. Of course I taught the meaning of it.

Next day on May 29th, I asked ‘How are you?’ for her.

She only memorized ‘Super happy ’. So I taught again and again. When she was

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memorizing, I was beating time with my hands. She imitated me. I thought this is the best way to memorize. This day I taught for her about 20 minutes.

But she seemed to be interested.

On May 30th, I asked ‘How are you?’ again. She answered, ‘Super happy optimistic joyful and..’. She couldn’t say ‘prodigious’. When she said, she beat her hands. I thought using body is good influence for us to memorize something. When she was memorizing, I watched her.

She gradually memorized all the words. She sometimes could say ‘Super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious’.

On May 31th, I asked ‘How are you?’ again. She said, ’Super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious’! She was surprised and she smiled. Also I was surprised. She memorized in about 3 days.

But I taught just an hour. Finally she seemed to be happy and enjoyable.

This experience was so interesting and enjoyable for me. First, she seems to be not interested about this research.

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But she gradually seems to be interested. And finally she could memorize a whole routine. Through teaching this song, I thought that when we memorize something, we should use our body. And also it’s important for us to use rhythm. When my sister used her hands, she really memorized. Still now she can say ‘Super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious’ and she can learn the meaning of ‘prodigious’. I think music makes us happy and smart. If I have an opportunity to do this, I want to do it with other people!

6) Yukina Koge: Song Teaching Case Study So far this semester, we have studied many things about how music effects physically and mentally aspect when we sing a song. Because of this, I’m interested in studying about music effects.

So, I decided to teach one of these songs which I learned, I chose “super happy optimistic

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joyful and prodigious” to teach for my mother. Actually, she works hard at a part-time job, she has no time to go to a favorite place like a Yoga class after finishing her part-time job. she has to teach about many subjects to my younger brother to enter high-level high school.

Since it is shorter than other songs, I believe my mother can remember this song easily.

When I called to my mother last weekend, I explained that singing a song makes her positive. In addition to this, I recommended to sing a song during her break. On the other hand, she said,” I’m not sure to sing a song every day. Because I ‘m tired of working at my part-time job everyday and I may forget to sing the song.” Although she said that at first, she asked to sing a song slowly to take a note precisely.

After a week, I decided to call her again and ask how things were. At the beginning of our talk, I thought she didn’t try to sing the song. Because our chatting was the same as usual.

But, then, she said suddenly “I can change my own mind by singing a song a little bit. I try to

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change my mind positively more from now. Thank you for your teaching! Please teach me more when I can spare time.” I was very happy to contribute to reduce her stress with this song. It is difficult to remember all of the songs that I learned at Tim’s class. In retrospect I think it would have been better if I had taught about these songs more. And, I’d like to teach more songs little by little to her.

In conclusion, when we sing a song that includes happiness and meaningfulness, people tend to create positive thinking as above. Of course, many people commute to school or work at part-time job like me. Because of this, it is not easy to remove stress easily. But, I believe they can sing a song during break time. I think singing a song is a tool to give good effects for mental and physical health. I will try to sing a song whenever I can.

Music Therapy Case Studies

7) Saori Kuriyama: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my younger sister, Miho who is 15 years old and is a high school student.

She entered high school this year, so she has some difficulties about studying, club activity and relationships with new friends. Therefore, she is recently under stress and is annoyed. I want her to be happier and healthier with an affirmation song. That is the reason why I chose my sister to teach. The song I chose is “The five ways to happiness”. It is because this song taught me some easy ways to be refreshed and relaxed. The five ways are easy to do, and song lines are easy to memorize.

Miho is busy for study, so I do not want her to feel anxious. I think “The five ways to happiness” is suitable for her, so I decided to teach this song.

I first taught her on May 25 at night in my room. At first, she was not interested in an English song. Moreover, she did not seem to want to sing in

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English. Therefore, I tried to teach her the meaning of this song in Japanese. She could understand what the song means. Then I told her to move her body. I told her, “smile!” in Japanese and she smiled. We finished the first time. Next day she had much homework, so we spend only 5 minutes to sing. She could memorize half of the song with gestures as we sang together. Next day, she seemed to be annoyed. I did not want to talk to her, but I said, “Smile and breathe in deep!” She told me that she want to get her mind off study. I suggested singing “The five ways to happiness.” That day she memorized all lines in English. We sang together with gesture and laughed together. I did not ask if her she could enjoy this activity or not.

However, I thought she could forget her difficulties while she sang.

After I taught the affirmation song, I think my sister got rid of her stress. I often tell her “smile and breathe in deep” when she feels stress. I want to help my sister to relax. I was a little embarrassed to speak English

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at home because I have never spoken English with my family before teaching the affirmation song. However, it was a good opportunity for me to learn how to teach English to a person who does not speak English usually. I think also that it was good for my sister to learn different English than what she studies at high school. If I have an opportunity in the future, I want to teach songs to my mother and my other younger sister.

8) John Kato Song Teaching Case Study I chose my friend who is a freshmen student and who I have known for almost 2 months. Her name is Rina and we are always going to school together by bicycle because we take the same path. I chose the “Super Happy Optimistic Joyful and Prodigious” for her because I thought that it is the easiest affirmation song for a freshman student and the

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melody is easy to stick in our mind. Actually, I really wanted to teach the “Are you young” because this is one of my favorite songs but it is too long to remember for her.

I first taught Rina on May 24, Thursday in the morning when we are going to school by bicycle for 20 minutes. At first, Rina was not my first target to teach affirmation song but when I am singing “Super Happy Optimistic Joyful and Prodigious”, she heard the song I sang and she seemed to want to learn the song. So I sang to her twice and she repeated after me and sang for 3 more times. The problem was it was hard for her to pronounce the word “Optimistic” and “Prodigious”. I taught her the pronunciation of the two words but still she could not pronounce it correctly.

We pronounced the words together many times and when we arrived at the school, finally there was progress on it.

Then, I said to her that I will ask her to sing the song after 2 days and she asked me why. I explained to her the reasons and she asked also what the meaning of the song

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is. I wanted her to memorize the song and melody so I said that if she memorizes the song within 2 days, I promised to her to tell the meaning of the song.

Two days after teaching the song, when we were riding a bicycle going to school, I asked her if she remember the song. Then she started to sing the song perfectly. I was really surprised about it so I felt joy and I smiled at her. As my promise, I told to her the meaning of the song and she said to me that when she was practicing the song she felt that she knew the meaning by herself by singing the song because she felt happiness when she was singing the song.

Through this activity, I noticed that teaching a song is really enjoyable when I knew that the person who I taught is enjoying singing the song. I want to try again to teach a song to other people and teach how happy it is to sing a song.

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9) Misaki Komatsubara: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my friend at KUIS Saori who was in the same class with me when we were freshman. I taught her the song “How are you?” I thought we can use this song by way of greeting, and also this is my favorite song, so I chose this song for her.

I first taught Saori the song “How are you?” on May 22 for about 15 minutes when we were eating lunch at KUIS. When I asked her to cooperate with my task and explained about affirmation songs, she was very interested in it and seemed to want to learn. So I felt relieved and started to teach. First, I gave her the lyrics, and asked her to repeat after me. Then we sang the song together. She had trouble with the pronunciation of “optimistic” and “prodigious”, but soon she remembered the words with the rhythm of the song and finally she could sing the song without looking at the notes. I thought she was a

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good leaner. However, when I learned this song for the first time in this class, I forgot it in the next class. So I told her to practice remembering it whenever she wanted. She said she would try.

Two days later, I met her at lunch time so I asked her “How are you?” immediately. She looked surprised but she responded my question. At that time, she couldn’t say the word “prodigious”, so I taught her again. The next day, we took the same class so I met her. I asked her “How are you?” by way of greeting. Then she smiled and she could sing the song perfectly. I asked her how she felt learning the affirmation song. She said, “At first, I tried to remember this song to cooperate your task. However, I found that when I answered your question, I was pleased and I enjoyed singing this song very much!” To hear her words, I felt very happy.

After teaching an affirmation song, I thought this experience was very useful for me. It was a little bit difficult for me to teach someone an English song, but this experience gave me

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confidence. Above all, I was glad that I could make my friend happy and positive. I leaned that affirmation songs truly bring people smiles. If I have a chance, I would like to teach affirmation songs to my family.

10) Chihiro Mitsuhashi: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my younger sister to teach. She is 17 years old and 3rd year of a high school and we live together. The reason why I chose her for this study is she is becoming interested in studying English recently. Sometimes she shows me her answer sheets of tests of English class, so I thought she can like English more through singing English songs.

I chose “How are you?”

It is simple and also this is the first song that I learned in class so I thought this song is the best to teach to my sister. I did this study May 28th, after a dinner, about 20 minutes. At first, I sang the whole song very

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slowly. Then, we sang together three or four times. After that I said you can sing alone, and she tried to sing alone.

However, she couldn’t sing alone. She said pronunciation of the English is very difficult for her when she is singing.

Especially, “prodigious” is the most difficult because she had never heard this word.

Therefore, I pronounced all the words slowly and she repeated the words.

We did this about five times, and we sang together two times. Finally, my sister could sing this song alone! She said she wants to know the meaning of the words, so I explain about it. She looked pleased it and sang it many times. She said she wanted to know more song, so I taught another one. It is “How do you have a good Life?” It is because the song is my favorite one and sometimes I sing the song out of the class unconsciously. This song is a little bit longer than “How are you?” so she could not memorize it easily, but she enjoyed singing. She said she likes this song very much because the words are positive,

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and also the melody is funny. I like this song for the same reasons, so I thought we are similar.

Through this study, I learned many things. Teaching songs is really fun, but it is also difficult. I had to pronounce the words carefully. However, this experience was really precious for me because I could use English in my home and I could communicate with my younger sister through this study.

Moreover, singing songs made us happy and fun. I thought my sister came to like English and singing more and more. I want to teach these songs when I want to cheer someone.

11) Yohei Tsutsui: Song Teaching Case Study I taught “Super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious” to my little sister Misaki. The reason why I chose this phrase was I thought this phrase was easy to remember, because this phrase is not so long. And this phrase makes us happy when we say it.

My sister is a junior high school student and 14 years

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old. She often studies each subject. She is good at math and Japanese, but she is not good at English. So, I wanted her to be interested in English and to like it. I told her to repeat what I said. I said “ super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious” to her. At first she listened to the phrase, she couldn’t understand and catch it. So, I said the phrase a few times with normal speed. As I said it a few times, she gradually was able to say the form of the phrase.

However she still didn’t say it perfectly. Next, I taught her it with using chunks. I pronounced each word like “super”, “happy”, “optimistic”, “joyful” “and prodigious” separately. She improved when she just listened to it. But it was not still good.

“Optimistic” and “ prodigious” are difficult for her to pronounce. I tried writing the phrase to have her remember it easily. And I let her say it many times. Then she got to be able to say it smoothly. Lastly, I asked “How are you?” sometimes to check whether she remembered it or not.

Finally, she could say it without

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looking at the words.

Through this work, I learned the point when we teach something. I found using chunks is most useful. She couldn’t say it when I taught with only my voice. However, after I taught it with using chunks, she could say it better than before.

And I also found it is better to show the letters after saying the phrase, because the person who are taught it thinks how the phrase spell when he or she listen to only voice. So, when the person sees the spelling he or she can get a big impact. That’s why to remember will be easy. There is one thing I was glad when I was teaching it to her. It is that she looked like she was enjoying studying English. She tried hard to remember the phrase.

I’m thinking about becoming a teacher. If I became a teacher, I want to try this way.

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12) Ayano Yokohara: Song Teaching Case Study For my therapy case study I chose my mother Yumiko.

She is 50 years old and loves to sing a song. Whenever she is doing something for example, doing laundry or washing dishes she sings and hums songs. Usually, she sings Japanese songs but she does know little bit of English so I thought there would be no problem. Therefore, I thought that she would be the perfect one to do this case study with.

The song that I taught her is “How are you?” I thought that the song “Supercali-fragil-listic -expi-ali-docious” is a very catchy phrase and is easy to remember.

First I sang the song line for her and explained the meaning of each word. I used the 5 strategies (chunk/back formation/rhythm/song/use it or lose it) to teach her the phrase.

At first, she said that the song is like a tongue twister because the rhythm was very fast. So I suggested to first sing it slowly

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and then when you get used to it start singing faster and faster.

The next day, when I asked her “How are you?” She said “Not yet.” It made me laugh because I felt and noticed that she was enjoying it.

Also, when I was helping her with cooking, she hummed the rhythm and started singing. We sang the line together and it was very fun. My sister came and asked us what we were doing and we said, “How are you?” to her. Of course my sister did not understand what we were talking about but we all laughed together. A few days later when I asked her “How are you?” she answered “Super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious” without stopping. She said that working and doing housework makes her very tired, but whenever she was tired she sang the song to herself and thought that she was super happy.

She said that it sometimes made her feel well and increased her energy. It was just like the article that I learned in TIOMAS. It made her feelings happier and also increased her energy. When she told me about this I was

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really surprised. She also said that she asked her colleagues the question and taught the answer too. When she was talking about this story her face was shining and it also made me feel happy too. From this case study, in my case both the tester and the testee became happy.

13) Misaki Kudo Song Teaching Case Study I chose the song, “I’m super happy, optimistic, joyful and prodigious”. This is the first song I learned in class. I like this song very much because I could have this feeling even if I’m not very happy. In addition, this song is very catchy and shorter than other songs I learned. I think it’s easy for KUIS students to remember long songs because they tend to be interested in things related to English. However, I wanted to teach to a person who is not a KUIS student because I wanted to know whether English music is effective to people who are not

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interested in English or other languages. I think they maybe hesitate to sing an English song because they are related to English less than KUIS students in their daily life.

I taught the song to my friend, from elementary school.

She is in another university now and she doesn’t major in English or other languages.

She said English is hardly related to her campus life.

At first, she said, “What is it? Song? What does it mean?”

I taught it and explained the meaning of words. Then, she said, “Ah…It is interesting! But I don’t like English. I guess I will forget it.” I know she doesn’t like English and has no interest for English. However, I wanted her to know good meaning of this song, especially “optimistic”. I really like this word. I decided to try to use the word in casual conversation with her. In addition, when I asked in mail “Are you super happy, optimistic, joyful and prodigious?”, she answered “Yeah, I’m super happy, optimistic, joyful and prodigious!” Actually, this was effective way to remember.

She remembered the song and

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now she likes the word ”optimistic” as well as me.

She also said that she can answer without using “I’m fine” if she is asked, “how are you?”

I laughed at that.

Through the experience, I found that song is contagious to people even if they are not interested in English. It helps them remember because it is catchy. I think my friend will never forget the song, at least the melody. Music can be learned and appreciated by people of all kinds.

14) Natsuki Ito Music Therapy Case Studies For this study, I chose my friend Yuri who belongs to the Chinese department in KUIS. Why I chose her is because I knew that she really wants to improve her English skills in addition to Chinese, but she worries that Chinese department has less opportunities to learn English.

So when Tim told us to do this activity, I realized that this was

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a good chance for my friend to learn English by using song.

Her biggest worry of English study is vocabulary and listening. Taking this into consideration, I decided to teach her “How do you write?” because I think this song is the easiest to hear and to remember.

First we did was a dictation as we do in the class during the lunch break. At that time I sang “How do you write?” in a normal speed. She seemed to know the melody so she was able to dictate all of them except the third song line, “I make it up as I go along”.

After that, I sang the song in a slower speed and she could catch all of the song lines. At that time, Yuri asked me, “What do you mean ‘my pen is writing me’? Isn’t it strange?” So, I explained the meaning of the song. After I explained it, she understood the meaning. When we finished the process, I asked her whether the song was difficult for her or not. She answered that it wasn’t difficult because she could understand the words with the melody.

In fact, we are in the same team of the KUIS

Music Therapy Case Studies

volleyball club and we practice every Wednesday and Friday, so we used the short break in the practice for the next step, repeating and memorizing. As we had a short break, I always asked her “how do we write?”

At the first time, she needed to have a time to recall the song line so she couldn’t answer immediately. However, as I kept asking “How do you write?” she gradually came to answer instantly. At last, she mastered this song in a week.

She gave me a comment like this, “This was the first time for me to learn English with songs. At the first time, I felt that this activity is going to be difficult for me because I’m bad at English listening. However, the song we mastered is a familiar tune so it was relatively easy to listen to the music more than I had expected. I realized that using song is effective to memorize vocabulary. I want to utilize this strategy for learning Chinese!”

I was pleased to hear that and I think this activity was a good time for her to learn English. One thing that I learned is “Song stuck in my

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head phenomena” is true! And this learning process can be used in learning not only English but also other languages.

15) Yukimi Katsura Song Teaching Case Study I taught my mother about “Super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious” because it is easy to remember. My mother, who is 52 years old, does not know English at all, so it was difficult to teach her. We also use “Super” and “Happy” in our daily life so it was easy for her to remember, but “optimistic” was a problem for her.

Probably she has never heard that word before and of course she does not know the meaning of it, so she gave up saying it. I tried to teach her again after that but she did not say it seriously. Then I thought I needed to think of something for her and I deliberated one night.

When I was thinking about that, suddenly I came up with an idea that I needed a rhythm because we remembered lyrics

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with music in the class. Next day, I taught her it with clapping hands again. She shook her head with this rhythm and started humming it. I thought this was the best way to teach her. I continued this for a few days and she always hummed it but did not remember the words. I deliberated again why she could not remember the words.

Then I remembered that we learned the way to remember easily in the class. I decided to use “chunk” because Tim said to us that to chunk the sentence is easy to remember. I tried to use it next day, and I chunked it with a clap like “super, happy, opti, mistic, joyful, and, pro, digious”.

She remembered “optimistic” with this way and she started to remember rapidly from then on.

Probably she was interested in this rhythm and she was happy because she could say English words even though she cannot speak English. She started to sing it while doing housework. She was proud of it. It taught me that how music is important to remember and it affects not only those who can speak

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English but also those who do not know English even though it is English. I want to teach someone who wants to speak English and tell them that “using music is important. You can remember English phrases easily and it helps your studying.”

16) Teppei Shimogawa Song Teaching Case Study First I decided the person quickly who I would introduce to my favorite song. It is my little sister Chikaho. She also majors in English at university. Actually, she is a student of KUIS. Now she is a second grader. The reason why I chose her is she can understand English songs easily.

At first, she rejected my offer. She said, “Now I'm so busy and I have no time to help your homework.” Involuntarily I found my mother and asked, “Could you help my homework mom?” As expected, her

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answer was “NO”. She rejected my offer strongly. And my mother said, “Chikaho! You learn English, right? Why you reject the chance to improve your English skill? You should help your brother!” Thanks to my mother's unexpected help, I could get my partner.

I chose the song “Young & Strong”. I think it is the best one to introduce because actually “Super happy optimistic...” is the easiest one to teach but it's too short. So, I judged the song “Young & strong” is better.

Also I wanted to let my sister yell out “I'm in love!!” somewhere as we were asked to do as part of our homework after learning the song.

For the first time, I sang the song in front of my sister: “I'm young and strong and beautiful” “I'm living an adventure” “The world is so fascinating” “It makes me wanna cry” To this part, I could sing well and smoothly. However, as soon as I started to sing the part that “I wanna cry~”, my sister suddenly burst into

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laughter. In this part I have to sing falsetto and it is too funny to repress laughing for her.

“I wanna cry to the world” “I wanna fly all around” “I wanna tell everybody” “I'm in love I'm in love” “I'm in love I'm in love” “I'm in love I'm in love” “I wanna tell everybody” “I'm in love” I finished singing the song with patience at my sister's laughing. I passed my lyric sheet for her. Surprisingly, she mastered almost all parts of the song. I realized the power of singing. After she mastered the song, we sang the song together. It will become one of my funny memories. However, my sister forgot this song because I taught it to her just once. In the next day she couldn't sing it. Then, I really felt the importance to sing repeatedly. So I taught her again by singing with her. From that day I sang this song to her every time when I met her even if at the university or in her room. Because of my strenuous effort, now she mastered this song completely.

If there is another chance, I want to teach another song for

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example “Make New Friends.”

17) Kohei Obata: Song Teaching Case Study I taught “super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious” to my parents who are 50 years old.. My parents are, of course, Japanese, but they are interested in English, so I decided to teach them. The reason why I chose this song was it makes us happy, and it is easy and fun for my parents who are not good at English.

Moreover I wanted them to know the song’s melody and meaning.

I taught them “super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious” when they said to me “please, say something in English”. So I taught them they should answer “super happy~” when they are asked, “how are you?” they didn’t understand what I said. After that, I taught the meaning of this song in Japanese and then I sang this song with melody. At the beginning, they couldn’t sing

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well. So I let them shadow.

Moreover I explained the lyrics of this song. They practiced this song again and again. Two weeks later, they memorized this song completely. They said to me “I love this song.” In today’s environment, they could answer quickly. Every morning, I asked, “How are you?” they answered this phrase with the melody. Their answers were getting better and better.

Through this experience, I learned that teaching affirmation song was very fun and I could learn hints about how to teach English to those who are not good at English. I often cared about speaking speed and using gestures.

They said using gestures was useful! I would like to teach other songs that I learned in this class.

Moreover, I learned from this experience that the power of the music has very good effect for us. In my case, I don’t say “good morning” every day to my parents. However, through this experience, we talk not only this song but also many other topics, for example, accident at school, my friends

Music Therapy Case Studies

and English music. Singing a song makes us better. My parents said to me “when we sing this song, we think we do our best!! My future is to be an English teacher. I learned that the importance of music, so if I can become an English teacher, I want to teach many songs to my students with the meanings of the songs. I want my students to enjoy English! For that, I will teach all songs which I learned in this class.

18) Yurika Shimizu: Song Teaching Case Study I decided to teach my younger brother. My brother is a high school student third year. He can study English like grammar, but he cannot pronounce English well. I thought I wanted to teach him a song because it is good for him to learn some pronunciations, so I taught him “If I said “How are you?” you have to answer “super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious”. First, he was confused and he said “I cannot memorize all words.” I taught him the meaning of the

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words in Japanese and the melody. After that, he tried to do shadowing, but he could not pronounce “optimistic” and “prodigious”. We have time only night because he has club activity, so I decided to teach every night at home.

Next day, I taught him again.

However he forgot all words. I tried to teach again. I thought he could remember better than yesterday. I wanted to try next day, too. However he remembered only “super happy” and also he said “I will have a test, so I cannot continue to memorize it.” I could not say anything to him, so I finished teaching.

On the other hand, I wanted to try to teach another person who is my friend. He is a KUIS student and he is the same grade. He is studying English very hard, but also he also likes “grammar” so I taught him “How are you?” at first. He could understand easily, but he asked me the meaning of “prodigious”, so I answered in Japanese he said “I did not understand about prodigious, but I knew now and I felt easy to memorize it before.” Next day, I asked him

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“How are you?” he could answer all words, so I tried to teach, “What’s the weather like?” Of course, I taught song and gesture, too. He said, “It is interesting and gesture is good way to remember easily.”

During this activity, I could know using song and gesture is good way to memorize words, but it depends on their English skill.

If I teach my brother next time, I want to make an easier song line for him. In addition, I think this activity is good for children who study English for the first time, so I want to try to teach my cousins (they are about 6 to 10 years old) someday.

19) Yuki Okada: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my friend Shizuka who is a student of English department to teach.

The reason I chose her is because she likes singing. She doesn’t sing in front of someone, but I know she often hums some kinds of songs.

When I talked about music

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therapy, she looked embarrassed because she didn’t used to sing in front of someone. However, after I explained that she doesn’t have to sing in front of someone but I just teach a song to her and she studies that song, she accepted my asking. The song I chose was “What do you like?” because the music “Oh Susanna” is familiar and I thought Shizuka also knows this song. When I asked her whether she knows “Oh Susanna”, she answered “no.” But when I tried singing this melody, she could understand it. The familiar song helps her to remember easier, I think.

Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time to meet each other because we are both senior students. It means that there are a few days she has classes and comes to KUIS. We could meet only twice a week. Then, I asked and started teaching on the first day (May 21st). The other reason I chose “What do you like?” is that it’s easy to memorize songs with pointing at things.

Shizuka could memorize “I like your shirt, I like your pants, I

Music Therapy Case Studies

like your shoes and socks” immediately, but it looked a little hard to memorize after “shoes and socks.” She told me that shirts, pants, shoes and socks are the order that top to bottom, but “I like the way you do your hair” returns the top of the body, so she got confused.

I was also confused this part when I learned this song. When I memorize this part, I sang again and again. It was easy to sing because I know “Oh Susanna.” So, I and Shizuka sang a few times together. The next time we met on May 24th, she could completely sing “what do you like?” by herself.

And then, we sang together when we met in next week. I thought she looked enjoying singing. She told me “it was interesting, and this was a good chance to cheer me up.”

When I first taught her, I didn’t know how to teach. I was also confused, but this was a good experience for me. I think I will not have these chances to teach songs to someone. It may be good for both people who usually don’t study English and students who are studying English. For people who don’t study English, this is an

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opportunity to use English and they can feel closely. On the other hand, people who usually study English may think this is like kids songs. However, not only studying academic English but also leaning in a relaxing way is important to continue studying.

20) Chiharu Takimoto: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my friend who lives in the same dormitory. I often go to her room to study together. She has been studying very hard to be a counselor so I really look up to her. When I am doing homework, she comes to me and says, “I am not good at English so teach me!” so I sometimes teach her. One day, I was singing “How are you” in her room. She was studying but when she heard it, she said “It sounds interesting!” She seemed to be interested in this song so I decided to teach it to her.

Actually, I taught her before I got an Affirmation song

Music Therapy Case Studies

assignment so maybe it was in April. At first I sang very slowly.

She knew a melody of “ How are you” but she seemed to be confused so I tried to pronounce each word, “ Super Happy Optimistic Joyful and Prodigious" clearly then she started to sing it together. She is very clever so she could sing at once but it seemed to be difficult for her to pronounce "Optimistic and Prodigious". I thought it was too much at first so I can understand her so I decided to sing it together every night. Then I told her the meaning of the five words.

These words are all positive meaning so she told me that when she sang it, she became happy and positive.

A few days later, she finally could sing it alone. Now she sings and hums happily every time I see her. I was so surprised that she could do it only in a few days. She told me that she taught her friends at school. I am very glad that "How are you" song spreads out and becomes popular. I want many people to know this song and learn the meaning and become happy. She is very busy studying so she often

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feels depressed but when she is tired, there is a good song for her so I hope she will remember it in her mind forever.

21) Shiori Hiroshima: Song Teaching Case Study I taught, “How’s the weather like?” to my mother. I chose this song because it is used simple English. My mother doesn’t know English so much, that’s why I thought it was easy to remember. I taught it her on May 26th. I talked with her on Skype because I don’t live with her now. First, I sung it alone for her. She said, “I don’t understand.” Next, I taught the song slowly by separating some words. She repeated after me. Sometimes, I taught the meanings of those words.

Then, I asked her to sing the first to the end. She stopped before “my sunshine”. So, I taught it. I taught the song again with gesture. When I sung “It’s raining cats and dogs”, I moved my fingers like rain. When I sang, “It’s cold”, I folded my arms. When I sung

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“outside”, I pointed somewhere.

When I sung “deep inside”, I made a fist. I sung it with her with gesture. That day, she was busy. I told her, “I will ask you to sing again. Remember it by next Monday.” She said, “OK. I will write it down, and try to remember.” I thought it was good idea to remember it. I taught it again, and she took a note. Three days later, I talked with her on Skype. I asked her, “Do you remember that song?”

She said, “I’m sorry, I forgot it.”

I asked, “Do you remember the gesture?” I taught the gesture.

Then, she remembered it. She started to sing. She sung it completely. As a result, writing and using gestures are important to remember something.

So, I decided to teach the song to my younger sister. I asked her to remember the song on June 1. First, I sung it with gesture. She repeated with gesture. We sung together three or four times. After that, I asked her, “Try to sing it alone.”

She stopped before cats. So I taught. Next, I let her write it down. I taught those words, and she took notes. She sung it with looking at the notes a few

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times with gesture. Then, I asked her to sing by herself.

Surprisingly, she sung it completely. She remembered it injust one day. I thought she could remember fast because she was young.

In conclusion, we can remember fast if we gesture and write. Besides, we can remember something fast if we are young. I enjoyed teaching, and I want to try to write or gesture when I remember something.

22) Hinata Tokuyama: Song Teaching Case Study The song I taught is the “five ways to happiness.” Every time I sing this song I feel better. I wanted to share this feeling with my grandfather through this experiment so I chose this song. Actually, I have taught this song of Japanese version to my grandmother before and she loved to sing this song. I wanted my grandfather also to

Music Therapy Case Studies

be happy, so I chose my grandfather for my experiment.

At first, I started to teach this happy carol with no melody. In class, we always do the speed dictation before we sing along with Tim, so I thought it is effective to teach only song line before I teach him melody. My grand father had never learned English so I had to start to teach how to read the song line and how to pronounce it. He took almost two days just to memorize the words. After all he finally learned every line of the song so I started to teach the melody.

However, I found he could not sing it with the song line. He said it is too hard to sing the song line with melody. He did not know to roll off some sounds when we sing or speak in English so he was trying to sing every single sound in the line. In Japanese, he could roll off sounds without paying attention on it so I taught Japanese version instead of English one, then he easily could sing it without my help or the note card of lyrics. We sung together in two different languages, Japanese

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and English, then he could learn how to sing in English by listening my singing. We took another two days on this process and at last, he started singing in English by himself.

Fortunately, I and my grandfather succeeded in this experiment, however, since all my family except me lives in Okinawa and they have no computer, we had no choice but to do all of this experience on the phone. It means, we could not see each other. We had to do it all t without any gestures. As we learn in class, gesture helps us when we memorize something. I am sure that he could sing easily if he sang with the gestures because he could remember what word comes next from the movement. Gestures are great help for our memory. I feel it every time I learn a new song in class. I wished I could have done this experiment when we could see each other.

This is the only thing that I regret in this experiment.

After our experiment finished, my grandfather told me that he felt happy when he sang the song because the melody is rhythmical and the

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song line is positive. I could not see his face because we were talking on the phone but I could feel that he is smiling from his voice. At that time, I was smiling too. The main goal of my experiment was to make my grandfather happy but I think that I succeeded to make both of grandfather and myself happy. It was the most joyful homework ever I had. [ Great work Hinata! Tim Murphey notes to himself: This was amazing to do it all on the phone. In the future students might also take a quick video of themselves singing and doing the gestures and then send it to someone as an example to learn from. Then learners could watch it multiple times and learn more quickly with the gestures.

Mmmm☺]

23) Asami Ito: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my mother because she is a nurse who takes care of children. I suppose music therapy has a good effect on children. It only uses singing and moving body

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with gestures, therefore these are effective for kids’ brain, and she can make use of music therapy. I taught 5 ways to happiness. The song is easy to understand for her and the gestures are very simple. So she can remember quickly in my opinion. Furthermore, this gesture is one of my favorite gestures. I decided to teach it.

First of all, I showed how to sing 5 ways to happiness with gestures. Then she followed. She was confused doing it at first. English was little bit difficult for her. She practiced song and gestures again and again. After that she was gradually getting better.

She absorbed the gestures quickly. I told I would test her the next day. She was surprised but accepted it.

Next day, I asked her to do the 5 ways to happiness, however, she didn’t remember all of the gestures. I taught the gestures again. She could recollect soon. She said that she really had fun. I was glad with her comment. She could remember without me teaching finally. She suddenly sung it when she cooked. I was very happy when I heard it.

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The following day, I examined her again. She did it perfectly. After finishing I asked her about music therapy. She said that it was interesting because it was the same when the nursing teacher sang songs, especially the nursery rhymes for children.

After that, she told me she taught the 5 ways of happiness at the nursing school. Children had a fun and enjoyed it. These days elementary schools started to adopt English between aged 11 and 12. I think studying English will be done in kinder garden in the future. Children take in another language more quickly than adults. These songs are useful teaching materials in my opinion.

In conclusion, teaching songs are good work for everyone. My mother enjoyed herself while she was doing gestures. I also had fun teaching it. Singing makes people happy and have fun.

This study is interesting for me.

If I have a chance, I would like to teach songs to many people.

I want to make people happy.

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24) Moe Saso: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my friend, Satomi Hasunuma to teach the song I’ve learned in Tim’s class.

Satomi is not a KUIS student and she told me that she was not interested in English at all.

However, I asked her to help my assignment and she said “ok”. I knew that she doesn’t like English through the days we spent in high school together. That is why I chose her because I didn’t want someone who likes English or someone who is good at English. As I read the reports of previous students, it was really interesting when they taught someone not good at English and gradually he or she came to like English. I chose the song of super happy~. It is the first song we learned and it is the shortest one. I thought it is perfect song for English beginners.

It was not easy to teach her and make her sing perfectly.

First of all, I taught her only its lyric and after she memorized the lyric, I sang it in front of her.

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She knew the melody, so I thought it would be easier. The problem was her English. For me, like other English learners, it was hard to notice what the difficult point was. I decided to ask her and started to try to let her overcome those points.

After a week, I met her and I listened to her singing.

She surprised me a lot! Even though her pronunciation was not perfect, she was able to sing the melody and lyric perfectly. According to her, she listened to our recording and practiced over and over again.

In addition, as she practiced, she found it enjoyable to sing in English. I guess, when someone starts to feel interested in something, they could advance very quickly.

Thus, Satomi succeeded to get used to use English. She also said to me, “I started to listen to English songs, so please tell me your favorite singers”. Now I feel “I did a great job!!” ☺

25) Shigemichi Nakajima: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my high school

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friend Yusuke who loves to speak English and has a high skill of English. I taught “super happy optimistic joyful and prodigious”. I chose this song because it is one of my favorite songs that Tim taught us in the class.

I first taught him on the day Tim gave us this assignment. I wanted to teach him the song face to face, but I could not do that because now he lives in Kanagawa, and it is not easy to meet him from Chiba, so I decided to teach him on Skype. What I did first for him was telling the meaning of the song, and then singing the song a couple of times. His first reaction was that he looked like he could not get a word of what I sang which was the same as me in the first class, because I think I sang too fast. I sang bit slower next time, then surprisingly he copied me perfectly and memorized. We kept singing the song for 30 minutes before ending the Skype call.

I called him the next day, and I asked him to sing the song I taught the day before.

As I thought, he sang perfectly by himself. Moreover, he sang

Music Therapy Case Studies

faster and more fluently than yesterday. He said that he practiced after cutting off the Skype. He asked me more difficult song, so I decided to teach him “Where do you belong?” Actually, it is not “Where do you”, but “Wherdaya”. Firstly, I explained what wherdaya or howdaya is, and then sang the song. He said he could catch the last part of the song “we all belong in the zoo”, but he could not catch the first part of the song “Wherdaya howdaya whadaya whodaya”. He said that he is not used to pronounce them like this, and need practice. I knew he is good at imitating, so I had him repeat after me. The more he sang the song, the more he memorized the song, and got better.

I called him one week later, and tested him how he improved. Expectedly, he memorized and sang the song perfectly. I asked him how this activity was, and he answered “It was so interesting to memorize and sing songs in English”. He also said, “If there’re more songs, let me know”. I’m really glad to hear he came to like this activity.

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This experience was interesting for me. Before starting this activity, I did not think I could teach songs, but it turns out, Yusuke has done well, and I could teach songs! I could teach songs easily because he has the ability to imitate. If I had a chance to do this activity again, I would teach a person who doesn’t know English well so I can teach different ways.

26) Akiko Gonda: Song Teaching Case Study I chose one of my friends ‘Megumi’ who is working at hospital as a nurse. I wanted to teach her because she can’t understand English but she said she wanted to study English for fun the other day.

Therefore, it was a good opportunity to teach her English using an Affirmation song. At first, I taught her this song ‘How do you write’. I chose this song because there were no difficult words in this song, so I thought she could memorize this song easily. Also, I taught her other song which is

Music Therapy Case Studies

called ‘What’s the weather like?’ I chose this song because when I learned this song in class, we used our bodies to remember this song.

I asked her when she could meet me. Then we met on May 27 at 11 am at her house. She is busy because she works not only weekdays but also holidays too. I had to teach her these affirmation songs in a short time. First, I told her what I was going to use material to teach her English.

When I showed her this song ‘How do you write’, she could read these sentences but she said she could not understand the their meanings.

So, I explained these sentences in Japanese to her.

To know this song in Japanese was very useful for her to remember it. After that, I sang this song first, and then she repeated after me. She found it difficult to sing in a normal speed, so I sang this song a little bit slowly. We sang together 5 times maybe. It was not smooth when she sang this song at first but we practiced this song many times then she could sing this song smoothly alone. She told me it was

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difficult to sing this part ‘up as I’ so I taught this part many times.

I thought she needed to get used to listening this sound.

She didn’t enjoy it but when she knew the meaning of this song and when she could sing this song alone, she enjoyed doing this more and more. Also, I taught her this song ‘what is the weather like?’ She said it was easier to remember this song than the first song and it was more fun than the first song because she sang this song using her body.

I wanted to call her at least one time to confirm that she remembered these songs but she had no time to call, so I couldn’t confirm that. After I handed out this report to you, I asked her about songs which I taught to her. She said she continued doing this, and she could answer songs correctly.

For me, to teach English using an affirmation song was interesting because I could know it is easy to remember a song using our bodies. So I should have taught her ‘what is the weather like’ at first. I thought it is not good to choose a song just because the

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sentences are easy. In my opinion, a song using our body like ‘what is weather like’ is better to use when I teach English to someone.

27) Misaki Kamoda: Musical Therapy Case Study I chose my mother, Mayumi to teach an affirmation song to. She is 48 years old, and she works at McDonald. I chose her for this research because she is always busy, and I often hear her sigh. And also, she doesn’t like to study.

Especially, she doesn’t like to study English. So, I wanted her to be relaxed and enjoy learning English with an affirmation song.

I selected “The Five Ways to Happiness”, because I think that the lyric is so fantastic. And I believe that the melody of the song makes her relax. When I heard this song in Tim’s class at first, I felt happy and comfortable. The lyric is “Smile from ear to ear, breathe in deep, look up at the sky, sing a melody, dare to show your love”. It’s easy to remember.

First of all, I told her about

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this research and I sang the song, “The Five Ways to Happiness”, for her. After that, I taught the meaning of the lyric.

She said, “Nice! I love this song.” I was glad to hear that.

She seemed feeling happy while singing this song, so I asked her to sing with me. We sang this song together at that time, and enjoyed it! Next day, I asked her, “what are the five ways to happiness?” and, she said only one way, “smile from ear to ear”. She forgot the other four ways and the melody.

Therefore, I sang with her again, and I taught the gestures. She tried to remember the song with the gesture. And I suggested that singing it with gestures when she is taking a bath or driving a car. Five days later, I asked her, “what is the five ways to happiness?” suddenly, she sang the song but she didn’t remember all, so I showed the gestures, and she could sing all.

Two days later, she asked me, “what is the five ways to happiness”. SHE asked ME! ☺ I was surprised at that and she said with smile, “I tried to sing this song in the car, and during the break time of job.” I am

Music Therapy Case Studies

really happy to hear that!

After I taught this affirmation song to her, I don’t hear as many sighs from her.

Even though when she gets tired, she always smiles by singing this song. To my surprise, she asked me about the other songs in English. I’m really happy that she is interested in learning English.

In addition, she taught it to my father, and he is also smiling.

This time, I found that the affirmation song makes us happy not only the person, who was taught it, but also people surrounded by the person. The affirmation songs are so effective to be happy and learn English. Therefor I want to tell my students about affirmation songs in the future, too.

28) Mayuko Kimura: Song Teaching Case Study I chose my mother Kaori to teach an affirmation song. She is working as a chief clerk. She likes to travel abroad and wants to speak English when she is traveling. However, she has negative feeling about her

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English because she was not good at English when she was a student. She said, “I couldn’t enjoy learning English because the class was not interesting.”

Songs are very interesting and helpful to start studying English so I think this activity is a good way for her. I chose the song “Are you young?” because the melody and lyrics are simple.

I taught Kaori on May 28th for about 10 minutes. We were walking to the convenience store near our house. She was tired so she seemed not to be interested in this activity. I read the lyrics aloud slowly and focus on the pronunciations of each word. After that I asked her to repeat it after me. Next, I sang the melody and taught the meaning of words. We sang the song together again and again when we were walking.

She said that, “I think it is very difficult to remember these lyrics.” However she was able to sing the song easily at that time. I told her the meaning of “affirmation”. She agreed to the idea to say the positive words and believe it is true.

The next day, I asked her “Are you young?”. She remembered only the first line

Music Therapy Case Studies

"I'm young and strong and beautiful" so I gave her some hints. Although she stammered, she was able to finish singing by hints. She said, "I could imagine the words in my head now.” I was glad to hear that.

However there was a problem.

She could sing the song with my support but she couldn’t remember the melody. She said, “I can’t get used to this melody.” I was surprised because I've never thought like that. I changed my teaching way/ I asked her to write the lyrics. She could write all the lyrics completely.

This experience was very interesting for me because acting like a teacher and seeing my mother’s English improving were fun. She said that she would like to study English from now on. In this activity, she could not remember the melody but I believe that singing is helpful and a very good way to learn languages. I will teach her English by using her favorite songs and other affirmation songs.

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Appendix 1: The Assignment Sheet

Case Study of Teaching an Affirmation Song to Someone (Musical Therapy) – assignment Monday May 31, 2012 Due Monday June 7 bring to class 400 words minimum PRINTED OUT: Use direct “…” quotes when possible. Teach someone an affirmation song (5 ways to happiness, or Happy Person, (Eng or Jap) or YSB or WWW …) and explain to them about affirmations and how they can help someone be happier and healthier. Ask them to sing it for several days and then to report back to you. You will write a short paper on this experience, a Case Study.

See sample parts and phrases below: 1.The person I chose to teach and why.

I chose my grand mother (club member, work colleague, friend) who have known for XX years. I will use the pseudonym Hiro (or Yuri…etc. ) for him/her. I taught them the song XXXXX. I choose this song because 2. The story of our meeting, teaching, and learning I first taught Yuri on (DATE June 2 at 2 pm ) for about 20 minutes. We were sitting (WHERE) and she seemed to want to learn / not be very interested/ etc. She repeated after me and we sang together maybe xx times. Finally she sang it alone. She had trouble with … she liked …. She asked about …..…. I explained the meaning and the ideas…… She seemed to have trouble pronouncing …… understanding ….. so I

explained/ practiced with her…. I told her I would call her three times in the next 24 hours and ask her the question for the song so she could practice remembering it, and I explained that she could practice by herself whenever she wanted and that it would do her some good. I explained that when people said or sang affirmations that it pointed their brain toward thinking and doing things that were good for them. She seemed to understand and said she would try.

3. Follow up I called her three times as promised at 4 pm and 8 pm the same day and 9 a.m the following day. I also saw her a few days later. She seemed to improve with each call and she seemed to really enjoy/ to be bothered a little. I saw her three days later and immediately asked the question and she responded….. I asked her how she felt learning the song with me and how she felt now that she was singing it regularly and she said, “…”

4. Conclusions and Recommendations For me, this experience was interesting/difficult/ because …. If I were going to do it again I would ……My advice to others who wish to teach affirmation songs is to….

Remember a case study is just like telling a story…. It’s easy….

Write write write it down/Set your feelings free/I make it up as I … version 5/31/12

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Appendix 2: Top Dozen Speed Dictation Affirmation Song & Classroom Management Questions List Tim Murphey May 2010 mitsmail1@gmail.com 1. How do you learn?

Use it or lose it! [sukiyaki song tune:] It’s in your mind, now’s the time, take advantage of it. You can use it now. Just say “holy cow”, It’s in your mind and now’s the time. [Can teach them to give a High Five when they answer—fun!]

2. What time is it? up!)

Now is the best time to be happy. (not set to music-make it

3. How do you write something?

Write write write it down, set your feelings free I make it upasi go along, my pen is writing me.

4. What is asking?

Asking may be a moment’s embarrASSment Not asking is a lifelong regret.

[Clapping in time helps a lot.]

5. How are you?

Superhappysodelightfuljoyfulandamazing Superhappyoptimisticjoyfulandprodigious, or Trulyawesomsotenatiouslovelinglyvivacios [Teach 5 strategies: Chunk/Backf/rhythm/song/Hru?] Sugoi kanpeki subarashii sekkyokuteki genki すごい かんぺき すばらしい せっきょくてき げんき 6. What’s the weather like?

It’s raining cats and dogs and its cold outside My sunshine is deep inside [Story: Hiking Mt Fuji SSIMHP] 7. What’s a happy person A happy person/ is not a person /in a certain set of circumstances, /but rather /a person /with a certain set of attitudes.

8. What are the 5 ways to happiness?

(Tune 12 Day of Xmas.)

When you want to be happy, there’s # (1-5) things you can do 1.Smile from ear to ear 2. Breathe in deep 3. Look up at the sky 4. Sing a melody 5. Dare to show your love

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9. Are you Young?

I’m young and strong and beautiful, I’m living an adventure The world’s so fascinating, it makes me want to cry.

I want to cry to the world, I want to fly all around I want to tell everybody I’m in love, I’m in love I’m in love X4 I wanna tell everybody I’m in love.

[Young strong and beautiful, living an adventure The world’s a fascinating place, I love to love to love. tune of Row3 your Boat, short version.]

10. What will you do today? Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine I’ll taste your strawberries I’ll drink your sweet wine And a million tomorrows will all pass away Before I forget all the joys that are mine today.

11. What do you love? I love us playing, I love us singing songs I love us interacting, when we talk a lot We talk a lot we laugh a lot /We talk a lot we learn a lot We talk a lot we laugh a lot /When we talk a lot ///Hahahaha hohoho TeheheheHuhuhuhu Tehe [naturally broken laughter] When we talk a lot 12. ROUNDS Combine Row x3 Your Boat versions of 3, 8, & 9 into a nice group sing.)

Write x3 it down, set your feelings free, I make it upasi go along, my pen is writing me.

Smile, breathe, look at the sky, sing a melody, dare to show your love to me, dare to show your love.

Young strong and beautiful, living an adventure, the world’s a fascinating place I love to love to love.

Friends friends friends you know, I will miss you so! You helped me learn a hell of a lot, to laugh and go with the flow.

Bonus Track Werdaya Werdaya Werdaya Werdaya Werdaya come from friend?

Howdaya Howdaya Howdaya Howdaya Howdaya like it here?

Wadaya Wadaya Wadaya Wadaya Wadaya wanna drink?

Whodaya Whodaya Whodaya Whodaya Whodaya love so dear?

I come from over there and I really like it here, I want another drink and I love you all so dear.

Werdaya howdaya whadaya whodaya we all belong in the zoo.

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Pedagogical steps in your classes -- one way (there are many ways…)

1.First give the song (or part of it) as a SPEED DICTATION. In a speed dictation you say it too fast or softly for everyone to get everything thing and you allow them to collaborate and help each other each time after you say it. Explain to them that you want them to help each other and that you intend for it to be too hard for everybody to get the first time. So this is a chance to help each other. After they help each other after the first reading, you may still say a few more times, or even sing it, instead of saying it. (Optional, ask them to write it on the board.)

2. Then teach them to sing it. The melody usually helps with their memory. Add gestures if possible (TPR).

3. Then teach them the question that goes with it and tell them that throughout the class, every 5 minutes or so, you are going to ask them to ask each other “How do you learn?” and they have to answer “Use it or lose it.” This provokes “intent participation” (Rogoff et al. 2004), they know they are going to use it often and soon and so they focus more on it. Make sure you DO IT, otherwise they won’t get it.

4. Classroom Management Routine. Buying time usefully. Anytime you need a few seconds to organize the next activity, ask your students to ask each other a question. When I need a moment to get organized for something else, I ask them, “Please ask your partner what time is it?” It is also a wake up, energizer! And a good way to start off the class and reminder about important things.

5. You can also give mini-lectures or tell stories about the content of each one.

QWIK OPTIONS for teachers Song or Say and Gesture Slow or Fast Part or All Students single then collaboratively or in pairs or 4’s with verses Sources: songs, song hooks, famous quotes, proverbs, affirmations, typical sayings, your mind Advantages: Teach memorization skills, gives agency (chunks), conversation starter, shared class culture, can change attitudes, flexible for teachers to apply, fun and positive, can make you healthy, and optimistic.

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Tim Murphey Resources Email: mitsmail1@gmail.com Podcasts: Google “mits mind” (for #s 6, 7, 8, 9, & 11) or http://mits.podomatic.com/Tim’s YouTube mitsmurphey Channel – A few Videos (more coming) Google “Tim Murphey Tips”

Remember when we …….

Sang in the stairwell and our voices echoed Sang in the cone of the library and mixed the rounds Sang outside while juggling We did walk-talks and sang our newsletters Screamed “I’m in love” suddenly for no reason Juggled and sang songs at the same time in class Dictated our favorite songs to each other Struggled with Speed Dictations from our teacher Wrote our own song lines Played instruments (kinda) that we made up Did group presentations and rounds Be the change Be the change Be the change you wish to see in the world I don’t serve… my dear world… by pretending to be small I’ll stand tall, I will stand tall When you change yoursel f, you change the world

The greatest madness The greatest sadness Is to see life only as it really is And not as it could really be Reality is desperately in need of imagination.

Music Therapy Case Studies

The real music

is between the notes. Mozart

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