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The Pros and Cons Pri­son Music Pro­gram was ini­tia­ted as a res­ponse to the clo­sure of the agri­cul­tu­ral pro­grams in Cana­dian pri­sons, and from the out­set was run with the inten­tion of ser­ving a popu­la­tion that was not only lacking in resources, but was also being acti­ve­ly marginalized.

My expe­riences have led me to unders­tand many sen­si­ti­vi­ties of wor­king with convicts, and the ways in which conflict and poli­ti­ci­za­tion can be avoided.

I have also lear­ned that it is of great advan­tage to create tools for inmates. Your work can have a mul­ti­plier effect by means of open source lear­ning, and the focu­sing of other­wise neglec­ted ener­gies of those behind bars. (Let me dis­tin­guish that last sen­tence from the use of inmates for capi­tal gain, which is other­wise known as sla­ve­ry) We are inter­es­ted in humans buil­ding skill and a know­ledge base that can help them be more self-deter­mi­ned, making choices of bet­ter ser­vice to them­selves and their socie­ties, inside and out­side of institutions.

The three videos shown hear dis­cuss three major aspects of buil­ding mea­ning­ful pro­gram­ming in cor­rec­tio­nal institutions :

Part One : Get­ting Inside

Part Two : The Music Process

Part Three : The Lega­cy Effect

For more music, inter­views , and contact information :

https://wolfeislandrecords.com/theprosandconsprogram/

Lis­te­ning, tou­ching, fee­ling and soun­ding acti­vi­ties using your voice, hands, whole body, ins­tru­ments, or spea­kers (e.g. on phone, com­pu­ter, ear­phones). These sound acti­vi­ties are for people of all —inclu­ding hea­ring and non-hea­ring— abilities.

Note : To help prevent germ trans­mis­sion, wash and/or disin­fect your hands, other body parts, and objects used before, in bet­ween, and after the acti­vi­ties des­cri­bed here !

INTRODUCTION

Your music tou­ched me —I was moved.

The meta­phors we use reveal our lived expe­rience : we feel sound all over our bodies ! Feel the music… feel the bass !

Our uni­verse is filled with ongoing motion, resul­ting in touch that trans­fers ener­gy. The ener­gy of this touch can cause more move­ment, such as vibra­tions. Vibra­tions are back and forth oscil­la­tions of mat­ter that rever­be­rate and tra­vel as waves. When vibra­tions reach our bodies they touch and move us, our skin, bones, joints, blood ves­sels, and organs, like our ears.

Sound touches us, cau­sing and also com­pel­ling us to move in dif­ferent ways. This is power­ful. Sound and music are inti­mate : they touch the entire body, out­side and inside. Vibra­tions tra­vel and touch us, from across dis­tances. Eve­ry­bo­dy has sounds they want or don’t want to touch. Can you think of some ?

LET’S TOUCH SOUND !

Sing a conti­nuous sound (e.g. a vowel). Can you feel your mouth, neck, and other body parts vibra­ting ? Conti­nue sin­ging the same sound and gent­ly touch toge­ther your upper and lower lips. Then try tou­ching toge­ther your upper and lower teeth —the front teeth and then the back. What changes do you feel ?

Slow­ly shift back and forth bet­ween two sung sounds (e.g. two vowels like “ah-oo-ah-oo”). Can you feel what move­ments in your body cause the sound to change ? Sing and hold the palm of your hand just in front of your mouth. What do you feel on your hand and face ?

Now sing and use your hands to gent­ly touch dif­ferent areas of your body (e.g. your nose, lips, throat, back, or chest). How do vibra­tions of dif­ferent sounds feel in dif­ferent parts of your body ? Gra­dual­ly change the sound (e.g.: to a dif­ferent vowel, conso­nant or sono­rant, to a dif­ferent octave, or to a dif­ferent loud­ness). Do cer­tain sounds feel distinct ?

Explore tou­ching sounds while your ears are plug­ged (or while wea­ring head­phones that are playing white noise). How does this change your sen­sa­tion of vibrations ?

Explore vibra­tions with objects in your home : a musi­cal ins­tru­ment or a spoon tap­ping and sli­ding along a metal bowl or table. How do the vibra­tions of these dif­ferent motions feel ? Try gent­ly dam­pe­ning the vibra­tions of the bowl on dif­ferent parts of your arm or foot. Fill the bowl with water and conti­nue… can you see the vibra­tions rip­pling on the water ? Sing dif­ferent vowels into the bowl until you find one that real­ly reso­nates ! Make music by explo­ring the sen­sa­tions of vibra­tions —try plug­ging your ears and also clo­sing your eyes.

Sound is touch. When we hear sound, we are vibra­ting —moving— toge­ther with this sound. This is powerful.

Like the tiny parts inside the ear, a micro­phone contains thin and sen­si­tive com­po­nents that vibrate simi­lar­ly to the sounds that touch it. The microphone’s vibra­tions are conver­ted into varia­tions of elec­tri­cal ener­gy which get trans­mit­ted to other devices and, even­tual­ly, back into vibra­tions of a spea­ker… at a concert or in your phone or com­pu­ter. Explore the vibra­tions of spea­kers. Inflate a bal­loon and explore how its thin mem­brane vibrates with dif­ferent sounds. What does your favou­rite music feel like to touch ? Would you reco­gnize it with your ears plugged ?

Can you tell if someone you know is fee­ling sad, joy­ful, angry, or ano­ther emo­tion, by the sounds they make when they come home ? Do you feel their vibe-rations ?

Maybe your friend will explore vibra­tion with you ? Make sound toge­ther, per­haps taking turns care­ful­ly and gent­ly tou­ching agreed upon parts of each other’s bodies or musi­cal ins­tru­ments. Where do you feel motion and vibra­tion when your friend plays a recor­der or gui­tar ? If you’re explo­ring through a phone or com­pu­ter connec­tion, take turns soun­ding and fee­ling the spea­ker vibra­tions against your bodies.

Dis­co­ver which types of sounds your dif­ferent body parts are sen­si­tive to. What parts of your body feel more sen­si­tive in dis­tin­gui­shing higher, mid, or lower-range fre­quen­cies (pitches), and bet­ween more and less intense vibra­tions ? What vibra­tions com­pel you to move and dance ?

When you hear a sound, notice and explore your sen­sa­tions of vibra­tions and your ins­tincts to move your body.

Let sound touch us ! 

FURTHER VARIATIONS & IDEAS :

How does tou­ching a sound with your hand, alter the sound ? Fli­cking the tongue while voca­li­zing or fli­cking the hand in front of the voca­li­zing mouth is an ancient tech­nique and has an ono­ma­to­poeic term in English : ‘ulu­la­tion’ (which is also used to refer to wai­ling). In fact, dif­ferent lan­guages seem to use com­pa­rable “l‑l” sounds to des­cribe this sound-fli­cking tech­nique. Some theo­ries sug­gest that the first part of the word “hallelu+ja” (Hebrew “praise/shout to + G‑d”) ori­gi­na­ted from such prai­se­ful, trilling ulu­la­tion. Dif­ferent reli­gions des­cribe God and God’s crea­tive power as sound and vibration.

(Clean your phone!) Cup your hand around the phone spea­ker and then gent­ly move your fin­gers and palm to change the reso­nance fre­quen­cy. You can also do this with the spea­ker pla­ced near your mouth and move your mouth as though you are saying “wow wow” (but without using your voice). You are chan­ging the vowel shape of your mouth a bit like a “wah wah” mute on a brass ins­tru­ment or elec­tric pedal. Remem­ber ear­lier we explo­red shif­ting back-and-forth bet­ween sounds, like “oo-ah-oo” —”wow”?!

Run your fin­ger along dif­ferent objects (e.g. a plas­tic contai­ner, a drin­king glass, a wall, a table). Can you guess the vibra­to­ry qua­li­ty of a sur­face by mere­ly hol­ding it, without moving your skin along its sur­face ? Can you infer the tex­tu­ral rhythm of an object just by loo­king at it ? Use a pen­cil and paper to draw ima­gi­na­ry shapes and tex­tures (not objects), and give your page of dra­wings to a friend for them to create the sound of each tex­ture (per­haps as you indi­cate the pres­sure and rate of motion with your hand). Guess which of your images your friend is soni­fying ! Adapt the “Eye Spy…” game : “I touch with my lit­tle fin­ger some­thing that feels like [make the sound of the tex­ture with your mouth]!” (Cf. “Opta­con”.)

Are mecha­no, ther­mo, pho­to, and chemo–reception each a form of touch ?

Sing a sound and ima­gine your toes or other extre­mi­ties vibra­ting or reso­na­ting with your voice. Do you feel some­thing ? How and why ?

Micro­phones reso­nate with sounds that touch their sen­si­tive com­po­nents. Do other objects also “feel” each other’s vibra­tions and reso­nate toge­ther ? Expe­riment with or watch videos of pen­du­lum clocks or mecha­ni­cal metro­nomes syn­chro­ni­zing when they are pla­ced on a com­mon sur­face. (Cf. “Entrain­ment or Mode Locking”.)

ABOUT THE SENSATION OF MECHANICAL VIBRATION :

“Mecha­no­re­cep­tors” are dis­tri­bu­ted across our body to sense dif­ferent qua­li­ties of touch, vibra­tion, and pressure.

If a vibra­tion oscil­lates regu­lar­ly (“per­io­di­cal­ly” retur­ning to the same condi­tion at equal incre­ments of time) bet­ween 20 to 20,000 Hz (cycles per second) and is intense (loud) enough, the ear fuses the sepa­rate oscil­la­tions into an expe­rience of conti­nuous pit­ched tone. The lowest note on a pia­no is 27.5 Hz, and a lit­tle below that, from 25 down to 20 Hz, pitches sound more wob­bly and indis­tinct, and from 20 Hz down (known as “infra­pitch”) to about 0.5 Hz (one cycle eve­ry two seconds), each oscil­la­tion is heard as a dis­crete click (a “pulse”) within a stea­di­ly repea­ting rhythm. Dif­ferent oscil­la­tions can also be expe­rien­ced as vibra­tion and pres­sure changes by mecha­no­re­cep­tors all over our body. And even fre­quen­cies that we can’t feel as dis­tinct vibra­tion or pres­sure changes, may still affect our bodies.  

RELATED TERMS & RESOURCES TO EXPLORE (HYPERLINKED)

YOUTUBE PLAYLIST : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-rkS6BcMVyt-94SaOujtKJm_vJa0IBa

Mecha­no­re­cep­tors : 

• Lamel­lar corpuscle

• Tac­tile corpuscle

• Mer­kel nerve ending

• Bul­bous corpuscle

Tado­ma

Vibra­tese Language

Opta­con

Pho­non

Cyma­tics

Essen­tic and Sen­tic Forms (See Clynes, in book & docu­ment list below)

Entrain­ment or mode locking

Ves­ti­bu­lar Self-Motion (See Bha­ru­cha, in book & docu­ment list below)

CREDITS

Concept — Daniel Oore

Text — Daniel Oore

Nar­ra­tion — Daniel Oore

Video Demons­tra­tion — Jona­than Oore & Daniel Oore

Video­gra­phy — Sta­cy Smith, Jona­than Oore, Daniel Oore

Video & Audio edi­ting — Daniel Oore

Ori­gi­nal Music & Sound­scape — Daniel Oore

Consul­tants — Dr. Mor­de­cai Oore, P. Eng (IMP Aeros­pace) & Dr. Jona­than Oore, MD (McGill Uni­ver­si­ty) 

WARNINGS :

To help prevent germ trans­mis­sion, wash and/or disin­fect your hands, other body parts, and objects used before, in bet­ween, and after the acti­vi­ties des­cri­bed. 

The demons­tra­tions in this video have been sped up to allow a higher num­ber of ideas to be pre­sen­ted in an enter­tai­ning man­ner. Trying these acti­vi­ties at such a fast paces is not recom­men­ded (and could even result in inju­ry…). If you want to watch the acti­vi­ties slow­ly, select a slo­wer play­back speed in the You­Tube video pre­fe­rences. 

BOOKS & DOCUMENTS WITH INFORMATION & IDEAS ABOUT SOUND, VIBRATION, TOUCH, AND HEARING

Ball, Phi­lip. The Music Ins­tinct : How Music Works and Why We Can’t Do Without It. New York : Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2010.

Bash­wi­ner, David Michael. “Musi­cal Emo­tion : Toward a Bio­lo­gi­cal­ly Groun­ded Theo­ry.” The Uni­ver­si­ty of Chi­ca­go, 2010.

Bea­ment, James. How We Hear Music : The Rela­tion­ship Bet­ween Music and the Hea­ring Mecha­nism. Boy­dell Press, 2003.

Berendt, Joa­chim-Ernst. Nada Brah­ma, the World Is Sound : Music and the Land­scape of Conscious­ness. Des­ti­ny Books, 1987.

Berg, Jere­my M., John L. Tymocz­ko, and Lubert Stryer. “Hea­ring Depends on the Spee­dy Detec­tion of Mecha­ni­cal Sti­mu­li.” Bio­che­mis­try. 5th Edi­tion, 2002. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22542/.

Bha­ru­cha, Jam­shed J., Mea­gan Cur­tis, and Kai­von Paroo. “Varie­ties of Musi­cal Expe­rience.” Cog­ni­tion 100, no. 1 (May 2006): 131–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.11.008.

Blauert, Jens, ed. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Acous­tics. Ber­lin : Sprin­ger-Ver­lag, 2005.

Boom­sli­ter, Paul, and War­ren Creel. “The Long Pat­tern Hypo­the­sis in Har­mo­ny and Hea­ring.” Jour­nal of Music Theo­ry 5, no. 1 (1961): 2. https://doi.org/10.2307/842868.

Bra­con­nier, Debo­rah. “Woman Can Lite­ral­ly Feel the Noise.” Medi­cal Xpress, May 30, 2011. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2011–05-woman-literally-noise.html.

Bur­rows, David L. Time and the Warm Body a Musi­cal Pers­pec­tive on the Construc­tion of Time. Lei­den ; Bos­ton : Brill, 2007.

Caria­ni, Peter. “Tem­po­ral Codes, Timing Nets, and Music Per­cep­tion.” Jour­nal of New Music Research 30, no. 2 (2001): 107–135.

Chan­gi­zi, M.A. Har­nes­sed : How Lan­guage and Music Mimi­cked Nature and Trans­for­med Ape to Man. Kindle edi­tion. Ben­Bel­la Books, 2011.

Clynes, Man­fred. “Time-Forms, Nature’s Gene­ra­tors and Com­mu­ni­ca­tors of Emo­tion.” In Robot and Human Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, 1992. Pro­cee­dings., IEEE Inter­na­tio­nal Work­shop On, 18–31. IEEE, 1992. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=253908.

Clynes, Man­fred, and Yehu­di Menu­hin. Sen­tics : The Touch of Emo­tions. Anchor Press Gar­den City, NY, 1977. http://senticcycles.org/home/sentics/articles/sentics.pdf.

Fra­ser, J. T. “The Art of the Audible ‘Now.’” Music Theo­ry Spec­trum 7 (April 1985): 181–84. https://doi.org/10.2307/745887.

Gau­lon, C., C. Derec, T. Com­briat, P. Mar­mot­tant, and F. Elias. “Sound and Vision : Visua­li­za­tion of Music with a Soap Film.” Euro­pean Jour­nal of Phy­sics 38, no. 4 (July 1, 2017): 045804. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361–6404/aa7147. (https://www-liphy.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/pagesperso/marmottant/Publications_files/Gaulon2017EJP.pdf)

God­win, Jos­ce­lyn. Har­mo­nies of Hea­ven and Earth : Mys­ti­cism in Music from Anti­qui­ty to the Avant-Garde. Simon and Schus­ter, 1987.

———. The Mys­te­ry of the Seven Vowels : In Theo­ry and Prac­tice. Grand Rapids, MI, USA : Phanes Press, 1991.

Gold­stein, E. Bruce, Glyn W. Hum­phreys, Mar­ga­ret Shif­frar, and William A. Yost, eds. Bla­ck­well Hand­book of Sen­sa­tion and Per­cep­tion. Bla­ck­well Hand­books of Expe­ri­men­tal Psy­cho­lo­gy 1. Oxford, UK ; Mal­den, MA : Bla­ck­well Pub, 2005.

Han­del, Ste­phen. Per­cep­tual Cohe­rence : Hea­ring and Seeing. Oxford ; New York : Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2006.

Hud­speth, A. J. “How Hea­ring Hap­pens.” Neu­ron 19, no. 5 (1997): 947–950.

Hugill, Andrew. The Digi­tal Musi­cian. New York : Rout­ledge, 2008.

Kei­del, W. “The Sen­so­ry Detec­tion of Vibra­tions.” In Foun­da­tions of Sen­so­ry Science, edi­ted by W.W. Daw­son and J.M. Enoch, 465–512. Ber­lin : Sprin­ger-Ver­lag, 1984.

Lund­borg, Göran. The Hand and the Brain. Lon­don : Sprin­ger Lon­don, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1007/978–1‑4471–5334‑4.

Mayr, Albert. “Sketches for a Low-Fre­quen­cy Sol­fège.” Music Theo­ry Spec­trum 7 (April 1985): 107–13. https://doi.org/10.2307/745882.

Mazur, Joseph. The Motion Para­dox the 2,500-Year-Old Puzzle Behind All the Mys­te­ries of Time and Space. New York : Dut­ton, 2007.

Mer­chel, Sebas­tian, and M. Ercan Altin­soy. “Audi­to­ry-Tac­tile Expe­rience of Music.” In Musi­cal Hap­tics, edi­ted by Ste­fa­no Papet­ti and Cha­ra­lam­pos Sai­tis, 123–48. Sprin­ger Series on Touch and Hap­tic Sys­tems. Cham : Sprin­ger Inter­na­tio­nal Publi­shing, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978–3‑319–58316-7_7.

Nuss­baum, Charles O. The Musi­cal Repre­sen­ta­tion : Mea­ning, Onto­lo­gy, and Emo­tion. A Brad­ford Book. Cam­bridge, Mass : MIT Press, 2007.

Research Fea­tures. “Over­lap­ping Senses : Hea­ring and Touch Share Cir­cuits in the Brain,” April 5, 2018. https://researchfeatures.com/2018/04/05/hearing-and-touch-share-circuits-in-the-brain/.

Pareyón, Gabriel. On Musi­cal Self-Simi­la­ri­ty : Inter­se­mio­sis as Synec­doche and Ana­lo­gy. Ima­tra ; [Hel­sin­ki]: Inter­na­tio­nal Semio­tics Ins­ti­tute ; Semio­tic Socie­ty of Fin­land, 2011.

Pari­si, David. Archaeo­lo­gies of Touch : Inter­fa­cing with Hap­tics from Elec­tri­ci­ty to Com­pu­ting. U of Min­ne­so­ta Press, 2018.

Pater­son, Mark. The Senses of Touch : Hap­tics, Affects, and Tech­no­lo­gies. Oxford ; New York : Berg, 2007.

Pie­chows­ki, Michael M. “The Logi­cal and the Empi­ri­cal Form of Fee­ling.” Jour­nal of Aes­the­tic Edu­ca­tion 15, no. 1 (Janua­ry 1981): 31. https://doi.org/10.2307/3332208.

Plomp, Rei­nier. The Intel­li­gent Ear : On the Nature of Sound Per­cep­tion. Mah­wah, N.J : Law­rence Erl­baum Asso­ciates, 2002.

Pogo­ri­lows­ki, Andrei. The Music of the Tem­po­ra­lists. Bucha­rest, Roma­nia : André Pogo­ri­loff­ski, 2012.

Reed, C. M., N. I. Dur­lach, L. D. Brai­da, and M. C. Schultz. “Ana­ly­tic Stu­dy of the Tado­ma Method : Effects of Hand Posi­tion on Seg­men­tal Speech Per­cep­tion.” Jour­nal of Speech and Hea­ring Research 32, no. 4 (Decem­ber 1989): 921–29. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3204.921.

Reed, C. M., W. M. Rabi­no­witz, N. I. Dur­lach, L. D. Brai­da, S. Conway-Fithian, and M. C. Schultz. “Research on the Tado­ma Method of Speech Com­mu­ni­ca­tion.” The Jour­nal of the Acous­ti­cal Socie­ty of Ame­ri­ca 77, no. 1 (Janua­ry 1985): 247–57. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.392266.

Ro, Tony, Joha­nan Hsu, Nafi Yasar, Cait­lin Elmore, and Michael Beau­champ. “Sound Enhances Touch Per­cep­tion.” Expe­ri­men­tal Brain Research. Expe­ri­men­telle Hirn­for­schung. Expé­ri­men­ta­tion Céré­brale 195 (April 1, 2009): 135–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-009‑1759‑8.

Shus­ter­man, Richard. Body Conscious­ness : A Phi­lo­so­phy of Mind­ful­ness and Somaes­the­tics. Cam­bridge ; New York : Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2008.

Stein, Debo­rah Kent. “The Opta­con : Past, Present, and Future.” nfb.org. Acces­sed July 2, 2020. https://www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm98/bm980506.htm.

Sterne, Jona­than, ed. The Sound Stu­dies Rea­der. New York : Rout­ledge, 2012.

Truax, Bar­ry. Acous­tic Com­mu­ni­ca­tion. West­port, Conn.: Ablex, 2001.

Van­He­mert, Kyle. “Cos­mic Visuals Made With Light, Sound, and … Soap?” Wired, March 27, 2014. https://www.wired.com/2014/03/cosmic-visuals-made-light-sound-soap/.

Von Helm­holtz, Her­mann. On the Sen­sa­tions of Tone as a Phy­sio­lo­gi­cal Basis for the Theo­ry of Music. Lon­don : Long­mans, Green, 1875.

Zbi­kows­ki, Law­rence Michael. Concep­tua­li­zing Music : Cog­ni­tive Struc­ture, Theo­ry, and Ana­ly­sis. AMS Stu­dies in Music. Oxford ; New York : Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2002.

Hel­lo !  My  name is Ger­maine.  I have pre­pa­red for you some task-based games you can share and play with your friends.  I love task-based games because I feel like I am living the expe­rience in a way.  When eve­ryone invol­ved is open and willing to par­ti­ci­pate, then it feels like we are all in this toge­ther.  We receive and give in this very direct and deli­be­rate way that I think is an honest exchange for all of us.  Have fun, enjoy !

Swirl

Pre­pa­ra­tion :

1. Gather some metal salad bowls with your friends and place them on the floor.

2. Fill each bowl with 3 to 4 marbles.  Remem­ber to count the total num­ber before and after to ensure you don’t lose any marbles.  We don’t want anyone to acci­den­tal­ly slip on them.

3. Before we play, let’s prac­tice.  Swirl the marbles inside the metal salad bowl.

Let’s Play !

Swirl marbles in the bowl and place bowls back onto the floor.  While marbles are in motion, conti­nue this action to keep the sounds going.  (Ah !  Lis­ten to these beau­ti­ful sounds.)

Impor­tant

Be on the loo­kout for jum­ping marbles.  Pick them up qui­ck­ly and place them back into the bowl.  Explore this as long as you like.

Hel­lo !  My  name is Ger­maine.  I have pre­pa­red for you some task-based games you can share and play with your friends.  I love task-based games because I feel like I am living the expe­rience in a way.  When eve­ryone invol­ved is open and willing to par­ti­ci­pate, then it feels like we are all in this toge­ther.  We receive and give in this very direct and deli­be­rate way that I think is an honest exchange for all of us.  Have fun, enjoy !

Keys Chain for Jesse Stewart

Pre­pa­ra­tion :

Gather a bunch of unwan­ted keys from friends, neigh­bours or your local hard­ward store.

If you are playing on the floor you don’t want to scratch, use a piece of ply­wood instead.

Let’s prac­tice : play the key by hol­ding the long part of the key and brin­ging the large flat part of the key fall onto the floor.

Let’s play !

1. Choose a promp­ter for your game of 2 or more players

2. The promp­ter directs a slow heart beat for all the players to follow

3. Let’s use fruit names to sub­di­vide the heart beat star­ting with peach.

4. You can also use apple (for a sub­di­vi­sion of 2), pineapple (for 3) or water­me­lon (for 4).

5. The promp­ter can also use their fin­gers to indi­cate the sub­di­vi­sions of the heart­beat (1, 2, 3 or 4).

6. Thumb up indi­cates the ending.

Hel­lo !  My  name is Ger­maine.  I have pre­pa­red for you some task-based games you can share and play with your friends.  I love task-based games because I feel like I am living the expe­rience in a way.  When eve­ryone invol­ved is open and willing to par­ti­ci­pate, then it feels like we are all in this toge­ther.  We receive and give in this very direct and deli­be­rate way that I think is an honest exchange for all of us.  Have fun, enjoy !

Take Flight

Pre­pa­ra­tion :

Find a piece of tis­sue paper that is just for you !

Let’s play !

1. Create wind with your body to lift the tis­sue paper off the ground

2. Play with the paper freely

3. Come to stan­ding and toss the tis­sue paper, observe the paper sculp­tures in the air.

4. Get into a natu­ral tos­sing pulse, let’s call it heartbeat

5. Sub­di­vide this heart­beat (For example : 123, 123, etc.).  If you are playing with a friend or in a group, try tos­sing the paper to each other.  Remem­ber, try to keep the tis­sue paper in the air.

6. Even­tual­ly, allow the paper to come into contact with dif­ferent parts of the body.

7. Allow the game to come to a natu­ral end.

Feel free to do a part­ner ver­sion while sitting !

Hel­lo !  My  name is Ger­maine.  I have pre­pa­red for you some task-based games you can share and play with your friends.  I love task-based games because I feel like I am living the expe­rience in a way.  When eve­ryone invol­ved is open and willing to par­ti­ci­pate, then it feels like we are all in this toge­ther.  We receive and give in this very direct and deli­be­rate way that I think is an honest exchange for all of us.  Have fun, enjoy !

Part­ner Walk

Pre­pa­ra­tion :

1. Gather an object or hand­held per­cus­sion ins­tru­ment and a stick you can play it with, find a part­ner and link arms.

2.  Each pair of players can decide who will be the lea­der.  Once a lea­der is selec­ted, they can put up their hand.

Let’s play !

1. The lea­der plays their object while step­ping at the same time.  Their part­ner will try to syn­chro­nize with them as close as pos­sible.  The lea­der can move for­wards, back­wards, side to side, or change the pace or rhythm of their movements.

2.  For social dis­tan­cing pur­poses, you can also play this game 6 feet apart from your partner.

Feel free to get crea­tive with your move­ments, stay safe and have fun !

Hel­lo !  My  name is Ger­maine.  I have pre­pa­red for you some task-based games you can share and play with your friends.  I love task-based games because I feel like I am living the expe­rience in a way.  When eve­ryone invol­ved is open and willing to par­ti­ci­pate, then it feels like we are all in this toge­ther.  We receive and give in this very direct and deli­be­rate way that I think is an honest exchange for all of us.  Have fun, enjoy !

Path

Pre­pa­ra­tion :

1. Gather a bunch of objects around the house like cups, bowls, jars, wha­te­ver you can find.  Test the sounds to see if you like them.

2.  Make 2 soun­ding pen­du­lums out of some mason jar lids by tying a long piece of string on each with a loop at the end.

3. With one friend or more, make a path­way with the objects lea­ving a space in bet­ween wide enough for a player to walk through.

Let’s play !

2.  The player starts to walk through the path while swaying the pen­du­lums gent­ly so that they come into contact with the objects.

3.  As the player gets towards the end of the path, path­ma­kers are res­pon­sible to keep on exten­ding the path with objects from the other end.

The player can choose to walk back­wards or pause at any point, but must even­tual­ly conti­nue forward.

Path­ma­kers are free to change the shape and direc­tion of the path.

4.  The game ends when the player reaches the end of the path.

Feel free to get crea­tive with your move­ments, stay safe and have fun !

This entry is a co-writ­ten account of “jam sessions”—an impro­vi­sa­tio­nal musi­cal prac­tice based in Regi­na, Sas­kat­che­wan that embraces and accounts for radi­cal forms of access in sonic expres­sion with disa­bled and Deaf folx. The wri­ters here are Dr. Helen Prid­more, a musi­cian-aca­de­mic who ori­gi­nal­ly deve­lo­ped the idea for “jam ses­sions,” and Dr. Chel­sea Jones, a Mitacs Post­doc­to­ral Fel­low who assis­ted in sup­por­ting this vibrant work. The par­ti­ci­pants in this pro­ject are mem­bers of The Big Sky Centre for Lear­ning and Being Asto­ni­shed ! [insert URL : www.beingastonished.com], more com­mon­ly known as Astonished!.

1. Intro­du­cing Jam Sessions

Helen : In ear­ly sum­mer 2019, I began to work with Asto­ni­shed!, a fami­ly-dri­ven com­mu­ni­ty based orga­ni­za­tion offe­ring crea­tive and edu­ca­tio­nal oppor­tu­ni­ties for young people with com­plex phy­si­cal disabilities.

Chel­sea : At the time, my research focu­sed on what “voice” can mean in the context of a bur­geo­ning, but under­re­pre­sen­ted, disa­bi­li­ty and Deaf art move­ment on the Cana­dian prai­ries. I am not a musi­cian, so the ele­ment of impro­vi­sa­tio­nal music-making was enti­re­ly new to me. I do, howe­ver, stron­gly believe in doing work that usurps ableist and colo­nial ambi­tions of “giving voice,” which is why it was impor­tant for me to sup­port Helen’s jam ses­sions, which conti­nue to be an impor­tant cultu­ral contri­bu­tion to the disa­bi­li­ty arts scene in Regina.

Helen : My work with Asto­ni­shed ! is part of a large-scale pro­ject fun­ded by the Cana­da Coun­cil for the Arts. Entit­led Mul­ti­PLAY, this pro­ject brings toge­ther artists and com­mu­ni­ties across Cana­da, explo­ring impro­vi­sa­tion, tech­no­lo­gy and col­la­bo­ra­tion. The first step in buil­ding jam ses­sions was to meet with Asto­ni­shed ! mem­bers in Decem­ber 2018 to explain how impro­vi­sa­tio­nal music making can work. Chel­sea and I  pre­sen­ted the idea to student resear­chers and sta­ke­hol­ders (such as fami­ly members).

1. Moving Beyond “Voice” through Jam Sessions

Helen : In ear­ly 2019, Asto­ni­shed ! participants—known as student resear­chers for their role as desi­gners and par­ti­ci­pants in uni­ver­si­ty-based research projects—and I met regu­lar­ly in sum­mer 2019 and ongoing into the fall, explo­ring ways to impro­vise toge­ther.  I wan­ted to encou­rage explo­ra­tion of what would be pos­sible for them, and to dimi­nish fears that the vocal sounds pro­du­ced were “not good enough” or “not nor­mal.”  What is a nor­mal vocal sound, any­way ?  My own world as a sin­ger embraces many dif­ferent types of vocal sound, inten­tio­nal­ly explo­ring vocal pos­si­bi­li­ties and wor­king to break down ste­reo­types of vocal “beau­ty.”

1. Wor­king with Technology

Chel­sea : I began atten­ding the group’s jam ses­sions. I took notes as part of my par­ti­ci­pant-obser­va­tion research. To ini­tiate ideas and to over­come ini­tial shy­ness at using voices, we used some elec­tro­nic tools such as iPads loa­ded with sound-making apps, and a loo­per which recor­ded and re-played sounds and voices.

Helen : One of the first impro­vi­sa­tions we tried toge­ther was an audio depic­tion of Bren­da MacLau­chlan, one of the foun­ders of Asto­ni­shed!, on her bicycle.

“Ima­gine Bren­da riding to cam­pus (the Uni­ver­si­ty of Regi­na cam­pus, where ses­sions were held) against the wind.  What kind of sound does her bicycle make ?  Now she’s locking up the bike, and coming to meet us…and now she is coas­ting home with the wind behind her…”

These kinds of visual sti­mu­li, foun­ded in real life and fea­tu­ring a well-loved friend, pro­vo­ked col­la­bo­ra­tive sound-making and some fun.

Chel­sea : Because this work invol­ved a com­bi­na­tion of embo­died voices and tech­no­lo­gy, I spent time out­side of the jam ses­sions work with Asto­ni­shed ! student resear­chers on lear­ning the tech­no­lo­gy. This meant trying new tools—iPads, phone apps, edi­ting soft­ware, voice recor­ders, and keyboards—and lear­ning them for the first time, toge­ther. The idea was to find tech­no­lo­gies that gel­led with people’s ambi­tions in sonic crea­tion and fit their embo­died modes of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. For example, when it was not pos­sible for some par­ti­ci­pants to hold iPads, Helen found mic stand attach­ments to hold and ele­vate the iPads for easier access.

Helen : As the sum­mer pro­gres­sed, the group began to explore actual vocal sounds, crea­ting sound­scapes on various themes. We re-crea­ted the sounds of atten­ding a foot­ball game ; we sha­red sto­ries from sum­mer camp, such as canoe trips and camp­fire ghost sto­ries ; and we had some good laughs mixed in with the hesi­ta­tion to use voices which func­tion in their own way.

1. Going Public : Jam Ses­sions as Disa­bi­li­ty Artivism

Helen : My inter­est in wor­king with the Asto­ni­shed ! student resear­chers is foun­ded on my own research inter­ests in expe­ri­men­tal voice and impro­vi­sa­tion.  Howe­ver, I must empha­size that my inter­est grew as I got to know this remar­kable group of young people.  I was espe­cial­ly impres­sed with their efforts and crea­ti­vi­ty at the public sym­po­sium held in Regi­na in Novem­ber 2019, “Disa­bi­li­ty Arti­vism Across the Flyo­ver Pro­vinces.” Orga­ni­zed and pro­du­ced by Chel­sea, this one-day sym­po­sium fea­tu­red a varie­ty of guest spea­kers, pre­sen­ta­tions and round­table dis­cus­sions, based on the themes of disa­bi­li­ty arts and crea­ti­vi­ty. Our jam ses­sion group was plea­sed to be fea­tu­red in the day’s acti­vi­ties, and we pre­sen­ted a live impro­vi­sa­tion based on “a day in the life of an Asto­ni­shed ! student researcher.”

Chel­sea : Fol­lo­wing the lead of other major disa­bi­li­ty-led arts events in Cana­da, such as Crip­ping the Arts [URL : http://bodiesintranslation.ca/cripping-the-arts-symposium-2019/] and Ren­dez­vous with Mad­ness [URL : https://workmanarts.com/rendezvous-with-madness/] that cele­brate arts-based advo­ca­cy, this gathe­ring focu­sed on local disa­bi­li­ty arts entan­gle­ments with regio­nal unders­tan­ding of disa­bi­li­ty poli­tics by asking : how does the work of disa­bled arts disrupt—or “crip”—normative artis­tic prac­tices on the prai­ries ? The col­lec­tive jam ses­sion ser­ved as a radi­cal arts prac­tice that might best be des­cri­bed using the words of Lucia Carl­son in her 2016 chap­ter, “Music, Intel­lec­tual Disa­bi­li­ty, and Human Flourishing”:

“This was not a the­ra­peu­tic endea­vor with a set goal ; rather than being direc­ted at tea­ching, nor­ma­li­zing, or culti­va­ting par­ti­cu­lar skills, this musi­cal expe­rience unfol­ded orga­ni­cal­ly and was valuable and valued for its own sake” (p. 41). 

Helen : Because our improv was sound-based, we were conscious that it was not ful­ly rea­ching out to eve­ryone in the audience, as we had a large crowd of Deaf and hard-of-hea­ring par­ti­ci­pants at the sym­po­sium.  The­re­fore it was a delight to invite our col­league, lea­ding edu­ca­tor in Deaf and hard-of-hea­ring pro­grams Dr. Joanne Weber, to lead a move­ment- and ges­ture-based improv that invol­ved the entire audience.  Dr. Weber pas­sed on the lea­der­ship to one of her Deaf stu­dents and he ani­ma­ted­ly led the crowd in a spi­ri­ted improv that inclu­ded both sound and action.

Helen : I was thril­led to see and hear the par­ti­ci­pa­tion of a large group in the impro­vi­sa­tion that began with the Asto­ni­shed ! jam group.  While the jam ses­sions are cur­rent­ly in hia­tus due to the pan­de­mic, it is my hope that I can conti­nue to explore sound impro­vi­sa­tion with this friend­ly and enga­ged group of student resear­chers. Wor­king with them has cer­tain­ly enlar­ged my unders­tan­ding of vocal beauty.

Mat­ter at Your Fingertips

Using play­dough, ‘Mat­ter at Your Fin­ger­tips’ is a play­ful ini­tia­tion to sound crea­tion. Objec­tive : to make a col­lec­tive com­po­si­tion fea­tu­ring a score made out of play dough.

By MariEve Lau­zon and Michel Frigon

Class I

1. Play the fol­lo­wing sound para­me­ters using hands on a chair, desk or table. Empha­size visual contact to ensure a clean cut-off.

   1. Soft

   2. Loud

   3. Silence

   4. Sound that changes (Cycle 1 ; Gr. 1 & 2), crescendo/decrescendo (Cycles 2 & 3, Gr. 3–6)

   5. Short sound

1. Demons­trate how to represent sounds using play dough. Explain the shapes for :

1. Show how to make sculp­tures by assem­bling shapes together.

Hint : warm play­dough up before making shapes.

1. Stu­dents make shapes.

1. Make a score using stu­dents’ shapes.

Hint : Use sto­ry as an ana­lo­gy : a score need a begin­ning, middle and end

1. Play the score (using hands on chair or other)

Fol­low conductor’s gestures

Fol­low student’s hand as the ‘cur­sor”

Class 2

Review the pre­vious class. Eva­luate as appro­priate (see work­sheet below).

1. Review dif­fe­rence sounds and shapes.

2. Ask stu­dents to make 2 dif­ferent shapes of their choice.

3. Create a col­lec­tive score. Stu­dents place their shape in a spot of their choosing.

4. Play the score.

5. Move shapes to make a new piece.

Eva­lua­tion :

Invent (team­work)

• Cla­ri­ty and pre­ci­sion of score

• Atten­tion to timing

Inter­pret

• Res­pect for the score (dyna­mics, silences, timing)

Appre­ciate (see work­sheet with questions)

• Iden­ti­fy sound para­me­ters of various shapes (for youn­ger students)

• Reco­gnize sound para­me­ters by ear (e.g. dic­ta­tion of sounds for which stu­dents draw shapes or respond true or false to given shapes)

Varia­tions :

Use ins­tru­ments : boomw­ha­ckers, drums, recor­ders, wind ins­tru­ments, voice, key­board per­cus­sion ins­tru­ments, small per­cus­sion etc.

Asso­cia­tion of color of play­dough with : boomw­ha­ckers, vowels or conso­nants, vocal effects, ins­tru­ment fami­ly, etc.

Add a second voice to the score

Hint : To help dis­tri­bu­tion, take play­dough out of contai­ners and make one big ball of each colour. Wrap play­dough in plas­tic wrap to keep moist.