Mindfulness

Mindfulness in Education

As an example of mindful practice, the opening vignette prepares for music learning, but it is not music centered. Later, we will explore ways mindful practice can directly deepen music understanding. Still, this first kind of mindful practice can have many benefits for your students.

Mindfulness has been studied little in the school context. Researchers (Mendelson et al., 2010) studied the effects of a 12-week mindfulness intervention on 97 fourth graders attending one of four urban public schools. The schools were randomized to an intervention or wait-list control condition. The intervention included yoga poses, breathing techniques, and guided mindful practices. Focus groups showed that students and teachers were receptive to the program and believed it to be helpful. Analysis of standard questionnaires taken before and after intervention showed the intervention’s positive effect on involuntary responses to social stress. The researchers indicated that mindfulness programs in schools seem feasible and should be studied further with larger sample sizes, randomizing by child, and recruiting methods that may bias the outcomes less.

Some research examines the effects of mindfulness in the music realm, much of which addresses the alleviation or reduction of performance anxiety for adult musicians (Chang, Midlarsky, Lin, 2003, Khalsa, Shorter, Cope, Wyshak, & Sklar, 2009). Additionally, mindfulness has been shown to increase the aesthetic response for university students listening to music (Diaz, 2011).

Incorporating mindfulness in instruction with children can lead to increased learning outcomes including heightened listening sensitivity (Anderson, 2015), more enjoyment (Anderson, 2015; Langer, Russel, & Eisenkraft, 2009), greater competency, increased creativity (Langer as cited in Anderson, 2015), and reduced performance anxiety (Su et al., 2010).

The concept of mindfulness can be separated into two types of practice. The first focuses on a single, internal object such as the breath (Shapiro & Walsh, 2003) to cultivate an inner calmness. This first type can be referred to as meditative mindfulness (Anderson, 2015). The second type of mindfulness involves investigation of something outside the body (Shapiro & Walsh, 2003). This often includes a goal-oriented learning task and can be referred to social-psychological mindfulness (Anderson, 2015). Both types of mindfulness have a place in education. We will now turn to the benefits and use of this second type—social-psychological mindfulness—and its potential use in music education for music learning. To do so, let us return to the children and their learning.

Using Mindful Practice for Deeper Music Understanding

The activity from the opening vignette has value in itself for deepening children’s understanding of the story of the song, “On My Toe There Is a Flea” and strengthening their personal connection to the song. It can, however, be extended to build music understanding.

The teacher continues to guide students in imagining a flea. “The flea has come back. Feel it on your toe again. The little flea doesn’t want to jump up you this time. Instead, it wants to run. Now, it is fast for a flea, but remember its legs are very tiny. Feel the flea slowly run up your body. [Pause] Now the flea’s on your head. It feels so tall! Get ready, the flea is going to slide down you. One, two, three. Wheeee! [Descending vocal siren].”

By using this mindfulness technique, the teacher has guided the children to feel the difference between discrete steps ascending and descending as well as a smooth gliding ascending and descending. This prepares the following music exploration.

Okay, our fleas want to jump again. Let us sing the song, “On my Toe there is a Flea” (which moves stepwise on the major scale first ascending and then descending). The students and teacher sing the song with motions, pointing to discrete parts of their bodies. Then the teacher explains, “Now the flea wants to run and slide again. Remember how different that felt from jumping? Let’s use our voices to match the difference.” The teacher does vocal sirens ascending and then descending while pointing to where the “flea” is running smoothly up or sliding down her body. The children join in without being asked.

Teachers can teach students the difference between sliding between notes and notes that move by step in many ways. The nonmusic mindful component of feeling the flea jumping or sliding prepared the music mindful component of connecting the feeling with the sound, allowing children to develop a deeper understanding of the music concepts.

Guided Mindful Activities

Incorporating mindfulness need not be elaborate, stressful, or intimidating for music teachers. The vignettes represent one way to use mindfulness to explore pitch. In Anderson’s (2015) study, the mindful activity prepared focused listening with a short, added verbal prompt before listening. Below are examples of how mindfulness can inform and deepen learning about an instrument, preparing for improvisation or composition, and using proper music breathing. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these activities are a good place to start or to inspire other mindful activities for use in your music classroom.

A classic mindful activity is the “Raisin Activity.” In it, a person spends 5 to 10 minutes exploring one to three raisins as fully as possible, as though looking at a raisin for the first time (Baer, 2006). This concept of spending extra time exploring an object can be effectively used in the music class. The teacher might model the activity first with a tambourine. “In my hand is a tambourine. I have played it many times before.” Play it traditional ways by striking the head or shaking the entire instrument. “I am going to look at this tambourine like I have never played it before. There are other ways I can make sound with this instrument, which I will now explore.” Glide a hand along a jingle so it spins. “Rub the drum head. Tap the frame.” After this shared exploration of the tambourine, invite students to pick different instruments, scatter around the room, and spend 5 to 10 minutes exploring the many different ways the instrument can make sound and other ways they can explore the instrument. Some of these may be vastly different, but some may be only slightly different. In the future, when you are using instruments as a group, the children will have a lot more to draw on. For example, they will be able to discuss and more fully experience how and why performers may choose to play with a consistent technique.

You might conclude this “Raisin Activity” to transition to other work in different ways. The key is to make sure you gave students sufficient time to explore their instruments. Consider this exploration as being for them. Assessment of their exploration is not really appropriate. To prepare the students to internalize and remember their exploration, you might have them draw a picture of a new way to make sound on their instrument, share what they found with a friend, or record a short video with the “highlights” of their exploration. With many groups, you could let the children choose which of these three options will best help them. Then you might come back as a group to use the instruments while singing a familiar song or you might put the instruments away to continue the theme of exploration in any number of ways. Perhaps the group explores body percussion together. You might put on a familiar piece and ask the children to move to it in an unexpected way. You might play a sound exploration on the piano to tell a story that the children tell visually through movement.

As a second example, the teacher can prepare music improvisation or composition with a guided, mindful meditation in which students imagine a robin lands on their hands.

It is a little nervous and so hops very slowly or unsteadily up your arm. Feel the weight of it. Feel its little talons. After hopping up your arm, it lands decidedly on your shoulder and sings a triumphant song.

Emphasize that recreating this story musically can be done many different ways. Know your students. For some, this would be plenty of preparation to improvise or begin working on a composition. Others may want a more structured approach. You might say to the students, “remember when the bird landed on your hand. Remember what it felt like physically and how you felt about it. Now imagine what that might sound like.” After a moment of quiet contemplation, allow the students to explore the sound of the sensation. You could prep each of the sections this way: hopping on the arm, landing on the shoulder, singing triumphantly. A follow-up activity may include having each student coming up with a different story and then putting that story to music. If appropriate for your group, you could have students guess the stories based on the music.

And now for a final example: mindful practice can be used to draw the attention to the breath in order to prepare the students to use proper breath when singing or playing a wind instrument such as recorder. You might say,

Without changing the way you are sitting, close your eyes if you are comfortable or lower your gaze to the [floor/desk]. Notice the way you are breathing in. Notice whether you use your nose or your mouth. Notice whether or not you pause after you breathe in. Notice what parts of your body move a little or a lot while you breathe in. Notice where you feel tense, where you feel relaxed.

Continue this to explore breathing out. Then connect to proper music breath. “Now shift the way you are sitting into the position we have practiced for playing recorder.” Pause here to allow the students time to shift. Now you can guide them through the details of how you want them to breathe to prepare for music performance. This entire activity need not take more than 5 minutes. By giving children a chance to mindfully practice breathing, you are building a shared understanding of music breathing in isolation and also compared with their regular, automatic breathing. In the future, you can remind students of their mindful breathing practice when their music breathing becomes less careful, or you can choose to take a minute for mindful practice of music breathing.

Mindful Planning

To this point, I have given examples of using mindful practice to deepen music learning. They are a great place to start. In going forward, I will describe three possible approaches to the planning process for transition, extramusical mindful practice, and mindful practice to deepen music understanding. Teachers may use these as a guide to mold mindful practice into their own teaching situation.

First consider using mindful practice as a transition tool. Perhaps you have a regular transition that is difficult for a specific group of children or you notice from body language and verbal cues that a group coming into your class is not ready to participate fully; some of the students may be rowdy, tense, are visibly upset. These are great times to use meditative mindful practice. You might put on soothing music (perhaps even something to be studied in a later class period) and invite the children to be still with their eyes closed. You might have a barred instrument ready in the pentatonic scale. Invite all children to sit still with their eyes closed. A child whose eyes are closed may be tapped gently on the shoulder or called quietly to play a calming, relaxing improvisation. During the music, ask the children to focus on the feeling of what they hear. During the silence when a new child is chosen, ask the children to focus on the feeling of breathing in and breathing out. Instead, you might aid transition by inviting the children to hold a yoga pose with you. Ask them if they can make the room so still and so quiet they can only hear their own breath. Using very sturdy poses (e.g., mountain, child’s, or butterfly) for this mindful practice will probably yield more success. Save balance poses (like when you stand on one foot) for a time when the children may wiggle and be silly. Using these mindful practices as a transition need only take 2 to 4 minutes. Afterward, especially the more often you use the tools, the children who were not ready become ready emotionally, mentally, and physically to learn about and share in music making.

You can extend this idea of mindful transition for individuals as needed. After you have introduced and practiced a few mindful techniques for transition, consider making a “Mindful Corner” in your classroom. In the Corner, keep a few cards or other visual reminders of previously learned mindful activities (e.g., a picture of a whale for a mindful meditation on floating, a picture of a stick figure doing a yoga pose with the name of the pose written). By incorporating this practice regularly, you make available the opportunity for a child who is having a difficult time in an activity or transitioning between activities in the music classroom to take 2 minutes in the “Mindful Corner” to calm and prepare to reengage with the class successfully. You might prompt a child or allow her to choose for herself to take a moment for mindful practice.

Also consider taking mindful moments for your own transitions. I know most teachers feel their day is already packed, but consider the 2 minutes you take for mindful practice as an investment in being more present, more relaxed, and therefore more productive in other parts of the day. But where can you find these 2 minutes? Perhaps you arrive to morning hall duty 2 minutes early and focus on relaxing your breathing. Perhaps you slow down for the first three bites of lunch. Really enjoy the flavor, the texture of your food. Try to experience it like you have never had it before. Perhaps you take the 2 minutes when a class is late to close your eyes and imagine a feather floating slowly to the ground. Your schedule might invite a regular time for mindful practice, or you might need to find a different 2 minutes each day. Either way, you will be more ready for the rest of your day, you will be in the right frame of mind to plan mindfulness in your lessons, and you will be more prepared to lead mindful practice with your students.

Let us consider how to plan for using mindful practice to develop an extramusical theme. When I was teaching at a preschool during a unit on whales, I incorporated whales and the ocean with both music and extramusical exploration. Consider guiding your children to imagining the feeling of something related to your theme. In the case of the whale unit, I guided children,

“Imagine you are a whale in the ocean. Though you are very large, the water makes you feel light. You are floating.” The children’s eyes were closed. A few let their arms slowly float upward. I was able to draw on this experience later when the children were moving through the space, “swimming,” and creating their own “whale songs.”

This approach can work with most themes. Consider a theme or unit you may be teaching soon. What is something connected to that theme that can be imagined and felt? Here are some possible pairings: autumn/the floating descent of falling leaves, rain/the feel of rain on your skin, birds/being in an egg and hatching, airplanes/feeling yourself pressed backward into your seat during takeoff. Carve out a few minutes to help the children explore this feeling through their imagination. By doing so, you are building interest in the theme of music learning and creating something from which you can build connections later in the unit.

Last, let us remember a shared goal of music educators: to deepen our students’ understanding of music. Mindful practice can be used to enhance understanding of many different music concepts. To prepare for this planning, think of a concept you want your children to understand more fully, say dynamics. For your concept, complete the following sentence in an unexpected way: “[This concept] is like [this concept] because [of this reason].” For instance, “Dynamics are like the wind because they can feel more powerful, weaker, or somewhere in between.” Having trouble? Ask your students to help create sentences like this for a concept they have already explored. It is a great exercise for them and can help you with your planning for that or another class. After creating a few such sentences for your music concept, choose one that elicits imagining a physical feeling. Consider how you can guide children in imagining varying degrees of this feeling.

Imagine you are sitting in an open field. A gentle breeze flows by. You just barely feel the warmth on your skin. [long pause] Imagine the breeze picks up, just a little. If you have long hair, the ends start to move gently with the wind. [long pause] Now the breeze picks up to a heavy wind. Your hat flies off your head to be carried to the far side of the field [and so on].

By guiding children through imagining these varying degrees of the wind, you are preparing a discussion and music exploration of a much more nuanced understanding of dynamics than “quiet, medium, and loud.” The mindful practice can make possible a deeper understanding of music.

These examples illustrate that music teachers can find many different ways to incorporate mindful practice into the teaching they already do and with slight alterations in the way they already plan. This incorporation need not take much time in either the planning or teaching. There are many nonmusic benefits for students, yet mindful practice techniques can also be used for enhanced connection to music and deepened music understanding. It simply takes teachers stretching themselves when planning, directing the children in mindful tasks, reflecting afterward on successes and areas for growth, and continuing the cycle with more moments of mindfulness in lessons.