Chris Pauline Rachel Alison Sally

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Chris

BACKGROUND - Chris is in his forties, and suffers from the effects of Thalidomide. He has no arms, virtually no vision, and makes no verbal communication. He is, however, able to carry a tune - if prompted by the right person (someone he feels comfortable with) he will hum certain tunes that he knows, very gently, as to be almost inaudible, under his breath… you have to listen closely, but he has a very developed sense of pitch (tunes) and rhythm.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN - Chris is the first of the people within these pages that I worked with. I met him in 1994, when I was working as a care assistant at the home he had just moved to, from his former home in Scotland, a long way away. I instantly felt an empathy with him, partly because we are the same age, and I could easily have been affected by the Thalidomide episode, which happened when I too was born, but also because I saw he was in very unfamiliar surroundings, where he knew no-one, but where he also had to make a home - it reminded me of how I felt when I went away to boarding school as a child. I was not yet aware of his musical abilities.

It happened that I was with him on a van, going to riding lessons, when he had an episode of what I can only describe as acute distress - I found it upsetting to witness, and felt powerless to ease his unhappiness. Over the next few days I thought about how Chris had no way of communicating his feelings AT ALL to the outside world. We all use our arms and hands more than we realise when communicating, as well as using our eyes to perceive the gesticulations of others, and, more obviously, communicating through speech. Chris could do none of these things - it was hardly surprising he felt distressed sometimes - so would I !


I had also seen the amazing dexterity of foot that Chris posessed - he was able to eat a spoonful of peas with his foot without dropping any of them - I can hardly manage that with my hand. I reckoned that if he could do that, then he could handle a stick or beater well enough with his foot to be able to beat the merry wotsit out of some instrument or other, and perhaps gain some sort of self-expression that way. After some thought and research, a glockenspeil seemed to me to be a good combination of percussiveness, tunefulness, and strength. Thanks to a very enlightened home-manager, a glock was duly purchased, and there began a journey for both Chris and myself that still continues….

SPECIFICS - It's been over ten years that Chris and I have been working together. In that ten years, some of the things he has achieved were things I originally, naievely, hoped would take just a few weeks. I had never taught music to anyone with special needs when we began, and though a trained musician, was not a trained music therapist or teacher, so I was very aware I had no 'procedure' to fall back on.

I spent at least the first couple of sessions playing different CD's to Chris, trying to judge his reaction to different types of music, getting him used to a one-to-one situation, and also addressing the logistics of how he would play his Glockenspeil - ie what sticks/beaters to use, how he should hold them between his toes, and where to position the Glock (it ended up on the floor between his feet). It became apparent that what vision Chris had was not enough for him to see where he was hitting. I hoped that one day Chris might be able to play tunes entirely on his own, but with the lack of accuracy that the flailing sticks seemed to afford, it did not seem possible for him to play anything other than random notes. On the plus side, however, was the fact that he immediately seemed to get a lot of enjoyment, and some sort of emotional release, from simply whacking the thing to his heart's content - his chuckles and obvious enthusiasm gave me the energy to continue with what then seemed to me to be a pretty dauntless challenge.

One of my biggest concerns was that he should enjoy what he was doing; I did not want to spoil his obvious love of music by pushing forward with 'goals' that I might have in my head - this was all, after all, meant to be for him, so I resolved to let things progress at his pace, not mine. I therefore tried to balance 'work' work aginst 'fun' work - I started guiding his foot, very gently, to allow him to move between notes, and we started to play tunes that he was familiar with. This gave him some of the Instant Gratification required to give him the energy to continue with the more boring stuff - like trying to learn where different notes were for himself. We also finished each session with a 'jam' together - I would play chords on my guitar that could be played continuously over an unchanging note played to a rhythm by him. (Tonic, sub-dominant and dominant over a Tonic pedal note - for the more technically minded - the ubiquitous three-chord-trick).

A year or two into our sessions I decided to address the accuracy issue by trying Chris with a keyboard - it would be less gratifying for him to hit, but maybe the more precise process of playing a keyboard would make it easier for him to play tunes himself. The first obvious problem when we tried a keyboard (also on the floor between his legs) was that his toes were too big to play keys individually - his big toe was of a size that several keys sounded at once, and the fact that we were using an electronic keyboard made this even more pronounced. I was lucky enough to be living opposite a talented carpenter/turner, who agreed to design and turn a purpose made short stick, tapered at the end, which Chris could hold between his toes, foot pointing down. After a few different designs, we hit on one that worked, with indentations in the sides so that Chris could feel when it was the right way up. A flattened underside meant that he didn't keep slipping off the key. This has worked very well, and , as I had hoped, made for a much more accurate tune-making machine ! It also meant that Chris now had two instruments to choose from, as well as an old set of drum pads he had aquired before I knew him. We also tried other percussive instruments, even a full drum kit once - Chris has a natural sense of rhythm, and it seemed a logical thing to try, though playing tunes is not as easy… But it's been the Glock that has become Chris' main instrument, ten years on, it is a joy to see Chris banging away on it.

Our sessions overall fall into three sections - first third 'working' - playing scales and arpeggios, on whichever instrument he has chosen to play, to work on his accuracy (Incidentally Chris does not see scales as being any different from tunes, or that's the impression I get - he hums along just like when we play tunes, and doesn't seem to see them as a chore - which I remember them being when I was taught instruments as a child ) - second third playing tunes, with me guiding his foot most of the time, and final third jamming together, either just the two of us, or with his Casio keyboard providing a rhythm… like most jams, sometimes it's good, sometimes not so good !

Chris also plays his Glock at the Group Music sessions that I run at his house. He has a brilliant ear, and has adapted our 'three chord trick' approach so that with every different song that I play (the sessions are simply me playing everyone's favourite songs on the guitar, and 10 or so people all playing along on assorted percussive instruments) he manages to find a note that fits underneath, then plays that note as a rhythm along with everyone else. He also performed in public at some anniversary celebrations, where the well deserved applause he received gave him a thrill he had never experienced before.

As I said above, things which I hoped would take months (like him playing a scale up and down without me guiding him physically) have taken many years, but their attainment has been all the sweeter for it. I am not a naturally patient person, but I have learnt from Chris that progress can be made in adverse cicumstances, it just takes time… lots of it. So who is teaching who here ?

MD 2003