I always enjoy the articles presented, especially when they involve ideas for students with severe and multiple disabilities. I teach in Albuquerque, NM, USA, and can tell you that arrangement is very important! Also, each student must have ample opportunities to interact with the teacher alone, as well as the group. All our music is aural, as the students are blind, in combination with other disabilities. One article pointed out that students benefit from repeating patterns, especially when learning to improvize. Yes!

I would love to correspond with other teachers who work with children with serious disabilites. Thanks for all you do at Full Pitcher.

Victoria Vosa, Therapeutic Interactive Music

Thank you so much for your comment on the new blog! I’d love to “hook-up” with you, and others, through the blog and forums.

As you may, or may not, know, I maintain several websites, working together to support creative and inclusive music-making. While I have made a few great contacts online, I have been disappointed, on the whole, by the lack of feedback. I know, for example, that many thousands of people visit fullpitcher.co.uk every month and many download the free resources but nobody tells me how they use the site or what they’d like more of, etc.. So, it was really nice to receive your comment so soon after setting up this blog.

When you make a comment, people can reply to it here, but your email address is not published – I am the only person who sees that. If you would like readers to contact you directly, may I suggest that you subscribe to the Forums at http://www.fullpitcher.websitetoolbox.com. On the forums, you can enter an email address for publication, but a better option is to enable private messaging in your profile. Readers can then communicate with you without anyone’s email address being revealed. There is also a live-chat facility on the forums. I just have the free chat add-on, so only 3 people can chat at anyone time. However, in the two years I’ve run it, I’ve only had one request to chat, so that’s not a problem :>) I will post this reply to you in ‘Comments’ and I’ll also do a post about it.

So, you see that your comment is very helpful to me! Thanks again and I look forward to communicating with you.

Audrey

I would like to communicate with any other teachers/therapists/composers who include those with very significant disabilities in their music making. I have admired the work of Ms. Podmore for years, and hope to someday meet and work with her.

Please feel free to contact me……..thank you–Victoria Vosa