Songwriting, expressive guitar playing and alternate tuning are just some of the topics that unlikely students discover during their master class series at
Melodic Connections. They don’t just study these topics, however. They learn about them by engaging in a dialogue with local musicians who volunteer their time in an effort to start bridging the gap between community members and adults with disabilities.
Every Thursday and Friday, adults with special learning needs gather for six hours of music therapy per day. They take lessons, practice their instruments and engage in group sessions to prepare for monthly concerts where they sing and jam out on keyboards, drums and guitars to tunes like
“Any Way You Want It” and “Billie Jean.”
While the nonprofit Melodic Connections launched its conservatory program in October 2010, founder and Executive Director Betsey Zenk Nuseibeh teamed up with
Wussy bassist Mark Messerly to kick off a master class series that takes place on the second Thursday and fourth Friday of the month.
“We’re looking to have DJs, rappers and all different kinds of members of the music community come in and talk to us about what they do, how they got started, how to go about doing it, and maybe playing a little bit, jamming with our musicians and really starting to develop some relationships,” says Nuseibeh.
Beginning in March, the conservatory program will become daily, running six hours per day, five days per week, and Nuseibeh says she hopes the master class series will continue to grow. It's all about “the connection with the community of musicians that it has started to create.”
Some of the most fascinating things about the series, according to Nuseibeh, are those personal connections.
“It was very interesting to watch one of our guys with autism sit down with a complete stranger, and sit face to face, look at him eye to eye and start playing and having this musical conversation,” Nuseibeh says. “It was somebody he’d heard speak an hour and known personally maybe two to three minutes, just enough to ask him to play guitar together.”
Nuseibeh says the classes have been a huge success. Volunteers from the local music scene have all left with “a really good impression” of her students. Conversations continue using the universal language of music, which has the power to break down stereotypes and bring people together.
Do Good:
•
Email Nuseibeh if you're a music lover, interested in participating in a master class
• Donate to
Melodic Connections
• Like Melodic Connections on
Facebook to find out about upcoming events.
By Brittany York
Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies.
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