“SuonTatto” - Inclusive Music Educational Project for Deaf-Mute Students

Sensory Exploration of Vibrations: An Integrated Musical Path for Deaf-Mute Students

Target Audience: Deaf-mute students (primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary school)

Course Duration: Modular

General Objective: The project aims to offer deaf-mute students a unique opportunity to discover and experience music through an integrated sensory experience. Through visual, tactile, and vibrational stimulation, students will explore the world of sound in an innovative way. The hands-on approach includes the use of intuitive graphic symbols for informal reading of musical and rhythmic patterns, construction and manipulation of musical instruments, and observation of sound waveforms through DAW software on computers, which transforms recorded sounds into clear and accessible graphic representations. Additionally, the use of speakers and direct contact with them will allow students to perceive the vibrations of sounds, transforming them into bodily movements and a deep connection with rhythm. A multisensory experience that makes music accessible, engaging, and inclusive.

Specific Objectives:

• Stimulate body awareness and its expressive possibilities through interaction with sound and vibration.

• Develop rhythmic and musical reading skills through graphic symbols and intuitive visual patterns.

• Offer a direct music experience through the construction and use of musical instruments, with a special focus on percussion.

• Create a learning environment that enhances diverse sensory perceptions, including the ability to "feel" rhythm and sound through physical contact and vibration.

Experiential Path: The project unfolds as a continuous experience of exploration and growth, during which students experience music through their bodies, sight, and touch. Each activity is designed to allow students to interact with sound in a deep and physical way, stimulating various sensory areas to promote inclusion and multisensory learning.

Course Phases:

Introduction to Vibrations

• Example Activity 1: Exploration of vibrations through the body. Students can feel vibrations transmitted from instruments like drums, cymbals, or vibrating surfaces (e.g., metal or skin) placed on tables or floors.

• Example Activity 2: Using devices that emit vibrations, such as percussion instruments and speakers, to perceive differences between low, medium, and high sounds through the body and direct contact with surfaces.

Building and Manipulating Musical Instruments

• Example Activity 1: Construction of small percussion instruments (tambourines, maracas, shakers, etc.) using simple materials. Students learn to create sounds and vibrations through direct interaction with objects.

• Example Activity 2: Manipulating instruments like congas, bongos, or djembes to explore sound differences based on pressure and type of movement (tapping, hitting, rubbing).

Informal Music Reading

• Example Activity 1: Introduction to intuitive and simple graphic symbols, such as geometric shapes, colors, and visual signs representing rhythms and melodies. Use of movement images or symbols, like circles or waves, to illustrate rhythmic flow.

• Example Activity 2: Participants read and "perform" visual musical patterns, such as sequences of symbols and shapes representing rhythmic pulses. These symbols can be drawn on posters or projected onto screens.

Visual and Tactile Music Exploration

• Example Activity 1: Each vocal or instrumental exploration activity is recorded using a microphone connected to a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Whether using their voice or musical instruments, students will be involved in the recording process. Every sound, whether vocal or produced by instruments, will be recorded and transformed into a digital audio file. After recording the sounds, students will visualize the soundwaves through the DAW. Each type of sound produced (from modulated voice to drum hit) will generate a distinct soundwave that can be seen in real-time on the screen as a line oscillating up and down. Students will explore how pitch and intensity variations translate into changes in waveform shape. Each recorded sound is visualized in the DAW. Students can observe the soundwaves and learn to recognize differences between low and high sounds, loud and soft sounds, regular or irregular. The DAW provides an accurate graphic representation of sound variations: long waves for low sounds, shorter waves for high ones, wide waves for loud sounds, and narrow waves for softer ones.

• Example Activity 2: Creation of a rhythmic and musical "map" using colors and shapes, where each color or shape corresponds to a different vibration or type of rhythmic and musical movement. Students "follow" the rhythm by tracing visual paths on tables or interactive screens.

• Example Activity 3: Listening sessions (with perceivable vibrations even without hearing the sound) of different musical genres, placing hands on speakers to feel the vibrations from the sound source and perform activities that correspond vibration with physical movement, such as walking or dancing in sync with the rhythm perceived from vibrations.

Body and Music Integration

• Example Activity: Use of percussion instruments, sound sources, games, and motor activities to associate specific movements with certain types of vibrations (e.g., tapping fingers for high vibrations, striking the center of the drum for low vibrations).

Methodology:

• Multisensory Approach: Each activity is designed to stimulate perception through various senses (sight, touch, vibration), aiming to integrate these sensory experiences into musical language.

• Visual and Tactile Learning: Use of graphic symbols and visual cues to facilitate music reading and interpretation. Activities are structured so that each student can find their own way to interact with the proposed material. Use of PC and DAW to record sound sources and visualize them graphically.

• Collaboration and Social Integration: Creation of group moments where students can share their perceptions and interpretations of sound, fostering dialogue and cooperation.

Educational Materials:

• Musical instruments created or manipulated by students (percussion, drums, maracas, etc.).

• Graphic materials (posters with rhythmic symbols, sound maps, colored markers).

• Devices for vibrations and low-frequency speakers.

• PCs with DAW provided by the teacher.

Course Conclusion: At the end of the course, students will be able to recognize, visualize, and "feel" rhythms and vibrations in a physical and perceptive way. They will have built and played instruments, used graphic symbols to "read" music, viewed the waveform of a musical or sound source, and experienced a complete sensory journey that encourages a new understanding of music as a physical, visual, and tactile practice. The project aims to enable deaf-mute students to discover music not only as an auditory experience but as a practice lived through the body, movement, and direct perception of vibrations.

 

Download PDF Presentation: "SuonTatto" con Davide Roberto