[HANASHIR:15620] Perfect Pitch booklet/Familial Dysautonomia

[Ellen Allard <ellen...>]

Dear Friends,

 

At Hava Nashira '02, I was fortunate to spend some time with our fellow
HN list member Susan Rancer who is a registered music therapist. She
teaches music to special needs students of all ages and is a music
director for a Jewish preschool and synagogue in California. At Hava
Nashira, Susan spoke with me about some of her work with people who have
perfect or relative pitch. She gave me a mini-consultation and I was
amazed at what I discovered about myself. I asked her to keep me
informed if she ever published anything based on her findings. Susan
contacted me recently and told me that, based on her research and work
with her clients/patients, she self-published a booklet called Perfect
Pitch, Relative Pitch: How to Identify & Test for the Phenomena: A Guide
For Music Teachers, Music Therapists, Parents. Having read through my
own copy of the booklet, I am now highly recommending it to anyone who
works as an educator in the field of music, secular or Jewish. It is a
fascinating booklet and has information that I believe any music
educator, choir leader etc. would find helpful, informative, and
relevant to their work. As I read through the book, I found information
that would have applied to my own personal musical experiences, to the
experiences that both of my daughters had with music (they both took
piano lessons and their teachers would have benefited enormously from
the information in Susan's booklet), to the students to whom I gave
piano lessons, and to my own experiences as a music educator. 

 

If you want information about her book, contact Susan at
SusanRMT (at) aol(dot)com(dot) She is selling the booklets for $5 a copy plus 
$1 for
shipping. Though she self-published the booklet, the proceeds from sales
of the book will go directly to FD Hope, a charity that funds research
and education for the genetic disease Familial Dysautonomia. This
disease took the life of Susan's son David at the age of 11 in 2001. It
is even more prevalent among Jewish children than Tay-Sachs, but until
now it has not received much attention.

 

If you're not sure what the disease is, here is an explanation from the
website http://www.familialdysautonomia.org
<http://www.familialdysautonomia.org/> :

 

FD, or Familial Dysautonomia - pronounced "dysauto-NO-mia" is a genetic
disease present at birth in male and female Jewish babies, primarily
causing dysfunction of the autonomic and sensory nervous systems.
Dysfunction is a result of an incomplete development of the neurons
(nerve fibers) of these systems.

 

Certainly this posting is not directly related to Jewish music, but it
is related to those of us who teach Jewish music. I hope that you will
consider ordering a copy of the book. Not only will you be contributing
to a worthy case, but I guarantee it will change how you teach and how
you approach your students.

 

All the best,

Ellen (and Peter)

-----

Peter & Ellen Allard

Specializing in Music for Young Children

*******************************

For information on our award-winning recordings, children's concerts,
and teacher workshops/keynotes, please visit
http://www.PeterandEllen.com

or call tollfree 1-888-746-4481