Tip #59: Aural Engagement: Music

Music can be used so many different ways during a training program. The following is a medley of practices and thoughts on the subject:

I enjoy playing upbeat, happy music to welcome participants into the training room.

Once the training begins, I like to play calming classical music (the Lind Institute's "Classical Melodies") at a subliminal level to produce a relaxed feeling.

It is fun to have a variety of different up tempo music to play at breaks. Oldies from the fifties, sixties and seventies tend to get most folks' feet tapping, regardless of their age. The idea is to play the music just loud enough to change the energy in the room, but not so loud that participants are unable to have a conversation.

Some trainers use music, such as a trumpet blast or the Lone Ranger Theme, to alert their participants that it is time to return after a break. They consistently play this music at the end of breaks, so the participants know immediately what it means.

Right before and right after lunch, as well as the last hour before the end of the training session, I play energetic classical music (the Lind Institute's "Classical Rhythms") at a subliminal level to keep participant energy high.

It is fun to use music during games and physical activities. Bob Pike's Creative Training Techniques Press has an entire series of copyright fee paid, high-impact seminar music: "Powerful Presentation Music" that includes Introduction and Exit Music, Break and Game Music, and Reflection and Discussion Music. Their website is: www.creativetrainingtech.com.

For accelerated learning sessions, it is always enjoyable to find music that reinforces the key themes. For example, Aretha Franklin's "Respect" works well for any number of interpersonal communication topics. Holidays can be celebrated with nondenominational music- for example, big band renditions of winter holiday music.

New age music works well in the background for visualization exercises.

Moving away from recorded music, there are all sorts of musical ways to get participants' attention: bell chimes, kazoos, train whistles, plastic clappers, gongs, even hand clapping. Any of these is preferable to straining your voice trying to be heard over a noisy, enthusiastic crowd!

Now that I have used music for so many years, a silent training room seems cold, unwelcoming, and un-alive. In fact, I find that I need the music, whether or not my participants do! As soon as I feel my own energy flagging, I turn to music to pep me up.

It is a wonderful legacy from my parents, who have always played classical music. I find that classical music gives me both clarity and peace of mind as I prepare training, set up the training room, sit and read the evaluations after a training, and pack up to leave.

As George Eliot wrote: "I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music."

But perhaps Plato said it best: "Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life to everything." I cannot imagine training without music.

This concludes our discussion of methods to ensure aural engagement. Next week, we will begin a new focus on methods to ensure haptic engagement. We will start the discussion with the first of several tips on the use of touch.

Tip #58: Aural Engagement: Music

In Training With a Beat: The Teaching Power of Music, Lenn Millbower makes a strong case for the connection between music, emotional intelligence, and success. The following is either adapted or directly quoted from his book.

It has been found that the left hemisphere of the brain is predominantly logical and analytical, processing ideas sequentially in a linear fashion. The right hemisphere is more emotional and intuitive, processing ideas holistically, in concepts and metaphors. According to Jane Healy, in Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It: "The trick in a well-functioning brain is to mix and match the abilities of the two hemispheres so that the most adaptive processing style is brought to bear on any learning situation."

Music appeals to both hemispheres. The left hemisphere processes rhythm and lyrics, while the right hemisphere listens for melodies and harmonic relationships across time. Studies have shown that children who study music become effective adult learners.

Lenn Millbower extends this thinking to adult learners. He believes that Daniel Goleman's book, Emotional Intelligence: why it can matter more than IQ, establishes the importance of music in everyday life and suggests that music is relevant to success. "Goleman believes...that being in touch with your own emotions, and those of others, leads to success; and that the more successful a person becomes, the less expertise matters, and the more emotional skills become critical... Music is a window to those emotions."

"John Blacking, in his Commonsense View of All Music, opined, ÔThe development of the senses and the education of the emotions through the arts are not merely desirable options. They are essential both for balanced action and the effective use of the intellect.' ÔLearning which involves the whole person of the learner, feelings as well as intellect,' believes Carl Rogers, Ôis the most lasting and pervasive.'"

That is why music is such a powerful training tool!

Tip #57: Aural Engagement: Music

The following music enhances the brain's capability for imagery and creativity. The items in bold print I believe can be used without copyright concern. We discussed the Lind Institute last week. All of this music is lovely, but I particularly enjoy the melodious new age music of Max Highstein and Rob Whitesides-Woo from Serenity (#12).

1. Music for Imaging Music by Smetana, Debussy, Beethoven, Strauss and Others The Lind Institute (1-800-462-3766)

2. Steven Halpern and Daniel Kobialka Recollections: New Music for Piano and Violin 1983 Halpern Sounds

3. Mike Rowland: The Fairy Ring Music Design, Inc.

4. Kitaro: Silk Road and Kitaro Ki Canyon Records

5. 5. Steve Halpern: Spectrum Suite

6. Debussy: La Mer, Prelude A, L'Apres-Midi D'un Faune, Danses Sacre et Profane

7. Holst: The Planets Berlin Philharmonic

8. Don G. Campbell: Runes and Crystal Meditations Spirit Records

9. Vivaldi: The Four Seasons Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

10. Steve Bergman: Music for an Inner Journey- Volume 1 1979 Steve Bergman

11. Relax with the Classics: Baroque masterpieces LIND Institute: 1-800-462-3766

12. New Age Healing Music Serenity: 1-800-869-1684

Tip #56: Aural Engagement: Music

We have all experienced how music can change our mood, calm us down or pep us up. A number of years ago, I experienced how music can be used to maximize learning. I had arrived in the early hours of the morning, after a very long and stressful drive. I got very little sleep before I had to register at 7:30 a.m. for the first day of a three-day an accelerated learning program. The program was held in a hotel and the group was kept together all day, even during meals.

Usually, the triple impact of lack of sleep, florescent lighting, and hotel air, would generate a headache and fatigue. And, although I am relatively social, having no time alone during a day is usually exhausting. However, I had more energy by the end of the workshop at 5:30 p.m. than I had when I began the workshop!

It was not until the next day that I learned the trainers had been playing music during the entire workshop. Since it had been played at a subliminal level, I was not even conscious of hearing it. But the impact on my energy level and my ability to learn was profound.

Since that time, I have been a believer in the use of music. I quickly discovered the LIND Institute, which has been a leader in the use of music for learning, teaching, and training for over twenty-five years. They have published a book, Learn With the Classics, by Ole Andersen, Marcy Marsh, and Dr. Arthur Harvey, that explains how to use music to prime the brain for learning. The following quotes are from their book:

"Throughout each day, you function in four brain wave states: beta, alpha, theta, and delta. Beta is a high-speed state. Most of the time, during your daily activities, your brain is in beta. It's the "doing" state, which gives you the energy to go about your business and get things done. The alpha state is slower and more relaxed. It's the reflecting state, which gives you access to your most creative ideas and insights. It allows you to imagine, to invent, to originate.. Theta is the dreamlike state you're in just before you drift into sleep or if you're in very deep contemplation and meditation. Delta is the state of sleep itself. In both theta and delta, you have no sense of time. You're completely suspended in the experiences you're having. ...Your brain must shift back and forth between alpha and beta for you to get the most out of any studying or learning experience."

Baroque music "has a consistent beat of 55-70 beats per minute, your pulse rate at rest. When you are too tense to study or learn, as you listen to the music for even a short time, your pulse rate will automatically slow down to mirror the beat of the music. In addition, the music will cause the blood vessels in your brain to stop contracting (which they do when you're under stress). This allows more blood to flow through your brain, making you more alert and ready to learn."

"When the ideal music... is used during learning and studying, both sides of your brain function simultaneously. In other words, you are using your whole brain! This cannot be said of many learning tools. Somehow, because of its complexity of form (its musical structure); its melodic richness; and its predictable, safe, and secure beat, the Baroque and some classical music (principally Mozart) keep both sides of the brain working at the same time."

I highly recommend the LIND Institute's four CD- musical series: Relax With the Classics. It includes:

• Slow Baroque for studying, reflecting, activating newly learned information, and relaxing. (I typically use this at the very beginning of a training program, to create a sense of safety and comfort).

• Mozart, for brainstorming, reading, listening to before tests and before math and science classes and lectures, and for pure brain exercising.

• Quick Baroque for brainstorming, energy boosts, kinesthetic learning, and physical exercise. (I always use this for the last hour before lunch, the first hour after lunch, and the last hour before the end of the day, to keep energy up).

• Nineteenth- and twentieth-century romantic and impressionistic pieces for relaxing, inducing imagination and creativity, evoking imagery, creative writing, and for quiet reflection.

If you would like to learn more about the LIND Institute, visit www.relaxwiththeclassics.com.

Tip #55: Visual Engagement: Tables, Charts, and Diagrams

Tables, charts and diagrams can help to make ideas and relationships more tangible. Examples can be found on our website at: http://www.laurelandassociates.com/learning_tips.htm.

Tables can be a much easier way to present information than paragraphs or lists. Each column and row of a table provides a better snap shot of the information. In essence, it reduces the content into smaller, more manageable focal points.

Relative ratings can be illustrated more effectively if you use a pareto chart. A pareto chart is a series of bars whose heights reflect the frequency or impact of problems. The bars are arranged in descending order of height from left to right. This means the categories represented by the tall bars on the left are relatively more important than those on the right.

Pareto charts help to identify which problem should be studied and then to narrow down which cause of the problem to address first. They are a much more useful guide than simply ranking items, which can be misleading. For example, a ranked list gives the sense that the first two items may be of equal significance- and, therefore, worth equal time and attention. In contrast, a pareto chart of the same items may reflect that the first item was selected by 50 people as important, while the second item was only selected by 20. This weighted graphic representation underscores the difference in significance between the two items.

A complex, multi-stage process can be presented in a more simplified and accessible form in a diagram. For example, I use a diagram to show each of the steps involved in lesson design.

The quality improvement movement introduced the use of a variety of problem finding methods, including the: cause and effect diagram, top down flow chart, and is/is not matrix table. Just as a mind map can show relationships between items more effectively than a linear outline, so do these diagrams, tables, and charts.

If you would like participants to be able to easily access, review, and see the relationships between items, then tables, charts, and diagrams can be very useful visuals.

Tip #54: Visual Engagement: Pictures and Photographs

Pictures, whether on the wall, in handout materials, or created by the participants during the session, can add immediacy, color, and vibrancy to concepts. Also, along with photographs, they provide a visual image that makes concepts more personal and tangible. Because they are open to interpretation, they can stimulate thought, creativity, and introspection. They also evoke emotional reactions, which will ensure better retention of the learning concepts they represent.

We have discussed the use of an agenda process map to keep the participants and the trainer on track and aware of how each section of the training relates to the others. When color, symbols, and pictures are added to the agenda process map, it can be a decorative reinforcement of the key concepts in each training segment.

Pictures can be used to establish a theme for the training, either in specific terms (such as pictures of fish for FISH training) or in symbolic terms (such as white water rafting as a metaphor for managing change). Pictures and photographs can depict the different stages in a procedure or process that will be taught, or the desired results from the training.

Participants may draw mind maps, either as part of an exercise or as their own way of processing information.

Pictures can also be used to help participants get a different perspective on themselves, their organization, or specific issues. For example, you can ask participants to describe themselves as a vehicle, a food, or an animal, and then examine the significance of the examples and characteristics they chose. Since many people do not think of themselves as artistic, it is important to lessen their anxiety by emphasizing that they should not worry about accuracy. What is more important is what they choose to draw and what words they use to describe what they have drawn.

Another alternative is to provide magazines, poster paper, scissors, and glue- and have the participants cut out pictures and words to create a collage that represents how they view their organization, an issue, or the topic at hand.

Pictures or photographs can be excellent job aids for participants who must follow specific steps in a process. In instances where the participants lack literacy, pictures or photographs can facilitate and ease the learning process by taking the emphasis off of reading material.

Digital photographs can be used to capture participant work that has been posted on flipcharts, for later distribution via email. This is a quick and convenient alternative to transcribing the flipchart information.

In summary, pictures and photographs have a wide range of applications with which to satisfy the visual learners and enhance the learning environment and process for everyone.

Next week, we will discuss the use of tables, charts, and diagrams.

Tip #55: Visual Engagement: Tables, Charts, and Diagrams

Tables, charts and diagrams can help to make ideas and relationships more tangible.

• Lesson Plan Diagram

• Cause and Effect Diagram

• Pareto Chart

• Intergenerational Differences Table

Tables can be a much easier way to present information than paragraphs or lists. Each column and row of a table provides a better snap shot of the information. In essence, it reduces the content into smaller, more manageable focal points.

Relative ratings can be illustrated more effectively if you use a pareto chart. A pareto chart is a series of bars whose heights reflect the frequency or impact of problems. The bars are arranged in descending order of height from left to right. This means the categories represented by the tall bars on the left are relatively more important than those on the right.

Pareto charts help to identify which problem should be studied and then to narrow down which cause of the problem to address first. They are a much more useful guide than simply ranking items, which can be misleading. For example, a ranked list gives the sense that the first two items may be of equal significance- and, therefore, worth equal time and attention. In contrast, a pareto chart of the same items may reflect that the first item was selected by 50 people as important, while the second item was only selected by 20. This weighted graphic representation underscores the difference in significance between the two items.

A complex, multi-stage process can be presented in a more simplified and accessible form in a diagram. For example, I use a diagram to show each of the steps involved in lesson design.

The quality improvement movement introduced the use of a variety of problem finding methods, including the: cause and effect diagram, top down flow chart, and is/is not matrix table. Just as a mind map can show relationships between items more effectively than a linear outline, so do these diagrams, tables, and charts.

If you would like participants to be able to easily access, review, and see the relationships between items, then tables, charts, and diagrams can be very useful visuals.

This concludes our discussion of methods to ensure visual engagement. Next week, we will begin a new focus on methods to ensure aural engagement. We will start the discussion with the first of several tips on the use of music.