Music helps

Rise School of Stillwater receives grant money for music therapy program

Darla Slipke

Robbin Buford stooped over at the waist and tilted an ocean drum above students’ heads so they could hear tiny metallic beads roll from one end to the other like waves crashing on the shore as she sang “Listen to the ocean” in a soothing, soprano voice.

She approached the students individually and serenaded them one by one while they were lying with their heads together and legs pointing out on the carpet during a music therapy session at the Rise School on Wednesday morning.

Some students were lulled to a relaxed, motionless state. Others tilted their heads back and craned their necks in anticipation of their turn to feel the vibrations from the drum, which Buford touched against their feet and fingers.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra chose to give the Rise School of Stillwater a portion of ticket sales from the orchestra’s Nov. 30 performances in Oklahoma City, and $1 from each ticket sold for the performance in Tulsa on Dec. 29 to support music therapy. The Rise School of Stillwater provides education to approximately 20 students who are between 18 months and 4 years of age, about 40 to 50 percent of whom have developmental disabilities.

Director Rachel Stallings said the music therapy program reaches students in a way that many other methods of learning can’t.

“Music is something that touches everybody, and so they’re standing on the drums, they’re shaking the bells, they’re participating more,” she said. “ Just something about the music really opens them up and allows them to participate.”

Students have an hour session with Buford twice a week. They use adaptive instruments, like shakers with Velcro, and do exercises that enhance not only their musical skills, but also other areas of development like social and motor skills.

Buford said the grant will allow the school to buy instruments for each child and classroom so that she won’t have to carry them between classes. She said the grant money could also help the school buy technology to help students who can’t speak or move as well and microphones so the students can have talent shows or programs.

She is the only music therapist in Oklahoma who works in a school setting. She and the classroom instructors rejoice in breakthroughs the students have during their sessions.

“To me, it’s like a miracle every day that I go there and they’re doing something new or adding on to what they did before,” she said.

Buford beat on a 4-foot-wide drum that sat on the ground like a platform and invited students to come up one at a time to pound or dance on the drum.

Some stepped up cautiously with a helping hand, and others hopped on, bouncing up and down. Then their teacher, Angela Williams, helped a student with spina bifida sit on the center of the drum. His classmates gathered around and beat along the outer rim of the drum, creating vibrations.

Soon, the student’s mouth spread in a wide smile, and he rocked his upper body back and forth to the music.

During the ocean drum exercise, one of the students lifted his legs and held them so Buford could put the drum against his feet. Williams said the music therapy program was inspiring.

“We’ve seen such a huge difference in some of our kids,” she said, “like boys who are reaching out who’ve never done that before, and kids speaking who don’t talk out.”