Meet Oliver Squibb, Clarion Peripatetic Teacher at Treloar's. Ollie joined Treloar's Music Department in 2019 and since then, he has been supporting our Clarion players, helping them develop their music skills.
What is Clarion?
Clarion is an innovative accessible instrument that can be played expressively with any part of the body, including eye movement using iPads, AACs and PCs. Clarion technology works with the movement of the musician rather than the musician having to adapt to an instrument. Clarion can use the method in which the student already access technology such as through EyeGaze (eye control), switch control, joystick control and many more! Ollie became interested in the instrument when studying at university and was amazed at its ability to provide a meaningful musical experience to everyone.
Being a Clarion teacher
"When I first meet a Clarion student, I want to get to know them as quickly as I can. All the students have varied needs in terms of communication, and they all have different levels of ability. So the first thing I focus on is communication. The next step is assessing their access methods with Clarion, which sometimes takes a long time. For example, if they are an eye gaze user, this will be their preferred method of accessing Clarion, but if they are not an eye gaze user, I might want to spend some time looking at the different methods that they could play Clarion with.
"The students that I work with may not have typical music backgrounds where they have gone through a standard curriculum of music in which technical words and those skills are already embedded. Therefore, we spend time building up core musical skills such as listening and expression.
"In my lessons, I really try to embed what students enjoy. For the students I work with, who are physically disabled young people, for whom having autonomy and making their own choices in their life is crucial, their lesson with me could be something that they really can have some ownership over. That's why I really try to find out what sort of music they like, what lesson structure works for them, and I really try to create a package that works for the student.
"With my students, I typically play games such as turn taking. That's a really easy one, so that the students can play whatever they want using a nice improvisation pattern and then I take a turn. I try to mimic their improvisation so that they can feel some sort of call and response. And then maybe to advance that further I might introduce a communication aspect to that. For example, they might need to look at me when they're finished and I need to look at them. So this type of game is an easy one.
"Other games that I might play is for example playing together, but when I stop, the students have to stop too. This could just be a really good way to assess their intent. If they have the intent to stop when I stop that's a good listening skill, but it is also a way to see if they have a physical ability to stop on cue."
What does progress look like for Clarion players?
"I see progress as the whole person, as well as instrumental skills, and to be fair, we could all benefit from doing this with all instrumental teaching. But I want to see progress with a student to be beyond just physical instrumental skills. So may that be musical skills, but may that also be the social-emotional skills that can come out of playing an instrument. We can look at skills such as memory, timing and expression with Clarion. It is wonderful to look at expression on the Clarion as it has the ability to play dynamics (loudly and quietly) and attack and decay (how quick the note sounds and stops). We can also then look at social and emotional skills and communication skills. We can play games that involve rhythm or numbers and that can perhaps help support other areas of their life."
What should we do with Clarion?
"Play! Play music, play with the functions of it, encourage others to play it, enjoy everything it offers. Treat it like you're playing the piano for the first time, explore, enjoy the creativity that Clarion inspires!"