Fredericka Manor Sharing the Gift
The Clavinova is a digital piano created by Yamaha that has special features such as Follow Lights technology. This is where the keys light up to guide the player to the correct notes! This awesome feature allows everyone to be able to play the keyboard, regardless if you know how to read music or not! Fredericka Manor has a great Clavinova class called “Clavinova Connection”, and is celebrating their 15th year there! This class not only teaches residents how to play the Clavinova, but also empowers residents to lead sing-a-longs, and have performances in the lounge as well! Health benefits from learning the Clavinova include improved mood, self-esteem, and enhanced immune system! I had the great opportunity of helping facilitate this wonderful class at Fredericka Manor retirement community. It was a very enjoyable experience for me during my internship at The Music Therapy Center of California! Learning the Clavinova keyboard was wonderful and interesting, and I was also fortunate enough to get to know the delightful residents who were taking the class! One of the things that touched me the most was when I witnessed how motivated the residents were to help share the gift of music. Last December, Julie Guy brought to my attention how Yamaha Corporation of America was running a promotion where they would donate musical instruments to underfunded music programs in schools across the country. The only stipulation was to make a video by performing a Yamaha pre-approved song while playing the Clavinova, and then post it on Twitter or Instagram. When I brought this promotion to the resident’s attention, it was touching to see how motivated everyone was to participate with making videos of themselves so that an underfunded music program could receive free Yamaha keyboards! Many of the residents in the class took to practicing the tunes beforehand to ensure that they made a good video. Everyone at the Clavinova class came together to share the gift of music! This was a fantastic and very sweet thing to witness. This is one of the reasons why I really enjoyed being a part of the Clavinova class; because of the kind and thoughtful personalities that I had the pleasure of meeting during my time there. You can view a video of one of the results of the YamahaSharetheGift promotion by clicking on this link: http://www.yamaha.com/us/promo/ShareTheGift/Home.aspx #YamahaSharetheGift. This video is a testament of the power of giving, and how it can change lives! Happy viewing!
-Brandon Wright
