Fujimura: ‘Music should be accessible for all’

“How would you feel if a dinosaur came to your music class?” Dr. Yukiko Fujimura asks six-year-old Grace Scent as they sit together at the Steinway grand piano in Fujimura’s office.

Grace answers with a shocked grimace and wide eyes darting from side to side. Fujimura chuckles as she hands her the deck of musical expression flashcards they’ve been working with. “Can you find a card that matches that feeling?” she asks.

The little girl shuffles through the brightly colored cards until she finds a yellow face with big round eyes, high eyebrows, and an o-shaped mouth. It reads “Surprised.”

“Yeah, I think so, too,” Fujimura says encouragingly. She then asks if Grace would feel more happy-surprised or worried-surprised, showing her the pink, smiling “Happy” face and then the gray, tense “Worried” face. Grace points to “Worried” and adds, “also scared.”

Fujimura finds the blue “Scared” face and then sets all three cards on the music rack alongside the new piece Grace is learning: “Dinosaur Music Night” by Nancy Faber. She asks Grace to try expressing each emotion, one at a time, through the piano. Grace tries different dynamics and octaves as she practices the piece and learns to express her emotions musically.

An Assistant Professor of Music at Union Commonwealth University (UCU), Fujimura says that using the flashcards with students transforms their playing dramatically: “They start to get creative with it because they feel like they own the music. They might add a different rhythm, or they might start experimenting with different range, and I encourage all of that because that's part of the process of making the music their own.”

Frustrated by the idea that creative expression is an innate talent that can’t be taught, Fujimura wanted to find a tool that would make expression through music more accessible to all. After researching disciplines outside of music pedagogy, most notably children’s behavioral health, she developed the musical expression flashcards last year. She identified 26 basic emotions children can express through music and collaborated with illustrator Tetsu Goto to bring them to life.

This summer, funded by a fellowship from the Appalachian Colleges Association (ACA), she’s been testing out the flashcards through low-cost piano lessons for local residents. Participants include twenty-nine children and adults from Barbourville, Corbin, and Manchester ranging in experience from beginners like Grace to professionals like Corbin Middle School music teacher Gary Baker.

“I'm always looking for professional development opportunities, and I've learned a lot,” Baker says, noting that he plans to use techniques he learned from Fujimura with his own students.

While Fujimura originally developed the flashcards with children in mind, this summer’s research has shown her that “even adults appreciate this out-of-the-box type of approach to teaching and say it really helps them connect with their own feelings.” Based on this experience, she says she’s encouraged to use the cards with her college students in the future.

Rising Union junior Olivia Brock signed up for the lessons because she wanted to “get a deeper connection” to the music she had learned about in Fujimura’s music history class: “Gymnopedie no. 1” by Eric Satie. “Having a visualization of what I wanted to express helped me get that feeling into my piece,” she says of using the cards.

Jeremiah Banks, Youth & Children’s Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Corbin, is a beginner and says he participated “for the joy of creating.” Several youth from his congregation signed up, too, and he says it’s been inspiring to see Fujimura – an accompanist at the church – “create this opportunity which could potentially start a passion in these kids.”

Eight-year-old Sophie Cain says, “I loved it. I got to feel the emotions when I played.”

Clay County High School student Connor Grant heard about the lessons from his band director and viewed the opportunity as valuable summer enrichment to help him “improve over the break.”

Fourteen-year-old Vilia Travers, who has been taking lessons from Fujimura for two years, says using the flashcards helped her focus on emotional connection and brought her performance to a “different level.”

In addition to the creative joy they feel when expressing through music, Fujimura’s students have a greater tolerance for the repetitive tasks and memorization required in class, too. Grace’s older brother Graham, for instance, loves the improvisational portion of Fujimura’s lessons and comes to class ready to experiment. However, when he has to practice what is on the page in order to learn a new concept, he stays engaged because he can play the same thing with a different emotional expression each time.

Fujimura notes, “Whenever you have an emotional connection to what you’re doing, you will remember it better.”

The lessons culminated in a recital at Union’s Conway Boatman Chapel. Banks noted, “There's just not enough live music around this area, and the opportunity to not only play, but to also hear other people play, was pretty great.”

Fujimura has taught at Union since 2021 and is the President Elect of the Kentucky Music Teachers Association. She has received numerous awards and honors for her excellence as a performer, and her innovative approach to musical pedagogy is gaining increasing recognition, as well. Later this summer, she will present her research findings about the usage and effects of her musical expression toolkit at the International Society for Music Education Global Conference in Helsinki, Finland. In the near future, she hopes to make the toolkit available to the public.

“I think that music should be accessible for all and that every student should have an opportunity to establish a deep connection with the music and express themselves,” Fujimura says.

She wishes to thank her students for participating in the research and her UCU colleagues and the local community – especially First Baptist Church of Corbin and Clay County High School – for spreading the word and getting students involved.

“I developed this approach so the students in our community could play the piano as an expressive outlet,” Fujimura says. “This summer, we joined forces to test it for showcasing to music educators globally at the conference. I’m confident that, together, we’re making a meaningful impact on music education.”

Located in Barbourville, Kentucky, Union Commonwealth University is a private, liberal arts-based institution comprised of undergraduate and graduate programs, supporting a diverse academic environment for nearly 1200 students. To learn more about Dr. Yukiko Fujimura’s work, contact her at (606) 546-1444 or yfujimura@unionky.edu.