Developing listening skills - part 2

Focused listening

Choose some short excerpts of music that you like for different types of instruments / voices.

Play each one and ask pupils to:

try to describe the mood of the music, or what it might be about
clap along with the beat
stand up when it is loud and sit down when it is quiet
to clap when they think the music has reached its climax
close their eyes and let the music create a picture in their minds and then try to draw what they see.

Choose one of the excerpts that you or the pupils like best.

Try to identify what it is about the music that you like – because it seems cheerful, because it is very fast / slow, because it has a nice tune etc.

Try to identify how many types of sounds are involve in making the music

does it use voices, percussion instruments, stringed instruments, woodwind, brass or electronic instruments?
is any one instrument or group of instruments a dominating “voice” or do they have all equal roles?

Experiment with joining in with some aspect of the music – singing the tune, clapping the beat or other rhythms etc. Then divide the class into groups and give each group one of these roles. Then gradually turn down the volume until the class is left performing on its own.

Using some different instruments, let a few volunteers choose one that they think will add something nice or fit in well with the music and then join in with it. Try to get different instruments playing along with different parts of the music.

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