Grade Level:
Target Concepts:
National Standards: |
Secondary
Aural identification of musical elements;
building and using musical vocabulary
Listening to, analyzing, and describing music;
evaluating music. |
Procedure:
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Make a student-generated list on the board of musical characteristics that
give a musical performance its uniqueness, e.g., melody, rhythm, instruments
(timbres) used, lyrics, etc.
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Play for students two recordings that are similar in some ways, perhaps
the same piece of music performed by different musicians or musical groups.
For example, students could listen to the song “My Favorite Things” as
perfomed by Julie Andrews on the Sound of Music soundrack and by
jazz saxophonist John Coltrane (on various albums).
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Before playing the recordings, give students the task of jotting down notes
about each of the musical characteristics in the list.
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In class discussion, have student use their listening notes to identify
which musical characteristics were the same and which were different.
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Ask students to individually select which of the two pieces they preferred,
and to justify their preference musically.
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Carry out the same exercise again, but without students taking formal notes
during the listening experience.
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