NSS Music Teaching

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NSS Music Teaching Learning

• Listening
• 22 May 2008 Mrs. Ruth YU

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Part I

• Thinking About
• Teaching Learning
• of Listening

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What happens when we listen to Music?
Are received by ear drum that is sensitive to
sound vibration
Sounds from performance, recordings or anywhere
Mind perceives Qualities of sound movements
Feelings react To all things the music is doing,
each person reacts differently
Judgment is made About how musical qualities
are used and if pleasure is derived
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Some Psychological Aspects of Music Listening

• A Model of Aural Perception

(Regelski, 1981)
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About Music Listening

• Listening is the foundation of music learning.
  (NSS Music C A Guide, p.31)
• Audition (responsive listening as an audience) is
  the central reason for the existence of music and
  the ultimate and constant goal in music education
  (Swanwick, 1996)

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Time and temporal relations

• Attending to music involves time and temporal
  relations.
• As the music unfolds, it is possible for a
  listener to attend to the local details of
  note-to-note changes (happen in short time span)
  but at times miss some large aspects of form
  (happen in long time span).
• The listeners achievement in different temporal
  perspectives may be partly controlled by the
  composer, via the score, and partly modulated by
  artistic devices of the performer.
• Music, then, may be indeterminate, affording
  multiple interpretations. (Jones, 1992)

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Patterns repetition

• Music listening involves the recognition of
  patterns and relationships, with repetition being
  the most important.
• Listening is largely a matter of finding and
  organizing structural relationships that is given
  rise by musical repetition in order to construct
  an explanation of the music in terms of how
  each part relates to some other part.
  (Dannenberg, 2002)
• Sensitivity to sound and memory facilitate
  perceptions and concept formation

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On pitch and timbre

• Listeners seem to be able to form patterned
  groupings of tones on several bases such as pitch
  proximity (registral and/or melodic coherence)
• The perception of timbre is much more complex
  than recognizing just a catalogue of instrumental
  and vocal sounds
• (Butler, 1992)

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Multi-dimensions of musical work

• There is no one way to listen for all music
  everywhere.
• D. J. Elliot summarizes
• a multilayered concept of what to listen for in
  musical works,
• a concept of musical understanding
  recommendations for developing students
  abilities with regard to musical expressions of
  emotion.

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Multi-dimensions of musical work

• On musical works
• The performance- Interpretation Dimension
• The Design Dimension
• Stylistic traditions and Standards
• Musical expressions of Emotion
• Musical Representations and characterizations
• The Cultural-Ideological Dimension
• The Narrative Dimension

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Musical understanding

• On musical understanding
• Five kinds of knowing in both music making
  ability music listening ability
• Procedural knowing
• Verbal knowing
• Experiential knowing
• Intuitive knowing
• Meta-cognition (or supervisory knowing)

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Musical understanding

• Music listening convert form of procedural
  understanding
• Other four forms of knowing inform and enrich the
  convert action of listening, especially in
  learning-to and knowing-how to hear musical
  patterns as expressive of emotions.
• Fine musicians, over time, learn the know how to
  hear and create the many dimensions of meaning
  that a musical work can present for our listening
  enjoyment.
• Listeners hear (or construct?) musical
  expressions as part of their listening process
  and they can feel these emotions at various
  times, depending on a wide range of variables
  (cognitive, affective, cultural and so forth.)

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Teaching for expressions of emotion

• Music teachers ought to make a central place for
  engaging students in listening for, interpreting,
  performing and creating musical works that are
  expressive of emotions.
• Learning to make and hear musical expressions of
  emotions is not automatic in all students,
  teachers need to teach-for this kind of
  awareness, ability and sensitivity.
• Teachers to use emotion words and emotional
  analogies to focus students attention on the
  expressive features of musical patterns.
• (Elliott, 2005)

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Reference

• Butler, D. (1992). The Musicians guide to
  perception and cognition. NY Schirmer Books.
• Curriculum Development Council (2007). Arts
  Education Key Learning Area Music Curriculum and
  Assessment Guide (Secondary 4-6). Hong Kong
  Curriculum Development Council.
• Dannenberg, R. B. (2002). Listening to Naima
  An automated analysis of music fro recorded
  audio. In Proceedings of the International
  computer Music conference. San Francisco, CA
  International Computer Music Association.
• Elliott, D. J. (2005). Musical understanding,
  musical works, and emotional expression
  Implications for music education. IN D.K. Lines
  (Ed.). Music education for the new millennium.
  Malden, MA Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
• Jones, M. R. (1992). Attending to musical
  events. In M. R. Jones and S. Holleran (Eds.)
  Cognitive bases of musical communication,
  Washington, DC American Psychological
  Association.
• Regelski, T. (1981). Teaching general music. NY
  Schirmer Books.
• Swanwick, K. (1996). A basis for music education.
  London Routledge.

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Part II

• Practicing
• Teaching Learning
• Of Listening

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Listening for music understanding

• Getting to appreciate the elements and formal
  structure of music
• rhythm, pitch, (melody), harmony, timbre, form,
  dynamics etc.
• Use short musical excerpts to help focus on the
  elements (from simple to complex)
• Developing the ability to focus the hearing of
  the lower parts (inner parts)
• Bear in mind the temporal nature of music and the
  path for perception to happen
• Directed listening may be helpful
• Examples use teacher designed material or refer
  to music text books

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Listening for style identification

• Musical form is shaped by the cohesion of a
  number of musical elements and factors.
• Bear in mind the listeners ability to attain
  perception in short time and long time spans.
• Tactfully using repetitions to help build
  concepts.
• Design teaching plan with regard to the above
  parameters

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Listening for style identification

• Examples
• Mozart Symphony No. 36 Linz, iii
• Minuet Trio
• Classical music - symphony
• ?????
• Chinese instrumental ensemble ????
• Principle of variation
• Historical development from ????
• ??? ????
• Cantonese Opera
• Excerpt set singing to the music of ?????
• Listen with/without the aid of a score
• Identify elements shaping the music
• Compare adaptation of the same melody to suit
  stylistic purposes

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Listening for cultivation of critical appreciation

• Listening to music to experience the
  multi-dimensions of a musical work
• Listening with different forms of knowing
• Listening to understand the shaping of music
  contributed by the composer, the performer and
  the listener
• Listening for feeling-response
• Listening to complement performing and creating

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Example 1

• Vivildi, Four Seasons, Autumn, iii
• Get acquainted with the music
• Appreciate how the composer keeps to the Baroque
  style while aiming at portrait the narrative
  description of the sonnet in the music
• Noting the expressivity of the music
• Compare five different performances by different
  performers
• Noting the different interpretations presented by
  each performing group
• the listeners share their own feeling about the
  music heard

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Example 2

• Amazing Grace
• Listen to performances of Amazing Grace by
• Judy Collins and choir
• Elvis Presley
• Wintley Phipps (also the history of Amazing
  Grace)
• Noting the stylistic difference in the treatment
  of the music and performance styles (spiritual
  and pop music)
• Listen to a performance on the bagpipe, noting
  the effect of using folk idiom
• Listening to performance of ????, noting the
  transformation of amazing Grace into cantopop
• The listeners share their own feeling of the
  different styles of the music
• N. B. While recorded life performances are used,
  the priority for the cultivation of aural ability
  should be observed.

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Possible extended activities

• Develop a class project on Amazing Grace, finding
  information about its history and performances
• Students compose music based on Amazing Grace
• Students may arrange to perform Amazing Grace in
  a style of their preference
• Students may further investigate the different
  genres of music such as spiritual, pop song,
  cantopop etc.

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More information on reference material

• The following books contain many music examples,
  information and/or teaching suggestions.
• Musical Form Listening Scores by Roy Bennett
• Musicianship by Roy Bennett
• Enjoying Music. Books 1-3 (Longmans)
• Sound Matters (Schott)
• Aural Matters (Schott)
• ?????? (?????????????)
• ???? (?????)
• Web-sites
• http//www.musiclistenrevision.co.uk
• (National Qualifications for Scotland Music
  Listening Revision)
• http//www.m4t.org
• (Music for teachers)
• See also the reference list in the NSS Music C
  A Guide
• These books may be helpful in preparing teaching
  plans for listening.

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• Q A Session

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• THANK YOU