Kansas Music Standard #5: The teacher of music has skills
in listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
Knowledge
- The teacher knows technical and symbolic vocabulary of music.
- The teacher understands the organization of sound in musical
forms.
- The teacher understands the common elements of music and their
interaction through aural and visual analysis.
Performance
- The teacher identifies, through visual and aural analysis,
composers
and music representing diverse styles, periods, cultures, genres, and
techniques of musical organization.
- The teacher describes compositional devices and techniques.
- The teacher demonstrates effective strategies for developing
students’ growth through a variety of active musical experiences.
As a future music
educator, possessing the skills to listen, analyze and describe
music, is one of the biggest areas we should be comfortable with. A
music educator
who can analyze music has the ability to get inside the mind of the
composer,
be it Schubert, Chopin, Grieg or Debussy with this; we are able to
convey our
analysis to our ensembles. Once we have an understanding of how the
piece was
constructed, we can then begin constructing music of our own! By
breaking down
the music through analysis, when can then have a more structured and
focused rehearsals.
Being able to listen, analyze and describe music will ultimately help
us teach
and create well rounded musicians; how will know how to listen, analyze
and
describe music.
Listening is a big part of
music education, but at
times, I feel that it is taken for granted and not taken serioulsy. For
the most part, music is playing an
instrument or singing, but to get to the next level and achieve more;
we
have to be able to listen. To be able to hear if students are in tune
with the
ensemble, with their section or even in tune with themselves, takes a
high
ability to listen. To be able to hear these problems we are listening
through
layers sounds to get to the problem; which takes skill. It is important
to note
that, the skills I acquired in my education not only taught me how to
listen,
most importantly, why to listen.
Listening is one’s key
to serenity, a way to take us
somewhere without ever leaving the comforts of our home. Listening is
what got
me hear in the first place. Once we as music educators get past how to
teach
kids to lesson for intonation, how to play together, and all the other
idiosyncrasies
it takes to “sound” good; then they can get to the good
stuff, the enjoyment of
listening to good music by way of performance. When a student begins
having the
ability to listen critically they may then begin to analyze what they
hear.
Once we teachers begin engaging the young
student mind to
listen, we can further enhance their musical aptitude through analysis;
this
starts with the teacher. Having an ability to analyze, you can help
your
develop their listening, by telling them what to listen for. As
instructors,
once we have analyzed the music inside and out we can then teach with a
freer
mindset. From this point we can begin asking stimulating questions
about the
music, and have our students beginning to think critically about the
music.
When we combine the ability to listen with the ability to analyze
music, we can
the begin to describe music.
As students learn to analyze
and listen to music more and
more, the way they describe music will change; this is when aesthetics
can be
applied in their music. This is we as teachers should really being
asking those
stimulating questions, “How does make you feel?” or “How can you convey those emotions to
the
music?” A student can describe what they hear and play, they are
more inclined
to play better and with more understanding. With this, once the
ensemble begins
to describe what they hear and play, they are more inclined to play
better and
with more understanding; leading to a powerful musical education.
So in essences, before a student can have the ability to
listen, analyze and describe music, it starts with the teacher. In
order to
show that I possess the ability to listen, analyze and describe music.
The link
below displays some of my ability to listen, analyze and describe
music as
analyze Percy Grainger’s “Lord Melbourne,” movement V
from Lincolnshire Posey.
Lord Melbourne
Who Has the Melody
Counting Change