"When we discuss music listening, we have to make a distinction between hearing and listening. hearing is generally considered to be a passive process, most often thought about in terms of the basic perception or awareness of sound. Listening, on the other hand, occurs when active attention involving focused cognition is provided to sounds" (Bauer, 2014, 106). I was particularly struck by this point when reading chapter five. All the classes that I teach have a critical listening component as it is extremely important in the development of the musician. However, I find it is a real struggle to teach students to go beyond merely hearing the music and becoming active listeners. When students listen to a piece of music in my class (which is usually once a week), they write their responses down to turn in as an assignment. There is no real "right" or "wrong" for this assignment, but I do ask them to write with detail and include comments regarding tempo, dynamics, texture, mood, and tone color. In general, here is an example of what I read from their assignments:
"The tempo was fast."
"The dynamics were loud."
"The mood was happy."
Really?!? That's it?!? That's all you heard? Throughout the semester we work listening to the whole piece and describing how certain aspects of the music change throughout the piece. I also ask them to try to connect the different concepts. For example, I would ask my students, "How do you feel the mood of the piece is connected with the tempo, dynamics, texture, etc?" This way, students are viewing the piece as a whole, instead segmenting it into small pieces in order to use the write vocabulary words.
I have often sat and wondered why students do not engage in this assignment as much as I would like them to. I don't want to generalize, some really love it and are extremely descriptive and insightful. But, as a whole, this is not the norm. There are several reasons why this might be case:
1) Some of my students just don't like to write. They want to complete the minimum requirement and be done with the assignment, even if they have more thoughts in their head. Furthermore, some students have very poor writing skills and have a hard time expressing themselves on paper.
2) I play a variety of different genres and styles from different time periods. Some students tend to "tune out" when they decide they don't like how something sounds.
3) Students are still trying to figure out when some of the musical concepts really mean in context. The one my students struggle with the most is texture. Its a loaded concept for sure, and I think some students just get overwhelmed or afraid to be "wrong."
Despite all the challenges, I have found that students like to talk about the music. Our discussions after a piece is over are often much more detailed and fruitful than their responses (besides a few shy ones who were afraid to share). This is when I can pull more information out of them by asking "Why do you feel that way?"
I'm wondering whether the incorporation of technology into critical listening could help students open up a bit and think more deeply about music. I'm excited about the idea of a class forum or blog where students can listen to a piece of music and type their responses for the class to see. Students could also respond to a peer's post, expounding, disagreeing, or simply supporting another's response. If they have more than me as an audience and it doesn't feel like such a formal assignment, I wonder if we could generate more intuitive listening and discussion. "Formalized listening experiences in schools are usually very teacher-centered and analytical, often focusing on musical elements, formal structures, and other facts related to music. Dunn wonders whether students' preferences for listening to music at home rather than at school could at least partially be the result of formalized listening processes interfering with those attributes of intuitive listening that make the music listening experience meaningful and enjoyable" (Bauer, 2010, p. 108). I'm wondering the same thing.
This week's reading was an eye-opener for me. I find the same struggles when getting students to write about music. Those responses you listed are very familiar! Like you mentioned, I'm also interested in implementing more technology, like a blog, in my general music classes where students can post their responses to music and discuss it with other classmates. I wonder if it will actually be useful or if the students would just type the same things they write or just write something they think I want to hear. I'd be willing to bet that students write more expressively and with more detail on their Facebook status updates than they write in class. As backwards as it may seem, students may be more willing to share their thoughts about music in a public, social setting like posting updates or comments to a blog. You could even create a cross-classroom blog where they can respond to students' posts from another class period. They may feel more comfortable in this environment since they pretty much grew up in the Facebook world. I'm definitely going to experiment with adding this kind of technology in future classes!
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