Begin Listening on your own…

OPEN CHROMEBOOKS

Open 2 Tabs - GOOGLE SEARCH & Exploratory Site

Type “classical music that tells a story”

Find 5 Different Pieces of Classical Music that  

   portray a story

Open five New tabs

Look up each piece on youtube

Listen to each piece (Choose Wisely. Some are REALLY Long)

While you Listen… take notes for each piece

" I notice . . . "
"For example, the part when . . . "
"I want to add on to . . . "
"I'm thinking more about what __________ said and I think . . . "
"I think about it differently . . . "
"Can you say more about that?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Are you saying . . . "
"What do you think _________?"
"You look like you have something to say, _________.  What are you thinking?"
"I'm not sure, but . . . "
"Or, maybe it's . . . "

When We Listen to Music, We Can Listen For:

-  Dynamics:  Is the music loud or soft?  

- Mood *:  how does the music make you feel?  exciting, sad, happy, mad, cranky, glum, fearful, scary, joyful, weird, embarrassed , sleepy, hyper, timid, lazy, relaxed, jumpy, chill, mellow

- Characters:  What instruments represent certain characters?  

- Instruments:  what types of instruments represent certain -- feelings, emotion, mood, person, personality, animals, plants, water, nature, places, situations, listen for when a new instrument begins to play, when there are a lot of instruments playing and when there are few instruments playing, do the instruments play in patterns, what roles do instruments play, do the instruments talk to each other

-  Pictures:  music can represent the mood or tune found in a photo, music can tell the story behind a picture, music can portray the scene in a different sense 

- Pitches:  why certain instruments sound the way they do, listen for changes in pitch from high to low

- Tone *:  scared, tense, nervous, relaxed, soothing

- Story:  the sounds can portray a scene, what the feeling is during a moment, it can portray the sound of a specific character in story, what images do we get in our mind? 

- Tempo: speed, slow, fast, moderate, jumpy ... 

- Setting:  jungle, anywhere on earth, kitchen, parlor, bedroom, on a balcony, hospital, arena, bathroom, garden, deer stand, cornfield

Find your seat.
Take out your chrome book.

GO HERE

Interview at least one adult in your own family.  Ask them what their musical experiences have been in the past.  Ask them the following question:
     What kind of music did you experience when you were young?

Also ask them if they remember what musical experiences YOU had when you were young -- maybe they remember something that you do not! 

Ideas:
 -    Lullabies or children's songs?  Family songs?  Karaoke?  Radio playing while chores were being done?  (Happy Birthday counts.)
 -   What did you listen to that I would have heard when I was little?
 -   Do you have anything else you want to tell me about music in my life?

In this first video, a percussion ensemble creates many different percussive sounds.  With what do they make these sounds?  How do these sounds create music?

http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=sb-2VsE2y-U

In this next video, the Swingle Singers take the percussion genre to an entirely different level.  No actual instruments were used in the making of this video -- you will only hear the human voice.  Who is creating the percussive sounds?  What is similar to this video and the percussion ensemble?  How do the characters interact?  If you could write a book about this piece, what would the story line be?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uiG5jJavTU

Everything comes together in this last video -- percussion, storyline, dancing, and music.  Do you recognize the melody from this video and the Swingle Singers?  Who is creating the percussive sounds now?  Can you be the percussion?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdhTodxH7Gw