Listen Up and Reflect!

-Attentive - Engaged - Enactive -

The top three types of listening, they are pedagogies in fact.

Listen is a verb after all and it was reassuring to read Campbell's article on Deep Listening in Music, as she promotes the knowledge that any kind of listening being a worthwhile and active activity.

Attentive listening applies when students are directed or prompted to listen for certain sounds.

Engaged listening is when students not only listen but also participate in the music to show their engagement. ie clap your hands on beats 2 and 4.

Enactive listening is done when students learn to play a piece of music by listening to it.

On further exploration of resources for listening in the classroom, I came across Listening Maps. A way to offer multiple means of representation, a way to introduce the idea of a graphic score and another enjoyable way to listen. Here are some of my favourites:

When first considering what to do for the Tech-Infused Project, my first want was for it to be as current and inclusive as possible. Naturally, Taylor Swift came to mind, having not long ago brought her Eras tour to Sydney, she really has been the talk of the town. Tay Tay is a global cultural phenomenon, whose country pop music shares tales of her relationships and has created her immense fandom of Swifties. Also we were given the enjoyable homework of speaking with a current student in years 7-9 to ascertain what song they would most like to learn in class. Having asked 6 people in this age bracket, each presented a TSwift song, 3 of which said exactly the same song. I do not consider myself a Swiftie but I do regret not going to see her in concert. There is great joy to be had in the unfettered shared happiness and connection people across the world experience as Swifties, particularly in the lead up and during the Eras tour (as witnessed in Sydney this year).

Now the majority of our class LOVE Taytay and we all get on well, so we worked together to create a set of Eras tour inspired resources for our tech-infused project. The idea being that the students make music, film and record it to create a music video.

Making music is to connect with it, to listen to it, to participate in it and to understand it from the inside out.

Our task is student-centred, the teacher is a facilitator, students collaborate in groups and partake in active learning, and are required to reflect on their work.

The undertaking of this project with my talented classmates was mammoth. I am very grateful to each of them. I also have deep gratitude for James Humberstone. Not only for his reminders, encouragement and teaching in class, but also for his facilitation of our learning to use different cameras and mics in the making of the project.

Check it out here

Campbell, P.S.(2005) Deep Listening to the Musical World Music Educators Journal, 92(1), 30–36.

Killian, L. (2019). INTEGRATING MUSIC TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM: INCREASING CUSTOMIZATION FOREVERY STUDENT. Technology in Music Education. https://entreprenarts.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/Killian.TechnologyinMusicEducation.2019.pdf