ACTIVE LISTENING

You see, but you do

not observe. The
distinction is clear.
-Sherlock Holmes
What is Active To hear something is considered a passive action.
Listening? To listen to something is considered an active action where
greater engagement and awareness is required.
Observation
Active listening creates a focus on an individuals view.
with the ear.
 Music surrounds us every day, to the point where it may have
become white noise.

Makes music more relatable and affective at an emotional level.

It can form a greater appreciation for an art that most people are
afraid of approaching.
Why is this Awareness of the ability to observe with our ears, allows students to
important to have a more knowledgeable understanding of music as a whole.
Promotes questions about compositional features.
address this? Allows for discussion of how music.
Ties into history and the future of many people.
In general become more reflected and grow a sophisticated ear.
 Young children are innately curious, creative and are learning
machines. They are open minded.

Teaching them to observe details with their ears earlier on can:

Fostering Aid with future ear training exercises, help with theory and other more
technical aspects. Aural skill development.
active listening Understand more types/genres of music.
Allow them to not only listen to what is around them but what is going
in young on with their own bodies too. For example, when they sing.

children. Activates their imagination.

Shows them new way to invest deeper in what is happening around
them. Helps them create a link between their felt responses to their
perception and understandings.
 Include many different types of music to listen to.
To promote deeper understanding involve movement and
Tips gestures.
Eliminating visual cues allows for more focus towards listening.
 The exploration of music beyond the superficial level.

Attentive listening: focusing on highlight points of the music, such

as themes, changes in timbre etc. Ask students to share moments
they hear.
Engaged listening: listeners are asked to participate in the music, by
Deep Listening tapping a beat or perhaps singing the melody along with the song.
Promoting students to pinpoint patterns rhythmically, melodically
etc.
Enactive listening: learning to perform a piece in a specific style and
reflecting on the nuances of it, aurally or visually. This takes the most
time and will work best with older students.
 Affective Listening
Painting the overall affect of a piece, in terms of emotion, colour,
stylistic or generic characteristics.
What emotions are being portrayed and how?

Structural Listening
Types of Pinpointing unique musical moments and how they compare to one
another. As well as how they work together to create a goal.
Listening Basically looking at how a piece is organized.
How is section A of the piece different from section B?

Dialogic Listening
Drawing from outside perspectives, creating open ended answer or
image of the piece. Communication of ideas with one another! Can
use metaphors and paraphrase, to relate music to the real world.
 Closing our eyes we are going to

Listen to soundscapes and identifying what we hear.

Coffee shop
Rainforest
Orchestral concert
What stood out to your ears? What were you thinking when you
listened to this?
How does the music make you feel?
Activity One Can we imitate the sounds? Turning it into our own music?
Can take this activity and draw score with different instruments
and draw a graphic score.

Sound Duration Pitch Tone Colour Dynamics

wind constant high breathy piano
thunder periodical low harsh/brassy forte
 A circle activity, where students sit in a circle with their eyes
closed.
Lights are turned off.
Activity Two Ask students to take a deep breath and put on their listening ears.
They are given freedom to create any sound they wish and
improvise tunes.
 Have children close their eyes. Drop a familiar object, such as keys
or a pencil, and have children name the object.
Have children hide behind a screen and play different rhythm
Other instruments while other children name what they hear.
Activities Ask a child to close his or her eyes and then identify the voice of a
classmate, after hearing a sung phrase.
Have children shape the up
 Do you consider yourself an active listener?
Thoughts on active listening and the activities?
The End! :D What did you enjoy doing and what did you not?
Places for improvement?