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KEY
STAGE 2
Responding to stimuli
You can use the collection to search for a song using the vaguest of details.
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For example if you want a love song, go to the Advanced Search page
Type ‘Love’ into the Title Word box and click wild card.
Any song with love anywhere in the title will be shown in your results. You can Audition (click the icon) a few until you find one that suits your needs.
If you want a sad love song, type a word that is often associated with such songs into your wild card search – you
might use ‘heartbroken’ for example.
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Let’s keep going with the idea of a sad love song.
Explain to your class that they are going to do some active listening. This activity is best done individually, although it can be done in small groups.
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Give each child a piece of paper and on each table lay out a range of different colours; you could use pens, charcoal, paints - whatever your class are most used to. |
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Ask your class to close their eyes listen to your chosen track. Have a quick discussion about it. Was it sad or happy? Was there a story behind the lyrics? |
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Play the track again. This time asks your pupils to draw what they hear. Encourage them to let their pens wander freely over the page ‘describing’ the music rather than drawing a picture. Encourage them to choose their colour carefully to help to describe the mood of the song. |
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Do this activity three times asking your pupils to use a different colour and to focus their listening on a different aspect of the track each time. |
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For example:
Red may describe the singer
Blue may describe the drums
Yellow may describe the bassline
You could also try this activity with eyes closed – you may need bigger sheets of paper and perhaps not paint for this…!
Doing the activity with eyes closed helps each child to work alone and to concentrate on the music rather than being influenced by others. For the best ‘blind drawing’ results, give out the extra rule that the pen must never leave the paper and music draw one continuous line.
Spread the finished artworks along the floor of the classroom and let everyone have a good luck at them. You could play the track again as you view the work, to help put it into context.
Notation and composition
Explain to the class that their artworks could be described as the graphic score of the music. A score is simply the music written down for the musicians to read. A graphic score is music notated using more abstract symbols than the traditional five-line stave.
You can now use these graphic scores to invent new music:
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Split your class into small groups of 5 or 6. Ask each group to pick a picture they particularly like. |
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Encourage your pupils to choose an instrument to represent each colour featured on the drawing and a player for that instrument. They can now invent a new piece of music that interprets the drawing. |
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For the best results ask each group to focus on the drawing and not on the music they just heard. |
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Finally, encourage your pupils to think about the mood of their composition and to listen to each other, altering the volume of their instruments as they play. |
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When this is accomplished listen to the new pieces and ask the rest of the class for comments. You may want to put all the groups together and make one big piece, or to keep them separate. |
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Your pupils have used a song as a stimulus for a new composition. They have listened and appraised, performed and composed.
You can use any type of music for your starting point for this activity. You could make a file of similar tracks; perhaps search for songs that share a title or songs all from a particular decade or artist. You could even encourage your pupils to search Playtime and choose their own track as a starting point.
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