The How I See Music Workshop combines focused listening and hands-on artmaking to help third-grade students explore orchestral music and translate what they hear into visual art. Through listening, discussion, and painting, students explore abstraction, sensory awareness, emotions, and personal interpretation. The workshop encourages creative choice, nonverbal expression, reflection, and different responses to the same piece of music.
Essential Question
How can deep listening help us explore what we hear, imagine, and feel in music, and express our responses through visual art?
Grade Levels
- Grade level: 3rd grade
- 45-50 minutes of active instruction; approximately 60 minutes including preparation and cleanup.
Duration
45 - 50 minutes active instruction
60 minutes including prep and clean up
Concepts
- Live versus recorded performance; the orchestra, audience, and Festival Napa Valley
- Deep listening: noticing sounds, instruments, tempo, dynamics, and musical changes
- Abstract ideas and concrete representations
- Sensory awareness and emotional responses to music
- Translating sound, feelings, and personal associations into visual art
- Creative choice, individual interpretation, and reflection
- Respecting different responses to the same artistic work
California Standards Correlations
English Language Arts
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.A: Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.C: Use abstract nouns (e.g., childhood).
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.1: Engage effectively in collaborative discussions, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Music
- Responding—Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and Analyze Artistic Work.
- Connecting—Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and Relate Knowledge and Personal Experiences to Make Art.
Visual Arts Standards
- Creating—Anchor Standard 1: Generate and Conceptualize Artistic Ideas and Work.
- Connecting—Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and Relate Knowledge and Personal Experiences to Make Art.
Student Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Practice deep listening by noticing musical elements, changes, and patterns in an orchestral composition.
- Explore the difference between abstract ideas and concrete representations.
- Create an original painting that expresses an individual response to music using color, line, shape, and texture.
- Reflect on their creative choices and recognize that people can have different interpretations of the same music.
Activities at a Glance
- Introduction and warm-up — 5 minutes
- Abstract vs. concrete discussion — 5 minutes
- Deep listening and discussion — 10 minutes
- Painting with close listening — 20 minutes
- Closing and reflection — 5–10 minutes
Key Terms
- Abstract — An idea, quality, or feeling that lacks a physical form. Joy and beauty are abstract ideas.
- Concrete — Something with physical form that can be seen or touched. A chair or a tree is concrete.
- Conductor — The person who leads the orchestra.
- Deep listening — A focused approach to listening, developed by American composer Pauline Oliveros, that invites listeners to take an active role in what they hear and notice sounds, patterns, and changes. Learn more: Deep Listening.
- Interpretation — An individual's understanding of or response to a work of art or music. Different interpretations can all be meaningful.
- Orchestra — A group of musicians who play different instruments and perform together.
- Orchestral composition — A piece of music written for an orchestra.
Completed Student Work
