Workshop Lesson Outline

The How I See Music Workshop combines ears-on and hands-on learning to explore symphonic (classical) music for students, teaching deep listening skills and the concept of abstraction in the arts, using both music and the visual arts to explore these topics. 

Essential Question
How can we apply deep listening to transform a piece of music from something abstract and auditory to a concrete and visual work of art? 

Grade Levels
3rd to 5th grades

Duration
45 - 50 minutes active instruction
60 minutes including prep and clean up

Concepts

  • Live performance vs. recorded performance - what is an audience, what is a festival
  • Deep listening
  • Music appreciation: responding to and analyzing artistic work
  • Creating a visual representation of a musical work
  • Sharing abstract ideas and emotions in concrete ways


California Standards Correlations 

  • 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).
  • Music: Responding—Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and Analyze Artistic Work
  • Music: Connecting—Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and Relate Knowledge and Personal Experiences to Make Art
  • Visual Art: Creating—Anchor Standard 1: Generate and Conceptualize Artistic Ideas and Work
  • Visual Art: Connecting—Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and Relate Knowledge and Personal Experiences to Make Art.


Student Learning Objectives 

  1. To learn deep listening and thinking skills and apply them to a piece of symphonic music.
  2. To understand the meaning of and differences between what is abstract and what is concrete. 
  3. To analyze and synthesize a piece of music, relating it to something visual and personal.


Workshop Activities

  • Whole class introduction / warm-up (or review, if students received the pre-lesson) to the orchestra and to Festival Napa Valley (5 minutes)
  • Whole class discussion about abstract vs. concrete (5 minutes)
  • Close listening session and discussion (10 minutes) 
  • Painting session with close listening (20 minutes)
  • Closing and reflection (5 - 10 minutes)


Vocabulary

  • Abstract — Existing without physical shape or substance. Computers and cars are concrete things, but truth and beauty are abstract things.
     
  • Concrete — Able to be seen and touched; real. Trees are concrete objects.
     
  • Orchestra — A group of musicians who play different kinds of instruments and perform together.
     
  • Symphony — A musical piece for an orchestra that has three or four movements.
     
  • Deep Listening — First developed by American composer Pauline Oliveros, deep listening invites the participant to take an active role in what they hear.

 

Completed Student Work