Music 224

Fulfilled: Goal 4 & Honors Course

Music can be a difficult art form to analyze and interpret. You cannot touch, smell, taste or see it. You can see a representation of music on a staff, but the only way to experience it is by listening. I, like many others, am not always a good listener. I try to be a good friend and listen to what others have to say,but I am often not as attentive as I should be. To really appreciate music, I had to become a better listener. I had to learn to focus and hold onto everything I heard. Although one of the more difficult tasks I have been asked to master, I feel that I am slowly on my way.

The skill of carefully listening to and analyzing sound will also be useful in my future classroom. There I will need to listen to my students and do my best to interpret what I hear even if they do not have the words to fully express their desires. It could also come in handy when choosing textbooks and curricula. I will be able to critically examine and consider the product and advertising in an objective way no longer as susceptible to the musical cues often used in commercials and presentations. I can even use these skills to examine works from different periods and places to teach geography and history. Although I might not be fortunate enough to have a record player on-hand when studying the civil war as my teacher did, I can allow students to explore the period themselves. I can create an interactive experience where they can take charge of their education. It will also give them the chance to form hypothesis and support them in an informal setting. Hopefully such a lesson would also help the students build confidence as they rely on their own skill set to come up with valued theories and opinions with the understanding that I will actually want to hear what they have to say. At the closure of the course I created one such lesson which I hope to be used by teachers to incorporate all the lessons I have learned into their classrooms.

Nixon’s Visit to China by Taylor Bauer was created on December 1st, 2016. This lesson plan is the culmination of my understanding of music analysis practically applied to my future career choice.