Listen by Sophia Bidwell
In response to COVID-19 the ‘Live Up’ COVID COMMUNITY was set up to support our communities with practical wellbeing resources that can be used for these extraordinary circumstances of social distancing, community lockdown and quarantine. This article is from Sophia Bidwell and it is based around ‘Taking Notice’ one of the 5 Ways of Wellbeing. It is an opportunity for silent focused listening and subsequent creative expression.
Listen
In my year 9 class we listen to a new piece of music each lesson, sometimes chosen by me, sometimes by them. One activity I use is to draw or describe what they think might be happening while they listen. The easiest are pieces like Winter and Spring (below) as they already tell a story (they were written to musically describe a poem about the 4 seasons) .
Works best for instrumental pieces – some suggestions here:
Listen to the piece of music you have been sent. You will need to listen to it at least THREE times, and try and put headphones in as most laptops/phones don’t have big enough speakers for you to hear the bass.
Pick ONE of the following activities:
DRAW a sketch/picture while you listen to the music. It doesn’t need to look like anything in particular, or be related to what you think the music is supposed to be about – just let yourself create a visual image.
DESCRIBE in writing what you can “see” in your head while you listen to the music. There are not rules about what is right or wrong, it may be related to the sounds you are hearing, or it may be just something else you start thinking about while listening.
FREE WRITE while listening to the piece. Free-writing is when you start writing when the music begins and don’t stop until it finishes. You don’t need to worry about spelling, or whether you are making sense, and you don’t need to share it with anyone. When we are songwriting we often go back and use phrases/sentences from our free-writing to create lyrics and songs.