Musical Experience Reflection
For my musical experience I talked about the concept of “Active Listening”. After doing some reading on the types of listening and stages of teaching this concept, I realized that I was not an active listener most of the time. Listening is so essential to our everyday lives and to us as educators, because it is a big part of teaching. We must listen to our students and hear their opinions, or their music so that we can help improve the entire learning experience. Listening is just an ability that most of us on planet Earth have and it would be a shame to overlook what we are capable if we took the time to remind ourselves. I thought it would be nice to practice that skill. The main motivation for this topic was because of an improvisation activity that my high school teacher taught me. In this musical activity, the students are asked to sit in a circle with the lights off. They are given the freedom to participate in an improvisation session where they have complete freedom in what they choose to do. Actions can vary from singing, body percussion and so on. The students must listen very close to one another to know when to begin the activity and when to end it.
What I appreciate about this activity is that takes students learning to a more independent level and fosters the creative mind. The teacher does not need to do much besides they their imaginations roam, the most a teacher can do is provide a context. When I introduced this activity to the class for the musical experience, I tried to provide different choices of soundscapes for my fellow classmates to re-create. I find having this step creates a smoother transition into the final activity because it gets people already in mindset for improvisation. It adds to the creative mind bank and makes it easier to access that bank of information. To connect the lesson to real life, I chose soundscapes that were more related to the every day sounds of nature and the daily hubbub. It reminds us to focus in on what happening around us beyond music. It provides a different perspective of what music can be, and hopefully challenges people. Listening to ambient sounds to create music is very different than listening to pre-existing music as inspiration. The class did mention that listening to the sounds was very relaxing for them.I think that overall the activity went well, but I think that I could have explained in further detail the types of listening and the stages of teaching active listening/deep listening. I think I could have tied the experience to a more concrete part of the music curriculum. I could have spoken specifically, or more in detail of how it connects to the music classroom. I was vague about what roles active listening plays in classrooms. During the beginning of the presentation, it was more of a lecture style. I don’t think that listening to me just talk in the beginning was the most engaging thing, but I thought I as enthusiastic about the topic though. The second half of the experience and onward was more successful, because the class got to play a much more active role. They were allowed a lot of choice and freedom in what they wanted to listen and perform.
If I were to do this presentation another time, I would start right off the bat with an activity. I think that if I did this, the class might become more in from the get go of the topic of active listening. I would also provide links or maybe books about active listening in the music classroom at the end of the presentation. This is so that if anyone is interested in pursuing the topic further will be able to gain knowledge from people who know this topic inside and out. Personally, I am still interested in this research and how far we can go. Sound is such a big part of our world that, the connections that we can make between listening and how it affects us is huge. I would read more on the topic and do mini experiments on myself to continue to develop my aural skills.
For my musical experience I talked about the concept of “Active Listening”. After doing some reading on the types of listening and stages of teaching this concept, I realized that I was not an active listener most of the time. Listening is so essential to our everyday lives and to us as educators, because it is a big part of teaching. We must listen to our students and hear their opinions, or their music so that we can help improve the entire learning experience. Listening is just an ability that most of us on planet Earth have and it would be a shame to overlook what we are capable if we took the time to remind ourselves. I thought it would be nice to practice that skill. The main motivation for this topic was because of an improvisation activity that my high school teacher taught me. In this musical activity, the students are asked to sit in a circle with the lights off. They are given the freedom to participate in an improvisation session where they have complete freedom in what they choose to do. Actions can vary from singing, body percussion and so on. The students must listen very close to one another to know when to begin the activity and when to end it.
What I appreciate about this activity is that takes students learning to a more independent level and fosters the creative mind. The teacher does not need to do much besides they their imaginations roam, the most a teacher can do is provide a context. When I introduced this activity to the class for the musical experience, I tried to provide different choices of soundscapes for my fellow classmates to re-create. I find having this step creates a smoother transition into the final activity because it gets people already in mindset for improvisation. It adds to the creative mind bank and makes it easier to access that bank of information. To connect the lesson to real life, I chose soundscapes that were more related to the every day sounds of nature and the daily hubbub. It reminds us to focus in on what happening around us beyond music. It provides a different perspective of what music can be, and hopefully challenges people. Listening to ambient sounds to create music is very different than listening to pre-existing music as inspiration. The class did mention that listening to the sounds was very relaxing for them.I think that overall the activity went well, but I think that I could have explained in further detail the types of listening and the stages of teaching active listening/deep listening. I think I could have tied the experience to a more concrete part of the music curriculum. I could have spoken specifically, or more in detail of how it connects to the music classroom. I was vague about what roles active listening plays in classrooms. During the beginning of the presentation, it was more of a lecture style. I don’t think that listening to me just talk in the beginning was the most engaging thing, but I thought I as enthusiastic about the topic though. The second half of the experience and onward was more successful, because the class got to play a much more active role. They were allowed a lot of choice and freedom in what they wanted to listen and perform.
If I were to do this presentation another time, I would start right off the bat with an activity. I think that if I did this, the class might become more in from the get go of the topic of active listening. I would also provide links or maybe books about active listening in the music classroom at the end of the presentation. This is so that if anyone is interested in pursuing the topic further will be able to gain knowledge from people who know this topic inside and out. Personally, I am still interested in this research and how far we can go. Sound is such a big part of our world that, the connections that we can make between listening and how it affects us is huge. I would read more on the topic and do mini experiments on myself to continue to develop my aural skills.