Listening to Music - a challenge!

Hi everyone...

We hear music as part of our everyday lives, even in these unusual times - in the background on the radio, accompanying tv programmes, while we exercise, as a way of filling up a silent space and making it a bit more busy...

But how much do we actually listen?

Here's a musical challenge - find a piece of music and really listen to it. What can you hear? How does it make you feel in response? Here's some questions to think about - this could be interesting for anyone, whether you're in Reception, Year 6, or even an ancient grownup.

You don't need to answer all of these! Just pick one or two, and go from there. Your class teachers and I would love to get your answers to any of these - do please email them back in, using the usual email addresses to contact teachers.

Part 1: What can you actually hear?

• What happened first? Singing? Instruments? Can you write down the order that things happen in?
• How much is happening in the music? Is there only one person? Lots of people and instruments? Is it all being done by a computer?
• Does it sound like anything you've heard before?
• Can you sing any of it back? Can you clap the rhythms, or copy the drumbeat on your knees? Can you work out how to play any of it on an instrument?
• Can you use any of the musical vocabulary you've learnt to describe what you can hear?

Part 2: How does it make you feel?

• How does it make you feel?
• Does it make you imagine a story? (Can you write that story down, or tell it to someone else?)
• Does it make you imagine a place? (Can you draw that place?)
• Does it make you imagine a character? Or two characters, or more? (What are they like? can you draw or describe them?)
• Does the music make you want to move? Stomp? Jump? Spin? Can you move in a way that matches the music?

You could do this with any piece of music! 

It could be something you know already, or something you've never heard before.

The BBC Ten Pieces website has got some fantastic examples of exciting pieces of classical music to listen to - expand your mind!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/intro-films-and-orchestral-films/zv2gqp3

If you come up with any answers to any of these questions, ask your grownups to email your ideas to me or to your class teachers! We'd love to hear your brilliant ideas...