Reply To: Listening Guides

[nafmeadmin]

Amcastle has some good ideas. I love listening charts, and they can be as personal as your teaching style. Sometimes, I’ll use a ‘call chart,’ which is simply a numbered list of the things happening in the music. As the students listen, I’ll call out each number as it happens. For young kids, I might replace words with pictures, like pictures of a trumpet, trombone, french horn, and tuba for a brass section.

Once they’ve listened with a call chart and are a little bit more familiar with the piece, you can give them a chart with ‘missing pieces,’ and ask them to fill in what they hear.

Choose one of your favorite pieces and sit down with markers and paper. As you listen, draw the events in the music. That’s how I fell in love with doing these, after a college professor introduced me to the concept.