Module 3-2

One of the ways that music educators can utilize the aesthetic experience is by creating moments for their students to have these type of experiences.  These experiences can in turn introduce them to various styles of music and serve as a launching pad for further musical studies. The caution, however,  for the music educator is to not treat aesthetic experiences as moments for teaching music history and/or music theory.  The moment should be used exclusively to invoke feelings and connectivity to the piece. 

In a lesson for middle school music appreciation students, the following lesson could be used.

Objective: Students will understand how specific types of music can invoke feelings. Students will understand how music can be used to create ideas and pictures in a listener’s mind. 

Materials:  Computer; recording of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, 2nd movement; class PA system; class set of pencils; class set of blank paper.

Lesson Steps: 

1. As an introduction, Beethoven's Symphony No.6 will be played for students.
2. Students will discuss their feeling associated with the piece.  The teacher will have them imagine what may have been going on in the piece.
3. The teacher will distribute one paper and one pencil to each student.
4. The teacher will have the students write their names in a specific corner of the paper. The students will fold their paper vertically and then horizontally, dividing it into four quarters. The students will number the quarters one to four in the upper right corner of each square.
5. The teacher will play another piece for them called, Symphony No. 4, second movement by Tchaikovsky. Students will draw four accompanying pictures in each of the corners of their papers. They will go through three steps:
a) first, they should listen to the music for at least one minute.
b) second, get an idea of how the music makes them feel and what they think of. e.g. nature, people playing, scary monsters…
c) students will draw what the music makes them think of. There are no rules telling them what they have to draw as long as they can say the drawing came from what they heard.
6. Once the students have filled their page with four drawings, the floor will be open for sharing. Stress will be put on the fact that in this activity there are NO wrong ideas.

*All the steps may not be able to happen in the same period.  If so, the best place to separate the steps would be at the end of step 6.  During the next class period, students can resume step 6 and conclude with step 8.*

7. Next, the students will be divided into groups (four students) where they will put all of their drawings together into a kind of comic book story. 

8. Lastly, for a final presentation, they will tell the story to the rest of the class while the original corresponding music is playing.