Listen Up! Fostering Musicianship Through Active Listening

All people respond to music through listening. Since this music behavior is such a universal part of life, and the skills fostered through critical listening to music can transfer to many other areas, emphasizing listening in a given music curriculum is logical.

Children learn actively through direct experience with given concepts. Because of this, it makes sense to approach listening instruction actively by using other music behaviors (singing, moving, chanting, creating) and aural, visual, and kinesthetic learning modes as a way to develop a deeper connection with musical material while fostering music skills and introducing or reinforcing music concepts.

Listen Up! includes sample experiences that provide an opportunity for children to listen to musical selections while also fostering music skills and reinforcing given music concepts (rhythm, melody, form) that are prominent in those selections. In addition to providing an overview of the planning process for developing these types of lessons, and including sample experiences for 23 specific pieces, the collection also contains PowerPoint presentations to accompany each experience that provide material students can view and respond to as they listen.

Brent M. Gault is Associate Professor of Music Education at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. His areas of interest include music education policy, children's vocal development, and music listening in childhood. Articles by Gault have appeared in the Journal of Research in Music Education and the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. He is the co-editor, along with Carlos Abril, of the book Teaching General Music: Approaches, Issues, and Viewpoints also published by Oxford University Press.