NSS Music
Teaching & Learning
Listening
22 May 2008
Mrs. Ruth YU
Part I
Thinking About
Teaching & Learning
of Listening
What happens when we listen to Music?
Are received
by ear drum that is sensitive to
sound vibration
Sounds
Mind perceives
from performance, recordings
or anywhere
Qualities of sound movements
Feelings react
To all things the music is doing, each
person reacts differently
Judgment is made
About how musical qualities are used and
if pleasure is derived
Some Psychological Aspects of Music Listening
A Model of Aural Perception
(Regelski, 1981)
About Music Listening
 Listening is the foundation of music learning.
(NSS Music C & A Guide, p.31)
 Audition (responsive listening as an audience)
is the central reason for the existence of
music and the ultimate and constant goal in
music education (Swanwick, 1996)
Time and temporal relations
 Attending to music involves time and temporal
relations.
 As the music unfolds, it is possible for a listener to
attend to the local details of note-to-note changes
(happen in short time span) but at times miss some
large aspects of form (happen in long time span).
 The listener’s achievement in different temporal
perspectives may be partly controlled by the
composer, via the score, and partly modulated by
artistic devices of the performer.
 Music, then, may be indeterminate, affording multiple
interpretations. (Jones, 1992)
Patterns & repetition
 Music listening involves the recognition of
patterns and relationships, with repetition
being the most important.
 Listening is largely a matter of finding and
organizing structural relationships that is
given rise by musical repetition in order to
construct an “explanation” of the music in
terms of how each part relates to some other
part. (Dannenberg, 2002)
 Sensitivity to sound and memory facilitate
perceptions and concept formation
On pitch and timbre
 Listeners seem to be able to form patterned
groupings of tones on several bases such as
pitch proximity (registral and/or melodic
coherence)
 The perception of timbre is much more
complex than recognizing just a catalogue of
instrumental and vocal sounds
(Butler, 1992)
Multi-dimensions of musical work

There is no one way to listen for all music
everywhere.
 D. J. Elliot summarizes
(i)
(ii)
a multilayered concept of what to listen for in
musical works,
a concept of musical understanding
recommendations for developing students’
abilities with regard to musical expressions
of emotion.
Multi-dimensions of musical work
 On musical works:
The performance- Interpretation Dimension
2. The Design Dimension
3. Stylistic traditions and Standards
4. Musical expressions of Emotion
5. Musical Representations and
characterizations
6. The Cultural-Ideological Dimension
7. The Narrative Dimension
1.
Musical understanding
 On musical understanding:
1.
Five kinds of knowing in both “music making
ability” & “music listening ability”:
Procedural knowing
b) Verbal knowing
c) Experiential knowing
d) Intuitive knowing
e) Meta-cognition (or supervisory knowing)
a)
Musical understanding
 Music listening – convert form of procedural
understanding
 Other four forms of knowing inform and enrich the
convert action of listening, especially in learning-to
and knowing-how to hear musical patterns as
expressive of emotions.
 Fine musicians, over time, learn the know how to
hear and create the many dimensions of meaning
that a musical work can present for our listening
enjoyment.
 Listeners hear (or construct?) musical expressions as
part of their listening process and they can feel these
emotions at various times, depending on a wide
range of variables (cognitive, affective, cultural and
so forth.)
Teaching for expressions of emotion
 Music teachers ought to make a central place for
engaging students in listening for, interpreting,
performing and creating musical works that are
expressive of emotions.
 Learning to make and hear musical expressions of
emotions is not automatic in all students, teachers
need to teach-for this kind of awareness, ability and
sensitivity.
 Teachers to use ‘emotion words’ and emotional
analogies to focus students’ attention on the
expressive features of musical patterns.
(Elliott, 2005)
Reference
Butler, D. (1992). The Musician’s guide to perception and cognition. NY: Schirmer
Books.
Curriculum Development Council (2007). Arts Education Key Learning Area
Music Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4-6). Hong Kong:
Curriculum Development Council.
Dannenberg, R. B. (2002). “Listening to ‘Naima’: An automated analysis of music
fro recorded audio.” In Proceedings of the International computer Music
conference. San Francisco, CA: International Computer Music Association.
Elliott, D. J. (2005). Musical understanding, musical works, and emotional
expression: Implications for music education. IN D.K. Lines (Ed.). Music
education for the new millennium. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Jones, M. R. (1992). “Attending to musical events.” In M. R. Jones and S.
Holleran (Eds.) Cognitive bases of musical communication, Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association.
Regelski, T. (1981). Teaching general music. NY: Schirmer Books.
Swanwick, K. (1996). A basis for music education. London: Routledge.
Part II
Practicing
Teaching & Learning
Of Listening
Listening for music understanding
 Getting to appreciate the elements and formal
structure of music
rhythm, pitch, (melody), harmony, timbre, form, dynamics etc.
 Use short musical excerpts to help focus on the elements
(from simple to complex)
 Developing the ability to focus the hearing of the lower parts
(inner parts)
 Bear in mind the temporal nature of music and the path for
perception to happen
 Directed listening may be helpful
 Examples: use teacher designed material or refer to music text
books

Listening for style identification
1. Musical form is shaped by the cohesion of a
number of musical elements and factors.
2. Bear in mind the listener’s ability to attain
perception in short time and long time spans.
3. Tactfully using ‘repetitions’ to help build
concepts.
 Design teaching plan with regard to the
above parameters
Listening for style identification
Examples:
a) Mozart: Symphony No. 36 “Linz”, iii
Minuet & Trio
Classical music - symphony
b)
春江花月夜
Chinese instrumental ensemble –江南絲竹
Principle of variation
Historical development from 夕陽簫豉
c)
紫釵記 – 劍合釵圓
Cantonese Opera
Excerpt set singing to the music of 春江花月夜

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Listen with/without the aid of a score
Identify elements shaping the music
Compare adaptation of the same melody to suit stylistic purposes
Listening for cultivation of critical
appreciation
 Listening to music to experience the multi-
dimensions of a musical work
 Listening with different forms of knowing
 Listening to understand the shaping of music
contributed by the composer, the performer
and the listener
 Listening for feeling-response
 Listening to complement performing and
creating
Example 1
Vivildi, Four Seasons, “Autumn”, iii
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Get acquainted with the music
Appreciate how the composer keeps to the
Baroque style while aiming at portrait the
narrative description of the sonnet in the music
Noting the expressivity of the music
Compare five different performances by
different performers
Noting the different interpretations presented by
each performing group
the listeners share their own feeling about the
music heard
Example 2
Amazing Grace

Listen to performances of Amazing Grace by
1. Judy Collins and choir
2. Elvis Presley
3. Wintley Phipps (also the history of Amazing Grace)
Noting the stylistic difference in the treatment of the
music and performance styles (spiritual and pop music)

Listen to a performance on the bagpipe, noting the effect
of using folk idiom

Listening to performance of 明日恩典, noting the
transformation of amazing Grace into cantopop

The listeners share their own feeling of the different
styles of the music
N. B. While recorded life performances are used, the priority
for the cultivation of aural ability should be observed.
Possible extended activities
 Develop a class project on Amazing Grace,
finding information about its history and
performances
 Students compose music based on Amazing
Grace
 Students may arrange to perform Amazing
Grace in a style of their preference
 Students may further investigate the different
genres of music such as spiritual, pop song,
cantopop etc.
More information on reference
material

The following books contain many music examples, information and/or teaching
suggestions.
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Musical Form: Listening Scores by Roy Bennett
Musicianship by Roy Bennett
Enjoying Music. Books 1-3 (Longmans)
Sound Matters (Schott)
Aural Matters (Schott)
民族器樂賞析 (張靜波編著、雲南大學出版社)
民族器樂 (袁靜芳編著)
Web-sites:
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http://www.musiclistenrevision.co.uk
(National Qualifications for Scotland Music Listening Revision)
http://www.m4t.org
(Music for teachers)
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See also the reference list in the NSS Music C & A Guide
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These books may be helpful in preparing teaching plans for listening.
Q & A Session
THANK YOU