Art as a stimulus for musical
thought and creativity at KS3.
Aim – all delegates inspired to
experiment with using art as a
creative stimulus at KS 3...
Art
• Is visual. – It could be argued that art provides a stronger
stimulus than just a title (eg. “The Planets” or “Earth, Air
Fire and Water.”)
• Is non-musical, can provoke discussion and can help shape
a piece of music.
• Can have a meaning brought out by a creative piece of
music or can give music a meaning.
• Can break down the difficulty some students have with
abstract music (i.e. music for its own sake...)
• Can aid creativity and support reflection.
• Can strengthen listening (when seen with a piece of
creative music).
• Can give a framework for creative music.
Questions for thought later...
• The next 3 slides contain questions which you
may or may not think are relevant or
interesting !!!
• No time now to discuss or debate them!
Synesthesia and other questions
• The idea that stimulating one sensory or
cognitive pathway in the brain will lead to
experience of stimulation in another sensory or
cognitive pathway...
• Can visual art stimulate a musical experience in
the brain?
• Can art and or music change patterns of
behaviour through their neurological impact?
• Neurological studies have indicated different
patterns of brain activity in people listening to
music or looking at art.
What does colour mean to you?
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Often associated with culture.
To some red = anger, danger etc.
But in Indian weddings the bride arrives in red...
What difference does colour make in the early formative years? (or
sound?) Young children respond to primary colours. What would
happen to their development if they were not exposed to primary
colours?
When does colour become art? (or sound become music?)
Music is often played in school art rooms as a stimulus for creative
art.
Should art be on the walls of music classrooms?
What is the impact of colour and music on us? How is colour and
music used in marketing or making people rush to buy in sales? In
Yoga? In “Body Pump” work out exercise sessions?
Preconceptions?
• If a child grows up listening to Mozart and then hears
Bartok will he hate it?
• If a child grows up hearing the driving rhythms of pop
and then hears Bartok, will he prefer it to Mozart?
• If a child grows up to appreciate art as an accurate
reflection of an image, what will he make of Cubism?
• Is modern art and music exclusive ie. Is Schoenberg
right when he said “if it is art it is not for all and if it is
for all it is not art.”
• Do you have to understand art or music to like it? If
your understanding is different to someone else’s does
it matter?
Roy (1880-1950)
“Danger on the Stairs” (1927)
Picasso 1881-1973)
“The Tragedy.” (1903)
Van Gogh “Starry Night.”
Part of a picture?
Dali “The persistence of memory”
(the whole picture.)
Vorticism Art/Industrialisation
Orphism – form, colour,
mood, emotion...”Woman” by Delauney.
Available to view at the Tate Britain The Arrival
by Wynne, “Merry go Round” by Gertier.
Visiting an art gallery...
Art like music is better live?
Student discussions after concerts and
visits to galleries...
• Visits get students talking, thinking and challenged in a way
a power point in a classroom cannot.
• Allows staff to drop in specific focussed questions about
art.
• Are very perceptive and visits always lead to an in depth
discussion of likes/dislikes or interpretation of a piece of
music or a work of art.
• Encourages intellectual curiosity and independent thinking.
• Always seem to lead to a discussion of how the musician or
the artist has worked with colours, moods and emotions
and how they have used their material.
• Inspires – the real thing is (thankfully) better than a
recording/image from the internet !
London Galleries
• Have many educational opportunities.
• Private views – invitations available for
students and teachers
• Exhibition spaces available.
• Workshops often available.
• Usually free!
• See children as the audience of the future and
are only too pleased to help schools...
Educational Projects...
success takes time...
• Work out the ground rules first – ie.
Artists/education officers are responsible for
what... Teachers are responsible for what...
• Pre visit the space/gallery.
• Pre meet to explore
aims/objectives/outcomes.
• The “L” word – legacy. What will be different
as a result of this enrichment activity?
Fund Raising
• Your school – PTA, concert receipts, Pupil
Premium.
• Your locality – local council grants, Jack
Petchey Award, local business.
• Arts Sponsorship/ Educational grants.
• Directory of Social Change publications.
• Match funding.
• Lottery awards for all.
Educational Partners in projects.
• Your “local” college, university...
• Often they are looking for ways to reach out to
the community.
• Often they are looking for opportunities to
display their students’ work.
• Often they are looking for opportunities for their
students to lead workshops...
• Conversely, often your local junior school is
looking for secondary school students to lead
workshops...
Furthering understanding of
a work of art.
• How much “understanding” of a work of art is necessary to
represent it in sound?
• How much time should you devote to this in a music
curriculum? Is “gut feeling” or immediate reaction
enough?
• Is it important to give time to intellectual curiosity or
stimulation at this part of the creative cycle?
• Whose understanding should it be? Teacher led, pupil led?
• Is there a right or wrong answer to interpreting art?
• What issues does an art work raise (if any)?
• Social, ethical, cultural, spiritual, etc
A model for exploring
understanding of a work of Art.
• Description
• Any Questions it raises.
• Can students arrive at a question about the art which
could be discussed without knowledge of the art work?
• Debating the question, arriving at a conclusion.
• Discussion of the meaning of the art work.
• This model operates naturally in a gallery as students
explore and discuss art. It can however be formally
organised as a philosophical discussion in a
classroom...
Painting an artwork in music – creating a
framework for creative activity. How?
• Creative critical thinking/decision making...
• Creativity within a structure?
• Open and closed creativity depending upon the abilities/previous
experiences of the students.
• Teacher as facilitator of learning who sets up the environment and
patterns of behaviour to allow creative activity to take place.
• Pre planning for groups??
• Pitch
• Rhythm
• Dynamics
• Texture
• Timbre
• Structure
• Tempo
Exploring the musical elements.
• Which piece of music best represents which picture?
Why? Explore strong and weak reasons...
• How would you use tempo and texture to represent
this image? Then experiment with music which uses
the elements in the suggested ways.
• ? Create a chart before creative sessions filling in how
the elements are to be used. (needed to allow
creativity within a structure or not needed?)
• ? Create a chart afterwards reflecting on how musical
elements have been used. - framework for feedback
• ?Ask for feedback for students from the rest of the
class on how they used the musical elements.
Creating a framework for
creative activity.- set of notes, textures, structures etc..
• In some classrooms you will need to create the framework
for the students but if they have considerable creative
experience they will create their own rules themselves...
• For example pitch... A group decides on which scale or no
scale will suit their chosen image or do you tell them, or do
you use the exercise to introduce a particular scale?
• In and Yo , Pelog/Slendro scale. Rag. Serialism, Wholetone
and Pentatonic.
• Melodic range.
• Disjunct/conjunct movement
• Short cells or motifs, long tunes.
The role of the teacher
• Lets them lead and discover for themselves. A facilitator.
• Allows creativity to take place within a structured
environment, gives time to it on the curriculum...
• Gives time for students to fail and learn by experience.
• Creates a culture which getting it wrong is ok and a part of
learning.
• Uses praise as much as possible.
• Does not seek quick results.
• Focuses and differentiates questions to groups/classes,
challenges some, supports others.
• Builds in time for AFL and reflection...
Creative questioning leads to thinking about and reflecting on
music and demands detailed listening from students...
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Can you explain that?... What do you mean by...?
Why do you think that?... What are your reasons?
Can you put it another way? What if someone suggested that...?
What can you say about their use of texture?
Does your answer give us a general rule? How would you test the
rule?
• Does that view agree with what we said earlier when we were
listening to...
• Can you summarise the progress made by your group? What do you
need to do next?
• OK so you’re stuck. What do you need to change to move on? How
will you use texture/tempo?
Creative questioning means
• Students are helped to develop their own
musical ideas.
• They will learn to challenge others with similar
questions when they reflect upon/listen to a
piece of creative music.
• The value of creative music is raised.
Models for feedback/AFL/recording
and listening.
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Listeners often need a focus for their listening.
It is rare that we 100% listen so the art work can provide the focus.
Art works which inspired music are available on the whiteboard.
Music is played whilst the rest of the class view the whiteboard...
Different students are prompted to listen for different musical
elements and feedback.
• Reflection stems... “I particularly liked...”
• “Could you explain your use of...”
• “What if you changed...” followed by a repeat performance where it
is changed and further reflection on the effectiveness of the
suggestion.
The artistically rich and the artistically
poor or deprived in London schools.
• There are many children and their parents accessing London’s rich
panoply of art music drama and dance.
• There are other children who do not leave their estates. They never
go to central London despite their proximity to it.
• Teachers are struggling with their workload and the way their
productivity is being directed for them. It is increasingly difficult to
get cover due to financial constraints.
• It is becoming increasingly difficult to manage everything at school
as well as organise artistic visits to London, despite the fact that art
and music organisations have offers and opportunities as never
before.
• If teachers don’t, our communities will remain artistically divided.
• Any answers?