Effects of Teaching Strategies for Music Listening on Children’s Musical Learning

Theoretical/pedagogical background of the paper

Music listening and appreciation have a fundamental role in music education. When listening to recorded ‘classical’ music at school children show difficulties to focus their attention on the music, which is often unfamiliar and complex to them. Some music educators have proposed participative methodologies to develop children’s listening skills. The ‘Active music listening with the musicogram’, presented by Belgium music pedagogue Jos Wuytack demands physical and mental participation, before and during the listening activity. Children perform the musical materials and then listen while following a ‘musicogram’, a visual scheme representing musical elements and form. Along similar lines, Israreli music educator Batia Strauss proposed a teaching method for music listening based on active participation.

Aim/focus of the work/research reported

Research indicates advantages of visual materials to enhance music perception in non-musically trained young people. In a study on the effects of the ‘musicogram’ upon children’s learning of ‘classical’ music, after listening children gave significantly more correct responses and also enjoyed both the music and the lesson more when listening with the ‘musicogram’ rather than without it. This study further explored children’s musical learning by comparing their responses to different teaching strategies for listening.

Method/approach of the work

A quasi-experimental design was used. Girls and boys aged 9-10 years attended to a lesson taught by the same music teacher, in which they listened to a recording of the 3^rd movement of Vivaldi’s ‘The Autumn’ Concerto. Each class was assigned to each of four conditions: a) performing musical materials and then visualizing the ‘musicogram’ while listening; b) performing only; c) listening with the ‘musicogram’ only; d) listening only without actively participating. After listening, children were asked about musical characteristics of the excerpt (form, instruments) and their understanding and enjoyment of both the music and the lesson.

Results and/or summary of the main ideas

Children gave more correct responses and they also enjoyed both the music and the lesson more when performing the musical materials before and/ or when listening with the ‘musicogram’ (conditions a, b and c) rather than without participating actively. These results suggest that they understood the music better and showed positive attitudes towards active teaching strategies.

Conclusions and implications for music education

Active teaching strategies through performance or visualization seem to be more effective than passive ones for increasing children’s concentration on the music and their focus of attention on both its form and musical elements, and thereby enhance their understanding and enjoyment of the music. Given children’s sometimes negative attitudes towards ‘classical’ music, this positive result may have relevant implications for music education.