Are You Listening?

What is it all about?

Are You Listening? has 20 “hands on” and “ears on” lessons.  Most lessons with the child last about 10 minutes.  By working through one lesson per week, you will complete the course in about six months.  The student and teacher/parent learn three progressive levels of listening and will practice listening at each level.

1. The sound level.  Enjoying music for the sheer beauty of sound.
2. The expressive level.  Learning to discern the mood or message of the music.
3. The mind level.  Learning to recognize and enjoy the craftsmanship of the music.

As they listen closely to the world’s great music (excerpts from more than 75 piano and orchestral masterworks), they discover how composers and performers manipulate melody, rhythm, tone color, texture and other musical elements to create beauty and communicate musical ideas.  The child’s musical imagination unlocks and their ability to communicate and express themselves through music is gradually released.

Careful nurturing of these skills (through the games and activities on these recordings) will enable your child to reach the highest levels of musical understanding and enjoyment.  This is a level few people achieve.  It is a level that is being made available to your child.

Parent/Teacher Introduction (9:59)

Listen to this introduction before beginning lesson one.  You will review four principles to help you and your child find greater success in learning music.

• Principle #1: Be consistent.
• Principle #2: Be thorough.
• Principle #3: Be childlike and enthusiastic.
• Principle #4: Don’t give up lost ground.

Watch your child grow in the sunshine of your specific praise!

You are listening to these recordings with thousands of other children, teachers and parents in many parts of the world.  Some children listen with their parents.  Others listen with a teacher.  Some are in schools and studios.  Others are at home or traveling in the car.  Some children are just beginning to study music and this is their first experience.  Others are learning to play piano, the violin, or some other instrument.  Sometimes I will give specific instructions to those who are studying an instrument, such as piano.  If you are not studying piano or another instrument, you may ignore those instructions.  Sometimes I will refer to a child’s teacher, but if you don’t have a music teacher, just smile and wait patiently until that part is complete.

Whatever your situation, with a great attitude and a desire to help a child, you can have a wonderful time and be successful!

Lesson 1 (7:40)

Through the use of physical symbols and movement, the student will learn the three levels of listening.

Lesson 2 (12:53)

The student practices listening on the expressive level.  Activities allow the child to respond physically to the music they hear with their bodies.

Lesson 3 (11:45)

We explore storm music.  Students learn from the great composers how to communicate through music in musical ways.  They imitate and then create their own storm music.

Lesson 4 (13:22)

Why do we need music to tell us about storms?  What is the purpose of painting pictures, when we can just take a photograph?

Lesson 5 (9:29)

The Russian composer Modeste Mussorgsky and his music is discussed for its communicative power.  The student will need paper and crayons (or a pencil).

Lesson 6 (10:46)

A continuation of the previous lesson.  This is a good point for the parent to review the parent/teacher introduction.

Lesson 7 (10:29)

Not all music refers to things in the world around us.  Much of the time it refers to the world within us.

Lesson 8 (9:39)

The student will be able to identify five elements (building blocks) of music.  This activity will provide structure to the rest of the lessons.

Lesson 9 (7:16)

A concept of “underlying rhythm” is developed.

Lesson 10 (11:17)

A continuation of the previous lesson.

Lesson 11 (11:30)

Phrasing in music adds motion and beauty.  The student will understand some of the elements of what makes a good melody good and then transfer the expression of beautiful melodies to their own music making.

Lesson 12 (10:50)

A continuation of the principles and activities of the previous lesson.

Lesson 13 (10:09)

Tension and release, high and low in melody helps create an emotional response in music.

Lesson 14 (13:20)

More activities and songs to develop the concepts tension and release.  This is a continuation of the previous lesson.

Lesson 15 (12:04)

A review and practice of previously learned principles. Using the music and life of Vivaldi as and example, the student and listening partner discuss how to use their growing musicality to serve others and make the world a better place.

Lesson 16 (12:08)

The differences between harmony and melody are explored.  Activities allow the student to experiment with the expressive power of harmony.

Lesson 17 (12:08)

The student will be able to define and discriminate the difference between homophonic, monophonic, and polyphonic textures.

Lesson 18 (13:30)

Continuing activities with texture in music.

Lesson 19 (10:56)

The student will experiment with the expressive power of tone color.

Lesson 20 (7:37)

Concepts taught during the previous lessons will be reviewed and strengthened.

Lesson 21 (16:20)

The student and listening partner participate in a fun mini-play to combine all the things we have learned about listening and using the different elements of music.