Submitted by Louise Eddington, Muncie, Indiana

Idea posted September 30, 2005

I use the following listening guide for upper grade/middle school kids. The selection I used with this activity with was "Danse Macabre," but it can work with many different listening selections. Here's the plan:

  1. Beforehand, prepare the worksheets so that each major milestone in the music is listed and numbered. For example,
    1. Clock strikes twelve (harp);
    2. Skeletons begin to creep out of graves (pizzicato strings);
    3. Theme 1 (eighth notes, jerky movement);
    4. Big broad movements for Theme 2; etc.
    My students had already heard this piece and had watched it on video several times when they were younger. The piece was not totally new to them, but I explained that we were going to listen to it "on a higher level" this time.
  2. Present the selection to the kids by handing out the listening guides and running through the piece with them. With "Danse Macabre," I ran the entire piece (highlights) on the piano, pointing out each place on the worksheet as it occurs in the music.
  3. The second time through, ask the kids to follow their worksheets and let them know that you will call out "number 1," "number 2," etc., as that place arrives in the music. Other than that, there will be no other comment as they listen.
  4. Now is the first time they realize that this is not only a listening guide but also a worksheet. (Semantics - if they ask if it is a test, OF COURSE NOT, it's just a way for me to see how well you listen. Which of course makes it a type of test, but no sense in their panicking!) This time as they listen and follow the numbered events in the music independently, you will from time to time call out a letter. When you say "A," they place the letter A in front of whereever they are in their listening, and so on for each letter you call out. I would probably call out about six points in the music. Grade or not, as desired.

It does give you a good way for evaluating how well they comprehend what they hear, and it stretches their listening skills to a slightly higher level. In my experience, it works better with music that is somewhat programmatic rather than abstract.