Sketching Songs

Overview

In this lesson students begin to understand the functions of lyrics in a song. As they analyse and discuss the lyrics of the chosen song, they will begin to develop an understanding of how words are chosen to elicit a particular emotional response from the listener.

Description

You can select any song you like, but we like to choose songs by local musicians (“Timisoara by Pro Musica; a song dedicated to the Romanian Revolution 1989 which started in Timisoara http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sTB8AXKxoA) or any songs that have a strong message e.g. Imagine by John Lennon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRhq-yO1KN8&feature=kp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J79r1N2zTqQ.

Driven by the lyrics and music, ask the students to explore their imagination by capturing their emotions/feelings whilst listening. If there is a video to accompany the music, ask them to discuss the images, themes, and atmosphere of the video too.

Every country has a host of local and national singers, bands, groups, choirs and orchestras. Ask students to research as many of these as they can find. Explain to them that they will, ideally, need an audio or video recording of each one performing. Ask students to collate their findings on a music map. We use www.thinglink.com because it is great for creating interactive images by ‘pinning’ video and/or audio files to any image you want – in this case we used a map of the country. As well as sourcing videos and audio recordings of the songs they’d like to put on their maps, they should add links to the lyrics and biographical information too.

Time needed 2-3 hours.

Resources

www.magisto.com is a web tool that allows you to edit video from an activity such as a field trip or class project and mash it together with music to create professional-looking video. The process is quite easy, it’s easy to share the video and the quality is great. Whilst Magisto is a web tool, it is also a fantastic app for the iPhone and Android OS so you can shoot video with your phone and the video is ready to go in minutes.
Google Maps.

Hints and tips

Use a song that could be used to introduce topics relating to PHSE, politics, culture or current affairs. Even a parody could work.
The lyrics can be shared using a media poster. Try www.glogster.com.
Ensure that students are aware of the law regarding downloading and using music from the Internet.

–> Music Maestros