Music Appreciation

The third component in music studies would be music appreciation. Music appreciation basically would be getting involved in activities that would develop musicality and develop the musical mind.

There are quite many things one can do in the area of music appreciation. At music lessons, students will be taught to conduct in time to a piece of music usually in simple or compound duple, triple or quadruple.

There are also exercises on ear training where a student would have to sing in tune a certain passage that has just been played for them. Or they may be required to clap or tap the rhythm of that passage that was played for them.

In some instances, Solfege singing would also be involved. Solfege meaning using the Italian syllables Doh Re Me Fa So La Tee Doh to sing a passage. Other than this, one can get very, very creative in the area of music appreciation.

For example, the teacher may organize a session with students of about the same level to get together and listen to some music and talk about it. Topics which can be included in the discussion would be musical form, dynamics or merely expressing how you felt about the music.

In a way, it teaches the student how to be in touch with his or her emotions when listening to a piece of music, and being able to aptly describe his or her feelings upon listening to it.

Some teachers may organize a session to get students of the same level together to perform a piece or two. Upon performing the piece, discussions can be held to discuss how it was performed, who liked it, who felt it could be further improved or whether it was perfect.

Such an activity is meant to stimulate the musical mind of the student. It is especially rewarding for the teacher to be able to see his or her student being able to talk quite a bit about the piece of music in a very constructive manner.

Another excellent idea to acquire music appreciation would be for the teacher to organize a trip to a concert hall, just to go watch and listen to a performance. After which, the teacher and students could get together again and talk about the performance; how they felt about it, what were the hi-lights of the performance that they really enjoyed.