Music - speaking, listening and reading lesson (B2)

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 5

Activities in this class are: Speaking, Listening and Reading 

Look at the photos and describe what you can see.

Discuss the following questions in pairs

• What kind of music do you enjoy listening to?

• Do you prefer going to live concerts or watching concerts online/on TV?

• Do you play or have you ever wanted to play an instrument?

• How often do you listen to music? Is music just a pastime for you, or more than that?

1. Explain the meaning of the words below to each other. 

Which of these words can be linked to your favourite music?

calming distracting energising entertaining

entrancing moving relaxing saddening

unsettling uplifting

A) calming B) distracting C)energising D)entertaining

E) entrancing F)moving G)relaxing H)saddening

I)unsettling J)uplifting

1. making someone feel more relaxed and less emotional: ……………………….

2. causing worry or anxiety: ……………………….

3. making someone feel full of energy or enthusiasm: ……………………….

4. making someone feel better: ……………………….

5. making someone feel emotional: ……………………….

6. preventing someone from concentrating on something: ……………………….

7. pleasant and making someone feel less stressed: ……………………….

8. funny and enjoyable: ……………………….

9. making someone feel sad: ……………………….

10. beautiful or impressive in a way that it takes all of someone’s attention and they can’t stop listening to or watching it: ……………………….

2B)

1. A 

2. I 

3. C

4. J

5. F

6. B

7. G

8. D

9. H

10. E

3. “Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions.” Keith Richards

Discuss: 

• Do you agree with the quote? How does music make you feel?

• What kind of music do you find (a) calming, (b) energising, 

(c) entertaining?

Can you imagine our world without music?

4. Watch the video in the next slide

• Who are the people in the video? 

• Where are they? 

• What are they talking about?

Also, write down what effect music has on people.

Answer these questions: (answers can be found on the next slide)

• Who are the people in the video? 

• Where are they? 

• What are they talking about?

4. Answers

• Who are the people in the video?
  

instrumentalists/musicians

• Where are they?
  

in a practice room or a concert hall

• What are they talking about?
  

what the world without music would be like for them

What effects does music have according to the people in the video?

5. Write down four effects that music has, according to the speakers

It has a calming effect. [00:26]

• Music is a solace, something that makes you feel that everything will be OK.

[00:44]

• It makes you feel extreme happiness and heartbreak. [01:14]

• Music brings back memories for people. [01:19]

• It calms babies, children and the sick. [01:22]

• It’s moving for both musicians and audience. [01:26]

• Music keeps people alive. [01:51]

• Live music is a communal experience that is an affirmation that you’re alive.

[02:19]

6. Discussion questions

• Can you imagine the world without music?

• What role does music play in your life?

• Does any particular piece of music bring back memories of certain events, experiences or periods in your life to you?

• What emotions may watching a live concert in a concert hall evoke in people, compared to watching it at home alone?

Earworm

More than 100 years ago, Germans coined the term öhrwurm—earworm—to describe the experience of a song stuck in the brain. Scientists call it other names, like “stuck tune syndrome” and “musical imagery repetition.” But the creepy image of an earworm crawling into people’s brains caught on. There is even a musician known as DJ Earworm.

1. Earworms are experienced by

1. most people
2. some people
3. a few people
4. only people with experience playing an instrument

2. Most earworms are composed of a

1. timbre
2. string of harmonies
3. tune
4. texture

3. A story by Mark Twain is one piece of evidence that:

1. Only people in certain cultures are susceptible to earworms
2. Earworms existed before advent of modern recording technology
3. Earworms are not important
4. Earworms can be cured

4. People are more likely to experience earworms when:

1. A) They’ve been exposed to a song recently and repeatedly.
2. B) They’ve tried to ignore a song
3. C) They’ve never hear a song before
4. D) They are busy engaging in a strenuous task

5. Music is especially susceptible to getting stuck in our heads because:

1. A) Most people like music
2. B) It isn’t; other things are equally likely to get stuck in our heads
3. C) Music is similar to language
4. D) We don’t know exactly why

6. Discussion questions:

- Were you surprised at how prevalent earworms are?

- Do you think you experience more or fewer earworms than the typical person?

- When do you tend to experience earworms?

- What is meant by “involuntary auditory imagery”?

Extract from a brochure

Iford Manor Festival Season

Iford Manor has been described as one of the most stunning concert venues in the West Country. Throughout high summer, Iford Arts stages an internationally renowned festival in a breathtakingly beautiful pastoral setting. Operatic performances are staged in-the-round in the intimate surroundings of the Italianate Cloister, which could not be more perfect in terms of scale and style. While the classical backdrop could hardly be more fitting, the real delight for our audiences is that, as the sky turns purple overhead, the first stars appear and the first heady notes resound across the countryside, no-one is seated less than twenty feet from the performers. The opportunity for a relaxing pre-show picnic in our tranquil gardens overlooking the meandering River Frome will complete an already magical experience.

Iford Arts, a registered charity promoting the appreciation of performing arts in the west of England, aims to benefit the local community by engaging young professional artists and stimulating young people’s enjoyment of being involved in live performances. We hope to support young musicians in their career development by encouraging them to develop repertoire and perform to a supportive audience and providing the exquisite environment in which to do so. Iford Arts does not receive any public subsidies, relying on vital private contributions. We offer various levels of private patronage and corporate sponsorship, each providing a range of privileges such as priority booking.

Extract from a brochure

Iford Manor Festival Season

Iford Manor has been described as one of the most stunning concert venues in the West Country. Throughout high summer, Iford Arts stages an internationally renowned festival in a breathtakingly beautiful pastoral setting. Operatic performances are staged in-the-round in the intimate surroundings of the Italianate Cloister, which could not be more perfect in terms of scale and style. While the classical backdrop could hardly be more fitting, the real delight for our audiences is that, as the sky turns purple overhead, the first stars appear and the first heady notes resound across the countryside, no-one is seated less than twenty feet from the performers. The opportunity for a relaxing pre-show picnic in our tranquil gardens overlooking the meandering River Frome will complete an already magical experience.

Iford Arts, a registered charity promoting the appreciation of performing arts in the west of England, aims to benefit the local community by engaging young professional artists and stimulating young people’s enjoyment of being involved in live performances. We hope to support young musicians in their career development by encouraging them to develop repertoire and perform to a supportive audience and providing the exquisite environment in which to do so. Iford Arts does not receive any public subsidies, relying on vital private contributions. We offer various levels of private patronage and corporate sponsorship, each providing a range of privileges such as priority booking.

What aspect of Iford Manor is emphasized in the first paragraph?

1. the Italian-style architecture
2. the countryside location
3. the seating arrangements
4. the quality of the music

2. What is the main purpose in the second paragraph?

1. To describe the history of the performances
2. To encourage young musicians to perform at the Manor
3. To encourage people to donate to the charity
4. inform people about how they can be involved in charity work

Extract from a brochure

Iford Manor Festival Season

Iford Manor has been described as one of the most stunning concert venues in the West Country. Throughout high summer, Iford Arts stages an internationally renowned festival in a breathtakingly beautiful pastoral setting. Operatic performances are staged in-the-round in the intimate surroundings of the Italianate Cloister, which could not be more perfect in terms of scale and style. While the classical backdrop could hardly be more fitting, the real delight for our audiences is that, as the sky turns purple overhead, the first stars appear and the first heady notes resound across the countryside, no-one is seated less than twenty feet from the performers. The opportunity for a relaxing pre-show picnic in our tranquil gardens overlooking the meandering River Frome will complete an already magical experience.

Iford Arts, a registered charity promoting the appreciation of performing arts in the west of England, aims to benefit the local community by engaging young professional artists and stimulating young people’s enjoyment of being involved in live performances. We hope to support young musicians in their career development by encouraging them to develop repertoire and perform to a supportive audience and providing the exquisite environment in which to do so. Iford Arts does not receive any public subsidies, relying on vital private contributions. We offer various levels of private patronage and corporate sponsorship, each providing a range of privileges such as priority booking.

Extract from a novel

Piano Practice

I glare at the piano keys, a lump of fetid anger in my chest, bile in my lungs. Naturally mother had won. Had it been worth the fight? Now I am incarcerated in this airless room, curtains shutting out the summer sunshine, and I’m supposed to blot out the birdsong with my discordant and clumsy attempts at harmony.

Music is the food of love, they say. Music will set you free, they sang. Remember those romantic novels where the entrapped heroine finds her freedom and salvation through music?How her soaring voice allowed her to escape the claustrophobic confines of her disagreeable existence? Where was that freedom now? All I can see is this grid of horizontal and vertical lines mocking me like the bars on a prison cell. And a prison warden who barks at me from beyond the grave: Be quiet, now. You may play loudly now. See the discreet ‘3’ above the semiquaver A flat, demanding that I play the note with the third finger, the third! How dare that bearded, long-dead German enforce upon me how I play this note? I will not use my finger, you fusty old man! I will play it with my thumb! No, I will bash it with my fist. I can head butt it with impassioned fury if so I choose!

The crow in the kitchen screeches over the sound of the clattering dishes. Why aren’t you playing? And so I clench my muscles, take a deep breath and hammer out that lullaby, as if inviting all the hordes of hell to descend upon the baby’s cradle.

In the second paragraph, why does the character mention the ‘romantic novels where the entrapped heroine finds her freedom and salvation through music’?

1. Because she envies the heroines’ musical talent
2. Because she feels in a similar position to these heroines
3. Because the heroine’s experiences contrast strongly with her own
4. Because she wishes that music will give her a similar sense of freedom

4. Why does the character in the text ‘hammer out that lullaby’ (last paragraph )?

1. She wishes to create disruption in the house.
2. She dislikes the music of this classical composer.
3. She is angry because she would rather be outside.
4. She is attempting to express herself through music.

Extract from a brochure

Iford Manor Festival Season

Iford Manor has been described as one of the most stunning concert venues in the West Country. Throughout high summer, Iford Arts stages an internationally renowned festival in a breathtakingly beautiful pastoral setting. Operatic performances are staged in-the-round in the intimate surroundings of the Italianate Cloister, which could not be more perfect in terms of scale and style. While the classical backdrop could hardly be more fitting, the real delight for our audiences is that, as the sky turns purple overhead, the first stars appear and the first heady notes resound across the countryside, no-one is seated less than twenty feet from the performers. The opportunity for a relaxing pre-show picnic in our tranquil gardens overlooking the meandering River Frome will complete an already magical experience.

Iford Arts, a registered charity promoting the appreciation of performing arts in the west of England, aims to benefit the local community by engaging young professional artists and stimulating young people’s enjoyment of being involved in live performances. We hope to support young musicians in their career development by encouraging them to develop repertoire and perform to a supportive audience and providing the exquisite environment in which to do so. Iford Arts does not receive any public subsidies, relying on vital private contributions. We offer various levels of private patronage and corporate sponsorship, each providing a range of privileges such as priority booking.

Review of Research

Music increases verbal aptitude in Children

The relationship between musical education and increased abilities in non-musical domains such as mathematics, linguistics and spatial organisation has been studied extensively. Now, a study by Jospeh Prio and Camelo Ortiz from Long Island University claims to clarify the role of music in mental aptitude. Their test examined the hypothesis that children receiving keyboard tuition would show a markedly superior performance on measures of vocabulary and verbal sequencing than students who received no instruction.Children were selected from two schools in the same area with similar demographic characteristics. The children who received musical education (n=46) at one school received formal piano tuition for three years. Children attending the control school (n=57) received no formal musical training on any musical instrument. Both schools followed balanced literacy programmes.

Results showed significantly better vocabulary and verbal sequencing scores in the musically trained group than the control group, from which the authors conclude that a variety of approaches, including music, can improve reading achievement in children.

However, close examination of the results revealed some inconsistency within this premise. The authors observed that at the start of the study, the music-learning group had already received two years of piano tuition, but showed no superior linguistic skills over the control group at that time. In explaining these findings, Prio and Ortiz propose: that the absence of music instruction during the summer recess preceding the start of the study may have reversed any temporary cognitive benefits; that the duration of music study required to improve such skills is longer than the initial two years, and that significant brain development may occur during the time-period in which the study took place. The experiment leads to authors to believe that decisions on ‘when’ to teach are equally important as ‘what’ to teach.

5. What does the study seek to do?

1. Investigate an issue which is already widely accepted
2. Prove a hypothesis which may revolutionise teaching
3. Challenge a popular idea
4. Improve the literacy skills in two neighbouring schools

6. The purpose of the underlined text is:

1. to provide an explanation for their theory
2. to suggest how their data could be used practically
3. to suggest reasons why their data may appear inconsistent
4. to give support to their findings

This class has offered me good practice in reading, listening and speaking.

😒🙁😐🙂😃

Before this class I did not know...

Thanks for your participation and enjoy your Carnaval Break!