The Importance of Music
In the section of the module, we focused on what aesthetics is and the importance of it for a child’s development in the arts. The definition of aesthetics is ‘something which is concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty.’ In simple terms, it is what brings feelings to things and brings things almost to life.
At the beginning of our first workshop for the music section of the ‘Integrated Arts in Education’ module, we listened to a variety of music clips. Some of the clips were upbeat, some slow, some loud and also some delicate and then we were asked to associate a feeling to each piece of music. It is incredible that a simple piece of music can effect your feelings in a major way.
Music is critical in a child’s learning as it enhances their imagination and stimulates their mind. Even as adults, our mind can create stories and adventures just by listening to a piece of music. Music can also be used to help a child express their own feelings that they may not be able to do with words. Another task which we had was to listen to a clip of music from Disney’s Fantasia 2000 called Piano Concerto No.2, The Steadfast Tin Soldier. A clip of the piece of music is down below.
Then in groups, we made up a story along with characters that we believed fit the music and then we delivered our story to the rest of the class. Even though we all listened to the same piece of music it was amazing to see how different each groups story was. This further highlights that every child and person has different levels of imagination and creativity within them which can be situated by any given piece of music. In the picture below, you can see the story board my own group created with the aid of this musical track along with key words and actions that we noted down to enable us to create the story.
References
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Hallam, S. (2010) The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people. International Journal of Music Education. Vol.28 (3), pp.269–289.
