Music and Emotion – 24/01/19

In this weeks session we progressed the idea of using music to express our emotions another step further. Before the session we were asked to choose 2 songs that we felt made us feel different emotions. The 2 songs I chose were ‘Man! I feel like a woman’ by Shania Twain because I find it a very feel good song that makes you want to sing-a-long and dance about, which I love. The other song I chose was ‘The River’ by Bruce Springsteen because I really like how there is a story within the song, I have also seen him sing it live and it was one of the best moments of my life and every time I hear it it just reminds me of the amazing atmosphere in the stadium.

During the session we all got a chance to listen to everyone’s songs that they had chosen and we managed to invent a game which we called ‘share or delve’. We gave nothing away before we played ours songs and then after we could either share our stories or let people guess why we choose them and how they made us feel.  It was interesting to see the different kinds of music and artists that people chose and how no 2 people had the same song.

After this activity we discussed how music on the radio, television and in film can change a person’s mood and or feelings towards something or someone. We talked about how it’s not the scene alone that causes the emotions of fear, joy or sadness but it’s the music that has been put with the scene that helps create the desired emotion.

These videos help describe better just how music can change how we see a scene in a movie, how it makes us feel and what we walk away with.

Garage Band – 17/01/19

“Music is a language that crosses boundaries and one that people of all ages and backgrounds can share” (Mullet. S, 2016)

During this lesson we took the idea of evocative objects one step further. Using the software ‘garage band’ which we have already had the chance to experiment with, we were given the task to put the emotions that our objects make us feel into a piece of music.

Before I started creating my piece of music I thought about how my object, a snow globe given to me by my mum, made me feel. Happy? Sad? Reflective? Joyful? When I look at the snow globe it beings back happy childhood memories. Next I had to think about what I could hear when I looked at the object. What could I hear when I watched the snow, glitter and sparkle swirl round together around the happy sweater wearing teddy bear in the centre.

Looking and thinking about the snow globe I could hear a light twinkling and quite a jolly tune playing in my head, due to the memories I have of my object and how I think the teddy bear looks and feels. Which made me think of the different instruments that I could use to create what I could hear.

I felt this activity would be a good way for the children to express how they feel about their objects or if they were struggling to describe how they felt, they would be able to use a different method of communication such as music.

Reference List:

• Mullett, S. (2016) Classical Music To Teach Emotions, Available at: https://www.letsplaykidsmusic.com/classical-music-teach-emotions/ (Accessed: 25th January 2019).