Music in Movies
Okay this lesson was SO much fun, probably my favorite one we've done thus far! We got to combine my two favorite things: movies and music!
The lesson started off by watching this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fnq1s-babs&t=189s
It's an excellent example to demonstrate how important music is to movies. First, they show a scene from Jaws without the accompanying music. When we finished watching that clip, I asked the students what they thought of that scene. They all emphatically exclaimed, "BORING!"
When we then watched the clip with the music, they gave excellent descriptions as to how the scene had changed: "my heart was racing!" "it was so intense!" and a few other equally excited reactions.
We put their music identifying skills to the test by having them listen to a piece and try to identify what they think would have been happening in the scene, starting with this scene from Jurassic Park: https://youtu.be/PJlmYh27MHg?t=107 once they guessed what was happening in the music, we'd watch the clip together as a class. The students then identified what characteristics the music had that made them guess that- they identified the horn sections in this piece played what they described as a "majestic" melody, there was an exciting buildup. We didn't actually watch the raptor attack scene because I thought that would have been inappropriate, but we did listen to the raptor attack music. They all thought it sounded as though something scary was happening because of the fast tempo, and they described the minor intervals (though they didn't actually know the terminology yet to say that so explicitly.)
After getting practice with this, we watched an excellent example of a composer who used music to help tell a story by watching the opening scene from UP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2bk_9T482g&t=189s I wanted to stop partway because it always makes me cry, but the students insisted we watch to the end. Once again, the students identified that he used different tempos in the music to create different effects. I also helped them come to the conclusion that different texture was used depending on what was happening; for instance, right after the sweet couple get married there are all sorts of instruments being played. However when they find out they can't have children, the only instrument we hear is a piano. This was a great lesson to help them really describe what qualities in the music they were listening to made them feel the various emotions they experienced.
The final part of this lesson was I played a minute long clip from a song from Tangled: https://youtu.be/0v3kmA9R7xQ?t=150
The students worked with other students at their table to come up with a story inspired by the music they heard. They were given probably 6 or 7 listens of the music to develop their stories. There were car chase scenes, wolf attacks, and epic sword fights. It was so much fun to watch!
The biggest obstacle the students faced in this assignment was the fact that they kept reaching the climax of the story way too early. For instance, one scene had the "bad guy" kill all the others 30 seconds in, leaving them with 30 seconds to just fill time. When I asked the students what they planned on doing to fill the time, they told me they were just going to do the "flossing" dance move. We then got to have a conversation about how flossing didn't match either the music nor did it have anything to do with the story, even though the students strongly disagreed.
This was a great opportunity for me and for Mrs. Elliott to explain to the students principles of storytelling/writing. Many reached the climax of their story before reaching the climax of the song. By the time the last group presented, they finally caught on! The wolf wasn't killed until the final chord. Great learning experiences all around :)
The lesson started off by watching this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fnq1s-babs&t=189s
It's an excellent example to demonstrate how important music is to movies. First, they show a scene from Jaws without the accompanying music. When we finished watching that clip, I asked the students what they thought of that scene. They all emphatically exclaimed, "BORING!"
When we then watched the clip with the music, they gave excellent descriptions as to how the scene had changed: "my heart was racing!" "it was so intense!" and a few other equally excited reactions.
We put their music identifying skills to the test by having them listen to a piece and try to identify what they think would have been happening in the scene, starting with this scene from Jurassic Park: https://youtu.be/PJlmYh27MHg?t=107 once they guessed what was happening in the music, we'd watch the clip together as a class. The students then identified what characteristics the music had that made them guess that- they identified the horn sections in this piece played what they described as a "majestic" melody, there was an exciting buildup. We didn't actually watch the raptor attack scene because I thought that would have been inappropriate, but we did listen to the raptor attack music. They all thought it sounded as though something scary was happening because of the fast tempo, and they described the minor intervals (though they didn't actually know the terminology yet to say that so explicitly.)
After getting practice with this, we watched an excellent example of a composer who used music to help tell a story by watching the opening scene from UP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2bk_9T482g&t=189s I wanted to stop partway because it always makes me cry, but the students insisted we watch to the end. Once again, the students identified that he used different tempos in the music to create different effects. I also helped them come to the conclusion that different texture was used depending on what was happening; for instance, right after the sweet couple get married there are all sorts of instruments being played. However when they find out they can't have children, the only instrument we hear is a piano. This was a great lesson to help them really describe what qualities in the music they were listening to made them feel the various emotions they experienced.
The final part of this lesson was I played a minute long clip from a song from Tangled: https://youtu.be/0v3kmA9R7xQ?t=150
The students worked with other students at their table to come up with a story inspired by the music they heard. They were given probably 6 or 7 listens of the music to develop their stories. There were car chase scenes, wolf attacks, and epic sword fights. It was so much fun to watch!
The biggest obstacle the students faced in this assignment was the fact that they kept reaching the climax of the story way too early. For instance, one scene had the "bad guy" kill all the others 30 seconds in, leaving them with 30 seconds to just fill time. When I asked the students what they planned on doing to fill the time, they told me they were just going to do the "flossing" dance move. We then got to have a conversation about how flossing didn't match either the music nor did it have anything to do with the story, even though the students strongly disagreed.
This was a great opportunity for me and for Mrs. Elliott to explain to the students principles of storytelling/writing. Many reached the climax of their story before reaching the climax of the song. By the time the last group presented, they finally caught on! The wolf wasn't killed until the final chord. Great learning experiences all around :)
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