Today we have a 1st and 2nd grade class of students connecting to the Cleveland Institute of Music for their program Music in the Movies.
They started out by watching a bit of a movie without any sound. Students learned what a composer does. They then discussed the ways that music is used in movies:
- musicals
- singing songs in the background
- background music
Then students listened to some clips of background music, and thought of words to describe how it makes you feel. (Music helps tell the story.) Here are some of the words students thought of, and then the movie the music came from. Students found out about the movie AFTER they thought of the words:
- heroic, dance, feels like I’m in a kingdom, kingly, powerful (Ben Hur)
- magical, in nature dancing, in wonderland, beautiful, like it’s Christmas time, dance-able (The Boy Who Could Fly)
- scary, like Rambo music, adventurous, frightened, like I’m going to get eaten by a shark in the water (The Omen)
- circus-like, like you’ve seen a friend you haven’t seen in a long time, bouncy, fun, like a train (City Slickers)
- like a band, like Indiana Jones, adventurous, excited, like the beginnings of Star Wars (Robin Hood: Prince of Peace)
Students also watched a clip where the music was tightly matched to the action (cartoons). Then students watched another clip without sound to see if they could figure out where the music should hit on the action. Finally, they watched a Teletubbies clip with happy music, then scary music, then Star Wars music to compare!
What a great program – to teach about music in storytelling and listening skills! We’ll be doing this one again!
