Experience Design

Summary/Overview:

In this experience design learners will experience sound by listening to the environment,

and creating sounds from their bodies.

The learners will experience a guided exploration of sound in their environment. They

will each have a handout that directs them to find specific sounds, and then after this musical

scavenger hunt of sorts, they will explore sounds they can create with their bodies. The guided

Musical Listening Walk includes Crunchy Leaves, Rustling Wind, Scurrying Squirrels,

Strumming Ukuleles, Honking Cars, and Beating Drums.

Rationale:

It is easy for typical sounds to go unnoticed, disappearing into the backdrop of life.

While people might think they know what a crunchy leaf sounds like, I would challenge that they

most likely have never truly listened with intent. Listening walking can be therapeutic, and full of

discovery. It is beneficial for everyone to realize for the first time, or be reminded, that great

beauty exists in nature. To fully experience it though, you must go deeper than your sense of

sight.

Standards:

● MU:Cn11.0.6 ​Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other

arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.

● MU:Cr1.1.3.a.​​ Improvise rhythmic and melodic ideas, and describe connection to

specific purpose and context (such as personal and social).

 ● MU:Re8.1.5 ​Demonstrate and explain how the expressive qualities (such as dynamics,

tempo, timbre, and articulation) are used in performers’ and personal interpretations to

reflect expressive intent

● MU:Cn10.0.4 ​Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal

choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music.

I Can Statements:

● I can talk about the connections between music, and sounds in nature.

● I can improvise a rhythmic idea utilizing body percussion, and connect it to a discovery

on the Listening Walk.

● I can highlight dynamics, articulations, and other expressive qualities in my peers’

improvisations, as well as my own.

● I can identify choices I made in my improvisation.

Materials and Visual Aids:

● Listening Walk handouts

● Clipboards

● Summary/Extension handouts

Detailed Process:

1. Greet students individually as they show up [before time starts]

2. Ask everyone to stand in a circle and follow my lead [2 mins]

a. I will pat my legs in a steady beat, and then ask everyone to close their eyes and

use their ears to follow, to prime their ears/listening abilities for the listening walk
3. Prepare learners for the listening walk by asking them to identify sounds that they hear.

[2 min]

a. Initial sounds while standing in circle

i. ?What do you hear? Tell your neighbor.

b. My suggestions for what to listen for, but also my interest in them expanding

upon my list

c. List out the guidelines of us sticking together

4. Step off for Listening Walk with me as the leader, and my colleague taking up the rear. [9

mins]

a. I will not talk during this Walk, but I will mime interest in sounds that catch my

attention so the learners can notice too. I will also enforce noise discipline so

everyone can hear nature’s sounds.

5. Return and circle and ask learners to share with their neighbors what they heard. [3

mins]

a. Ask if anyone wants to share about their experience - did they notice anything

new with a sound they thought they were familiar with?

i. ?What connects did you make between music, and nature’s sounds?

6. Copy cat game [13 mins]

a. The leader will be in the center of the circle creating a new sound for the rest of

the group to copy.

b. I will be the leader first, and then my colleague, and then whoever volunteers.

i. I will crescendo and diminuendo my hands quickly patting my legs

ii. To increase awareness for expressive qualities, I will ask if any learner

knows what dynamics/articulations/tempo are, and ask for a volunteer to

 demonstrate. We will then all until abiding by the copycat game, but this

is how I will guide the activity, and assist with the I Can Statements.

iii. ?Does that sound like anything you heard on the Listening Walk?

Explain.

iv. ?What led you to improvise that? What were you thinking about?

7. Materials will be gathered, and I will thank the learners for their contributions. [1 min]