Creative Use of Music: Pictures Painted in Sound
Jeremy Harmer’s wonderful “How to Teach Writing” has some great ideas on writing activities. One of my favorites is using instrumental music as the basis for a creative writing project. Jeremy says to play a song for the students. While they listen, they should write down any vocabulary that they associate with the music. Pool the vocabulary together as a class and then have the students write a story based on it or, better yet, imagine the music to be the introductory scene of a movie. Students then write out how the movie begins. This could easily be built into an extended drama activity.
I love this idea and it has always worked very well in my classes. Some pieces of music are just so evocative and immediately bring stories to life. They can be a real spur to get the creative juices flowing.
The song I like to use is War of the Last Wolves from the Rurouni Kenshin soundtrack. There is an excellent video on YouTube set to the music titled “rurouni kenshin OVA the war of the last wolves.” Unfortunately, the government attempts to ban access to YouTube have gotten stronger recently and previous access avenues are being blocked. There is a shorter version via DailyMotion here.
You can then use the video to offer as a comparison to your students’ stories. Maybe even have the class vote on favorites and explain why.
Other good songs are anything by Yoko Kanno. Most will also have videos done for them as well.
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Tags: Jeremy Harmer, Music, writing
Lesson Ideas | turklis1 | 
September 1, 2010 3:03 pm
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By debyenglish, September 1, 2010 @ 6:52 pm
Great idea!!! Music is such an inspiring factor, I use it all the time to work and think of my lesson plans so I think students will really enjoy this activity. I’m going to try it. Thank you!
By turklis1, September 1, 2010 @ 6:54 pm
Hi Deborah, I’m glad you liked it. I can’t take much credit, cause it’s originally Jeremy’s idea. Let me know how the lesson goes
By nightwalker, September 5, 2010 @ 6:29 am
I rarely use music in my classes although I know they may be a source of inspiration. The reason is not a laziness on my part. It’s rather a lack facilities in the school. I should think of ways to redress the problem. MUSIC can be fun, instructive and inspiring.
Thanks for the idea
By turklis1, September 7, 2010 @ 1:04 am
Hi Nightwalker, yeah, having the resources is often at issue at many schools sadly. Fortunately, there are ways of getting around that. I often found my laptop or a cheap pair of powered speakers (around 15 bucks) worked well.