One of my goals with my music studio is to use music as a tool to explore skills that we often consider to be solely in the realm of adulthood, but that are in fact useful skills for human beings of any age. In January, that was creating and meeting goals, in February, preparing for a performance, and this month, we will be exploring feelings!

Here are the weekly activities we will be doing this month, which are designed to provoke thought about feelings and how they are translated into music.

Week 1- Translating feelings into music

Talk about a feeling you had this week and what made you feel that way. Now let’s create a little music to reflect that. Is it fast/slow? Is it major/minor key? Is it loud/soft? Are the notes short/long? Are the notes jumpy or smooth? Etc.

Week 2- Translating music into feelings

I will pick some short selections of music that we will listen to together. Then we will come up with some feeling words to describe the music. What specific elements of the music make it sound like that feeling?

Week 3- Application to repertoire

Discuss the feeling(s) in a piece the student is playing. What parts of the music can we manipulate to bring that out to the listener?

Week 4- Experimentation with repertoire

Discuss the feeling(s) in a piece the student is playing. What does it sound like if we change it from major to minor, or vice versa? Fast to slow? Short to long? Etc.