Keeping it Moving - Music and Education

In music there can be songs that may start off promising, but as the song continues the listener becomes bored or annoyed and is ready change the song. One song that does this to me is "Sometime Around Midnight" - Airborne Toxic Event. The music gains my attention initially, but as the song continues it almost feels like a run-on sentence or story that just keeps on going. It lacks lyrical repetition that would continue to draw the listener in or the typical verse, chorus, verse formula that may be fine for some, but I become bored and if I hear it on the radio I tend to find myself changing the station after the first half of the song. I can’t sing along really because it is more like a story.
This is issue is something that can also happen in the classroom. The lesson may have an awesome attention grabber with no follow through. Students may be intrigued and then lose attention. Maybe we need to consider our current lesson plan format. Why not add another attention grabber in the middle of the lesson to reinstate excitement or evaluate our pedagogical strategies to ensure that the lesson doesn’t begin with the most excitement and then go down hill from there.

Even with the most exciting lessons there are still obstacles that we face as educators. Copland discusses two important characteristics of a talented listener: the first being the ability to open oneself up to musical experience and the second the ability to evaluate critically that experience. If a student is resistant and not open to the learning experience that presents a significant challenge to the educator. They may not connect and truly absorb the material being presented. As with music, if the listener is not engaged and open to an experience the music may simply be noise in the background. This emphasizes the importance of keeping the experience compelling and reflecting upon past lessons to see how this may be achieved.

Copland, A. The gifted listener. Chapter 1. In Music and Imagination (pp. 1-20). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Music in the Classroom

Music is a great work of art to bring into the classroom. The “hook” could be a include memorable information that is being taught in a lesson. It also could be used as an attention grabbing tool when introducing a new unit. The repetition and rhythm increases retention and can create interest in learning. Burns (1987) in A Typology of ‘hooks’ in popular records mentions several of these adjectives in the various definitions others have used to describe the hook in music.

One example where I have seen music successfully implemented into English lessons were songs by School House Rock. I remember Conjunction Junction clearly and sometimes, even if I wanted to, I can’t get the tune out of my head. A friend of mine who teaches high school sciences has shared with me several You Tube videos in which popular songs have adapted lyrics to teach a scientific topic through music. It is quite entertaining and a fun way to help students remember new subjects.


Burns, G. (1987). A Typology of 'Hooks' in Popular Records. Popular Music, Vol. 6, No. 1. (Jan., 1987), pp. 1-20.