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CHAPTER 2

A Sound Awareness of Music



Music is a many-splendored thing. Now as in the historical past, peo-

ple are making music meaningful and useful in their lives, as singers,
players, dancers, creators, and listeners. In many traditions, they may
be musically interactive in all of these roles at once, where no demar-
cations are found to cubbyhole them into one realm only to keep them
out of another. Across the earth, the palette of musical possibilities is
as varied as technology can provide and as deeply involving as the time
that people will allow it into their lives. Music calls individuals to em-
brace it intimately, and to share in it as social experience and as mem-
bers of a community of musicians and listening audiences. For people
of the world’s cultures, music is vital to their very being, whether they
know it as “makers or takers,” active participants or passive consumers.
Music teachers traditionally aim for the active participation of their stu-
dents in musical experiences and, as such, they match well the manner
in which so many of the world’s people are musically involved, both in
their own neighborhoods as well as in far-flung places across the globe.
Practically speaking, there are three central features to consider in
developing a sound awareness of music: instruments (and voices), ele-
ments, and contexts. We grow in awareness of the music by knowing
about the instruments (and voices) that produce the sound—their tim-
bral quality, how they are constructed, what ideas people have of their
instruments and their associations with spirituality, gender, and cul-
tural status, and whether the instrument is viewed as a “thing” of beauty
or an item of technology (or both). We come to terms with music’s struc-
tures through analysis of its elements of time (rhythm, its organization,
and speed), pitch (both horizontal, as in melody, and vertical, as in the
textures of pitches sounding together). We recognize that our own con-
ceptions of music are personally and culturally evolved, and that we
must commit ourselves to the study of music’s functions and settings
within the culture from which it is derived if we are to truly understand

30
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A Sound Awareness of Music  31

it. When we make an effort to know the singers, players, dancers, com-
posers (improvisers and arrangers, too), and avid listeners, to talk with
them, to observe them in “live” musical action, we can get to the heart
of context and what the music truly means to the people within the
culture and why it is a valued human expression. Our understanding
of music depends upon the information we can gather about these
features.
The process of musically educating children and youth requires a
continuous commitment to multiple courses of action, from basic mu-
sical awareness experiences to the thoughtful creation and re-creation
of music. For the sakes of our students, whether they are the very young
elementary school children rooted to their homes and families or the
more musically sophisticated secondary school adolescents, we are com-
pelled to consider, on the way to providing them with applied perfor-
mance and creative skills, their sound awareness of music. Who are our
students, musically speaking? What music do they find familiar, less fa-
miliar, or even “exotic”? What musical experiences do they bring from
outside the context of instruction into the classroom? How aware are
they of music’s features and processes? How can their awareness, both
of locally grown music and music from distant cultures, be extended
and intensified? By raising these questions and seeking responses, the
musical education of our students can be made more relevant.
Teachers do well when they awaken in K–12 students the deeper
meanings of the music of their own familial experiences. They do well,
too, when they develop their students’ awareness of musical genres and
expressions that have been outside their experience but which can be
brought within their reach through effective curricular considerations.
Through a kind of discovery zone of suggested “sound awareness ac-
tivities” described next, teachers can guide students in ways for know-
ing musical sound through the music-makers, and the instruments and
voices, that are able to be accessed. Independently conceived although
similar in spirit to the development of ideas prescribed a generation ago
by Canadian composer R. Murray Schaefer in The Thinking Ear: Com-
plete Writings on Music Education (1986), these activities stretch from lo-
cal to global conceptions of musical sources, elements, and contexts.
Some of the three dozen suggestions are student-independent, while
others require the teacher’s guidance and facilitation in class to set up
and show students the way. The activities are wide-ranging, too, some
of which will prove to be quite elementary and intended for young be-
ginners while others will challenge even an experienced first-chair flutist
or a ten-year veteran of piano lessons. As for where to begin, which ac-
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32  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

tivities to use (and even which to discard), the decision is dependent

upon teachers, students, and programs. Perceptive teachers will fit the
activities to the needs of their students, although levels of difficulty (ini-
tial, intermediate, and advanced) are designated in an advisory way.
As might be expected, the activities can be used intact as described or
adapted by teachers and their students.

DISCOVERING THE SPLENDORS OF SOUND

As babes-in-the-womb, we had our first experiences through what our
mothers sang to us, and we could hear through her the music our par-
ents preferred listening to, and that they may have sung and played to-
gether. The sense of hearing develops first, and is fine-tuned through
infancy and toddlerhood. Creeping and crawling, we listened to the
sounds of family members in the home, and then as young children in
the yard, we heard our neighbors talking, singing, playing their record-
ings, and maybe even a playing a musical instrument or two. We dis-
covered our world partly through our sound-sense, and our musicality
developed through the music that appeared within our range of hear-
ing. Yet as the world crowded in on us by middle childhood and into
our adolescence, it is not surprising that our sound awareness may have
dimmed and diminished some, and that the scope of our musical ex-
perience became fixed on just that music that was most commonly “in
the air” around us and thus easily available to us.
The world is rich with musical sounds which distinguish one culture
from the next, and even the most local and familiar sound environ-
ments, heard in a moment’s time, are reflective of a culture. It is capti-
vating to listen with fresh ears to the sounds that emanate from local
“home” cultures. Open the door into a family home, and there are peo-
ple talking, walking, humming, whistling, laughing, dogs barking, and
appliances whirring or buzzing—from washers and dryers to electric
drills and saws, or TVs and radios and recordings playing. From the
other direction, open the door to the outside, and an active neighbor-
hood may be heard—from songbirds and the wind in the trees, to the
motors of near and distant vehicles, to the dull thumping music that
pours out of restaurants, stores, cafes, and passing cars. The doors that
open into and out of these cultures lend themselves to widely varied
sound-palettes, so that even the languages or inflections of a family’s
speech, or the melodies of particular songbirds perched nearby, or the
music from a specific TV station or restaurant, will differ and thus dis-
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A Sound Awareness of Music  33

tinguish a given place as having its own very local sonic culture. In
knowing the wider world of music, then, we go forward with our ears
perked to explore with our students the musical possibilities of our im-
mediate environs and of a sampling of sound that is captured on a
single CD.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.1 Discovering En-

vironmental Sounds. (Initial) Alone or in groups, take stock of
the sounds in an immediate environment. In the classroom, else-
where in the building, or outdoors, maintain silence for five min-
utes in order to listen and jot down all ambient sounds. Discover
which sounds appear to have definitive musical qualities of pitch
(high, low, changing), duration (long, short, fast, slow, steady or
not), timbre (from dull to brilliant), and intensity (soft, loud,
changing). Note how sounds seem to collide and combine in poly-
phonic textures, and how others seem to “stand out.” Which
sounds are predictable and familiar? Which sounds might be telling
symbols of who people are, of ideas and objects that people value,
that is, signifiers of cultural value?

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.2 Constructing an

Environmental Sound Composition. (Initial) Using a vari-
ety of sound sources, including voices, body percussion, musical
instruments, and other available objects like paper, cups, pens,
chairs, keys, and desk tops, try to reproduce with others a 30-
second piece comprised of the ambient sounds observed in 2.1.
Experiment with not only the timbral qualities but also duration
and intensity, and textural variety (one sound source versus
many). Note the challenges in re-creating natural and mechani-
cal or motorized sounds, if that is your intent, and in develop-
ing the textures that come from the combination of sounds occur-
ring simultaneously. Create a miniature composition based upon
this environmental sound-palette. Evaluate its impact as a mu-
sical composition or as a mere exercise in sound exploration.
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34  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.3 Instrumental

Sound-Spectrum. (Initial) Find at least five musical instru-
ments, or objects with music-making potential, in your home and
community. Play them, or ask others to play them, and explore
the mechanisms by which sound is produced. Make a list of these
instruments and categorize them by their sound-making capaci-
ties (by plucking or bowing a string, blowing into a tube or cone,
striking the instrument’s surface, shaking the instrument). See
Thinking Musically, Chapter 2, as you consider various other
ways to categorize these instruments, including the material from
which they are made.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.4 The Personal

Voice. (Initial) The most personal instrument of all is the voice.
Listen to your singing voice as you sing. The shower is a place
of good resonance where the sound feeds back to you from the
shower wall, or a tape recording is an obvious source of feedback
to you as to your sound. Describe your vocal quality: High,
medium, low in pitch? Bright, light or darker, heavier? With vi-
brato or “straight” in tone? With or without rasp, or buzz, or
breathiness, or twang? Large or small range? Once you have de-
cided what it will do, try various singing qualities or styles: West-
ern art/operatic, Country (western), Pop-styled, other. What mu-
sic are you most comfortable singing? Which ones will you learn?

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.5 Other Voices.

(Intermediate) Listen to the voices of others on the CD selections.
Without reading their official descriptions from the CD list, make
notes of the vocal quality and estimate which culture the voices
belong to. What led you to these descriptions and speculations?
(Suggested ten selections: CD tracks 1, 7, 9, 10, 20, 21, 27,
33, 39, and 46.)
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A Sound Awareness of Music  35

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.6 Instrument ID-

by-Ear. (Intermediate) Listen to ten selections from the CD, and
identify them according to the following process: (a) description of
materials from which the instrument is constructed (for exam-
ple, wood or brass or gourd), (b) description of how it’s played,
(c) country or region of the world where the instrument is played,
(d) “educated guess” as to the English-language name of the in-
strument. Check your answers with the CD list description, and
discuss which ones were most challenging, and why. (Suggested
ten selections: CD tracks 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 14, 22, 25, 32, 52).

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.7 Making Your

Own Instrument. (Intermediate) Based upon the sound-
making properties of which you are aware through your exami-
nation of instruments, look into the possibilities for making your
own instrument. Nonpitched percussion instruments, such as
drums, wood blocks, and shakers, may immediately come to mind,
and numerous materials found at home or at school could be
adapted to make musical sounds. Consider what instruments could
be made, including strings and winds, from the following mate-
rials: hollowed-out bamboo stalks, PVC or other plastic pipes,
“Easter eggs” and rice, pots and pans, rubberbands, 2  4
boards, sticks, cans, strings (including metal guitar strings), drink-
ing straws, or cheesecloth.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.8 Sleuthing for

Styles. (Intermediate) Scan radio, TV, and Internet sources to
sleuth out as many musical styles as is possible. If descriptive
words are applied to them (or occur to you), jot them down. Visit
the local record shops for style descriptors, too, as you take note
of the dividers and bins in which the recordings are kept. In small
groups, list all of the different styles of music you have gathered.
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36  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

Check off those styles that you know and write the name of a
composer, artist, or song/composition that is identified with this
style. Compare your findings with those of your peers.

GETTING THE FOCUS ON MUSIC AND CULTURE

People often take music for granted. Sounds from every source, every
song and instrumental piece, may converge into an aural collage and
become too much “a part of the scenery.” Occasionally, music will stand
out and be transformative in the experience we have with it, but for
most music to be greatly valued and viewed for its remarkable contri-
bution to human life, it is often necessary to study it. The mission of a
musical education in schools and institutions of higher learning is to
develop in students a deeper understanding of the structures and mean-
ings of music; thus it is vital for teachers to teach musically and cul-
turally. Developing in students a sound awareness of music necessitates
that they focus on music and its cultural significance, a noble goal that
can be achieved through their involvement of activities presented here.
The volume Thinking Musically is a useful guide to further explanation
of the concepts behind these “focus” activities, and both its glossary
and the CD are vital components in the study of music as a cultural
expression.
A musical culture may be as tightly conceived of as what is heard
within one family home or as expansive as a neighborhood, a commu-
nity formed by ethnicity or religious practices, or region defined by ge-
ographic, ecological, or political boundaries. One family’s sound sur-
roundings may differ from the next, and so do neighborhoods vary in
the music people listen to, make, and value. What music may sound in
the center of a city may not be the same as what may be heard on the
east side, or the south side. As communities develop around main
streets, churches, schools, parks, business districts, and shopping cen-
ters, the music of the people who live there is part of what distinguishes
them. First-generation Eritreans bring with them the musical heritage
of their home country, and it uniquely defines them, as does the
heritage-music of first-generation Russians, Koreans, and Venezuelans.
Those whose families have lived away from these home countries for
two, three, or more generations may yet be musically linked to their
old-world heritage, and music, like the food, traditional clothing, and
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A Sound Awareness of Music  37

religious practices, may emerge at weddings, funerals, family reunions,

and holiday celebrations. Americans whose roots may be traced to Ire-
land, Mexico, Japan, Italy, and the Philippines may live as mainstream
Americans on most days but enjoy the festive occasions that recall their
ancestry and underscore their ethnic identity.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.9 Defining Music.

(Initial) Survey friends and family members, asking them to de-
fine what is (and is not) music. How close do they come to the
definition of music as “humanly organized sound”? Or to refer-
ring to music as “a process” that requires the efforts of perform-
ers and listeners? Do any of the collected definitions take in dance
as well (as in the case of the Indian word for music, sangita)?
Do any of the definitions separate vocal and instrumental music
by the use of separate words, as in the case of the Macedonian
“pesne” for song and “musika” for instrumental music?

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.10 Exploring Mu-

sical Heritage. (Initial) Gather information on the music of your
family’s cultural heritage. What musics do your parents prefer?
Your grandparents? Siblings, aunts, and uncles? Ask them about
favorite songs, artists, and styles. On what occasions do they hear
his music? Do they sing or play an instrument (or did they)? To
what kind of music do they dance? Review their collections of
recordings (CDs, tapes, LPs) and videotapes/DVDs of a musi-
cal nature. Compile a list of significant musics that define their
heritage. Discuss any surprises (to you) concerning your family’s
musical heritage.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.11 Determining

Musical Identity. (Initial) Who are you, musically speaking?
Beyond the ties to your family’s musical heritage, the music you
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38  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

listen to, and perform, uniquely defines you. Maintain an accu-

rate record of your daily musical involvement over a week’s time.
Be specific about the nature of your listening (To what? By whom?
For how long?), performing (What instrument? What piece?),
dancing (Type of dance? To what music?). Tally the amount of
your musical involvement per day, with subtallies on activity types
and musical styles (or artists), and determine the average amount
over the week. Compare to the musical preferences of other fam-
ily members, and classmates.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.12 Knowing Mu-

sical Beauty. (Intermediate) Play a sampling of musical selec-
tions from the CD, and discuss what might be considered beau-
tiful about the music. For example, CD track 3 features
embellishment and variation in Chinese music, a beautiful ap-
proach to “adding flowers” to the otherwise plain melody, and
CD track 5 presents a community of musicians (from West Africa)
who come together in a socially responsive manner to interlock
their short segments of rhythm and pitch to create a satisfying
musical sound. To know musical beauty one must not only be
familiar with the music, but also come to an understanding of
what the music means. Music’s power is inherent in its ability
to stir deep emotions in the listener. Further, this power may be
personally and culturally constructed. Discuss what music has been
particularly beautiful, and powerful, and why. If the selections
do not sound beautiful to you on initial or even multiple hear-
ings, pinpoint and probe for reasons why not.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.13 Discovering

Music’s Functions. (Intermediate) Music’s meaning is often as-
sociated with its function within culture, and many songs and
genres are referred to and are categorized by what function they
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A Sound Awareness of Music  39

fulfill. Play and discuss examples of music’s functions as sacred

expression and worship (CD tracks 1, 10, 14), social protest
(CD tracks 6, 7), tribute and honor to nobility (CD tracks 8,
26), work (CD track 9), storytelling (CD tracks 55, 56), dance,
movement, and martial art (CD tracks 2, 4, 37, 38, 59), re-
ligious ritual (CD tracks 12, 26), vocal art (CD tracks 20, 21),
instrumental art (CD tracks 11, 17, 51, 54), festive celebration
(CD tracks 16, 27), expression of national identity (CD tracks
2, 23, 29, 34, 35). Discuss the use of music in daily life.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.14 Musician-

Speak. (Intermediate) Interview a musician who represents a mu-
sical culture you know little of but would like to know better. Go
to a performance by the musician, if possible, or a rehearsal, or
some way hear him or her perform live. Interview that musician
about the use, meaning, and value of music to him or her per-
sonally, and its role and place within the cultural community.
Ask questions about the musician’s musical experience and train-
ing: When he/she learned? Where? From whom? How? Ask
about favorite pieces in the repertoire, and why they are preferred.
Record the interview (and performance, if possible), listen to it
and study it, write up a description of the performance and in-
terview, and conclude with your personal reflections and reactions
to the experience of knowing a musician of an unfamiliar culture.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.15 Going Global

on Styles. (Advanced) If there is diversity in the music that is
near to us, that diversity multiplies by magnitudes as we consider
the global possibilities. There are no limitations anymore to the
music that we can know, given the technological possibilities of
tapping into music cultures on radio and TV, over the Internet,
and through the brisk recording market that seems to be prolifer-
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40  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

ating in every conceivable corner of the world. In many cultures,

there are indigenous and “roots” styles, folk and traditional ex-
pressions, high art or classical forms, jazz, and popular music.
There are fusion styles, too, where one musical culture may in-
terface with and influence another and a new form emerges, as in
the case of European and African-American components merging
into jazz, or Afro-pop arising from the combination of traditional
West African and Western popular elements. The splendors of
music are nearly endless, and access to knowing it is well within
reach. On the basis of these assumptions, proceed in one of these
three directions: (a) choose a culture and research it for which mu-
sical styles are performed by people from within that culture (and
collect audio-examples to share); (b) consider the people living in
your local community, and research which music of their ances-
tral homeland they know best and actively preserve in your/their
local community (and find out how that preservation is taking
place); (c) listen to fusion music, and dissect by listening and
through interviews with musicians or astute listeners just what
components of various styles are interfacing to create the new
blended sound.

OPENING THE EAR I: RHYTHM

AND INSTRUMENTS
Musical awareness has its beginnings in experiences with the elemen-
tal features that comprise the musical sound itself. When we open our
young students’ ears to music, they cannot help but notice the elements
that make it what it is: the rhythms, timbres, pitches, small structures
and larger forms. As they listen, they consciously and unconsciously
find items that draw their attention and aid their understanding and
liking of the music. They connect to one feature and then another, lis-
tening for instruments that are familiar to them, wondering about those
that are unfamiliar, gauging the qualities of singing voices and the lan-
guages they express, searching for a groove or lingering amid sounds
that wash over them without a perceivable pulse. With our commit-
ment as facilitating teachers, the musical experiences of our elementary
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A Sound Awareness of Music  41

and secondary school students gain depth through an understanding

of the musical elements and their treatments by singers and players. El-
ement by element, our students can know an expansion of musical riches
as they are led to new discoveries that unfold before them with each
further listening opportunity. Beyond an awareness of our sonic envi-
ronments and following a focus on musical cultures close by and at
some distance, the experiences that follow allow occasions for under-
standing the musical “insides,” the features that make the music work
its wonders on listeners. By opening our students’ ears to the technical
matters of time and timbre, they are certain to develop a fuller aware-
ness of musical sound.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.16 Beat Detection.

(Initial) Find the beat (also known as the pulse) in musical se-
lections from the CD, and pat it, tap it, clap it, or in some other
way, move to it. Note also those which do not appear to have a
perceivable beat but which may unfold in free and flexible rhythm.
Take this activity further by beats that are accented, performed
with greater stress, and those that are performed with lesser stress.
The following are a sampling of CD selections for beat detection:
CD track 1 (no beat), CD track 2 (beat, accent on 1, no accent
on 2-3-4), CD track 3 (free, no-beat introduction, followed by
beat section with an accent on 1, no accent on 2), CD track 11
(free, no-beat), CD track 24 (beat, accent on 1, lesser accent on
4, no accent on 2-3 and 5), CD track 33 (beat, accent on 1,
no accent on 2-3), CD track 49 (beat, accent on 1, no accent
on 2), CD track 52 (no beat). Can you find other examples of
a clearly perceivable beat?

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.17 The Body as a

Sound Source. (Initial) Amid the various categorizations of mu-
sical instruments according to the manner in which the sound is
produced, including those known as aerophones (vibrating columns
of air), chordophones (vibratings strings), membranophones (vi-
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42  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

brating skin), and idiophones (sounds made by striking, shaking,

rubbing), there is a category called corpophone that refers to “body-
sounds,” including hand claps, finger snaps, foot stomps, chest
slaps, and the like. Listen to these CD selections that incorpo-
rate corpophone sounds: CD tracks 6, 27, 39, and 58. Explore
the varied sounds that can be produced by the body, including
singing. Create a piece that utilizes a repeated rhythmic pattern
of corpophone sounds alongside an invented melody and/or
harmonies.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.18 Metric Chal-

lenges. (Initial to Advanced) In understanding meter as a pat-
tern of strong and weak counts, the beat selections for 2.16 are
workable for this activity. Find strong and weak movements to
correspond to strong and weak beats; for example, step or stamp
for strong beats and clap or pat for weak beats. In small groups,
try a variety of movements to express the strong-and-weak beat
patterns, determine one that fits best, and share the movement
patterns that the meter of strong and weak beats inspire with other
small groups in the class. Notice how the movement seems dance-
like in its repeated metric pattern. Some CD selections that pres-
ent interesting metric challenges for more advanced students are
track 22 ( ) alternating to ( ), track 36 (changing
meters from triple to quadruple), and track 38 ( ).

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.19 The Human

Voice. (Intermediate) Compare the vocal styles of musical tradi-
tions for their range of pitches, their open-throated, raspy, breathy,
and nasalized qualities, their plain or ornamental styles—and
syllabic (one pitch to a syllable) or melismatic (multiple pitches to
a syllable) styles, their solo or group presentations, their special
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A Sound Awareness of Music  43

techniques (yodels, glottal stops, vibrato, tremolo) and their un-

accompanied or instrumentally accompanied forms. Listen and de-
scribe the female voice of Cantonese opera (CD track 20) with
the female voice of European bel canto (CD track 21), the male
voice in a Navajo corn-grinding song (CD track 9) with the male
voice of a South Indian kriti (CD track 39), and the choral
sounds of an African American freedom song (CD track 6), a
Cook Island ute (CD track 27), a European medieval rota (CD
track 49), and an eastern African rendition of the well-known
“Kumbaya” (CD track 58).
Comparisons: The Singing Voice
Example CD Example CD
track 9 track 39
(Navajo) (South Indian)
Pitch Range Small (m6) Medium (octave )
Vocal quality Raspy, Nasalized Nasalized
Plain/Ornamented Ornamented Highly ornamented
Syllabic/Melismatic More syllabic Melismatic
Solo/Group Two voices in Solo
unison
Special Techniques Vibrato, some Tremolo
glottal stops
Accompanied/ Unaccompanied Accompanied
Unaccompanied

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.20 Instrumental

Comparisons. (Intermediate) Flutes, fiddles, and xylophones:
What remains the same, and yet how also are they distinguished,
across cultures? Consider and chart the timbral qualities, materi-
als from which the instrument may be constructed, tuning, play-
ing position, culturally-influenced melodic or rhythmic conventions
of the instrument in various traditions. Listen to examples of the
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44  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

flute (CD tracks 3, 12, 15, 22), xylophone (CD tracks 8, 19,
23, 31, 50), and fiddle (CD tracks 8, 20, 21, 25, 37) to make
these comparisons.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.21 Keeping the

Tāla. (Advanced) Indian musicians refer to meter as tāla, and
recognize its composite of subunits of even and uneven numbers
of beats (or counts). One frequently-used tāla in the Karnatak
music of South India is called adi tāla, whose eight beats are
grouped into three sections consisting of an even number of beats
in each, 4  2  2. As the discernment of the tāla is of vital
importance to audience members as it is to performers, it is com-
mon to see and hear clapping and waving on the strong (and ini-
tial) beat of each subunit, and a finger-ticking movement on the
weak beats. (The right hand claps into the left hand, waves out
away from the body with the back of the hand leading it; on the
finger ticks (“f.t.”), the right hand thumb moves inward to touch
the tip of the little finger (for the two-beat subunits) also the ring
and middle fingers (for the four-beat subunit). Practice “keeping
the tāla” of adi tāla by following the movements below, count-
ing as you go. Once it is comfortable and “second-nature,” play
CD track 39 (Unnai Nambinen) and keep the tāla while lis-
tening to the claps.
Beat/count: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Subgroup 4 2 2
Movement clap f.t. f.t. f.t. clap f.t. wave f.t.

For further rhythmic intrigue, there are stroke patterns for the tablā and
mridangam drums found in North and South India, respectively, each
with their own correspondent speech syllables, that are spoken as the
tāla is kept. See examples of the Hindustani spoken drum patterns
(called thekā) for tablā, and the placement of the gestures for keeping
their tālas in Thinking Musically, (page 68).
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A Sound Awareness of Music  45

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.22 Modes of the

Middle East. (Advanced). In the music of much of the Middle
East, the metric feeling of the music centers around a rhythmic
mode. Beyond the number of beats in a unit, a rhythmic mode
is also distinguished by the way it is performed on a drum or
other percussion instrument such as tambourine or finger cymbals.
Percussionists learn to play by chanting “dumm” for deep and/or
muted sounds and “takk” for high and/or bright sounds. Ex-
periment with a goblet drum, tambourine, and finger cymbals to
find the best “dumm” and “takk” sounds. Then chant and play
the maqam’s rhythmic mode:

At 127 on CD track 25, the Egyptian ensemble enters into

the maqam’s rhythmic mode. Listen for the improvisatory sound
of the dombek (drum) and tambourine (riqq), and try to insert
the rhythmic mode by chanting or playing it. At 235, the drum
briefly takes on the actual rhythmic mode.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.23 Free within the

Cycle. (Advanced) Choose a tāla, such as the eight-beat adi tāla
(See 2.21), or the eight-beat Middle Eastern rhythmic mode (See
2.22). Create a short unison melody (for example, of 16- or 32-
beats) for all melody instruments to play together. Allow the per-
cussionists to perform the rhythm cycle through several repetitions,
followed by the entrance of melodists together. Intersperse the tutti
performance of the melody with individual improvisations, also of
the length of 16- or 32-beats. Decide together that tonality may
(or may not) a consideration of improvisatory segments, or whether
the players will be completely free within the cycle to create their
own melody.
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46  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.24 Leadership

Roles. (Advanced). Consider that while some of the world’s en-
sembles have a visible leader, such as the conductor who is posi-
tioned on a podium in the center-front of the orchestra to lead the
one hundred-plus instrumentalists in tempo, dynamic shadings,
and interpretive decisions, other ensembles such as the jazz combo
or rock band appear to be more egalitarian and collaborative in
their music-making. Still other ensembles, such as a West African
drumming ensemble, or a Trinidadian steel band, or a Central
Javanese gamelan, look to certain individuals (the African mas-
ter drummer, the arranger of the steel drum band music, or the
Javanese kendang drummer) to steer the group through the sub-
tleties of performance. For these leaders, there may be no desig-
nated head-spot location within the ensemble, no special garb, no
highly visible gestures, but there is leadership nonetheless. Select
a vocal or an instrumental ensemble (choir, marching band, string
quartet, Latin dance band, drumming circle), and observe the in-
teractions of musicians in rehearsal to determine what roles they
play. Arrange for an interview with an apparent or not-so-
apparent leader, to determine what it takes to achieve this
position—and to guide musicians toward musical coherence.

OPENING THE EAR II: PITCH AND FORM

The development of musical sensitivity requires a focus on not only el-
ements of rhythm and timbre but also of pitch and form. Many of the
instruments, and certainly the singing voices as well, are capable of cre-
ating patterns, phrases, and whole pieces that sound a vast array of
pitches, in many tunings, performed one-at-a-time or with multiple
pitches sounding simultaneously. The pitches and their plain or orna-
mental qualities vary by culture, and their colorings and shadings are
what give life to the melodies and textures that are sung and played.
Patterns of pitches and rhythms, and the timbral varieties that perform
them, fall into germinal ideas called motifs, brief patterns that are re-
peated, varied, extended, and constrasted with others. Taken together,
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A Sound Awareness of Music  47

these patterns and phrases are grouped to constitute larger sections and
forms that make the music coherent and cohesive. As we open our stu-
dents’ ears to the possibilities of pitch and form, as well as to rhythm
and timbre, the fuller sense of music’s elemental structures—those that
give it logic and beauty—will become clear to them.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.25 The High and

Low of it. (Initial) Explore the pitch possibilities belonging to
one or more instruments. Produce the highest and lowest pitches
on each instrument, and chart the extent of the range between the
pitch extremes. Notice how some instruments span larger pitch
ranges than others. Approach the pitch ranges of singing voices in
the same manner. Classify instruments and voices as treble or
bass, and then strive for greater definition by fitting the voices or
instruments into soporano, alto, tenor, and bass categories by pitch
range. Across instruments and cultures, notice how the size and
materials from which the instrument is constructed affect the pitch
possibilities.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.26 Openings. (Ini-

tial) As conceived by composers and musicians in some traditions,
the beginning of a piece is often a time to make a significant mu-
sical statement. Listen to the opening musical statements in West-
ern European art music (CD track 40 and CD track 54) as ex-
amples of this. Gather other examples of this compositional
practice (for example, Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common
Man,” Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” and symphonies by
Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven). Note the strategy of other mu-
sical traditions to allow a gradual unfolding into important mu-
sical statements, including the opening sections of music from
North India, Thailand, and Java. Can you find other examples
of powerful musical openings?
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48  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.27 Calling and

Responding. (Initial) One of the most socially interactive forms
music can take is the call-and-response mode, when a soloist singer
or instrumentalist offers a musical phrase that calls out to others
for a response. That response may be sounded by another soloist,
by two or more in a unison (and preset) manner, or by a group
in a fully expansive melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic way. Ex-
amples of call-and-response are prominent in the music of much
of Africa, and in places where Africans have traveled with their
traditions. Listen to CD track 59 for an example of the form in
an Afro-Brazilian treatment. Look for further examples in pop-
ular and rock music, and in jazz.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.28 Graphic

Melodies. (Initial to Intermediate) How do individual pitches
connect to form a melody? Listen to the rise and fall, or static
stay-on-one-pitch, pathway of the melody to “Sumer Is Icumen
In” (CD track 49). Trace in the air the melodic maneuverings,
using fingers or a hand to “paint” overall melodic shape. Take
a pencil to paper and sketch or graph the direction of melodic
phrases. Compare the graph to the recorded sound, or even try
singing the sound from the graph.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.29 A Note by Any

Name. (Intermediate) Sing a major scale, using the names des-
ignated by various systems: Arabic-inspired letter names, the num-
ber system common in China and Indonesia, European solfege
(also known as Tonic Sol-Fa in England), and Hindustani syl-
lables found in North India. Sing at a steady tempo. On cue,
sing the scale twice as fast while retaining the same beat, and
then four times as fast. Discuss which systems are easier or more
challenging to sing, and explain reasons why. Once the systems
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A Sound Awareness of Music  49

FIGURE 2.1 A note by any name

feel comfortable for scales, try applying the various systems to

singing familiar melodies (Frere Jacques, Row Your Boat, Amaz-
ing Grace, Auld Lang Syne). (See Figure 2.1)

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.30 Harmonious

Sounds. (Intermediate) Listen to examples of pieces that feature
harmony, and respond to the challenge of detecting by ear which
chords are sounding. Like an aural transcription, listen, write
them down as letters or Roman numerals (C, F, G or I, IV,
V) in order of their progression. Sing the root tones of the chords
with the recordings, and then attempt to sing them chorally or
play them. Songs with clear chordal harmonies include CD tracks
6, 7, 29, 33, 35, 57, and 58.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.31 Alone and To-

gether. (Intermediate) (a) Find examples of solo vocal and in-
strumental pieces on the recording, such as CD tracks 1, 13, 14,
34, and 52. Notice the capacity of some instruments to sound
only melody while others can offer a fuller harmonic envelope of
sound. Experiment with other instruments that play horizontally
one pitch after another and those that can also play simultaneous
pitches in a vertical manner. (b) Select examples of groups of voices
and instruments, as they sound in unison (CD track 49, at the
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50  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

beginning), in interlocking parts (CD track 50), in a heterophonic

texture (CD track 25), in homophonic style (see Sound Aware-
ness Activity 2.30 for examples), and polyphonically (CD track
49). Listen to and list pieces of other groups across a variety of
styles and traditions, and determine what musical textures they
perform.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.32 Closings. (In-

termediate) Note the manner in which performers and composers
choose to end their music. Do they fit these categories? (a) A ca-
dence of repeated melodic and/or rhythmic phrases, (b) a cadence
linked to chord progression ending on the home-tone (I) and pos-
sibly preceded by the dominant (V), (c) a fading out of familiar
material (technologically possible on recorded pieces), (d) a loss of
interest by the audience or artist(s) (possible in live performances).
Choose a familiar song and explore some of these ways of clos-
ing the music.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.33 In Tune and

Out of Tune. (Advanced) While cultures seem to be in solid
agreement on the division of pitches into octaves, the pitches in
between the high and low end of an octave vary with the tradi-
tion. People select the precise set of pitches that give their music
its identity, and it is so thoroughly in tune to them that any
other set of pitches may appear out of tune. Listen to pitches and
tunings in a variety of examples: CD track 40 and CD track
54 as examples of Western European art music, CD track 25
as an example of Southwest Asian (Middle Eastern) music, CD
track 23 as an example of Southeast Asian music, remembering
that to people within the culture, the tunings of the instruments
are exactly right for giving the tradition its flavor. Musicians take
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A Sound Awareness of Music  51

time to tune instruments, too, as can be heard on CD track 42

(when two Balinese instruments in a pair are tuned intentionally
to sound slightly different frequencies) and CD track 43 (when
instruments of the orchestra zero in to match the “A–440” pitch
of the lead oboe).

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.34 Drones and Mi-

crotones. (Advanced) To fully grasp the meaning of tones and
tunings, pair with a friend who sings a drone tone while you sing
a gradually rising tone that makes its way to from the drone pitch
to a quarter-, then half-, then wholetone higher than the drone.
Do the same in the opposite direction, gradually lowering the
pitch from the drone tone. Try this as well in a group of singers
who are divided into “drones and microtones.” Advanced instru-
mentalists might rise to the challenge of experimenting with a fret-
less stringed instrument like a violin or a bass. Play a scale to
match as accurately as possible the tuning of a piano keyboard.
Then, alter the scale pitches, playing each one audibly flatter and
then sharper than those of the piano. Sing along with these mi-
crotonal changes to the familiar Western tempered tuning, if you
can—a tremendous challenge to the ear and the voice.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.35 Home- and

Away-from-Home Tones. (Advanced) Experiment with the
home-tone or tonal center and its critical role in offering a sense
of musical solidity, by identifying and then singing familiar songs
that end on tonic (“do,” or “1”) and then comparing the sound-
sense of ending on the supertonic (“re” or “2,” as in the Japa-
nese children’s song, “Zui Zui Zukkorbashi,” the mediant (“mi”
or “3,” as in “De Colores”) or dominant (“sol” or “5,” as in
the “The Riddle Song” (I Gave My Love a Cherry) instead.
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52  TEACHING MUSIC GLOBALLY

Listen and sing the home-tone for the following selections: CD

track 52, which is also the drone-tone of the Scottish bagpipe,
and CD track 53, which can be heard among the drone pitches
of the North Indian singer.

SOUND AWARENESS ACTIVITY 2.36 Melodic Moods.

(Advanced) Consider the Indian and Middle Eastern selection of
particular melodic modes for seasons, days, times of days, and the
traditional association of these modes to moods. (The books on
North India and South India in this series offer descriptions and
illustrations of rāga as associated with moods.) Find examples of
modes which, while not likely to specify times of performance,
nonetheless do create particular moods. Sing or listen to familiar
songs in major and harmonic minor scales, and in modes such as
Dorian (as in “Wayfaring Stranger,” “Scarborough Fair,” and
at least one version of “Greensleeves”) and Mixolydian (as in
the Canadian song, “The Banks of the Nile,” and a Northum-
berland version of “Cuckoo”), and discuss what moods their
pitches seem to communicate.

LOCAL AND GLOBAL IDENTITIES

Music is rampant, widespread in our daily lives, and when the anten-
nae are up, it is remarkable what a rich tapestry of sonic surroundings
we know. Music makes up the urbanscapes of city neighborhoods,
where people are tuned simultaneously to their own local musical iden-
tities and also to the expressions of cross-town communities. It is pres-
ent in the increasingly rare rural settlements of music-makers who play
and sing for each other on front porches, in closed circles, and on com-
munal grounds, and is undergoing change by the same rural people
who are now becoming wired to the outside world of sound possibili-
ties. Music is sounding, whether we are aware of it or not: snippets of
tunes and segments of rhythm, sporadic music scatterings or solid walls
of sound. The route to musical understanding begins with a discovery
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A Sound Awareness of Music  53

of our own personal and familial music, and then extends to the ex-
pressions of others. Thus the exploratory excursions featured in this
chapter leads to a recognition of the very local identities of our students
as well as the global musical identities that are there for the listening.
As well, the concept of people making music meaningful and useful in
their lives becomes real to them through these explorations. For teach-
ers striving for a broad-based musical education for their children and
youth, these are vital excursions to take, parts of the bigger musical jour-
ney that stretches across their lives.

PROBLEMS TO PROBE
1. Evaluate the effectiveness of the sound awareness activities (a) as
a student participant in them, and/or (b) as a teacher who has fa-
cilitated them with K–12 students. What musical aims were ac-
complished through them? How were they modified or extended?
Make your remarks in the margins of this book for your future
reference, and note which activities you would use in the future,
or discard, or further adapt—and why.
2. Gather with colleagues to brainstorm ways of developing a mean-
ingful exploration of one world of musical sound. Choose a sin-
gle musical culture (for example, Navajo, Nigeria [Yoruba], or
North India), and consider starting with just a single selection
(such as found on the CD). List some of the principal musical el-
ements that define the musical culture (selection). Then, choose
several Sound Awareness Activities, or invent others, that can in-
troduce and open students’ ears to elemental features of the cul-
ture (selection).
3. Review your sketch of a sample course schedule, selected in Chap-
ter 1, and insert three Sound Awareness Activities to fit the sched-
ule. Think: Which experiences will be meaningful to developing
my students’ (in, for example, band, choir, general music, or a
world music cultures course) knowledge of Music with a capital
“M”?