Listening activities are underrated. I said what I said. They are a wonderful way to engage students, highlight a variety of cultures, and introduce the wide world of instruments. Heritage months tend to bring out our desire to share different cultures (which we should ALL year long!) but figuring out WHAT to listen to can sometimes be difficult. And it’s not just what, but also how to find good quality recordings, authentic recordings, and engaging material for students. I thought I’d share a quick look at my favorite ways to find music to listen to in music class.
YouTube
The world at your fingertips. Some ways to sift through YouTube are looking for a few key search terms: traditional, authentic, name of instrument/culture/country/language, folk song, traditional music/song/dance. There are a TON of options, but you have to sift a bit to make sure you’re finding good things. The addition of YouTube shorts has been a little frustrating lately as you will find something but the video may only be 30 seconds.
Another thing to consider is YouTube links will absolutely have to be previewed before you show to students because it’s a public forum. BUT, you can find authentic videos, and the thing I love is that a lot of what you will find isn’t a polished stage performance. They may be polished but they may be at a festival, a wedding, a party, or someone just recording because they can. It’s important to remind our students that music isn’t just performance. It’s easy to get hung up on that.
www.youtube.com
Smithsonian Folkways
This awesome resource is a wonderful way to find high quality, authentic recordings. You can search by geography, genre, artist, and label. One of the things I love about this site is that you have access to liner notes. It can help with context, language, and more.
There are also provided PD courses in the summer, and lesson plans. Make sure you check out all the links at the bottom of the pages as there are even more things to explore.
https://folkways.si.edu
Mama Lisa
Mama Lisa is a great resource. It doesn’t always have sheet music, but it has a LOT of videos linked to YouTube *again, you need to preview. This site is great for searching by country, continent, and LANGUAGE. Modern borders are not always indicative of culture or several cultures that operate in one country. Even in the United States, there are WIDELY different cultural areas and folk songs have variants from location to location and even with regional dialects. Just think about the different names we have for common things like pop, and subs. What do you call them? 🙂
https://www.mamalisa.com
Analog
- Used record stores
- Cultural groups – if you have a cultural group nearby EX: I’ve been part of a Croatian group since I was a kid that teaches folk dances and traditional music. These groups will often have people deeply immersed in their cultural heritage and know of resources to share (or maybe be even willing to come share music with your students!).
- Tap into your archipelago. Each of you do a deep dive in one culture and then share!
- Build. Don’t try to cover everyone all at once. Spend a year on a continent. If you have students for 6 years, you have 6 continents covered. Make Antarctica as a special topic in 5th grade.
Resources
32 Weeks of Listening
If you want to ensure your students are listening to a diverse set of composers and musicians, this set is for you. This spreadsheet has 32 weeks of selected musicians, composers and groups for Kindergarten – 5th grade (192 musicians/composers total) that represent a variety of cultures and genres.
Check it out here:
TpT: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/32-Weeks-of-Listening-Selections-for-Music-Class-Grades-K-5-5858139
My Store: https://mrsstouffersmusicroom.com/product/32-weeks-of-listening-selections-for-music-class-grades-k-5/
Blog Post
Looking for more about listening activities? Check out A Complete Guide to Music Class Listening Lessons.
I hope this has given you some ideas on finding listening lessons!
