Lesson 11

The focus of this lesson is to discuss the different memories that the audience members associate with certain musical pieces.  It is one of the most interactive lessons in the program because it requires them to recall memories of their past.

Supplies Needed:

1. Computer with speakers

 

Give an Example of a Song that Brings Back a Memory

The example I gave was of Bach’s Minuet No. 3.  I was six years old, playing this in a piano concert.  About three weeks earlier, I had been bitten by a dog on the right hand.  By the time of the piano concert, I still had an enormous Band-Aid on my hand.  About ten seconds in, I stopped playing, and my mother, who was videotaping, zoomed in to see why I had stopped.  She found that the Band-Aid had come off my hand on one side, and had attached itself to the piano!  Now, I associate that piece with the dog bite and that concert.

 

Asking Them for Their Memories from Music

Remind them that you had given them “homework” the previous week.  Even if only one or two people volunteer at first to share a story related to music, people will start chiming in after they warm up to the idea of sharing a story.  After someone gives you a song title, play it on YouTube and then ask them to tell the story that the song brings back.  This will definitely engage them and make them think about the role that music has had in their past.