Musically inspired postcards - Misako

Music can be a great teaching tool, and it's something that I don't use enough of with my adult classes. Music can spark imagery, feelings and emotions, which was what I was aiming for with this lesson. The first step was to draw a picture while listening to a song (a upbeat little number by Musical Youth, chosen intentionally to inspire a summery beach scene), jotting down whatever came to mind while the tune played. Every 30 seconds we paused the song and passed our picture (key here being on OUR not MY) onto the person next to us, evolving the picture every so slightly with each iteration. After the song had played it's course, we were left with 4 unique postcards.

The next stage was to imagine yourself as part of the scenery, and to send a postcard home describing what you're doing, how you feel and what is going on around you. To get a feel for each picture, everyone took turns describing the postcard, and how they felt whilst listening to song. This allowed everyone to collect some ideas before putting pen to paper. 

Although all the picture share some a common style and contents, each one has it's own twist and interpretation. It would be a fun experiment with the type of music students listen to and observe the differences!

Dear Damian

I am staying in a southern island now. The weather is fine and people look very happy. Little children

are playing together outside. They don't need any toys.

I am now relaxing and feeling all my stress go away.

See you soon!!

Misako