Learning to Listen
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2023
Pages: 97
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Music listening skills are vital for success in any music course and are also profoundly transferable skills for life and work. Particularly for non-majors with minimal background or training, coming into perhaps the only music class they will ever take, the prospect of listening, analyzing, and writing about music which is new to them can be intimidating.
Learning to Listen is the result of many years of teaching a broad range of non-major music classes. Designed as a concise, affordable add-on to the curriculum for any existing music course, the book shares strategies which have proved most valuable in helping a diverse range of students build their confidence as music listeners.
The book takes a student-centered, anti-racist approach, validating the reader’s lived experiences as a music listener and analyzing the challenges all listeners face in the 21st century, before delving into tangible, specific strategies that can be employed to build confidence and practice listening skills. Musical examples featured in the book are drawn from an array of musical genres and time periods, with an emphasis on musical creators typically underrepresented in music curricula.
Chapter 1 Musical Umwelt
Chapter 2 Listening Challenges
Chapter 3 Listening Strategies
Chapter 4 Writing for Music Classes
Chapter 5 Listening Exploration: Melanated Moments in Classical Music
Chapter 6 Listening Exploration: Music of Trinidad and Tobago
Chapter 7 Listening Exploration: Terra Nostra
Kim Davenport is a music educator passionate about anti-racist, interdisciplinary teaching, viewing music as both a valuable subject of study in itself, and a lens through which students can better understand and contend with the world around them. She has had the unique opportunity to design and teach a variety of non-major music courses at the University of Washington, Tacoma. She also teaches both major and non-major music courses at the University of Puget Sound, as well as maintaining a private piano studio with students aged 6-79.
As a scholar of local history, Davenport has focused in recent years on the musical and artistic history of her hometown of Tacoma, Washington, authoring several articles and three books on the topic, as well as maintaining the TacomaMusicHistory.org blog, where she publishes her research and that of her students.
In addition to her work as an educator, researcher and writer, Davenport is an active performer and recording artist. As a soloist and chamber musician, she is particularly passionate about performing and recording works by underrepresented composers, with a focus in recent years on music by African American composers. She holds a Master of Music in piano performance from Northwestern University, and undergraduate degrees in music from the University of Washington.
During the many years I have taught courses for first-time music students, I have wished for a book like Learning to Listen. Kim Davenport’s abundant experience as an educator, her insightful musicianship, and her commitment to inclusiveness shines on every page of this accessible, thought-provoking book. Learning to Listen offers instructors a courageous and inspiring invitation to rethink how we engage students in “music appreciation” classes.
Gwynne Kuhner Brown
Professor of Music, University of Puget Sound
Learning to Listen is a refreshingly original book that begins by honoring the reader’s own Umwelt- their musical world of lived experience. It guides the student from that personal place to a wider, more cosmopolitan appreciation of musical possibility by identifying challenges and strategies for deeper listening. “Classical” music is introduced through the voices of BIPOC and women composers, and then a very different tradition of Carnival music from Trinidad and Tobago introduces how music can be a force in social movements of identity and liberation. Finally, a contemporary composer discusses how they create and use music to move listeners to action in the fight against climate change.
Learning to Listen is replete with hundreds of hyperlinks and thus is a goldmine of leads to online performances, resources and information. Beautifully written, with many personal anecdotes, this book will engage, delight and motivate students and readers of all backgrounds and ages.
Gregory Youtz
Professor of Music, Pacific Lutheran University