Mindful Music Instruction as a Strategy for Music Listening

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to describe how mindful music instruction strategy helps in the assessment of music listening skills and how it makes the students understand and appreciate western classical music. Mindful music instruction is a concept as described by Anderson (2016) and Langer (2016) where constructs of mindfulness can be done thru direct instruction to the listener. Creative Music Listening Response by Kratus (2017) was used to describe successful music responses. Quantitative and qualitative descriptive research methods were used. The study was implemented to nineteen (n=19) all girls’ school in the Philippine capital. Mindful music instruction was given before listening to music selections which range from classical to romantic styles. Findings show that the students described a clearer image/emotion/story of the music with thorough explanations from beginning to end. These images/emotions/stories were well supported with descriptions of musical elements although accuracy and consistency of the terms needs to be given attention. The summary of scores of each student showed that seven had proficient level of music listening response while twelve have advanced level. Results of student self-assessment checklist, self-reflection and interview validated the facts of the findings as students show more appreciation and understanding of western classical music and become more aware and attentive to the music they listen to. Results of students’ checklist seem to agree on the inaccuracy of using musical elements. Recommendations were given in the further use of mindful music instruction in music education in different settings, across different levels.