Tell Me What You Hear

Abstract

Teaching musical vocabulary in a middle school general music class can often be challenging to the performance-based teacher. This article provides several teaching strategies for approaching words from both a theoretical and a practical standpoint. Based on a dialectical “this-with-that” approach by Estelle Jorgensen, this article argues that general music vocabulary is best learned when vocabulary lessons focusing on word meanings and relationships are presented alongside listening activities focusing on vocabulary application. Three sections include general acquisition strategies for vocabulary, an examination of Standard 6 in the National Standards as an indicator for suitable middle school music vocabulary, and techniques that integrate vocabulary into listening assignments.