Lesson 6 — The Written Statement for Music

Summary

Learners turn the Lesson 5 body of music into words — a short, honest written statement naming what they made, how, why it matters, and what a listener should notice. They draft one for their three pieces using a four-prompt frame and revise it so the words match the sound.

Objectives

• Produce and perform or present a sustained body of musical work that shows skill and a coherent personal voice, with a written statement. (D07.S2.12.01)

Connection

Before a song is played, someone usually says a little about it — a singer introduces a song’s story, a program tells you what a piece is and how it was made, a musician names the tradition it comes from. That is the written statement for music: the words that let a listener meet the sound fairly, especially when the maker is not there to speak.

Materials

• Music-capstone journal (with the Lesson 5 pieces)
• Music-statement frame sheet
• Low-tech: the pieces and any writing surface; a partner-listener or voice recorder
• Enriched: a document app or digital portfolio with audio embeds

Preparation

• Copy or draw the music-statement frame sheet (four prompts).
• Retrieval: from Grade 11 (D07.S2.11.01), explaining a piece’s intended effect; from Grade 10 (D07.S2.10.01), explaining the techniques used in an original piece. Today we write the statement that presents this unit’s musical body.
• Prepare a model statement to show first (S-011).

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). The idea to land: a music statement is a short, specific, honest account of what was made, how, why it matters, and what to listen for — written so a stranger can meet the sound fairly. Teach the four-prompt frame, then let learners draft and revise (S-011). Guard against two traps: all mood and no technique (“it expresses joy”), and all technique and no why (“it uses a pentatonic scale”). The good statement names both.

The ethics lens: the statement is where the composer takes responsibility — the claim must match what is actually audible, or the statement is dishonest. The egalitarianism lens: any maker can write a true statement; it needs no degree or music-theory vocabulary, only honesty about one’s own process. The global lens: program notes, song introductions, and spoken prefaces accompany music worldwide — from the raga’s own characteristics (S-366) to a singer naming a song’s people and occasion — all living traditions of explaining your sound. The technology lens: written statements now travel with recordings as liner notes, captions, and text descriptions, so a deaf listener can meet the music through words and a blind listener through screen-reader text. The environment lens: a statement can name where sounds came from — found, recorded, borrowed from a place — making the music’s relationship to its environment visible. Preview: Lesson 7 turns from making music to critiquing it.

Procedure

1. Recall (5 min). Play or recall your three pieces from Lesson 5. In one sentence, say — or write, sign, gesture, or use AAC to show — what they share. That is the seed of your statement.
2. Meet the four prompts (8 min). Write them down: (1) What I made (the pieces, in plain words); (2) How I made it (voice, instrument, found sound; the motif and its variations); (3) Why it matters to me (the feeling or idea); (4) What I want a listener to notice. A statement answers these four in about a paragraph.
3. Worked example (10 min). Hear or read a model statement about three pieces built from one motif. Notice it names the work, the how, the why, and the listen-for — no vague claims, no jargon. Mark each prompt as you find it.
4. Draft your statement (12 min). Using the frame sheet, write your own statement for your three pieces. Answer all four prompts in your own words. Keep it honest: if the music does not do something, do not claim it does.
5. Revise with a partner (12 min). Read your draft to a partner (or they read it). Ask: does the statement say something the music itself would not tell a listener, and does it leave out something obvious? Revise one sentence to be more specific.
6. Close (3 min). Say — or write, sign, gesture, or use AAC to express — the four questions your statement always answers.

Differentiation

• Support: Use the frame sheet with sentence starters (“I made… using… because… I want a listener to notice…”); fill in the blanks rather than composing free.
• Extension: Revise for the line between what is audible and what only the composer knows, and cut every word that claims more than the sound shows.
• Number access (dyscalculia): No arithmetic is required; the four prompts are a list, not a computation. The frame sheet is pre-numbered so a learner can work one box at a time in any order without counting.
• Communication access: Every spoken step — reading, drafting aloud, discussing, or closing — can be done in writing, sign, gesture, or AAC instead. Learners who are non-speaking, d/Deaf, hard-of-hearing, or who use AAC complete every task in their preferred mode. A learner who is blind or has low vision composes the statement as a spoken or recorded description (or in braille); a d/Deaf learner pairs the statement with a written or signed description of the sound’s felt vibration and structure.

Assessment

• Formative (peer + self): Does the draft answer all four prompts, and does the revised sentence make the words match the sound more closely?
• Portfolio artifact (unit): The written music statement, paired with the three pieces in the music-capstone journal.

Home connection

Write a one-sentence “statement” for a piece of music you know from home — naming what it is, how or where it is made or sung, and why it matters. Read it to someone and ask whether the words match the music.

Resources

• On worked examples and guided practice for a new skill: Kirschner, Sweller & Clark (2006) (S-011).
• On the raga’s characteristics as context for naming a piece’s framework: Encyclopaedia Britannica — Raga (S-366).