The Audio-Emotions Dictionary

by ANTONIO BULDINI
    School sections
    • Primary
    • Upper secondary school
    • Lower secondary school
    Educational subjects
    • Instrumental practice
    • Music, Rhythm and movement
    • Composition
    • Music and technologies
    • Vocalism

The Audio-Emotions Dictionary

This original educational proposal, “The Audio-Emotions Dictionary”, has the aim to enhance the listening activity, understood as a possible educational response to today’s need to improve the ability to pay attention, wait, receive, communicate, include.

This objective is pursued by creating a sonorous dictionary of emotions, and then by producing and recording those audio-emotions. The latter, in turn, duly collocated in sonorous sequences, allow for a creative listening suitable to imagine a narration -  a process, called imagenarration – in the verbal and/or written graphic-visual languages. In the end, all the materials undergo a final audio-video editing and/or are used to create a digital book.

Therefore, the starting point is based on listening to sounds with the aim to define the narration and not the opposite, as usually occurs when using music and/or parts of audios only as consequent comment. In alternative, it is also possible to realize a live performance where two groups of students are divided by a sheet, and one group produces audio-emotions on one side of the sheet, and the other group carries out creative listening and imagenarration on the other side.

The peculiar stages of the activity are:
- Interpretation of audio-emotions
- Editing of the audio-emotions in sonorous sequences (e.g. anger - surprise - joy )
- Creative Listening and Imagenarration of the sonorous sequences mentioned above, with the production of original narrations (textual and/or graphic-visual).

Work tools

Stage 1.
Interpretation of Audio-Emotions
Musical instruments, objects, various materials, body percussion, voice; mp3 recorders, tablet, iPad, smartphone.

Stage 2
Editing of the audio-emotions in sonorous sequences.
Audio editing programs and apps such as, for example, Garage Band, Logic Pro, Cubase, Audacity.

Stage 3.
Creative Listening and Imagenarration.
Audio reproducer, earphones, loudspeakers. Paper material, pencils, pens, colors, camera, iPad, smartphone, tablet. Multimedia instruments, software and apps for the audio-video editing such as, for example, Final Cut ProX, iMove, WMM, Clips, or for the creation of digital books such as iBooks Author and Book Creator.

Educational purposes

The skills, goals and training objectives selected by the teacher for this experience are shown below.

Competences
    Listening
    • Sound perception
    • Interpretation
    • Analysis
    • Comprehension
    Production
    • Improvisation
    • Composition
    Reading and Writing
    • Use of unconventional analogic music notation
GOALS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETENCES [...]
    Primary
    Listening
    • Learning to listen to oneself and to the others
    • Identify the constitutive elements of a simple piece of music
    • Exploring, identifying and elaborating sound phenomena on the basis of quality, space and source
    Production
    • Exploring different expressive capacities of voice, musical objects and musical instruments
    • Producing timbre, melodic and rhythmic combinations applying basic schemes; executing them with the voice, the body and instruments (including IT tools).
    • Improvising freely and creatively gradually learning to master techniques and materials
    Reading and Writing
    • Using analog and codified notation
    Lower secondary school
    Listening
    • Understands and evaluates events, materials, and musical works recognising their meanings, also in relation to his/her own musical experience and the different historical/sociological context.
    Production
    • Actively participating in music experiences through the execution and the interpretation of vocal and instrumental music pieces belonging to different genres and cultures.
    Reading and Writing
    • Using different notation systems functional to reading, analysis and reproduction of pieces of music
    • Integrating one’s own music experience with other knowledge and practices using appropriate codes and codification systems
Educational targets

In accordance with the general guidelines on the educational objectives of the primary school and of the lower and upper secondary school, and with the project’s general objectives with regard to the dimension of listening as a way to foster a critical, inclusive, in-depth, creative and original process, the students learn how to:
- understand and recognize sounds while listening to the sounds of materials, objects, instruments;
- evaluate the qualitative and quantitative consistency of the sonorous stimuli with a suitable perception of distant/near, forte/piano, high-pitched/low-pitched, timbre;
- develop awareness concerning internal/external sounds and their perceptive dynamics for the interpretation and production of audio-emotions;
- identify the main portable instruments useful to record and memorize sounds, fixed images and images in movement;
- use properly the instruments and applications fit for audio recording, in particular smartphone, tablet, IT positions, mp3 recorders, video camera/photo camera;
- identify programs and/or apps for the processing and editing of the audio-emotions in sonorous sequences;
- listen to the audio-sequences in silence;
- define paths aimed at structuring a verbal, written-graphic or multimedia product with regard to the listening activity mentioned above;
- carry out audio-visual editing and processing operations, within the limits and diversifications of personal attitudes and specific interests;
- develop sonorous digital competences;
- use musical, audio and multimedia messages and materials;
- identify/manage software related to the reading, analysis, processing and reproduction of sounds with regard to the realization of digital books.

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Slide "The Audio-Emotions Dictionary"
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Link utili
Pagina Facebook di Emozionario Sonoro Click here
Pagina Facebook di Antonio Buldini Click here
“Storie di Emozioni” - libro digitale dell’I.C. “S. Salacone” di Roma Click here
Materiali finalizzati all'azione didattica
Giocando con la Musica per promuovere l'inclusione Download