#4- Visualization and the Final Activities!

How do we See Music? 

Such a strong core of making music lives in auditory experience. However, our comprehension and sensory understanding can be heightened by the inclusion of visualizations. My inquiry blog focuses on the connection between music and emotion. In one study, this connection was observed with animated images created to represent both sound and feeling. While there was natural variance amongst people, there were also strong similarities found across cultures—this helped to explain how and why we can share emotional experiences through music despite language or cultural barriers. 

Image by shutterstock

After reading and viewing this example in my text set, I would like my students to create their own sonic visualizations. The two platforms I used for this are Songrender and Renderforest. The former program shows the music or sounds as waveforms, and the user can manipulate the colors of the background and waves, the height and thickness of the waves, and any surrounding text desired. I love using color as a visualization aid for music because it often has strong emotional value for people. I have a synesthetic connection between music and colors for many years, and I find it very interesting to compare what I see with others—it often strikes up strong opinions! For students, it is also a good way to give them creative control. They have to consider what it is they feel when they are listening, and how they can express that without words. After reading very academic texts, language can become overwhelming. Stepping back and allowing the creative visual mind to takeover can aid comprehension and make the learning more personal.

The second platform, Renderforest, is a similar tool where music is inputted and animated based on stylistic selections by the user. In the free version I explored, there is a vast variety of pre-created animations. They vary from abstract shapes and colors to stories of things in motion to familiar scenes such as a turntable spinning. Ideally, the student would listen to their musical example and first imagine their own scene, then select the Renderforest theme that best fits that character in their mind. This again requires students to have an emotional understanding of what they feel and think while listening to the music, even if they cannot yet explain why. For example, I used the animation of a dark room with a spinning turntable because my sound example is very intimate, calm, and cool. To me, this evokes an image of a dimly lit room with a small bar and perhaps a fire. I also connected the lyrics of the song to my own experiences, sparking both reflection and inspiration.

Utilizing visualization in music is a powerful way to engage multiple senses and the creative mind in learning. Although music is a strongly auditory craft, its experience is only heightened by elements like mood, light, performance, or listening space. It is vital that students build an awareness and appreciation of these factors. When reading or learning about a topic such as emotion and music, language can get very deep into psychology or musical terminology, and topics can get very personal. Having a strategy like these visualizations provides a creative activity for self-expression without the need for intense vocabulary or personal explanation. Engaging more senses and diving into self-awareness is valuable and will definitely have a strong place in my classroom.