ABSTRACT
This chapter explores creativity through the avenues of listening, visualising, moving and talking about music. Listening is the keystone to developing a musical ear and it provides one of the most accessible entry points for enhancing creativity. Listening to music can bring joy, energy or tranquillity, inspire action, evoke memories or provide an impetus for dance. The teacher and the pupils also share the creative experience in a very special way since they both encounter the music simultaneously and can savour its rhythms, melodies, style, mood or tone colour in shared listening moments. Short pieces of music provide very good opportunities for listening to music several times, which is important if the children are to get know the music during a regular lesson in the classroom. A yearly plan for classroom music listening might include any number of learning objectives and span a range of musical genres and styles to support learning.
