In this short post I focus on listening to melody. If you’ve just found this post, you may want to start here.

• Range: What is the range of the music as a whole like, is it low, medium, high? Does it stay in one general range, or does it make climbs, jumps, or leaps?

• Reflective Questions: what do you appreciate about it? What might you not care for as much, and why? Is there something the musician does, a sound they achieve, that you would like to learn how to do? That would be a great thing to write down and ask your teacher about.

• Introduction: How is the piece introduced? Does the melody start right away (not likely). Does the main melody instrument start in the introduction at all, or is it accompanying instruments only? How does the introduction set up the melody?

• Ask your reflective questions again

• Melody: What is the melody like? How does it develop over time? What is the overall shape of it, does it repeat, does it vary?

• Ask your reflective questions again

• Melody second level: What were the dynamics like, did it have soft and loud sections? Were there gradual crescendos or decrescendos (slowly getting lower or softer)? Did it get really loud or soft immediately at all? How about articulation, did you notice slurred phrases, staccato, legato?

• Ask your reflective questions again