CARLA
Appreciation of Music - Traditional Japanese Music & Healing Music
Lesson 02 : Have you ever listened to Shamisen music?

Submitted by Michiko Kato Dressen

Objectives:

Content:
Students will:

  • develop understanding of Japanese traditional music genre, "邦楽; Hogaku" by listening to "三味線; Shamisen" music.
  • research and identify the name of other musical instruments of "Hogaku" besides "Shamisen".

Cultural:
Students will:

  • develop understanding of Japanese traditional music, "邦楽; Hogaku" and what types of musical instruments are used for "Hogaku".
  • develop understanding of historical background of "Hogaku" music.
  • reflect why certain "三味線; Shamisen" musicians became so popular among young people in Japan and how the traditional culture of music and performing arts are passed over to youth in Japan.

Language: Content Obligatory
Students will:

  • use the phrase and verbs for Past Experience: "Have you listened to "三味線; Shamisen" music before?： Verb Plain-form Past + ことがありますか。" "Yes, I have.  はい、あります。No, I have not yet.  いいえ、まだ　ありません。"
  • use the phrase and verbs for Modifying (nouns with entire) Clause:  バンジョーを弾(ひ)く人; a person who plays Banjo
  • use the phrase and verbs for Stating Opinions - "Plain Statement" +  と 思(おも)います。
  • use the phrase and verbs for Stating what I heard - "Plain Statement"  +  と 聞きました。
  • use the phrase and verbs for Explaining and Reporting/ what was said/ what was written:
    "Plain Statement" +  そうです／んだそうです／んですって。
    "Plain Statement" +  と 言(い)っています。   "Plain statement" と 書(か)いてあります。
  • demonstrate understanding of stating opinions and reasons using Verb-Plain +  からです。

Language: Content Compatible
Students will:

  • demonstrate understanding of proper tense formation to carry and complete the conversation.
  • demonstrate understanding of Plain - Form of Verbs and Adjectives in the present and past tense to help stating opinions and reporting what was said/written.
  • use Intransitive Verbs, 聴(き)こえる (is heard) Vs. Transitive Verb, 聴く (a person hears) using in a sentence when the students' language levels reached high enough.

Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will:

  • use prior knowledge and listening skills to infer meaning of unknown words.
  • use prior knowledge and listening and speaking skills to complete each conversation.
  • use technology to explore more in the web site about Japanese traditional music, "邦楽; Hogaku" and its other musical instruments.
  • work cooperatively in pairs to compare and complete worksheets.

Time Frame:

Three 50 minutes classes

Materials Needed:

  • One of the most popular music shows on the New Year's Eve in Japan called, 紅白歌(こうはくうた)合戦(がっせん) (Kohaku Utagassen: singing battle between red & white teams)
    Note: Look for some Japanese resources in your community.  There are already quite a few people in your community in the U.S. receive TV Japan program that you can watch this program.
  • Pictures of musical instruments of Japanese traditional music, "邦楽; Hogaku"
  • A handout sheet with questions and answers for students to fill in or match together.  A few blank question columns can be added for students to write extra questions.  These answers can be used later for their presentation. 
  • CDs of "三味線; Shamisen" and "Hogaku" music.
  • Website that students can visit to explore, research (in Japanese) and actually listen to some sample music.

Description of Assessment (Performance Project):

In this lesson, students will watch the Japanese popular TV music show shown on the New Year's Eve called 紅白歌合戦  (Kohaku Utagassen: singing battle between red & white teams) and try to find out what Japanese genre each song belongs to as vocabulary review.  They will also listen to another popular "三味線; Shamisen" music played by Japanese young "Shamisen" musicians whose appearances show pop/rock cultures but have been mastering Japanese traditional music, 邦楽; Hogaku skillfully, then discuss how they felt/thought about this type of music.  Students will explore "Hogaku" web site to find other "Hogaku" music and its musical instruments, also reflect the tradition of "Hogaku" passed over to youth in Japanese music culture.

Secondly, they experience listening to Japanese popular music by watching the Japanese popular TV music show on the New Year's Eve.  They also experience listening to Japanese traditional and ancient music, compare and discuss in Japanese the uniqueness of sound, instruments, rhythm and cultural characteristics they were able to identify.  Recently, certain young "Shamisen" musicians in Japanese traditional music became very popular among youths in Japan.  Students will further research cultural and historical facts in Japanese traditional music: 邦楽; Hogaku & ancient music: 雅楽; Gagaku by visiting web sites and reflect how the traditional culture of music and performing arts are passed over to youth in Japan. 


 

ActivitiesActivities
Pre-task:
Vocabulary Review:  Genres & Musical Instruments

1.  Students will watch one of the most popular music shows on the New Year's Eve in Japan called, 紅白歌合戦(Kohaku utagassen: singing battle between red & white teams) and guess what genre each song belong to, then discuss what they thought that was and why.

Note: Vocabulary words and sentences used in this Lesson are in an attachment.

Students will pair up and continue to do activity 1 by discussing and writing down what genre each song belongs to and what they heard and saw in a show. 

The teacher will debrief and introduce some new vocabularies right after this activity is completed.

2.  They also discuss about musical instruments they heard using Intransitive verbs, "What sound of musical instrument was heard (did you hear)? ( 聴こえる: Intransitive verb; is heard is often used instead of using 聴く: Transitive verb; I hear.)

Grammar:  The teacher will explain Intransitive Verb,聴こえる(is heard) vs. Transitive Verb, 聴く(a person hears) using in a sentence when the students' language levels reached high enough.

During-task:
3.  Students as a pair will discuss whether they have listened to certain music of Japanese genres before or not using a sentence structure, "Have you ever listened to "琴(こと); Koto" music?   Yes, I have.  It's also "邦楽; Hogaku"

Students will experience to listen to Japanese traditional music "邦楽; Hogaku" by listening to "Shamisen" music, then they discuss how they felt/thought about this type of music and explore "Hogaku" web site to find other Japanese traditional music and musical instruments. They also reflect the tradition of "Hogaku" passed over to youth in Japanese music culture.

4.  The whole class will go to the computer room one day and research on "邦楽; Hogaku", its musical instruments and historical, traditional cultural background.  They also visit some Internet sites, about "三味線; Shamisen" musicians, Yoshida Brothers (NIPPONIA), Young Performers Carry On Ancient Traditions (NIPPONIA) in order to prepare for a discussion and a brief presentation later.

Post-task:
5.  Each student will write a short passage about "邦楽; Hogaku" and one of the "Hogaku" instruments, then give a short presentation in Japanese to inform other students what they found through their research on "Hogaku" and its instruments while using newly and previously learned sentence structures.  They also reflect why certain "三味線; Shamisen" musicians became so popular among young people in Japan and how the traditional culture of music and performing arts are passed over to youth in Japan.  Presenters will also answer the questions in Japanese asked by other students.

6.  The teacher will debrief about what the students researched on "邦楽; Hogaku" including Hogaku instruments and reflected how the traditional culture of music and performing arts are passed over to youth in Japan, then explain briefly about the next Lesson after this activity is completed.

Assessment:

Formative assessment of this lesson will be done by students themselves and the teacher with a checklist when they present the post-task activity.

The Checklist for Lesson 2 is in the Handouts section below.

References and Resources:

Music show on the New Year's Eve called 紅白歌(こうはくうた)合戦(がっせん) (Kohaku utagassen: singing battle between red & white teams) in Japan: Japan Network Group, Inc.  New York.
http://www.tvjapan.net/eng/index_e.asp & http://www.tvjapan.net

Tsuchiya, K. (2002). The Yoshida kyodai. Nipponia, No. 22.
http://web-jpn.org/nipponia/nipponia22/en/interview/index.html

Columbia: Japanese traditional music; Shamisen: You can listen to 津軽じょんがら節http://jtrad.columbia.jp/jpn/k_shamisen.html

Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc. (2002). Japanese traditional musical instruments in Japanese & English
http://jtrad.columbia.jp/jpn/inst.html & http://jtrad.columbia.jp/eng/inst.html

Tokunaga, K., Tsuchiya, K., Komatsu, M., Sakata, S., & Torikai, S. (2002). Young performers carry on ancient traditions. Nipponia, No. 22.
http://web-jpn.org/nipponia/nipponia22/en/feature/index.html

Japanese Culture general
http://web-jpn.org/index.html

Entry Port for Japanese Kids Sites
http://web-jpn.org/kidsweb/index.html

Entry Port for various Kids related Sites
http://kids.yahoo.co.jp/

World Factbook 2002: Japan
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ja.html

Attachments:

NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)

L1-2 Vocabulary Lists  (pdf) - from Lesson 1
L2 Sample Sentences  (pdf)

Checklist for Lesson 2

A Lesson from the CoBaLTT Project
/cobaltt
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
University of Minnesota