Learning with lyrics - part one

June 15, 12:08 PMWorkplace Training and Development ExaminerLenn Millbower

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Places please for effective instruction

In this and the next two articles, we will look at the benefits of using songs with lyrics in classroom and other learning environments.

Music is an ancient, emotive, primeval language. It may in fact be the first language. As such, music has a hold on all of us. It communicates in ways not possible with the spoken word alone.

When music is combined with lyrics, the communication power is even greater. In general, where melodies appeal to the more holistic brain structures, lyrics attract the more logical components.

When a trainer, teacher, speaker, or communicator uses songs with lyrics to make a learning point, more brain structures engage. More opportunities for learning retention result.

There are a number of specific reasons to use songs with lyrics. They are listed below.

Reasons to use Songs with Lyrics

Songs with lyrics are familiar - Symphony concerts usually include compositions by Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. You might think these works get performed because of their excellence. But other composers, who have written reams of excellent material, have difficulty getting their works heard. Unfortunately for these composers, people want to hear selections they are familiar with.

Famous popular musicians share this experience. People have little patience with unfamiliar material, making it difficult for the artist to promote their newest release. Artists intentionally sandwich new selections in between the classics, or perform the new releases first; requiring the audience to sit through that material before being rewarded with the music they really want to hear.

Familiar works are popular precisely because people have heard them before. A familiar song is as comfortable as your worn blue jeans or favorite ice cream. Malcolm Knowles wrote that adults have an accumulated reservoir of experiences that serve as a resource for learning. Familiar songs draw on those experiences. Knowles also believed that setting the correct learning climate is of critical importance to learning and that the learner has to be ready to learn.

Concert halls, ballrooms, parties, and yes, the classroom, can be uncomfortable environments. When people hear a song they’ve listened to in the privacy of their home, they relax. Comfortable music emotionally warms the training room, placing learners in a receptive frame of mind for learning. Songs with lyrics, especially popular hits of the last 50 years, are extremely useful for this reason. They are old, well worn, welcome friends.

We will continue examining reasons to use songs with lyrics in learning environments in Learning with lyrics - part two.