Dr. Kevin W.

Gerrity
Associate Professor & Coordinator of Music Education
Ball State University

IMEA Professional Development Conference

Harrison B | January 12, 2024 | 3:30 pm

Encouraging Empathy among Young Adolescents

through Participation in Secondary General Music
The Empathy Standard

2023 Indiana Academic Standards for General Music, grades K-12

Cn.1.12.2

Explore and describe the role of music and the arts in developing an empathic
society through music that is performed, created, and/or listened to in daily life.
Some Research Findings about Empathy
• Empathy is a teachable and learnable skill.
Spiro (1992); Platt & Keller (1994); Teding van Berkhout & Malouff (2015)

• The brain regions used in empathy may not fully develop until late
adolescence, even though empathy begins to develop at an earlier
age.
Choudhury, Blakemore, & Charman (2006)

• As little as 1 hour of training may effectively increase one’s empathy.

Butters (2010)
Why Secondary General Music?
1. While empathy can and should be developed in students participating in all types of music courses, general music
courses tend to be more diverse than ensembles or niche music classes. Greater diversity provides greater
opportunity for empathy.

2. Per research, young adolescents, i.e., middle school and early high school students, may be at the optimal age for
empathy training and development to have the greatest impact. Empathy has already begun to rise within them,
they have likely experienced empathetic feelings, and their still-developing brains could benefit from purposeful
learning experiences about empathy.

3. Secondary general music teachers know, first-hand, that relationship building, trust, and respect are essential
when teaching young adolescents. Sharing personal stories, preferences, and/or feelings and being vulnerable
within a psychologically-safe environment provides greater openings for empathy to naturally occur.
Types of Empathy
• Cognitive Empathy
The ability to mentally think about things from another person’s point of view.

~ In young adolescent women, cognitive empathy begins rising at around the age of 13
~ In young adolescent men, cognitive empathy begins rising at around the age of 15

• Affective Empathy
The ability to recognize and respond to others’ feelings appropriately, i.e., having a
matching or corresponding emotional reaction.

~ Affective empathy remains relatively stable throughout adolescence for young adolescent women.
~ Affective empathy temporarily declines between the ages of 13 and 16 for young adolescent men,
but recovers in the late teens (partly related to a corresponding rise in testosterone levels).
Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions

Opposite Primary Emotions

Joy – Sadness
Trust – Disgust
Fear – Anger
Surprise – Anticipation
What Can Music Teachers Do?
• Focus on the Primary Emotions
Joy, Trust, Fear, Surprise, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, and Anticipation
or other emotions obviously represented in music

• Utilize research-based strategies

Modeling, point of view, using literature for multiple perspectives, active and
engaged listening, talk about emotions, metacognition, develop empathetic
language, random acts of kindness, community service

• Continue to remain focused on musical knowledge and skills

Some brief examples to build on…
JOY
Song: “Walking on Sunshine” - Katrina and the Waves
Concept: tonal/basso ostinato
Potential procedures:

• Students and instructor will discuss metaphors that express joy and happiness, e.g., “on cloud nine,” “in seventh heaven,” “on top of
the world,” “king of the world,” or “over the moon.”
• Students and instructor will discuss when they might have experienced get joy or happiness, describe what that feeling was like, and
purposely highlight any similar experiences or descriptions that are revealed.
• Students will listen to “Walking on Sunshine” and determine the metaphor for joy and happiness that is revealed in the song.
• Students will sing the basso ostinato pattern DO - FA - SO - FA along with the recording of “Walking on Sunshine”
• Students will play the basso ostinato pattern on Orff instruments and/or boomwhackers along with the recording of “Walking on
Sunshine”
• Students and instructor will discuss how, if at all, the basso ostinato helps or hinders the expression of joy and happiness, and how they
might react to someone who was experiencing joy or happiness.
EXIT TICKET: How would you like others to react to you when you are experiencing joy or happiness?
Some brief examples to build on…
FEAR
Song: “Will I” - from RENT
Concept: canon/round
Potential procedures:

• Students and instructor will discuss the meaning of dignity, why someone might fear a loss of dignity, and how we can support each
other and remind each other of our worth and unique.
• Students will listen to “Will I” and determine how, if at all, the use of canon/round promotes a feeling of fear.
• Students will listen to “Will I” and determine how, if at all, the use of canon/round promotes a feeling of support.
• Students will echo the instructor’s model and learn “Will I” from rote memory.
• Students will sing “Will I” in canon/round with both the intent to promote fear and show support and discuss how their performance
changed with the intent.
EXIT TICKET: Do you think if one’s own actions led to a loss of dignity that they are less deserving of empathy? Why or why not?
Some brief examples to build on…
SADNESS
Song: “Fix You” - Coldplay
Concept: division of the beat - sixteenth notes
Potential procedures:

• Students and instructor will discuss some of the things that make them feel sad.
• Students will clap along with the steady beat as they listen to “Fix You” and identify other things within the lyrics that might make
someone feel sad.
• Students will clap along with the steady beat as they listen to “Fix You” and determine how many divisions of the beat are being played
by the guitar.
• Students will echo various rhythm patterns, modeled by the instructor, that incorporate sixteenth notes on both neutral syllables and
Takadimi syllables.
• Groups of students will compose 8-beat rhythmic ostinatos that incorporate sixteenth notes and perform them along with the song “Fix
You”
EXIT TICKET: How would you like a friend to respond to you if you are feeling sad?
Some brief examples to build on…
ANGER
Song: “Not Ready to Make Nice” - Dixie Chicks
Concept: descant
Potential procedures:

• Students and instructor will discuss what it means to be “blinded by anger.”

• Students will listen to “Not Ready to Make Nice” and identify specific lyrics that might indicate the person is blinded by anger.
• Students will listen to the final two refrains of “Not Ready to Make Nice” and identify how they are different.
• Students will discuss the nature of the added musical line (descant) and decide if it helps to promote a feeling of anger.
• Students will identify descants in other song selections and describe their impact on the feeling, or intensity of feeling being portrayed
in the song.
EXIT TICKET: When you are “blinded by anger,” what helps you most to calm down and think rationally?
Additional song suggestions…
“Lullaby in Blue” - Bette Midler “I’m About to Come Alive” - Train
“This is Me” - Keala Settle (from The Greatest Showman) “Tears in Heaven” - Eric Clapton
“Goodnight Saigon” - Billy Joel “Somebody That I Used to Know” - Gotye
“I’m Not the Man” - Ben Folds “She Used to be Mine” - Jessie Mueller (from Waitress)
“Top of the World” - The Carpenters “Lonely” - Justin Bieber
“Lean on Me” - Bill Withers “Left Behind” - Jonathan Groff (from Spring Awakening)
“One More Time” - Blink 182 “True Colors” - Cyndi Lauper
“I Lost a Friend” - Finneas “Beat You There” - Will Dempsey
“Waving Through a Window” - Ben Platt (from Dear Evan Hansen)

REMEMBER: If you cannot identify an obvious concept that can be taught from a particular
song on this list, you can always build in expressive concepts to enhance
the
song and your lesson, e.g., dynamics, tempo, rubato, etc.
A few final thoughts…
• The object is not to create an “empathy” curriculum. As the research suggests, as little as one hour of
training could result in an increase in one’s empathy. With young adolescents, empathy infused
lessons that are spiraled throughout the curriculum may be the best approach.

• Know your audience and community. Songs about strong emotions that may help us teach and
encourage empathy often depict sensitive subject matter that could trigger adverse reactions from
students, especially those who can empathize with the depiction. When in doubt, leave it out.

• Know your audience and community. Songs about strong emotions that may help us teach and
encourage empathy often use coarse or strong language to elicit greater feeling or emotional
reaction. When in doubt, leave it out.

THANK YOU!