Listening maps for kids: how to draw what you hear

A listening map is a drawing of a piece of music. It reads from left to right, and it shows what happens in the order it happens. To draw one, a child has to listen for the shape of the tune, the changes, and the loud and soft parts. This page shows how to make a map in six steps, with pieces that suit a first try.

What goes on a map

What you hear	How to draw it
The tune rises	A line that climbs
The tune falls	A line that drops
Short, jumpy notes	Dots or a zigzag
Long, smooth notes	A long curve
Loud music	Thick lines or big shapes
Soft music	Thin lines or small shapes
A new section	A new color
A section that comes back	The first color again
A new instrument	A small picture, or the first letter of its name
Silence	A gap

Six steps

1. Pick a short piece. One to three minutes is enough, with changes a child can hear.
2. Listen once with no pencil. Ask three questions afterward. How did it start? How did it end? Did anything come back?
3. Set up the paper. Tape two sheets end to end, with the long sides at the top and bottom. Start at the left edge.
4. Draw the tune. Play the piece again. Draw one line that rises and falls with the tune. Keep the pencil moving to the right while the music plays.
5. Mark the sections. Play it a third time. Each time the music changes, draw an upright line and switch to a new color. Label the first section A and the next new one B. If the first section returns, label it A again.
6. Add loud, soft, and instruments. Play it once more. Thicken the line where the music is loud. Add a small picture where a new instrument comes in.

Then play the piece and follow the map with a finger. Trade maps with someone, and follow theirs.

A map takes four or five listens. The child hears the piece each time with one job to do.

Pieces for a first map

Piece	What the map will show
“In the Hall of the Mountain King”, by Grieg	One tune, again and again, on a line that climbs and thickens
“Russian Dance” from The Nutcracker, by Tchaikovsky	Three boxes: a fast section, a middle section, and the fast section again
“The Swan” from The Carnival of the Animals, by Saint-Saëns	One long curve for the cello, over ripples for the two pianos
Hungarian Dance No. 5, by Brahms	Fast zigzags, slow curves, and gaps where the music stops
“Flight of the Bumblebee”, by Rimsky-Korsakov	A busy line that never rests

A piece with three boxes in the order A, B, A is in ABA form. Read musical form for kids.

A worked example

Here is a map of “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” in four parts.

Part	What you hear	What to draw
The start	Cellos, double basses, and bassoons play the tune low and soft	Small footprints, low on the page
The middle	Violins and woodwinds take the tune higher, and the speed picks up	Bigger footprints that climb the page
Near the end	The full orchestra plays fast and loud, with cymbals	Thick zigzags, and a star for each cymbal crash
The end	Short silences break up the last chords, and one crash ends the piece	Gaps, and one big burst

The tune comes about 18 times. An older child can count the turns and draw one footprint for each.

Maps for each age

Ages 3 to 5. Draw while the music plays. Fast music gets fast marks, and loud music gets big marks. Leave out the sections and the labels.

Ages 6 to 8. Draw the tune as a line, mark the sections in colors, and add the instruments.

Ages 9 to 12. Add the music words. Write p for soft and f for loud. Write a tempo word over each section. Then look at a page of printed music beside the map. Printed music is a map too. It reads from left to right, and higher notes sit higher on the page.

For the words, read dynamics in music and tempo words in music.

Maps by composers

Some composers write whole pieces as drawings. A piece written this way is called a graphic score. The Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer drew scores for young singers, with lines that rise and fall to show the voices where to go.

Maps to print

The Nutcracker listening map lists eight dances in order, with one thing to listen for in each. The Four Seasons listening page does a similar job for Vivaldi. A child who has followed one of these will find it easier to draw a map from scratch.

Print and play

Use a listening journal page for notes before drawing. Print the instrument families listening chart to help with naming instruments. For more ways to listen, read music appreciation activities for kids and the music scavenger hunt.