Music-Inspired Art

I wish I could remember exactly where this idea came from, but I've been meaning to try it for at least a couple months now.

The idea is to give your child some paper and a coloring instrument, provide a couple different types of music, and get them to focus on drawing how the music makes them feel. So a really upbeat, jazzy piece would hopefully inspire something like more bold, jerky movements compared to a slow, fluid piece inspiring some smooth, peaceful scribbles.


I picked up some posterboard at the store the other day, and decided to make it even more fun with Crayola Slick Stix, which are very much like oil pastels for kids. Combined with the posterboard, coloring would be nice and smooth.

I let Melinda help me out with the music choices, and we ended up picking two songs from Laurie Berkner's Rocketship Run album. I'm not perfectly happy with the fast song, since it is actually a combination of fast and slow, but it worked out well enough. I couldn't convince Melinda to consider any other choices once she made up her mind, anyway.

Here are our videos with our fast and slow songs, and what the kids did with the idea.





And here is just the still pictures of their final projects:

They really enjoyed doing this activity! And actually, we kept on going with it for a while longer after I stopped the camera, with extra pieces of paper, and my own choices of music (including Enya and My Chemical Romance). We had a nice little coloring-to-music party, all three of us! We even tried coloring with our eyes closed... it really was fun.

My only regret... giving Jacob a Slick Stix. I wasn't paying attention to how careful he was being, and he ended up coloring all over his shirt, the table, and the upholstered chairs. Thankfully, the clothes washed out just fine with our regular stain remover, detergent and a hot wash. The table just took a bit of rubbing. The chairs, however, were the biggest problem. He didn't color the chairs, but he was pressing his crayon hard enough that it got a bit crumbly. When the crumbs fell off the table and onto the chair, they got rubbed in by his hands and knees. I did my best to stain treat it and blot it, but it wasn't making much of a dent. Then I added some steaming, and eventually most of it came out. But they're not as clean as they used to be. And of course, smart ol' me stuck Jacob on the cleanest chair we had, and sitting right next to the other clean one. Well, maybe the extra dirt will eventually make them match the other hideously gross chairs. Though I'd truly be better off getting or making some washable chair covers.