Using ChatGPT & YouTube to Create Listening Guides

If you're looking to create an engaging listening guide for your band students, ChatGPT is a great tool for brainstorming and ideas! By simply pasting in a YouTube link to the audio-only band piece and adding a prompt like “Create a listening guide for this piece,” ChatGPT can quickly generate prompts that get students engaged and really listening.

You might see questions like, “What’s the mood of this piece?”, “Can you identify any recurring themes or melodies?”, "What images or scenes come to mind?", or "What instrument is playing the melody at the beginning?". These questions can help students think about musical concepts, emotions, and even their personal reactions to the music.

Here's my result for the piece Ancient Moon - by Elliot Del Borgo

Take these ideas straight from ChatGPT's results to customize your own worksheet or just use them as a starting point to make a guide that will work with your students. It’s an east way to turn ordinary listening time into an active learning experience! It also a great activity to complete as students are just beginning to play the piece in rehearsal.

To get started, type this prompt into ChatGPT: Acting as a [insert grade/level] band director, create a guided listening activity for my students to complete while listening to the [band piece title & composer] on YouTube - [insert YouTube URL]

While ChatGPT can provide valuable information and insights, it's always important to combine it with your expertise and experience as an educator. And…make sure to ALWAYS fact check the results.