the hook

The Burns article, A Typology of “Hooks” in Popular Records, is a great resource for all educators.  Influential educators need to be attention-grabbing and memorable in order to get their message across to students.  We need to hook them.  Most interestingly, the article revealed a number of ways in which hooks are created in music.  Within the textual and non-textual ways to create a hook, we may also combine the methods, leading to endless possibilities.   When we think of our audience or students and their attention, it is good to be aware that we will need different hooks to catch different people.  Changing our dynamics, or use of volume, will keep our students from tuning us out.  Changing the rhythm of our speech or adding surprises will catch the attention of those that may have drifted off to somewhere else.  We can also change the tempo when we are losing the group and need to pick up the pace.  Sound effects or implementing our speech with extra audio will hook a listener.  And let us not forget editing.  Editing keeps creeping up in each module to remind us that adding to or taking away from our lessons is imperative to creating a compelling experience.  To quote Kapilow, “The difference between great and ordinary is tiny and enormous”.   A little difference may have a huge impact.  We need to seek out these opportunities in which a small change creates a huge impact.