Inventing Songs

Children create songs naturally, and should be encouraged to share them in class.  This is a common procedure for creating songs:

1. Choose a topic, maybe create a word bank or poem of words generated by the students.
2. When the poem is created, the teacher should have them chant it together so they get the rhythm and flow.  The teacher can play a tonic chord and have them sing different melodies for the first line.
3. After some trial and error, the children can select their favorite melody and sing it together.
4. The teacher can provide the underlying chords to support the melody that the children are singing.
5. After recording, the children can listen to the entire song and suggest changes.  The finished song can be recorded again, and the teacher could notate it later, then share it with the class.

This procedure reflects the process that many professional song writers go through, first creating lyrics, then melody and accompaniment.

Aural Plans and Notational Systems

The first stage of formal composition involves forming an aural plan for the piece.  They will work together to refine, select, or reject different ideas until they finally reach a consensus on the end product.  No graphing or notation will be used to record their work.  Aural plans are almost improvisational because even though children may rehearse their piece many times, the unexpected still happens often.

Children grow gradually when it comes to notation.  They generally move from pictorial or iconic representations to symbolic mans of notating pitch and rhythm, using numbers and letters.  It isn't until the next stage that they use actual or discrete notation.  Children as young as three years old have been known to represent music visually.  Notation can be introduced after the aural plan, and children should be free to create their own systems of notation.  The initial system should represent a piece they have already created with an aural plan.  The systems should be able to be understood by other people, so they should share their notation with other children to see if they can interpret it.  As children experience standard notation through reading music, they will incorporate it more into their own compositions.

Composition

Composition is a more planned implementation of the creative process.  It is similar to improvisation, except it can be crafted, reflected on, and then revised, and is not instantaneous.  Composing and arranging is the focus of National Standard 4.  Though composition contributes greatly to a child's cognitive and musical growth, not enough teachers spend as much time on composing in the classroom as they should.  A teacher should set parameters and a good environment for composing.
This includes:

1. Creating a space in the room or adjoining rooms for groups and/or individuals to work.
2. Deciding which sound sources will be available and how they should be distributed.
3. Deciding whether students will word individually or in small groups (if groups, preferably groups of four or five).
4. Decide the amount of time the students should have to complete their assignments.  They assignment might have to span several days.
5. Decide the limits of the composition, and give them a problem to solve.  More freedom comes when the students are more confident composers.
6. Establish a means of getting the class's attention quickly. Example: clap a rhythm for the class to clap back.
7. Tell the students that you will answer questions and help, but won't interfere with the composition process.  The teacher should not impose their own musical ideas on the students, though they do help the students evaluate their work.

For younger ages, the teacher may participate more in the process, pulling ideas from the group and helping students refine their thinking.  Around first grade though, the children can usually work in groups to solve the composition problem.

Improvisation

Improvisation should occur often throughout development.  Improvisation should be spontaneous, not formalized, refined, or repeated.  At a beginning level, it should allow children to play with sounds and with musical syntax.   National Standard 3 is dedicated to improvisation and should ideally be included in every class.

There are two types of improvisation: free and structured.  Free improvisation encourages children to experiment with the sounds of different instruments or their voices.  It goes beyond exploration because they are actually improvising a piece from beginning to end.  They are making clear music, not just exploring sounds.

Structured improvisation involves prompting the students in some way.  There are many different ways of doing structured improvisation.  Orff-Schulwerk, Kodaly, and Dalcroze all have different methods of improvisation.  With Orff-Schulwerk, the children might improvise in an ABA ternary form.  They would listen to the A section, then improvise a B section.  They could be asked to invent a melody on a C major scale using a xylophone or another orff instrument.  For Kodaly, children will first invent a steady four beat rhythm either by clapping or singing syllables like sol, mi, and la.  Once they build an internal collections of rhythm and pitch patterns, they can improvise a longer pitch or rhythm pattern over it.  Dalcroze is similar to Orff-Schulwerk in the way that they listen to something, then improvise a continuation to it.  In this case, the teacher improvises on the piano, then the children are expected to improvise with the same style.  They can respond rhythmically, with drums or movement, or with pitch, using the piano or voice.  Kodaly differs from Orff-Schulwerk and Dalcroze a bit because the students are creating from scratch, versus building from a model.

Creative Thinking

When students are asked a question with one specific answer, they must think convergently.  When children are performing a piece, they have to play the correct pitches and rhythms written on the page, which is also convergent thinking.  Creative thinking is divergent thinking.  Divergent thinking is when there are many possible answers.  For example, a child could be asked to find different as many different sounds as possible that they can make with a drum.  Webster's theory of creative thinking outlines three qualities of divergent thinking:

1. Musical extensiveness- how many ideas are generated
2. Flexibility- the ease of shifting within parameters such as high and low or loud and soft
3. Originality- how unique the musical ideas are

The goal of the teacher should be to facilitate the development of these various skills and understandings.

Listening Sequence

A listening sequence contains several steps, and can be completed in one day, or across several days.

1. Prepare: Always prepare children for the listening.  The purpose dictates what kind of preparation is required.  The teacher could first give the cultural background of the piece, tell the story behind it, show the region on a map in which the piece was composed, give some history about that region, show a piece of art that reflects the mood of the style, tell the background of the composer, etc.  The important thing is to give the children something to listen for and give them a way to show that they hear it, preferably a quiet response such as raising a hand or pointing.
2. Listen: Play the recording and note the students' responses through class discussion.
3. Activate and Participate:  Play the piece again, while actively involving the students in performing or moving to the music in some way.  This helps build a work into children's internal repertoire.
4. Question and Discuss:  Discussion should take place throughout the sequence, and can cover the music, portions of the music, the activities the students are doing, and emotional responses.
5. Listen Again: Listen quietly, notice familiar points, expand insight, and reestablish the work.
6. Extend the Listening; The listening can be used to inspire the children to compose music in similar forms, listen to other music by the same composer with similar or contrasting styles, listen to music by other composers with similar or contrasting styles.

Deep Listening

Deep listening requires teachers to use their abilities in analytical listening, conducting, performing, arranging, and communication to engage students in understanding music on a more in depth level.  Whatever music is used should be played in its cultural and historical context for students to get the most out of it.

There are three phases of deep listening:

1. Attentive Listening- The teacher uses diagrams that highlight points of interest in a piece to focus the students' listening.  With each listening, the students should be prompted to note something new, like themes or motives, melodic shape, dynamic changes, timbral changes, or sectional forms.
2. Engaged Listening- The listener participates by tapping the beat, playing an ostinato, singing a melody, or performing a groove.  The students have to listen to the piece carefully, multiple times, to discover patterns in order for this to work.
3. Enactive Listening- Involves the students in deeper levels, for example, learning and performing pieces in the style of a work of music.  It takes repeated focused listening in order for this to be successful, and because of the sophistication, it is most appropriate for middle school to adulthood.