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.