Utilitarian Approaches, Notation, and the General Study of Music

Another teacher’s pathway to including composition in his curriculum was utilitarian. He felt a need to vary his five-day weekly rehearsal schedule to include something other than simply rehearsing the same music over and over. To hold individual students accountable for their musical progress, he began requiring students to perform playing assignments in a small room next to the main rehearsal room. While students were waiting their turn to perform individually, he created some short assignments to keep everyone engaged. He started by creating worksheets with basic music theory and then added music history projects. This eventually led to some brief composition assignments within clear parameters. While the assignments filled time, and students were learning notation and theory, the composition results were quite boring.

To make things more interesting, students were then required to perform their own compositions as part of their playing assignments, which helped them think and reflect about their own compositions: another step forward! One thing led to another, and the original composition assignment of 20 to 30 seconds became the cumulative end-of- the-semester project. The teacher was inspired to develop more creative composition assignments. He kept offering new challenges each semester, such as picking a story and telling it in music. As the students took on each challenge, the teacher realized he could tie his composition assignments directly to performance-related elements of his program, such as learning tonality, or modes in the repertoire that the ensemble was preparing.

More assignment ideas continued to develop including animal compositions inspired by Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, and compositions inspired by paintings, as Mussorgsky did with Pictures at an Exhibition. The students performed their compositions in class for each other and enjoyed listening to not only the music, but also the numerous compliments that always ensued. The teacher gradually realized that creative aspects of musicianship were far more important and rewarding than technical theory assignments, and students developed a deeper understanding of theory as a by-product of the emphasis on composition.

While it must be emphasized that that composition does not require notation, as can be easily observed by many non-Western cultures around the world, it remains that notation can be used as a pathway to composition. In days of old, famous composers like Mozart would spend time copying older famous composers’ music by hand, and through that exercise study the process of composing. The process of writing by hand can be a helpful step in the process of learning to compose, but certainly need not be a requirement. Computer notation programs are readily available and keep getting better with both quality of sounds as well as ease of entering notation. It is an invaluable asset for young composers to enter notes in a notation software program and immediately listen back to simulated music to get a sense of what they are inputting.

There are several solutions to the notation barrier that many grade-school students face. An alternative to notation for young composers is to work with non-notation- based computer programs like Chrome Music Lab, Bandlab, Soundtrap, or GarageBand, or simply audio record their pieces. Professional composers as well as young students also use graphic notation to keep track of their ideas. Finally, having teachers help notate composition ideas from students is a great way to progress as well if the teacher has time. It is a rewarding experience to see students’ composition ideas spring to life!