Integrating Composition in Music Education: Strategies to Overcome Time, Resource, and Pedagogical Barriers

Since 1994, the National Standards have called for the teaching of creative musical practices (National Association for Music Education, n.d.). Leaders in the field of music education have stressed the importance of teaching the creative processes. In spite of this, common pedagogy in performing ensembles, which represent a large portion of current public-school music education, is focused primarily on performance. Several factors including lack of time, lack of pedagogy and resources, and a fundamental shift in the focus of instruction all contribute to the exclusion of composition activities from instrumental music curriculum. Paradoxically, while teachers may be hesitant to take time from performance preparation, the process of composing develops musicianship, aids music literacy, provides a means for creative expression, enhances music reading, and improves performance skills.

Time Allocation.The most commonly cited reason for not teaching composition in performing ensembles is the lack of time. Most instrumental music teachers structure their year around performance expectations. For many music teachers, outstanding public performances are the ultimate goal as they reflect well upon the teacher, the students, the program, and the school. Strong performing programs garner administrative and community support and provide some protection from budgetary woes. Consequently, many teachers are cautious about any changes that could affect the quality of performance.

Feldman and Contzius (2020) provide suggestions for finding the time to include composition into rehearsal pedagogy. These include (1) programming one fewer piece per concert or one piece at an easier grade level, (2) scheduling activities after a concert when pressure to prepare is at a minimum, (3) scheduling weekly or bi-weekly rehearsal time for composition, and (4) structuring warm-up time for composition or improvisation activities. Several researchers (Doiron, 2019; Schopp, 2006; Shewan, 2002) all noted that performing student compositions was crucial to the success of composition in performing ensemble settings. Feldman and Contzius suggested that the programming of student compositions could help encourage teachers to focus more time and energy to the process.

Composing also provides teachers a means for assessing student learning. The ability to compose demonstrates understanding and higher-order thinking skills as students are expressing and interacting meaningfully with musical content. Providing students with feedback on their composition helps them “become sensitive and informed critics of their own work” (Hickey, 1999, p. 30). The musical understanding a student develops while composing positively affects their performance. A student who has spent time adjusting articulation and adding dynamics and phrase markings in their own music is much more likely to pay attention to those markings when they see them in a rehearsal. They begin to recognize harmonic progressions, or form, or modes. They develop a deeper understanding of how music works. In short, they become a better all-around musician.

Access to Resources.The last quarter century has seen a significant effort to provide resources for music teachers interested in teaching composition. A number of books about teaching composition have been published by researchers and pedagogues (e.g., Hickey, 2003, 2012; Kaschub & Smith, 2009, 2013; Koops & Whitener, 2020; Randles & Stringham, 2013) and Music Educators’ Journal published special issues focused on composition (March, 2016) and creativity (March, 2017). Other books used in music educator preparation programs added information on including composition in instrumental music instruction (e.g., Burton & Snell, 2015; Feldman and Contzius, 2020; Schleuter, 1997).

Additionally, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) provides several opportunities for students to submit their own compositions for evaluation and recognition (e.g., Student Composers Competition, Electronic Music Composition Competition, and Student Songwriters Competition). A number of state music education organizations have also developed similar opportunities (e.g., Music-COMP, the Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA) Composition Contest, and the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) Call for Compositions). While most of these programs are structured as competitions with recognition for outstanding achievement, they all offer constructive feedback for students who participate. While composition instruction may not be widespread in instrumental music education yet, materials are more readily available now than ever before

Pedagogical Knowledge.Many public-school music teachers have little or no formal instruction in composition nor any background in composition pedagogy (Abrahams, 2000; Stringham et al., 2015; Piazza & Talbot, 2021). Musical rehearsals focus almost exclusively on the accurate recreation of music composed by others. This process, an accurate decoding or reading of a visual representation of music, is developed through regular practice that doesn’t necessarily engage students’ creative abilities. For this reason, many accomplished student musicians are intimidated by the creative process as they have not developed their creative musical skills. To address this underdeveloped area, it is important to have an understanding of the sequence and scope of how we learn music.

A practical analogy for musical learning is the sequence of events in language acquisition. The ability to acquire verbal skills is primarily dependent on the capacity to hear and discriminate sounds and then affix meaning to those sounds. The ability to meaningfully interact with musical vocabulary in both generative and re-creative settings is also dependent upon the same aural differentiation and identification.

A young child spends several years listening to and then babbling in her native language. She imitates what she hears and eventually begins to attach meaning to sounds for familiar actions (e.g., walk, eat, play, etc.) and familiar objects (e.g., ball, face, dish, etc.). She develops her understanding of meaning and syntax by chaining the words she knows into phrases (e.g., play ball!). In the first six years of life, a child will develop an expressive vocabulary of more than 2,000 words and a receptive vocabulary of 20,000 words (Stahl, 1999). During this time, many children will also be exposed to written language, first by looking at language with pictures while someone reads to them and then learning to say and draw (write) the letters that form the basis of written language.

Children learn to write meaningful things like their name, or words for objects in their everyday life or favorite stories. Gradually, they gain reading independence and then begin to develop the ability to generalize the unfamiliar. Initially, conversational vocabulary is larger than reading or writing vocabulary but in later years, the reading vocabulary will surpass the spoken vocabulary. Finally, children learn specifics of sentence structure and grammar. Second language acquisition, while differing in a few particulars, largely follows the same pathway. While it may be easier for young children to learn a language due to brain development and plasticity, the process does not change significantly based on chronological age.

Music learning follows a similar sequence to language learning. A child spends months listening to and babbling in her native musical language (the musical sounds in her environment.) As familiarity with music develops, she begins to imitate the tunes that she hears. If she is fortunate, she has people in her life who interact with her musically, singing, moving, and chanting. Even if most of the people in her physical location do not usually make music, she will hear songs on the radio, on children’s television shows, or streamed audio and video. Rhythmic and tonal patterns function as the words of music that she will reuse and combine in her stream-of-consciousness improvisations while she plays with music. Without formalized instruction in music, many people will never learn to read musical notation, although that doesn’t necessarily inhibit musical growth (think of the number of musicians who play very well “by ear”).

Based on the parallel between language and music, students who learn to read music notation should begin with familiar tunes. The recognition of rhythmic, tonal, and melodic patterns, rather than individual notes, allows the advancing reader to recognize larger patterns such as tonal patterns that imply the underlying harmonies of the music or recurring rhythmic and melodic motifs that allow us to recognize simple musical form. As with advancing language readers, the students will begin to read unfamiliar music when they have had enough familiar music from which to generalize. Finally, students may be taught music theory by naming and describing musical elements that they already know aurally. If a theoretical concept cannot be audiated, that is, if it does not cause a student to correctly recall or imagine a specific musical sound, it isn’t useful to that student’s ability to improvise or compose.

Change in Focus.Musical ensemble rehearsals require large amounts of preparation and structure to be productive. Equipment must be gathered and arranged, seating is typically pre-arranged so like instruments can be grouped in a particular configuration (clarinets on the left, flutes on the right, etc.) Warm-up routines are often developed to help instrumental music students to focus their attention on the given tasks of the day. In rehearsal mode, the ensemble performs a given passage and the director stops, corrects problems, and then continues. Once most of the technical demands are addressed, the director will work with the group to shape a phrase or to refine a crescendo. Some teachers are remarkably efficient and have refined their ability to polish a musical performance with breathtaking results. Rehearsals such as these are examples of a convergent musical process. All of the activities are focused on finding the correct musical answer.

By contrast, Reimer (2003) suggests that teaching composition more closely follows the process from the art studio, not the rehearsal room. Creative musical activities are often more divergent in nature. When creativity is the goal, teachers could encourage a student to find several (or many) right answers and then help them decide which idea works best. Teachers may also model simple examples of creativity by ornamenting a familiar passage in a piece, improvising a new ending to a musical phrase, or composing simple variations on a given rhythm or melody. Modeling the process aurally is of vital importance. Music is, first and foremost, an aural art form and helping students develop aural skills that allow them to feel comfortable creating and understanding music without notation provides numerous benefits. It gives students a basis for interactive music-making. It helps them understand basic music theory concepts in a non- theoretical manner. Perhaps most important to ensemble directors, it facilitates deeper understanding in performance settings where students only have access to a limited amount of visual information (i.e., their individual part) with which to understand a whole piece of music.