Composition for Kids – 1. Why Teach Composition?

On June 6th, I had the privilege of giving a presentation to the Kansas Music Teachers Association entitled, Composition for Kids: Time Saving Ways to Encourage Composition.  The KMTA teachers were very encouraging and participatory and I enjoyed their contributions to the lecture.  I will be posting this lecture in separate posts:

Part 1 – Composition for Kids: Why Teach Composition
Part 2a – Composition for Kids: Composers as Students
Part 2b – Composition for Kids: How Are We Discouraging Creativity & Composition?
Part 2c – Composition for Kids: How to Encourage Creativity and Composition
Part 2d – Composition for Kids: How to Encourage Creativity and Composition cont.
Part 2e – Composition for Kids: How to Encourage Creativity and Composition cont.
Part 3 – Relating Theory to Composition
Part 4 – Developing the Ear
Part 5 – What to do with the Budding Composer

Part 1 Why Teach Music Composition

Here is the first installment:  “Why Teach Composition?”  As always, your comments are welcome!

8 thoughts on “Composition for Kids – 1. Why Teach Composition?”

  1. Thanks so much for posting these! I was never taught or encouraged to compose, so I never have. Now that I teach, I’d really like to give my students the opportunity to make their own music. I’m eager to hear everything you have to share!

  2. Excellent beginning to your series! I especially liked the point that composing can encourage the student to see more of the details in other composer’s works. I too look forward to your future videos.

    Sometimes I find that students (young and old) are very intimidated if they are asked to compose (especially if you ask them to compose something for their private instrument lesson). Looking at my past experience, I realized that I too would have been intimidated but then it came to me that I made a very gradual progression to composition. I started with transcribing well-known compositions for other instruments and also did a lot of hand copying of music (pre-computer) of the masters. The hand copying gave me time to let the details sink into my brain. Then I started to arrange music of familiar melodies and when I finally felt fairly confident about arranging, I progressed to original composition. It occurred to me that the technique of arranging and using various techniques to vary the melody contributed to the success of the composition as much as having a great melody. This gave me the confidence to create my own works and create my own melodies. I still arrange because I think it’s very helpful in keeping my creative muscles exercised.

    So I am looking forward to watching your videos and seeing what ideas you and others have. Thank you for providing this on the web.

  3. Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your site and wanted to say
    that I have really enjoyed browsing your posts. Anyway
    I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon!

  4. These are great points Janet! I do agree the improvising and arranging helps boosts composing confidence in students. Later in the series I make some similar points about making theme and variations, composing small motives (as opposed to larger pieces), etc. that should help students not be intimidated by the thought of composing. Thanks for contributing!

  5. I would love to read all 9 Parts to your “Why Teach Composition” series!! however, when I click on the link I get a “Oops! Page not found!” error. Please tell me how I can get a copy of these. I would appreciate it very, very much. Thanks!!

    Part 1 – Composition for Kids: Why Teach Composition
    Part 2a – Composition for Kids: Composers as Students
    Part 2b – Composition for Kids: How Are We Discouraging Creativity & Composition?
    Part 2c – Composition for Kids: How to Encourage Creativity and Composition
    Part 2d – Composition for Kids: How to Encourage Creativity and Composition cont.
    Part 2e – Composition for Kids: How to Encourage Creativity and Composition cont.
    Part 3 – Relating Theory to Composition
    Part 4 – Developing the Ear
    Part 5 – What to do with the Budding Composer

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