Developing Composing at KS2

Holly Craven

Composition is one of my pupils’ favourite parts of music lessons, regardless of their age. When we start a new topic, and I hand out the booklet, they scamper through it, looking for the different composition tasks, throwing out questions as they flick through it “what’s binary form”, “what’s an ostinato” (sometimes they even say “oh wow, x” and it becomes apparent that they have taken on board an idea that has been discussed previously) and so on, as they eye the musical elements that we will be looking at.

I fully believe that teaching composition is a really personal thing; it’s not something that was even touched on when I did my teacher training (I’m secondary Music trained), but yet it is a major part of my teaching because I love giving children creative freedom whilst also developing their musical skills and understanding. I also think that it’s absolutely fundamental for all children to have this experience, and Key Stage 2 is such an exciting time to do it; the children soak it up and just want to ‘do’.

Over 20 years, I have changed my approach numerous times – based upon observing others, talking to the pupils about what they felt worked, reading what other teachers have found works, and also taking into account my pupil’s interests and abilities– I change topics each year for every year group, choosing things that I think will appeal to the children in the particular group. What I write about isn’t one size fits all; it is what works, and works well, for me and, more importantly, for my pupils. I hope that it might work for others, but I equally appreciate that it may not.

I teach music in topics, rather than by element. Within each topic there is listening, group performance, often singing, and loads of composition – either in response to a listening task, or to develop use of a musical element; often a bit of both!

At the moment, my Year 5 class topic is ‘Rivers’. They have listened to Vltava (Smetana) and have discussed rondo, binary and ternary form. They have then listened in greater detail to the theme and have discussed how the elements of music demonstrate the idea of a river flowing – in particular we discussed pitch and articulation. I then split the class into groups of four, and they composed their own version of a ‘river flowing’ theme; each class sets their own targets – though interestingly, they all had “use dynamics well” and “listen to each other” on their lists – either a sign that they have paid attention to previous teaching, or that I nag about the same things! The targets keep their eye on the task; they ground the children – even when we compose nearly every week, the excitement of getting an instrument and creative freedom means that something is needed to ground the composers at times!

As they work, the children notate their work. We hark back to notation a couple of times each topic; whether through reading and doing a class performance, or through rhythm games. This ‘drip feed’ works well and every child who learns an instrument will write some of their composition down; even those children who don’t learn an instrument will write their rhythms down – either using notation, or the words that we use to describe note values – ‘coffee coffee latte tea’ may sound like a major caffeine hit to a non musician, but all of my classes could play the rhythm! As a rule of thumb, I will say to the children that they should try to write their music down in a way that they are comfortable with. I set out an extension of clef/time signature/key signature/bar lines - and it is wonderful to see the vast majority of children doing this with growing confidence.

I do set store by notation, primarily because I am lucky enough to have Y4- 6 twice a week, and I am conscious that I don’t want them forgetting by Friday the work they did at the start of the week. I have learnt, though, that the children love this – this week I heard a Year 5 saying to another “oh, sorry, you’re in Bb, aren’t you, I’ll just work out your key” - and no-one batted an eyelid!

Composition is such a wonderful thing; it unites the class wholly; it makes no difference whether a child has 1:1 lessons or not – everyone is a musician, and everyone is creative.

I love watching them discussing what they are going to do. I usually give the children 10 minutes to discuss just how they are going to put their composition together, before they gather instruments and set to. One of the things I quite quickly learnt was to get them to start off by composing in layers – rather than all going for it and us ending up with a bit of a cacophony, the children sort out one part and then add in the second and then the third, and so on and so forth.

As the children compose, I get them to look back at their targets, and to think about what needs to happen next. They may perform their unfinished composition for feedback from myself or their peers. Other times, they evaluate at the midway point as a group before moving on. When the compositions are finished, the children perform, we record the performances and then they listen back. They evaluate with two things that they are really happy with, and that make them proud, and then one thing that they would like to improve. This often gives the basis for a target on the next composition task. I also mark their work – again, with something I really liked and then something to look at in greater depth in following tasks.

One thing that I find is vital in composition is praise. A “wow, I love the way you are using the maracas” as I walk past a group to get to another set of children works wonders. It is so important that every single child believes themselves to be a composer - irrespective of age or perceived ability. I want them to see themselves as musicians, to realise that their ideas are valid and that their musicianship is needed in our class. It doesn’t matter to me whether they are a Grade 5 level pianist or they haven’t ever had 1:1 lessons, composition allows every child to achieve their potential, and often to work way above this. Because they have confidence in their musical ability, the children aim high!

Sometimes, I ask the children to compose in a certain way, because we are looking in greater detail at a particular thing; a topic based upon variations had children working out their own theme and then a canon based on it. Other times, I ask them to pay particular attention to particular elements of music; at the moment, my Year 6 topic is ‘Soundtrack’. We have analysed the motif’s for various characters and things in a number of films, and spent time on perhaps the most famous motif of them all – Jaws! (We didn’t watch the film, obviously!). This developed into discussion about the use of tempo and pitch, and the children went off to change the motif in different ways, talking about how this then affected the mood.

There is no denying that teaching composition isn’t easy; it requires patience, and the ability to cope with a lot of noise in the room! It is also incredibly rewarding. On talking with children recently about composition, and why they love it so much, one child grinned and said “when I compose, the notes come alive and I am telling a story”. I couldn’t have put it better myself!

Holly Craven

Director of Music, St Peter's 8-13 in York