Composing can be tricky, especially in Key Stage 3 lessons where classes can be large, and resources limited. But creative work is intrinsic to music education and it's vital that all students feel that they can make music, whatever their skillset might be.
We've put our heads together and come up with a range of simple ideas to get composition lessons flowing quickly and productively. These activities can either stand alone or be linked together, and all can be done using instruments or DAWs. Crucially, each task is designed to be quick, perhaps occupying just a single or double lesson; but there's potential to extend it if your students are really engaging with the idea.
The message we've gone for is: less is more! In each case, encourage your students to be economical with their ideas, and to focus on effective ways to develop them.
Idea 1: A rhythmic identity
Think of any memorable film score, pop song hook or video game theme and it's likely that the construction is simple, and it contains repetition. Students tend to over-complicate composing tasks, believing that the more notes they add, the better.
To support them with streamlining the process, a one-beat ‘rhythm basket’ such as in Fig. 1 can be a useful starting point for a variety of activities:
It's important that sound and symbol are linked, and an effective way to reinforce stave notation reading and aural skills is the ‘PIN number game’. In this activity, which works well as a lesson starter, a selection of the rhythmic cells in the basket are shown on the board, numbered 1–6, as in Fig. 2; the teacher claps four of the cells, and the students work out the PIN number.
To encourage students to adopt a simple approach, we can use the rhythm basket to start creating a character theme for an animal, bird, film, book or game character. Rather than beginning with pitch, we could first encapsulate the character through rhythm.
For example, for the Nintendo character Mario, dotted rhythms, quavers or semiquavers can all portray his energetic nature. His nemesis Bowser, on the other hand, would require longer note-values such as minims or dotted crotchets followed by quavers to convey his slower, foreboding disposition. Thus, a strong rhythmic identity is created from the outset.
Idea 2: A melodic identity
Once they have one or two strong rhythmic patterns, students can then look at turning these into melodic motives for their character theme. Encourage students to be economical with their pitches, restricting themselves to just three or four – these could all be next-door notes or they could include a single leap (as you might find in the pentatonic scale, for example).
Talking of scales, this provides a golden opportunity to explore different ones with your students. As well as the major and melodic minor scales, you could look at pentatonic, whole-tone or modal options, or the five-note examples as shown in Fig. 3:
Having picked three or four close-together notes from their chosen scale, students should use an instrument (such as a keyboard) to experiment with playing the notes in different orders, until they find something that they like the sound of. If they are turning their rhythmic identity from Idea 1 into a melody, they could consider matching a scale to the character. Bowser's rhythm might use notes from the minor scale or Dorian mode, for example, while Mario's could be pentatonic or even Lydian.
Assuming they have one-bar rhythms, which would have resulted from playing the PIN number game above, students can now think about question-and-answer phrases. Using the same rhythm, they could arrange their chosen notes in a rising pattern for bar 1, and then a falling pattern for bar 2, or vice versa. Again, experimentation is the best way – they can try a variety of patterns using their chosen notes, until they hear something that works. Keep reminding them to use a balance of step, leap and repetition.
Idea 3: Harmonic colour
An alternative to starting with melody would be to think about harmony first. By starting with chords, there's a strong chance of a well-structured melody resulting.
One harmony-led approach is to build on prior basic chord work (major/minor and possibly augmented/diminished) to create a four-chord pattern, reflecting the chosen character. As a villain, Bowser might have minor chords and a diminished chord, for example, and Mario could be represented with major chords. Repeat the four chords, adjusting the final one to complete the phrase, if necessary. Students can then compose a melody derived from the chords using these steps:
- Write out the chords as minims and/or the letter names in a table.
- On a separate stave/table row, write one minim note from each triad.
- Bring back the two-bar rhythm created in Idea 1.
- Using stepwise and triadic movement, link the single note minims with the rhythm.
Fig. 4, The Bowser theme, starting with chords then overlaying our two-bar rhythm from Idea 1, is an example of how this might look:
A different approach for exploring harmonic colour is to evoke a particular mood or atmosphere through developing a chord sequence. This effective idea can be done at computers, but it works particularly well if students can clearly see what they're playing by first trying it at keyboards.
They begin with one four-beat triad; for example, G major. This is then repeated but with one note in the chord moving up or down a semitone. This new chord is then repeated, again with one note moving up or down a semitone. Students can follow this pattern until they have eight chords. Each time only one note is changed. Record these and then experiment with a simple melodic line over the top, perhaps using the rhythm basket from Idea 1 and the scales from Idea 2.
Fig. 5 provides an example of a chord sequence that changes gradually, one small step (a semitone) at a time:
Idea 4: Changing the mood
Now that students have some rhythmic, melodic and harmonic ideas, perhaps all linked to a character like the suggestions above, they can look at managing repetition and contrast to create changes of mood, atmosphere or emotion.
TV and film composers often talk about the importance of using music to tell us what the pictures may not – think, for example, of how the presence of the shark in Jaws is signalled. There are huge opportunities for making mood changes with the smallest of contrasts, and a few ideas are given below.
Do make sure, though, that students understand the importance of balance between repetition and contrast. Repeating ideas helps establish them with the listener, and the more this happens, the bigger the impact will be when there's a change, however small.
A good way to experiment with these changes on keyboards is to use a very simple two- or three-note ostinato, before students apply these to their own ideas.
Ways to create mood changes:
- Consonance to dissonance – take two notes a third apart, and move one of them to a fourth, a tone or even a semitone. How do these increase the tension? Moving back to consonance resolves this tension.
- Increase or decrease the note-values, or the overall tempo – try a simple exercise where a crotchet pulse suddenly becomes a quaver or triplet pulse. What effect does this have?
- Increase or decrease the harmonic rhythm – the rate that the chords are changing (from Idea 3). Move from one chord per bar to two, then three, then four, and see how this affects the mood.
- Make changes of texture – as an example, it is common in pop songs to move suddenly from full textures (piano, drums, bass, guitar, singer, backing vocals) to just singer and piano, before the full texture returns.
- Make changes of pitch – particularly registral ones. How do these affect the mood?
Bringing it all together
As we said, you might wish to try these composing activities as standalone tasks. This could allow students the opportunity to build up a portfolio of composing techniques that they later apply to bigger projects.
Alternatively, they could develop a simple storyline involving their chosen characters, building on the ideas we have covered. The rhythmic and melodic identities, harmonic colour and mood changes can be used to tell the story.
Here are some ideas for structuring an effective storyline:
- Introduction: the character(s) are established (e.g. Mario is walking along; Bowser approaches threateningly)
- Tension: an exciting event occurs (e.g. Mario chases Bowser)
- Resolution: how has the event concluded? (e.g. Mario is triumphant)
Whatever you do, take heart that the most effective composition lessons are the simplest ones! It always astonishes us how quickly students will engage with the creative process – usually, all it takes is a little ‘brief’ to get them going. Don't forget to get them to share their ideas, be inspired by and influence each other's work, while you offer little prompts to keep them keen and productive.
