Teaching Composition

[ameliatan]

Dear Teachers – I have had a few students who are showing interest in composition i.e. simple tunes or melodies with maybe chords. These kids are about 6 yrs to 10 yrs old, and are only post beginners. I myself am interested, and wish to teach it or encourage, as a good way to teach a whole wealth of other things.  I am ashamed to say, that I don’t compose and never had any formal training    My past teachers never taught or encouraged me to compose anything so I was never really exposed to it. All I can remember is choosing a note from a chord, and fill in the ‘gaps’ to form a melody above.

Right now, I am studying all my old harmony books again, and practicing on my composition i.e. re-learning again, writing and playing. However, in the mean time, I have had silly ideas where giving my student some pictures, and ask them to ‘compose’ a melody. Did you start teaching young or old beginners how to compose and any ideas how to teach or interest students who are not familiar with it?  Thanks!

[themeandvariation]

OK.. These kids are young.. and just past the earliest stages of learning music on piano..
When you say 'showing interest', are they actually coming up with a fragment of melody - or a couple of chords?  If so, you may want to ask, "how do you hear it going from here?" They should have some idea, and show you with their voice… If not, you can show them some options based on what they've already shown you.. maybe show a couple other chords in the (apparent) key signature  -- like the obvious I IV V - and maybe later ii, vi… Showing more than a few options becomes too confusing…better to start small.. If they have a melodic fragment, you might ask them to sing the next few notes, or ask whether the line should go up or down..(and perhaps, show them the other notes in the scale) I believe asking them what they hear is the best way to go about it, and then providing modest options, chords, with possibly simple rhythm patterns to accompany.. I'd be careful, because learning too many 'rules', especially at first, can smother the naturally creative voice.
If they have only expressed interest - but have nothing to show -  sometimes it can be liberating to play a duet, where the teacher 'grooves' on a couple of chords, while the student is told to 'improvise' -(though for young ones, i don't use that formal term, i say 'mess with') with just their right hand, (with single tones, -no intervals or chords)-  a chosen selection of notes which go with the chords chosen..Students loves this sort of thing… i do it at the end of the lesson… They always look forward to it…like dessert.

[hardy_practice]

Ask them to imagine a planet no one's ever heard of.  Ask them to give it a name then ask them to create music that describes it.  You shouldn't do any more talking than that.

[Bob]

I had a teacher once who had me write out my own symbols for the melody or pattern I came up with.  Didn't need to know music notation that way. 


Although now, decades later, I realize I plagiarized a melody I had heard for one part.  I don't see how the teacher could NOT have been aware of that. 

[dogperson]

My teacher has her students make up a melody using  black keys only---so that worrying about the notes/fingering are not an issue.

The second exercise she does with her students:   She plays Bach prelude in C and has her students improvise a meody to go  with it.  She plays the first chord of the measure and has the student start the melody (or continue the melody) on the second beat. 

[pianoplunker]

Dear Teachers – I have had a few students who are showing interest in composition i.e. simple tunes or melodies with maybe chords. These kids are about 6 yrs to 10 yrs old, and are only post beginners. I myself am interested, and wish to teach it or encourage, as a good way to teach a whole wealth of other things.  I am ashamed to say, that I don’t compose and never had any formal training    My past teachers never taught or encouraged me to compose anything so I was never really exposed to it. All I can remember is choosing a note from a chord, and fill in the ‘gaps’ to form a melody above.

Right now, I am studying all my old harmony books again, and practicing on my composition i.e. re-learning again, writing and playing. However, in the mean time, I have had silly ideas where giving my student some pictures, and ask them to ‘compose’ a melody. Did you start teaching young or old beginners how to compose and any ideas how to teach or interest students who are not familiar with it?  Thanks!

I am not an official piano teacher but something I have done that people seem to like is for me to play a simple boogie rhythm in Eb while having someone "play" on all the black keys even if they dont know what they are doing.  It sounds good enough for stupid fun. Completely improvised. I am not a composer but I would think improvisation has something to do with it.

[ted]

I have come to doubt it can be taught at all, at least not the creative impulse itself or its underlying mental drive. However, a desire to create in a pupil must surely be unconditionally encouraged using any means at your disposal. Even if you cannot impart the deeper aspects you can expose the pupil, by way of direct example at the instrument, to the diverse vocabulary used by composers and improvisers of the past. Some of this will prove attractive to the pupil and some not, but that doesn't matter. You provide as large a range of creative choice as you can but the decisions on which to play remain with the pupil. Above all, get them improvising freely while they are young using every trick you can muster.

[pianoplunker]

I have come to doubt it can be taught at all, at least not the creative impulse itself or its underlying mental drive. However, a desire to create in a pupil must surely be unconditionally encouraged using any means at your disposal. Even if you cannot impart the deeper aspects you can expose the pupil, by way of direct example at the instrument, to the diverse vocabulary used by composers and improvisers of the past. Some of this will prove attractive to the pupil and some not, but that doesn't matter. You provide as large a range of creative choice as you can but the decisions on which to play remain with the pupil. Above all, get them improvising freely while they are young using every trick you can muster.

You are right Ted. You can't teach creativity other than providing examples but you can teach all the tools that would enhance creativity. Such as theory, or the physical writing of the notes that you just played.  You can also discuss how  a composer may have come up with a phrase. Not a right or wrong answer just something for thought.

[j_tour]

I can remember my first theory/composition teacher -- as I found out much later he was a technically-competent pianist (I had a private piano teacher).  He was all about writing out counterpoint, and ear training.

Meh, he taught me to always write in pencil.  And my piano teacher thought roman numeral analysis was old fashioned and too pop-music-oriented.

If it were me back in those days, the 1990s, I'd teach how to improvise in the style of old relics.  Anyway, with much theory comes much burden.