Is Composition “Legit” for the 5th Grade Music Classroom?:


Assignments You Can Do with Elementary Students Cynthia Page-Bogen


“What do you like about compositions?” I asked my 5th


graders.


“They’re awesome.” “They’re fun to make.” “They’re creative.” “I like it a lot because it’s mostly us, you don’t help us unless we’re having trouble with our group or something and it’s all our ideas.”


“Why is it so fun to compose?” “Because you kind of have your freedom and you get to do what you want and it’s creative.” “It’s learning to cooperative and compromise.” “It’s legit. Everyone gets to play their own part.” “It’s really awesome because it’s always different and everyone gets to put their own part in and then it sounds awesome.” “…The compositions…you feel proud of what you’re doing.”


INTRODUCTION


I am an elementary vocal/general music teachevewho has been running a 5th grade composition program for 15 years. When I was introduced to the concept 16 years ago, it took me a year to gather the courage to send students out of my eyeshot and earshot. My big hesitation was because I worried it would be anywhere from unwise to unsafe to send students to places in which I was not directly supervising them. This proved to be unfounded and I have come to value this wonderful idea that has allowed students to experience composition. It enthuses the students, makes them eager to come to 5th


grade general music, provides


‘license’ for their creativity, empowers them, and provides a wealth of learning opportunities. Composition is so much fun for the students that they do not want to trespass over rules. Students who had been the ‘live wires’ now have the opportunity to use that energy to create compositions and are often my best composers. Defiant behavior is often unmasked by composition and shown as anxiety. Since the students are the creators, if they ‘blow it’ and do not successfully create a composition


16


within the time frame, they cannot blame anyone other than themselves. This pressure improves any previously difficult behaviors. Their sense of personal pride and empowerment is palpable as they share their compositions.


STRUCTURE AND PROCESS The way I structure my 5th


grade


composition is to first teach a composing technique and then assign a composition based on that technique. We start with ostinato compositions. We learn what an ostinato is, starting with Pachelbel’s Canon in D. We aurally identify what pattern repeats and how long that pattern lasts. Then we walk the eight ½ notes for as long as they continue through the piece and find out that the 8-note pattern goes on for over 4 minutes! We discuss what the composer does to make the composition interesting. Then we listen to a CD of musical excerpts that have ostinati–- anything from Philip Aaberg’s “High Plains” to “La Bamba” to MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This”, and discuss that ostinati can be below or above the melody, harmonically- or rhythmically- based. We improvise in the C pentatonic scale on Orff instruments while I play an ostinato on C & G bass bars. We spend several weeks learning about ostinati, accompanying a vocal round on xylophones with a I-VI-II-V pattern, doing a 4-part Orff vocal ostinato, and continuing to refine our improvisations. Eventually, as with all composition techniques, the test of whether the students understand ostinato is to create a piece with an ostinato.


This ‘teaching-learning-assess by creation’ is the pattern for all of our study of composition. The other compositional techniques, after ostinato, are ABA compositions, theme & variations or songwriting, and smaller assignments such as making a ‘jingle’ for a commercial with skit. We examine how music is scored for text, and sometimes bring


alive a Mother Goose rhyme on non- pitched percussion. The students have to guess what rhyme each group is playing. (Thank you, Murray Schafer, for this idea). Students by no means compose every week, even though they request to compose every week. Other activities we do during the year include singing, music-reading skills, 5th


grade “Humanities” lessons,


and music history through the lens of composition. However, over the course of the year students actively compose for approximately 1/3rd of their music class times. Composing becomes more intense in March/April as students begin to compose over six consecutive weeks with the goal to create a final composition using any technique learned in the previous classes. The composers publicly perform their compositions at their grade level concert in May.


SPECIFICS


I have found that a deep understanding of and feeling for phrasing is a critical element for success in the quality of the melodies I get. So I spend a few weeks early in the year, prior to the first ostinato assignment, doing activities with phrasing. When we are improvising in pentatonic, we begin by counting the four 8-beat phrases. Another activity to encourage internalization of phrasing is: each student places four arrows on the floor, (each arrow a different color with 8 dots on them), and points to a new dot on each beat, changing arrows when a new phrase comes around. This activity helps students get used to 32-bar AABA song form. And as soon as students understand AABA song form, I throw in curve balls: phrases that extend beyond the 8 bars (“I’m An Old Cowhand”), songs that use three phrases (“Route 66”), or songs that have phrasing that do not follow the 4x8 pattern (e.g., Vivaldi’s “Spring”). To try to feel how phrasing parallels breathing, we stretch strips of bathing suit fabric for the length of


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