Thursday, 20 Nov 08
Overview World Music Attentive Listening Imaginative Composing Improvising Using Vocabulary Teaching Notation AppendixTeacher feedback: Some teachers report that they are disappointed by the level of imagination and inventiveness shown by their KS3 students during composing tasks. Scaffolding of tasks can ease the process but can also lead to convergence of outcomes.
KS3 context: Composing is a fundamental curriculum activity in music throughout all key stages. During adolescence students develop a stronger sense of their own identity, which leads us to expect a more individual approach to creative tasks.
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Integrating the key learning processes of performing, composing, listening, reviewing and evaluating is vital. Starting points for composition work will normally emerge from other activities that students have been engaged with in the music classroom, or perhaps in another subject area. As with all musical learning, the context within which a composition task arises is an important consideration. For more information about the importance of context for music teaching and learning please see the Secondary National Strategy for Music, especially Unit 1. Go to http://www3.hants.gov.uk/music/theunits/unit1.htm and follow the link to the Developing Practice area.
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The 1999 report All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education (www.dfes.gov.uk/naccce) identified four essential characteristics of creativity:
Imaginative composing results when teaching stimulates a thoughtful and creative process rather than following a set recipe or formula. But that process is a highly personal matter for individual composers. You can read various composer reflections on their creative process on the Artistshouse Music website at www.artistshousemusic.org.
The 'Exchanging Notes' project was an exchange of ideas between teachers and composers from the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Its aim was to strengthen and investigate new strategies for the teaching of composition across the secondary music curriculum The Exchanging Notes website at www.bcmg.org.uk/downloads.php?id=379 contains some fascinating insights into the creative processes that underpin imaginative composing.
The stages that follow below are mostly based on the process described in the Exchanging Notes materials. Where appropriate, advice is included on how using technology can be helpful.
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Imaginative composing does not happen by accident. It is the result of skilful teaching and a deliberate strategy on the behalf of the teacher. Wherever possible, the teacher should set a good example as an imaginative composer. You don't need to be a specialist composer, but modelling the imaginative composition process is something that every music teacher does need to do.
There is a good video example of effective modelling, in a music lesson about the blues, at http://www3.hants.gov.uk/music/music-video4a.htm. This shows many of the skills required for effective modelling of musical processes. As with any aspect of teaching, modelling can be rehearsed, practised and refined.
As well as modelling the processes of composition, teachers might also occasionally model a final outcome by realising a composing project that has been given to their students. You can go beyond what you might expect students to achieve, but adhere to the brief that was set. If this is difficult, it is often a sign that the brief is not open enough to allow an imaginative response. By demonstrating your own skill and imagination you can inspire students to be more adventurous.
Case study activity
A teacher composed a piece, Gollum, to fulfil the same brief that was given to his year 9 students. The brief was to compose a piece that included these musical features:
Before listening, imagine how you think the outcome might sound. After listening, list several ways in which the piece differed from your prior expectation. The teacher used a sequencer and MIDI synthesizers/samplers routed through a simple mixer. How did using technology contribute imaginatively? Think whether you could use this approach yourself to encourage more imaginative student compositions.
Gollum.mp3 (copyright permission granted for use in the context of these materials)
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Getting started with an imaginative composition task may be one of the hardest parts of the process. Here are some key questions:
Teachers often give students starting points for their performance and composition work. These starting points could relate to particular musical concepts or ideas (a blues scale, a note row, a chord progression, etc) or they could be more programmatic in nature (a piece of film, picture, poem, etc.).
Sometimes you might want to give students more autonomy over choosing a starting point for a composition. This informal approach has been thoroughly explored within the Musical Futures project (read more at www.musicalfutures.org.uk/PractionersResources.html). It has proved to be very successful with certain groups of students. This approach is still a deliberate choice on the part of the teacher and will need to be implemented carefully.
Stories from professional composers about how they get started on a composition can be found on the SoundJunction website at www.soundjunction.org/composing/default.aspa.
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Music technology designed for use in live performance can help students get started on a composition project. Imagining and doodling (some might call this improvisation) is an essential early stage of the imaginative composition process. The interactive nature of electronic resources encourages students into new imaginative territory. They allow easy access to new and original electronic soundworlds that stimulate and motivate. Appropriate technologies might include sound processors, loop stations, electronic percussion or other basic sampling and triggering technologies.
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Roland ME20 sound processor |
Boss RC-50 loop station |
Roland Handsonic percussion trigger |
Recording doodles
Keeping a record of ideas could take many forms. For some composers, using traditional manuscript paper to sketch out ideas is part of this process. For an example of this, look at the composer’s notebook at http://www3.hants.gov.uk/music/theunits/unit1/unit1-resource4b.htm. Historically, we know that many composers kept sketchpads of this type. For one example, look at the sketch done by Beethoven for his Pastoral Symphony at www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/themes/music/beethoven.html. These days, software is available that can produce standard notation from a realtime performance. See area 6 for more information about using notation software.
It is interesting that many composers from the past learnt their skills by copying each other’s manuscripts. For a more contemporary approach, watch the video from the Musical Futures project at www.musicalfutures.org.uk/teachers_pack_inner_herts.html. Look out for evidence of students doodling as part of their creative process. Noting down ideas is an important part of this that, as Beethoven once wrote, ‘strengthens the imagination’. One thing apparent in this video is the creative space that the teacher allows for students to follow this creative process. Creative freedom does not imply disorganisation or a lack of challenge.
Capturing fleeting musical ideas through this doodling process is vital. Portable recording devices can be used to capture musical doodling. Encourage your students to listen back to these recordings and pick out key ideas. This will help them develop their skills of aural perception. They may have to re-find, or re-create, melodic patterns, chord sequences, rhythms, etc. that they like. If their work involves using MIDI instruments (keyboards, controllers, etc.) then connecting these to a sequencer will allow them to record all their musical doodling as MIDI data for future evaluation.
As students begin to experiment and generate ideas, it will be important to encourage them to listen attentively to their work and begin to make judgements about their own initial musical ideas.
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Within the Musical Futures model, the listening/copying activities that underpin many of the performance based activities can also apply within imaginative compositional activities. For example, students working within a particular musical genre can check the work of other composers within that genre alongside their own early experiments. Personal listening systems such as CD or mp3 players with headphones can allow students to make personal choices about what influences they expose themselves to. There are many websites that allow visitors to listen to whole tracks or excerpts. area 2 for more information about attentive listening.)
Ask students critical questions such as:
These questions will help them begin to understand that their imaginative composition work does not exist in a creative vacuum.
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At some point in the creative process, the musical doodling, experimentation and generation of musical ideas will need to result in the formation of a provisional musical outcome. This will involve students in choosing ideas and making decisions about what to include, or not include, in their composition.
The Exchanging Notes information cards (available at www.bcmg.org.uk/mmsys/modules/edit/file_send.php?id=559) are really helpful here. They present a range of ideas about how to help students choose which ideas might be best and make good decisions. In practical terms, MIDI/audio sequencers are excellent tools in these situations. They allow temporary muting of component material for easy comparison of alternatives.
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Knowing when to intervene in the composition process is an important teaching skill. Asking your students well formulated questions is probably the single, most effective strategy for helping them to develop ideas imaginatively. Some of the following questions may be useful:
The effective use of different pieces of music technology can help with this stage of the imaginative composition process too. Sequencing technologies can help students combine MIDI based or digital audio ideas quickly and easily, allowing students to explore a range of potential combinations of sounds. Digital processing effects can enable the exploration and development of sounds in exciting ways. Live performance technologies such as loop stations and multi-effects processors mentioned earlier can also help students combine and develop sounds efficiently.
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Understanding the imaginative process your students have undergone is central to making any kind of informed assessment of their work. To encourage imaginative composing it is important that evaluations are seen to give credit for thinking 'outside the box'. Awarding marks only if inflexible criteria have been met (e.g. every phrase is 4 bars long) is counter-productive as it narrows the scope of the imaginative process.
Recording technologies allow composition work in progress to be collected and stored for teacher and student led reflection and evaluation. Many portable recording devices are simple to operate and files can often be transferred by USB connections to a PC. If your school policies permit, mobile phones can also be used for this purpose. Using these recordings and written or videoed reflections, students can keep e-portfolios of their work in progress week by week.
Encourage students to evaluate using a range of questions. Bloom’s taxonomy (see fig.1) can be helpful when thinking of questions that will make students think about their composition work more deeply.
Fig. 1
BloomQuestions.pdf gives some example questions based on Bloom's taxonomy.
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Providing opportunities for students to share their composition work with others can be a very powerful imaginative stimulus and motivation. There are many ways that this can be done and new technologies can play an important role.
Numu (www.numu.org.uk) provides a good way of sharing composition work. It is a safe, online space that allows students to upload their work and receive feedback from their peers as well as ‘blog’ about their work. Schools can create record labels and charts (similar to a top 40) show the number of ‘hits’ that individual pieces of work have received.
Other options here might be podcasting students’ work through a secure area on your own school server. This is simpler than it sounds and can cost nothing. For more information, please view the free Moodle course on podcasting at www.ucan.me.uk.