Composing with Children

Composing may seem like a daunting task to some teachers, but it doesn’t need to be! It can be fun, exciting and surprising if you give some guidelines to your students.

First, review the basic parts of a score. It may be helpful to look at a song that they are already familiar with reading and playing. Identify the time signature, the bar lines, the different rhythm values in each measure (this is a great time to throw in some math equations!), the range of notes used, any dynamics, and the double bar line at the end.

After that, write down your criteria for the composition assignment. Be specific with what is allowed to be used, and sometimes you may also have to specify what is not allowed. Stick with notes and rhythms that you have already covered on the ukulele in class. Perhaps a specific scale can guide you.

Remind your students, that it needs to be playable! Each student needs to write at the level that they are at. I also always remind my classes that it needs to be neat and clear enough for anybody to play their song. If the teacher can’t decipher it, their classmate definitely won’t be able to and they will be doing a lot of erasing and re-writing.

Start small with your compositions and only ask for 4 measures using a handful of different pitches. If your students need more guidance, then offer sample rhythms for them to copy and add their own pitch ideas to. Before you know it, you’ll have a class full of budding composers.

Use the composition PDF sheets complete with prompts, on the “Free Printables” page on my site, or check out the “I Need a Snack" teaching package for a fun song and composing project where you create new lyrics and have the option of composing your own rhythm patterns too.