I've always incorporated student composition into my music tech class curriculum, both through Finale and DAWs. Student musical development and growth are always evident from the beginning of the year, writing simple rhythms and melodies, to the end of the year when they are composing complex original multi-track MIDI/digital songs. The theory lessons I teach at the first of the year both enhance and are enhanced by composition projects. I have found that the more we apply the theoretical concepts into our compositions, the better students do on theory tests and the quality of their compositions increases.
I've been challenged this week by Bauer to consider adapting some form of composition project into my band classes. I'm typically so focused on the next concert, auditions or festivals that I don't feel I have time to spend on something like composing. With the evidence of how students mature musically in my music tech classes, I don't know why up until now I haven't tried to get band students writing their own music. The closest thing we've done to composing in band class is simple 4-8 measure rhythm writing exercises when doing rhythm reviews. I've never taken the class to the music tech lab or given them melodic composition projects for a grade.
Chapter 3 in Bauer's book highlights the benefits of composition in relationship to overall student musicianship. In this chapter I was introduced to Music-COMP- Music Composition Online Mentoring Program. I visited their website and I've been astounded by the quality of original compositions from students as young as 3rd Grade. The website has recordings from the past two "Opus" performances featuring music composed by students from 3rd-12th grade.
http://music-comp.org/opus-28-audio-recordings/
http://music-comp.org/opus-29-audio-recordings/
The two belief guidelines from Music-COMP listed in Chapter 3 that stood out to me were "Using notation software develops music literacy" and "Composition is one element of a well-rounded curriculum" (Bauer, 60). I'm really interested now in getting my students involved
in composing, whether through something like Music-COMP or giving them
chamber group instrumentation and doing class compositions.
Justin,
ReplyDeleteIt's really great to read about your music technology course. We're faced this year with having to design new music elective courses at the middle school level, so I'm very interested in the ways people have found to effectively introduce students to music concepts and composition using technology.
I've also struggled with wanting to give my ensemble students opportunities to compose and explore musical creativity, but always finding it more crucial that we focus on upcoming performances. This year, I had a high school Symphony Band that was much smaller and more beginner than usual, so I took the opportunity to do some experiments. I reduced the number of concerts to two for the full year, taking the performance pressure off and giving me more flexibility for how rehearsal time is spent. We've done some chamber music work, and more recently I've had them working with noteflight to compose simple 2-line duets. It's been interesting to experiment with combining ensemble skills and composition technology into one course, and the implementation has been a little rough around the edges, but I think it's important for me as an educator to be exploring the possibilities and providing students with opportunities to explore themselves musically.