Music-ITE

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This is by no means a definitive map of the territory but it may provide student teachers with an anchor for understanding the possibilities for making up music.

Such badinage is one of the most fundamental elements of musical activity. And trainees often burst into laughter once the moment of silence is over. I suspect many would find it hard to verbalise quite what had just happened, yet all would recognise that some form of music had just been created, and that they had been part of its very creation. All, too, would recognise that they needed no rehearsed skill, nor prior knowledge to take part. Indeed, I have occasionally been guilty of playing rhythms with cutlery in restaurants, only to find others on my table joining in. At these times, I’ve felt the need to quickly end the game as it could spread so easily. Others around the restaurant raise their head to notice the music and I have a vision of the entire room breaking free in an improvised piece for forks and spoons: try it!!

This simple idea could, of itself, be a good way of getting student teachers to engage their classes in making up music, especially in KS2. They could begin with the entire class but, as time progresses, they could introduce:

• Exploring different size groups
• Exploring different parts of the body
• Exploring vocal effects
• Introducing found materials and environmental sound sources
• Opportunities to explore the above in differing combinations
• Opportunities for individuals to direct the class or smaller groups through taking on the role of conductor.

Note - Clearly, the potential for music making using rhythm patterns in this way is without limit and students and children become increasingly imaginative in their will to be daring; to tease, to surprise and to delight their audience. A further development could be the introduction of text. I find food particularly useful in this context.

The underlying principles here involve some simple aesthetic components:

• Repetition
• Balance
• Symmetry
• Contrast
• Surprise
• Pattern
• Unity

The most successful compositions are always the ones that move the audience through clever use of the above. As indicated in the following example involving words and language.

The success of this activity largely depends on the dynamics of the group. I often find that the best role for me, having set up the task, is to get out of the way and let the groups work things out for themselves, any contributions which I may make only serving to hijack the activity and, ultimately, to limit success. The benefit of this activity is that the students are fully engaged in a musical activity. They are beginning to think musically and to listen to the music that is being created. They have some language to analyse the features of their piece and they are able to explore, select and reject ideas. Most importantly, they see that they have been able to engage in making up music, without any advanced knowledge or skill.

Many trainees find it difficult to adapt this activity to their own situation. Clearly food is only one theme in which words can combine. The trainees should be encouraged to consider other possibilities for creating such compositions. Ideas might include:

• Football clubs
• Names
• Months of the year

Or more expressive language relating to:

• Night
• War
• Friendship
• Loss
• In the forest

The very idea of pattern is fundamental to music and provides a unique way of conceiving of cross-curricular potential. At their simplest level, patterns can be created and combined, simply through chance.

In ‘Let’s go Zudie-o’, McGreggor and Gargrave (2001) describe a wonderful example of the aleotoric potential of composing with bubbles in response to images of walking on the moon. Such an example is undoubtedly worthy, but the possibilities of music by chance extend much further. Clearly trainees could encourage children to compose by selecting a bubble blown by a bubble conductor. The conductor directs the performance, deciding how many times to blow bubbles, and even which groups are to respond to the bubbles blown.

Help the students to see how, in each case, structure, dynamics, pitch contour, duration, and periods of silence become a matter of chance. Help them to see, also, that in each case, children will be having to make decisions about their musical reponse, and to control the instrument in order to achieve the effect desired. Discuss the effect such activities will have on the children’s understanding of music, and of how they value musical activity.

Children love poetry and verse, particularly those poems which are funny, rude or have interesting musical features, such as onomatopoeia, repetitive structure, or great dynamic change. Such poems provide an excellent starting point for composing, and, while there are numerous examples of such activity in music schemes and teaching resources, student teachers should be encouraged to look for the musical potential in a much wider context.

What can be most disappointing for tutors is to see their work being taught in schools, totally unchanged for the local situation. Activities featuring examples such as that above are more useful as an indication of practice, rather than as a top tip for classroom ideas. The following suggestion may assist student teachers in their thinking.

Talk with the student teachers about the support that has been provided for singing in the primary classroom in recent years. The principle development has been the establishment of a national singing resource known as Sing Up. This resource provides a unique and extensive resource to support the teaching of singing in schools. Folk songs, pop songs, new songs, old songs, songs of the war and the music hall, and songs about issues which really matter to children.

Encourage the students to see that there is great potential for this material that moves beyond the important activity of singing. Select a song and invite the students to notice some of the musical features of the piece. Ask them to consider:

• The overall feel of the song
• Musical features
• Special words
• The structure of the song
• Potential for development

Sing through ‘There’s a spider on the floor’ and ‘Boom Chicka Boom’, for example. Although these items are rather simple they offer great potential for making up music.

• The students could create verses for where the spider is and what it is doing
• The students could invent their own verses for Boom Chicka Boom, suggesting different voices, and exploring pitch, timbre, and dynamics in the process.
• In both songs the students could be asked to consider how they could introduce instrumental accompaniments, ditching the provided backing tracks, and encouraging groups to create their own musical response

Songs offer a wonderful starting point to composition in many forms. Tutors may wish to direct their trainees to Vanessa Young’s advice in Primary Music Today on ‘Stretching Your Material’. The student teachers should be encouraged to explore the Sing Up Songbank and identify songs which offer composing opportunities.

Instrumental

Having experienced approaches to composing which don’t involved the use of tuned percussions student teachers should be encouraged to explore the potential offered by pentatonic structures. The joy here is that pieces which have a pentatonic basis will naturally blend, harmonically, without the need to attend to more complex harmonic devices. It is worth explaining, however, that this doesn’t mean that anything goes. Conversely in fact, the value of pentatonic music is that it both requires and facilitates high quality musical decision-making.

This aspect of music making requires deeper understanding of music, however, I have found that young teachers gain understanding of the structure relatively quickly. The emphasis here follows on directly from activity 1, which was concerned with exploring over-laying, and structuring rhythms and musical patterns.

Vocal and Instrumental

Pentatonic songs offer a valuable starting point for composing activities. Excellent collections of pentatonic material are published and distributed by the British Kodaly Academy. Using such materials the students should understand how they can compose in the following ways:

• Sing the song
• Encourage one or two to extract a simple phrase and repeat it as an ostinato
• Encourage one or two to create a drone which continues throughout
• Encourage others to sing the song in canon – this often works successfully with pentatonic music and provides for easy part writing.
• Introduce tuned percussion and invite some students to play the ostinato and drone figures on these instruments.
• Invite others to play along with the tune on tuned percussion.
• Invite others to imitate rhythmic passages on unturned percussion until the whole group is playing and/or singing.
• Invite groups to create their own arrangements of these simple pentatonic songs. Encourage them to think about the aesthetic elements mentioned above.

There is a lot of research that discusses children’s spontaneous singing at a young age (see Davies 1992; Hargreaves 1986). Many students will be aware of this aspect of children’s play and it may provide a good starting point for a discussion about the role of play in children’s learning. Talk with the students about Davies’ work, singing the register, and inviting the children to make up songs on the spot. Ask them to think about young children they know, who might be encouraged to make up a song about a bear, or a pet, or the sea side, or lying in the sun. Children will create these songs spontaneously, drawing on songs and words they know in their general repertoire.

Such spontaneous musical creativity can be one of the most rewarding and successful composing opportunities for the youngest children. It could also be the starting point for composition activities with older children. Invite the students to compose songs for special occasions, and talk with them about successful songs they know. Allow them to share their favourite songs and identify key features such as hook lines, riffs, verses and chorus, and musical appeal. Invite them to build on these features in their own songs. Discuss the role of accompaniment and encourage them that they needn’t be concerned to use guitars and keyboards if they feel unsure of how to support their use.

Invite groups and individuals to share their material at regular intervals and introduce peer appraisal and music buddies so the children are responsible for the quality and development of each other’s work.

The point is that unless class teachers provide for the musical experiences of their own classes then it is likely that the opportunity for musical composition in school will be impoverished. For young children, music should be a daily activity in which making up music features strongly; it is an important part of their continuous play provision and cannot be accommodated in one session a week. For older children, composing requires an ongoing process of development which children work on in a continual process. In any case, it is much easier to accommodate musical creation in fewer groups over a longer period.

Remind the student teachers that there are an infinite number of starting points for musical creativity and it is best if the teacher is able to let these emerge naturally from events, visits, and themes which are being studied. This is not an attempt to squeeze music into every theme that emerges: the teacher may well decide that music doesn’t emerge naturally from a history study unit on the Romans. Nor should it be forced!

In other instances, the aesthetic elements discussed earlier allow for the natural emergence of musical composition. The following may provide a useful basis for discussion:

• Geographical themes relating to the landscape, or special places, or cloud formations. In such cases the formation becomes a graphic score which captures asset of aesthetic features which can be realised in music.
• Important issues, such as friendship, loneliness, and staying healthy can provide the basis for song writing.
• Themes which have a structural property, such as a journey, or a familiar story, or a map can provide the basis for a composition which tracks the process. In such cases it is often useful to divide the structure (or journey) up into parts and allocate each to individual groups – coming together to provide a complete composition at the end. In such circumstances to, it is often useful to have a linking theme or motif and there are lots of examples of such devises in all forms of music.
• In all cases, encourage the development of a musical community in which children listen, create, make, revise, perform, and initiate. Encourage them to work alone and with others, and provide a composition journal in which they can record ideas and reflect on the musical process.

In recent years there has been a resurgence of musical opportunity in schools. Such opportunities have afforded young children wonderful musical experiences which will remain with them throughout their lives. In many instances these initiatives have been provided by visiting specialist teachers who have used their skills for the good of children all over the country. There is a sense in which general class teachers have handed over the responsibility to such specialists and this is of concern with regard to the sustainability of music in future financial climates. There is now doubt that specialists add so much to the music education landscape that generalists could never add. But there is also much that generalists will be able to achieve, not least because of their assumed musical naivety. Enthusiastic teachers can transform children’s sense of identity and musical self-efficacy. They tend to play down personal competence but elevate belief in children. They understand that the quality of the musical product isn’t always more important than the process of making up music, and they understand that there is much to be valued that can’t be demonstrated in a final performance.

Davies, C.(1986) Say it til a Song Comes: A study of songs invented by children aged 5-7 years British Journal of Music Education 8(1)

Hargreaves, D.J. (1986) The Developmental Psychology of Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

MacGreggor, H. & Gargrave, B. (2001) Let’s go Zudie-o. A & C Black

Barnes, J. (2007) in Austin, R. Letting the Outside In: Developing Teaching and Learning Beyond the Early Years Classroom

Dogani, K. (2004) Teachers' understanding of composing in the primary classroom in Music Education Research 6(3), pp.263-279

Glover, S. (2000) Children Composing 4-14

Paynter, J. (2002) Music in the School Curriculum. Why Bother? In British Journal of Music Education 19(3) pp.215-226

Tomlinson, H & Arthur, M. (2009) Musical Gardens in Primary Music Today