With the exception of fruit roll-ups, See Spot Run, and Beanie the Class Bunny, I don’t remember much about Grade 2.
I’m sure we covered reading, writing, and arithmetic. After all, I turned out pretty smart. But the specifics? Gone. What I do remember is eating fruit roll-ups, maybe doing some reading, visiting Beanie, maybe doing some writing, and then heading outside for recess.
One thing I remember clearly, however, is that reading and writing were treated as completely separate subjects.
It wasn’t until years later, when my husband became an elementary teacher, that I realized how much students miss when teachers don’t connect the two. Reading and writing are not separate skills. They are partners. One strengthens the other, and when they are taught together, kids understand both in a much deeper way.
Is the same disconnect happening there too?
Absolutely.
Many piano students spend years learning to read music without ever writing a single piece of their own. They practice notation, decode rhythms, follow markings, and prepare performances… but they rarely get the chance to use music as a language they can create with.
For a long time, piano lessons have leaned heavily toward performance preparation. Students learn pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, and other legends. Then they learn more pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, and other legends.
And before long, instead of becoming young musicians who understand, interpret, and create music, they become very polished little classical jukeboxes.
A World Without Composers?
Can you imagine if Bach, Beethoven, or Liszt had learned to play music without ever learning to create it?
Without composers, there would be no piano pieces. And without piano pieces, our students would be stuck plunking through the same ancient chants forever.
But teaching kids to compose is about more than producing music for someone else to play. It changes how students see themselves at the piano.
When composing becomes part of your lessons, you can say goodbye to:
1. Yawning
Kids care more when the music is connected to them. Composing gives students ownership, which means they are far more likely to lean in.
2. Eye-Rolling
Composing is theory’s cool uncle. It takes the same musical concepts students need to understand and turns them into something creative, personal, and way more fun.
3. Forgetfulness
Students who compose are more likely to return to the piano between lessons because they have something of their own to finish, fix, replay, or show off.
4. Frustration
When a student is stuck on a concept, ask them to write a short piece that uses it. Suddenly, that “problem spot” becomes part of a creative challenge instead of a roadblock.
Composing’s Hidden Benefits
Aside from giving kids the chance to create music, composing brings all kinds of lesson-time benefits.
It can strengthen note reading as students print notes on the staff and connect them to keys on the piano. It can reinforce specific skills in a sneaky, student-approved way. Learning sharps? Write a piece with sharps. Working on skips? Compose a skipping song. Struggling with rhythm? Build a mini piece around the rhythm that needs attention.
Composing can also be a huge confidence boost for students who are having a hard time. When you help a child create music at exactly the right level, you give them a piece they can understand, play, and proudly call their own.
So let’s learn from the mistakes of those long-ago language arts lessons. When two skills are as closely connected as reading and writing, or piano playing and composing, they belong together.
After all, composing doesn’t just make piano lessons more creative. It helps students read better, understand more, practice willingly, and feel like real musicians.
And if it also helps rid your studio of yawning, eye-rolling, forgetfulness, and frustration?
Even better.
Don’t know where to begin? Get started with our Primer composing books!
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