How often do you compose with your piano students? Every week? Every other week? Once a month?… (gasp!) once a year? If your response bends towards the latter, today I’m going to show you how to compose with your piano students each and every week.
Composing with your piano students does not mean sitting down to pen the next masterpiece every lesson. It can easily (and should) be added to “start-of-lesson” activities just like finger warm-ups and scale practice.
When students compose they learn to connect with their music, they get a crash course in theory, they reinforce rhythm practice and much, much more; all things that are easily accomplished with quick composing activities and all things that should not be passed over in a piano lesson.
The most important thing to remember is that if you are trying to incorporate composing into each and every lesson, your focus should not be on completing a masterpiece… not even close! In fact, when I compose weekly with my students we simply focus on creating a single motive… it’s only a bar of music and it becomes the backbone of any piano piece.
Here’s How It Works:
1. Begin by brainstorming silly sentences with your piano students. Of course, they don’t have to be silly… they could be a short description of one’s day or one’s mood, but as we all know, kids love silly… so it’s what I use. Here’s an example below.
2. Now that you’ve got your silly sentence, try clapping that sentence to determine its natural rhythm (in 4/4 time). Once you’ve figured out its natural rhythm, write that rhythm out… as I’ve demonstrated below.
3. Finally, have your piano students experiment with some melodies to accompany that rhythm. Don’t be tied to C position… explore all the possibilities the piano has to offer. When your piano students find a melody that turns their crank, have them match the melody to the rhythm in Step 2. and write it out on the staff. Here’s my example below:
4. BAM! You’ve got yourself a motive… composing lesson complete!
Turning Your Motive Into a Masterpiece
If you compose like this each and every lesson, not only will your piano students reap all of the benefits that come along with being able to compose, but they’ll also have a great collection of cool-sounding motives. And what do you do with a bunch of cool-sounding motives?
Choose one and turn it into a masterpiece!
Nancy Saunders says
I can’t begin to tell you how much my students have enjoyed the Muttzart and Ratmaninoff composing resource. Students who usually struggle with composition have written some really interesting pieces which we will later notate on Finale and print. Thanks for all you do!
Andrea says
Hi Nancy – LOVE THIS! I’m so happy to hear it! Our intent was to take those composition-shy or struggling students and show them just how creative they can be if they have the tools. Happy Teaching (and composing!)
Cherilyn says
My students have loved this course! I am incorporating final pieces into my recital because I composing has been so fun with my students. I was also wondering if you had a special printable certificate upon completion of the lessons. It would be nice to hand them out to my students for a job well done.
Andrea says
Hi Cerilyn – that’s wonderful to hear it! We’d LOVE to see video of your kids’ pieces if you get the change. We don’t have a certificate, but we can certainly make one! Watch for it in the blog posts in the future – great idea.
Robbin says
I can implement this idea TODAY! I’ve considered ordering your composing materials several times, and I need to do so for my younger students. Would it also be helpful for a very advanced 5th grader who’s already worked through a 4-level composing series (and still can’t compose anything)?
Andrea says
Hi Robbin – your kiddos will love the Muttzart book! A 5th grader would still find the humor funny – we were careful to not make it too babyish and there’s lots of sarcasm in there for good measure 😉 It sounds like he doesn’t quite grasp the basics and might be getting discouraged – it’s definitely worth trying. With this book kids create a composition at the very first lesson and continue to do so for all 12 lessons. He’ll have a stack of his own music before he knows it!
Jane Berkowitz says
I love that idea! I plan to start this week with my students and save them in their notebook!
Andrea says
Yay! Yes, having a really special looking notebook is a great motivator for kids to get excited about creating their own music too! I even do my own composing in a nice little leather-bound snap up book. There’s just something special about keeping your creations separate and beautiful!
Claire Cavoto says
I can’t recommend Muttzart and Ratmaninoff composition series highly enough. My students are enjoying it as well as learning to look at their playing assignments differently. We look at the elements of composition in their pieces-Motives, Repetition etc. The program is arranged in such a way that even timid composers will give it a try. Thanks Andrea and Trevor for a fine program!
Andrea says
Wonderful to hear Claire! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment 🙂
Cheri says
I love all of your ideas, but how in the world do you fit everything (theory games, composing lesson, scales, and literature)into a 30 minute lesson, especially with students who won’t stop talking? Sometimes I do well just to get through a couple of songs in the method book!
Andrea says
Hi Cheri – Sandra just asked the same question so you might want to hop back to the post to read my answer – hoping it helps 🙂 This post might help too! https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2012/04/09/how-to-teach-piano-to-chatty-cathy/
Sandra says
I echo Cheri’s question: How does a teacher get through all that in one lesson? Ear training, sight reading, theory, technique, repertoire are already a challenge to fit into one lesson. I end up rotating things on a two-three week cycle! …So fitting in composition seems worthwhile, but it would challenge the time frame even more so. There are times I spend almost the whole lesson on one activity, if I think it is important (and the student is ‘with me’).
Andrea says
Hi Sandra – I know – it can seem tricky when you look at the list of what you can accomplish in a lesson. The way I teach is with the idea is that you can compose while you do some of those things – it doesn’t always have to be a formal part of your lesson. For example – for ear training, practice clapping silly sentences and writing them out in rhythmic notation (good lesson to be able to do!) then for sight reading, write out that rhythm several different ways, have them sight read it, have them improv a left hand to it (discussions of primary chords can happen here!) etc. Composing just brings in a relevance factor that is so important. We teach our kids to read in school but we ALSO teach them how to write. It should be the same with piano – and so composing should really have equal importance to everything else – even progression through repertoire. Everything in your lesson can be integrated – you can compose while doing sight reading, you can do theory while learning a new piece, you can do games while practicing scales… overlap is key to keeping things varied but also time-efficient. I hope that helps!
Veralyn says
This is a great example. It is similar to what I just tried doing with my primer student. Since we aren’t to the staff yet (and are just on quarter and half notes), we are starting out slow. 2 weeks ago in the theory book that went along with the lesson it had him put his own fingerings to the song. So last week, we took it a step further. I had him create a rhythm and then assign finger numbers to the rhythm. He is loving it!
In answer to some of the teachers that ask “”how do you make time?” I don’t always do everything in one lesson, sometimes I have them continue the same sight reading/ear training assignments from the previous week. Plus, with the composing, I take the time the first time I introduce it to make go through it with them and make sure they understand how to do it. But then I have them do most of their composition work at home, which motivates them to practice, then they come back to play me their composition. Since they have already been introduced to composing then building onto it doesn’t take as long the next time.
Kimberley W says
My students absolutely love, love, LOVE, The Curious Case of Muttzart and Ratmaninoff – my only question is: When will the next composing adventure come along? It would be awesome to have a sequel!! Thanks for all your wonderful ideas!
Angela says
I used this method today and it worked PERFECTLY!!!! This was really fun too! I might try to compose a few of my own little cute melodies and share them with my students!! Thank you Andrea and Trevor for your wisdom and insight in the piano teaching world! It’s not in vain!
Starli Brighton says
How great that you mention how to teach piano students how to compose. I have not played piano for years and I want to start up again this month. I will find an excellent gospel piano book for this.