Creature Feature

Creature Feature began as a guided composition project to introduce 3rd grade students to music notation and the relationship between sound and symbol. The goal of this project was to teach students about the music staff and stylistic elements such as dynamics, articulation and tempo as well as to introduce them to the basics of music theory (the "math" in music). With the help of simple expressive tools, along with a little imagination, the children's notes came to life as leaping frogs, creeping slugs, and fluttering hummingbirds.

The following are original melodies created by 3rd grade students from a local elementary school. Accompaniments are by Jane Singhal. A selection of these melodies are featured in the book Creature Feature to demonstrate that the magic of music goes well beyond notes on a page.

Beyond Twinkle: Creating Music in the Classroom: Observations on teaching music skills through composition.

(The compositions are in midi format. You must use an appropriate plug-in with your browser or download the composition and use the windows media player or Quicktime and Quicktime Instruments to listen.)

Student	Composition
Elliot	The Nine Striped Armadillo (and the Dragon)
Maia	The Asian Sun Bear
John	The Cheetah
Aravind	The Flamingo
Wazeem	The Slug
Seh-Young	Parade Horse March
Hayley	Buttons, Minnie, and Minx
Dominic	Blue Whale
Zachary	The Tasmanian Devil
Om	Gorilla
JJ	The Hamster
Marie	Playtime for my Golden Retriever
Kaan	The Ribbit of the Frog
Vinnie	The Bear
Natalie	Hummingbirds
Ravi	The Snake
Quinn	The Woodpecker
Zia	The Butterfly
Didi	The Swan