Composition Help For Children Who Have Good Basic Musical Skills

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Criteria For An Effective Composition

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Child’s Level of Advancement

All students should begin with one simple phrase. The solos you create will probably be most effective if they reflect where you are in your present level of musical development. If you are a beginning 2nd or 3rd grade piano student or a beginning woodwind student in the 4th or 5th grades, keep the form simple. A 16-measure, simple complete idea might be the most effective. The ideas that follow apply to a simple four-phrase unit, as well as to more complex organization. As you advance you will be able to try more complex forms.

Look for form in the solos you play for some idea of how complex a form you might try.

These suggestions are not intended to be used as a formula. They are given so the student will consider what he knows about music and to use an interest in composition to strengthen his present musical skills. The joy of using what he knows about music leads to an interest in learning more.

If the student does not have a sufficient musical background through the experience of lessons to understand the musical factors discussed here, check Song Writing for Young Children. Song Writing for Young Children was prepared for students who have less developed musical skills and need to work on acquiring some needed basic skills. The age of the child has little to do with which page of suggestions would be helpful. If an older child needs help experiencing what he hears musically, it is never too late.

All children should be learning about tonality, meter, phrases, form etc, the elements discussed on this page, as a part of regular music lessons. Even young children should think about and learn to evaluate the solos they perform using the musical factors on the musical analysis check list. If the child does not understand all of the terms it may be only a matter of vocabulary. Even a very young child should understand what is meant by a phrase. He should be able to tell whether the music moves in 2’s (duple meter) or 3’s (triple meter) and what key a piece is in.

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Criteria for An Effective Song

Originality	Notation	Organization
Musical Content	Suitable for instrument	Musical Form

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1. Originality - Make a song not like all the other songs you’ve heard before, but a new idea. Try creating one simple phrase and manipulate it with some devices you’ve seen used in your solos. Your beginning phrase may not sound very original at all, but start with an idea, any idea, and make many different versions. Review the musical analysis check list for some devices you might use to manipulate your original musical idea. Try many different ways and throw out the ones you don’t like and continue to work with the ones that become more interesting as they are changed. Some musical devices you might start with are:

1. Create a question-answer phrase combination and then repeat the question phrase and give it another answer.
2. Sequential repetition - repeat the same rhythmic and tonal pattern at different pitch levels.
3. Key change - for example; start in C major and change to a minor, C major to C minor, C major to G major etc.
4. Change the articulation. (staccato, legato)
5. Change the dynamics. (loud, soft)
6. Change the tempo. (fast, slow)
7. Vary the rhythm pattern. If your original pattern had quarter notes make it repeat in eighth notes.
8. Create a variation of the phrase by using extra notes in between the same melody (embellishment). Use passing tones, upper and lower neighbor tones.

Put together some original musical ideas that you find interesting. A composition does not just appear. Work on it; manipulate your musical ideas into something new and different; something that sounds interesting to you.

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2. Notation - Be sure the title and the instrument the solo is intended for is indicated at the top of your solo. You can get fun musical ideas from your title. For example, you could think of some fun musical sounds for rain, thunder, cats, owls, cars, trains, ghosts, etc. The list could be endless. You could begin by thinking of an idea and creating that kind of sound. Making your music tell a story through sound may trigger ideas for you.

1. Tempo - Be sure to indicate tempo at the top left; for example, allegro, adagio, moderato. Use a metronome marking if you want to be sure it will be played at the tempo you want; for example, quarter note = 80. Use the quarter note symbol. Indicate any tempo changes in the solo.

2. Dynamics - Mark dynamics at the beginning and anywhere you want a change. You might indicate a phrase climax by using crescendo and decrescendo symbols. You could create an echo effect by making a phrase forte (f, loud) and repeating the idea piano (p, soft).

3. Articulation - Mark the articulation accurately with slurs or staccato if it is relevant to your melody. Combinations can often add interest and make a phrase “speak” differently.

4. Location of Symbols - Look at the solos you play at your music lessons carefully for where the dynamic markings, tempo markings are located. Check where the slur lines are relative to the note heads etc.

5. Terms - Have you used appropriate musical terms such as allegro, rit., accel., dolce, cantando etc.?

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3. Organization

1. Rhythmic organization - Is your melody suitable for the kind of meter you have selected? 3/4 is waltz like; 4/4 is march like. If your first phrase sounds uninteresting rhythmically, try changing the rhythmic pattern of the melody or add rests to make it bouncy sounding.

You could try mixed meter, 2/4 changing to 3/4 back to 2/4, or a more unusual meter 5/4.

2. Phrases - Do your phrases have a well defined climax? Does it have a place of tension and release? Where is the climax of the overall composition? If your composition does not seem to have a climax, creating one will make your melody “say” something more musical. Perhaps it needs to be more clearly defined. Some devices you could use to create the tension of a climax are:

• rise in the pitch of melody
• fall in the pitch of melody
• dynamic change - Usually louder but sometimes piano (soft) creates the attention needed.
• change in the rhythmic note values - If your melody has been moving in all fast patterns, a sudden change to slower note values such as quarter notes creates interest. If it has been moving slowly, a change of movement to 8th or 16th notes can create interest.
• texture change - If you are composing for piano some changes in the texture you might try are:
  change from your basic pattern of chords in the left hand with a melody above to the melody alone with no harmony
  the melody could be either alone in the right hand or in parallel octaves in both hands
  a change in the richness of the harmony from a three-note chord to a five-note chord
  change the form of the chord, from blocked to broken, use an Alberti bass
  change the spacing of the chord
  try more complex harmonies

Often more than one of the above devices are combined to create an interesting climax.

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3. Musical Content - Does your melody sound interesting? Does it have something to say musically? Does it aimlessly wander around without any direction? Do you have a well defined form to the phrases? Phrases are often equal in length.

______________ 4 measures	_______________ 4 measures	the overall phrase unit, one complete musical idea, equal length phrases
___________ 4 measures	_______________ 4 measures

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_____________ 4 measures	_______________ 3 measures	sometimes phrases are unequal but organized
_____________ 4 measures	_______________ 3 measures

Tonality
	Decide whether your piece is major, minor, a more unusual mode or atonal (no tonal center). Unless you are writing a very contemporary sounding piece, your listener should be aware of the tonal center of the piece.
Tonic/Dominant
	I-------------- V --------------I
	V -------------- I	Sometimes the phrase begins on V.
	Whatever the beginning and ending pitches of the phrases, a return to I secures the tonality.
Modulation
	Modulation into a new key makes a song interesting. You can use I ------------ V, when you get to the V as a tonal resting place you can make that a new key. C major to C minor key change creates interest.
	Analyze your solos for interesting ways to modulate.

4. Suitable for instrument - Play your solo on the instrument you play. This will tell you if your melody is suitable for your instrument.

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Musical Form

AB

ABA

Rondo

Sonata

Theme & Variation

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For your first attempt at composition, the forms of AB, ABA, Rondo and Theme and Variations are probably the easiest to try. Be sure to have a plan for an overall form that is clearly organized. If you are an older more experienced student, and have played sonatas or sonatinas, try sonata form. The organization itself will keep you going.

Musical Form
AB
	Create an A section, possibly 4 short phrases as diagramed above representing a complete musical idea. Then make a B section using:
		- a totally new contrasting section - a different kind of melody soft if the first was loud, slow if the first was fast, legato if the first was staccato etc. - use the musical analysis check list to look for possible contrasting musical ideas
ABA
	Add a return to the A section at the end of the AB above. The Beethoven Eccosaise that many piano students play is a good example of ABA form. Listen to the MIDI files to hear the whole composition and then listen to the A and the B sections.  Play the MIDI file, 3K, Beethoven, Eccosaise  MIDI file, 1K, only the A section  MIDI file, 1K, only the B section
Rondo
	The A section keeps returning. It has a contrasting B section and possibly a C section. It could be ABABACABA or simpler.
Sonata
	If you’ve played lots of sonatas and sonatinas as intermediate and advanced piano students have done, you might try sonata form or a variation of the typical sonata form. Create a Theme I and II. Theme I refers to the first theme, the main musical idea. Theme II is a second theme, usually contrasting in nature to Theme I.
		Exposition
			Theme I in the tonic key (I); if in the key of C major, theme I is in C major. Theme II in the dominant key (V); if in the key of C major, dominat is G major.
		Development
			Use material of either Theme I or Theme II or both, manipulate by changing the key, major to minor, inversion of melody etc.
		Recapitulation
			Theme I in the tonic key (I); if in the key of C major, tonic is C major. Theme II in the tonic key (I); if in the key of C major, tonis is C major.
		Coda
			If you want to restate the main idea a final time include a coda; if not, leave it off.
	Have fun creating connecting devices between your themes. Use your favorite scales, scales in 3rds. Analyze the sonatas you play for ideas on ways you can manipulate your melody in the development section. Look for transitional devices used to connect Theme I and Theme II.
Theme and Variation
	Try some of the many ways to vary a simple melody. Each variation is clearly a new section. Label each variation at the beginning of the new variation; Variation 1, Variation 2 etc. You could write as many variations as you like.
		Theme Variation I Variation 2
			If you are interested in Theme and Variation, play or listen to the Mozart, Twinkle Twinkle Variations. It will give you many ideas.
		MIDI 43K, Mozart, Ah vous dirai-je Mamam (Twinkle, Twinkle)

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CONCLUSION
When you are writing your composition, have fun and try to please only yourself. Make sounds that interest you. It may be a wonderfully creative piece and your brother, sister, mother or father may not like it. They might write a totally different kind of song if they were doing it. If you like it, it’s OK. Some people like red, others hate it. You should please your own musical ear.

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If you need music paper, print some manuscript pages from here. Click on “Back” at the top of your browser to return to this page. There is no other return from the manuscript page.
	staff paper 1 staff
	staff paper 2 staffs

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For additional suggestions, see Song Writing for Young Children.

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