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Learn about Meter, Form and
Tonality to Create Composition
When
a child creates a song that sounds interesting to himself and
to others, it opens a door for him to experience music on a deeper
level. A first song will not be great music, but it can be interesting
to listen to and it can be a very satisfying experience for the
child. If you are a total beginner at making a song, use the
examples on this page to learn more about meter, form or tonality.
To learn more about making phrases, check Composition
Question-Answer Phrases
Learn
to Experience Meter, Phrase Length and Rhythm Patterns Through
Poems, Nursery Rhymes
Once the child is making interesting question-answer phrases
using a full range of pitch material and varied rhythm patterns,
he can probably succeed in making more complex songs. Some children
will easily make songs that sound interesting and have some organization
to the phrases without additional experiences or the use of crutches.
If the song he makes has a wandering around sound and lacks organization,
use a poem to help him understand the rhythmic organization of
meter. He can borrow the meter from the words of the poem. If
the child has written a poem as many children do in school, use
one of them if it has a strong meter to the words. If he does
not have one easily available use children’s poems and nursery
rhymes such as Jack and Jill or Humpty Dumpty.
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Poems or Children’s
Rhymes with a Known Tune
When using a rhyme or poem to help the child
get the idea of phrase organization, it may work best to use
one without known tunes attached to the rhyme. Tunes with known
melodies such as Jack and Jill could easily be used to make an
original melody, but you would have to be sure the child is not
using the tune to Jack and Jill that he knows. Emphasize that
this a totally different song he is making and it’s only
the meter and the rhythm of the words he’s borrowing from
the poem.
Poems or Children’s Rhymes with a Strong Feel
of Meter
Decide
whether the rhyme moves in 2’s or 3’s and then have
the child notate the rhythm of the rhyme.
If using nursery rhymes, discover the rhythmic organization
of the rhyme by getting the child to tap his foot to feel a steady
pulse. Say the words to the beat. Most children can figure out
the rhythm, especially if it is a rhyme such as Jack and Jill
with an easy rhythm.
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Find the Pulse
Play the wave
file below of Jack Be Nimble to hear the strong beat and the
rhythm of the words. Clap on only the strong beat, the 1, to feel the rhythmic
organization. The X below the words of Jack Be Nimble shows where
the first beat of each measure grouping is; where the 1is.
Clap it and say it with the child. Don’t just say it slowly
and carefully. Have fun chanting it with a lively movement. Sing
and move with the clapping. For example, chant with the wave
file of the spoken and clapped Jack Be Nimble or do it yourself
if it takes too long to open the file.
Jack
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Find the Rhythm of the Words
Next tap your foot to the pulse as discovered above and tap
lightly on finger tips to palm, the rhythm of the words, a tap
on every syllable.
Emphasize that the feel of
the grouping in triple meter is 1 2 3 1
2 3 Strong weak weak Strong weak weak.
Think 1 2 3 1 2 3 Strong weak weak Strong weak
weak to the words to discover what the note values would be.
The 1 is where the X was in the chart above.
Jack
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Jack
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From this you can see that there are three
beats or pulses in each group. If you notated the rhythm in 3/4
time, the word that gets 1 2 would be
a half note; and the word that gets only 1
would be a quarter note. The places that have a 1
2 3 would be a dotted half note. The bar lines, dividing the
grouping of pulses or beats into measures, are easy to place.
Jack
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Jack
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Jack
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Once the child “gets it” and can make songs that
are somewhat organized, he can drop this kind of device and make
songs freely. If the song has a disorganized rhythm pattern,
it is OK as long as the child knows that is what he wants to
do and he is not just aimlessly making the song.
Have the child notate the rhythm of the poem in a meter that
most children easily understand such as a 3/4 time signature.
Jack and Jill could also be notated in 6/8. It would have a better
flow moving in the 2 sets of 3’s of 6/8, but depending on
the age and the experience of the child, 3/4 moving quickly would
be more easily understood. The words of the rhyme can be dropped
if the song is intended to be instrumental.
If the child has used his own poem, he may prefer to keep
the words so that it will be a song with words. The words and
the story of the poem are also very helpful to decide what kind
of sounds to use. It could help you to decide whether it is fast
or slow, major or minor, etc. If your poem is titled Running
Horses, for example, you might want to make your song fast, loud
and maybe minor depending on what happens to the horses. Some
nursery rhymes and poems with a strong meter are collected in
Rhymes and Poems with Strong Meter.
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ABA Form of Composition
The
entire composition can be organized in an overall form of ABA.
A group of phrases can represent the A section of a song. It
can then have a contrasting B section including a group of phrases
and then return to the A section again. This is a form in many
compositions that early piano students play, such as the Beethoven
Eccosaise in G major.
Additional forms are discussed in length in Composition
Help for Students with Good Skills. AB and ABA, Rondo and
Theme and Variation are probably the most likely to be successful
for a beginning composition. The organization of melodic ideas
makes a composition more interesting giving it unity and structure.
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TONALITY
MAJOR
The question-answer games used to learn about a phrase in Composition Question-Answer
Phrases not only help the student experience phrasing, they
give the child experience in simple tonality. All of the question-answers
in the examples used were in the major tonality using only the
first five scale steps. They were limited to to get a basic understanding
that major songs go home to the first scale step, also referred
to as do or the tonic scale step.
PENTATONIC
Use the black keys for the pentatonic scale. Making songs using
the black keys of the piano is often a good starting way for
a child to make a song because less understanding of tonality
is needed. Children know pentatonic songs without realizing they
are pentatonic. Some folk songs using the pentatonic are Goodbye
Old Paint, the Riddle Song and Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve
Seen. Since there is no fixed do, any ending pitch works. Experiment
with question-answer phrases on the black keys of a piano keyboard.
It is the easiest tonality to use.
For additional suggestions, see Music
Composition Help for students who already have good basic
skills.
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.
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