Music Composition for Teens and Pre-Teens

Now available on amazon.com, $24.99

• This book is written to provide lesson plans or exploratory activities for the music teacher who wishes to incorporate meaningful, creative compositional exercises in the general music classroom, the music appreciation classroom, or the piano studio. 
• The purpose of the book is to provide inspiration, additional ideas, creative activities, and contemporary techniques for the innovative teacher. 
• Photocopiable pages are provided.
• All lesson plans include Exploratory, Composition and Performance sets. 
• The lesson plans are written as general guides for the teacher and are not grade specific. 
  All lessons can be adapted to suit multiple age and ability levels. 
• Teachers are encouraged to adapt lessons: include own materials, connect to concepts 
  studied in the curricula, and utilize additional resources. 
• Lesson features include
  • Standard notation: pitch, staff notation, letter names, rests, note values and basic theory such as measures, bar lines, time signatures, etc., are covered. 
  • Graphic notation: Twentieth-Century techniques, graphic notation, alternative music symbols, found sound, body percussion, electronic sounds, and digital techniques are included. 
  • Compositional techniques: repetition, sequence, motif, phrase, 4-measure phrase, form, augmentation, diminution, inversion, etc., are explored. 
  • Technology: ringtones on phones, composition apps, computer software, online tone- generators, voice memo apps, video, and slide show presentations are included. 
  • Multi-media: Compositions include speaking parts, drama, images, slide shows, story, technology, live or recorded performance, spatial components, etc. 
  • Harmony: several lessons include chordal work (mainly the primary chords I, IV and V) to start establishing the idea of harmonic progression. 
  • Graphic Organizers: Most lessons include graphic organizers either to serve as work charts for the student groups, to clarify listening analysis or the format of the composition, or simply to plot out initial ideas for a composition. Teachers are encouraged to pursue multiple forms of organizing initial, pre-composition ideas, e.g., Venn-diagrams, flow charts, bullet points, etc. 
  • Novelty: Student engagement is at its peak when novelty and variety are present. To this end many lessons have included fun, surprise and novelty elements.
  
  

Interesting idea to spark some composition ideas for our high schoolers:

The Virtual Choir is a global phenomenon, creating a user-generated choir that brings together singers from around the world and their love of music in a new way through the use of technology. Singers record and upload their videos from locations all over the world. Each one of the videos is then synchronised and combined into one single performance to create the Virtual Choir.
Singers record and upload their videos from locations all over the world. Each one of the videos is then synchronised and combined into one single performance to create the Virtual Choir.
It began in 2009 as a simple experiment in social media.
The Virtual Choir has been like a drop of water on the surface of a still lake, rippling the musical and online landscape to reach millions. Now with more than fifteen million views, the VC phenomenon has reached all corners of the world, inspiring more and more singers to join each year. The VC has grown from 185 singers in VC1 to an amazing 8,409 videos for VC4 from 101 countries.
The VC videos have featured on worldwide TV (ABC in the US and BBC in the UK) and as installations across the globe including the Millennium Bridge, London as part of the 2012 Olympics, the opening of the Titanic Belfast 100-year anniversary exhibition as well as at the closing plenary of Davos World Economic Forum at 2013. The VC has also been seen on the main stage of the revered TED conference, the Paley Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC at events for Google, UNICEF and the United Nations amongst others.
At TED 2013, Eric conducted a real-time Live Virtual Choir, performing live from 28 countries around the globe, alongside a 100 person-strong choir on stage, streamed live through Skype.
Later in 2013, Eric teamed-up with Disney to produce a song, “Glow”, written especially for World of Color – Winter Dreams show which premiered at Disney California Adventure® Park, California. 1473 singers, representing all 50 American States, submitted recordings, most of which were chosen, to be part of the World of Color Honor Choir.
The first-ever Virtual Youth Choir launched in 2014 featuring 2,292 young singers from 80 countries across the world. The film, in partnership with UNICEF, the world’s leading children’s organisation, premiered at the opening ceremony of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

​https://ericwhitacre.com/the-virtual-choir/about
​

New, fun piano solos for intermediate students now available at www.sheetmusicplus.com

Join us for music professional development at the Alabama Conference, January 18-20, 2018.  I am presenting on Thursday, January 18th at 3:30 p.m.  Would love to see you there. Stop by and get your free publication. 

3:30-4:30 PM Sheraton Forum 2 A-B
Composition in the 21st Century Classroom - Dr. Adriana Janse van Rensburg, Clinician
​How do I teach composition? I never had composition instruction at college! I don’t compose! This session will provide a way forward through hands-on activities, ideas, inspiration, and a “how to” guide for introducing or expanding composition in the classroom. Twentieth Century techniques, Media Poems, technology, graphic notation, soundscapes, triad-melody technique, multimedia projects, traditional notation, Aleatoric music, Video Fun, iPads, and more will be explored.  

Marvelous energy at the lectures, workshops and sessions at the October 6th and 7th Conference at Utah State University, Logan.  Lovely to meet friends old and new, share stories, visit, learn, share.  Thank you all!

Check out my resources on TES
 https://www.tes.com/resources/search/?q=Adriana%20Van%20Rensburg

Lesson plans, templates, compositions, samples, etc. All available for immediate download.

Templates offer a quick and easy, step by step foot in the door to composition.
Why I like this idea:

• Great for starting note writing and working on notation grammar: how to draw notes, stems, space notes in a measure, etc.
• Great for checking what students know and can do at the start of the school year 
• Easy access for all participants
• Easy foot in the door for "composition" 
• Going from known to unknown​

Easy, beginner level:

or slightly more advanced:

Explore music that uses a drone bass with students.
Instruments that produce a drone:

• Bagpipe music
• Organ music that uses a pedal point
• Lute music that uses the lowest course
• Hurdy-gurdy music

Listen to:

• Row, Row, Row your Boat with a tonic-dominant drone applied
• Yankee Doodle with a drone on the banjo
• Blackbird by the Beatles
• Haydn Symphony no. 104 in the opening of the finale
• Wagner Das Rheingold in the Prelude

 

Also listen to Bach’s Musette in D major.  What do you notice?
​Compose a new middle section to this opening.  Continue the drone bass idea.