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.

Onomatopoeia are words that mimic the sound it makes, e.g., bang, splash, swish, oink, quack, etc.
 
Explore words that mimic sounds with the students.  Speak the words and play with effects:

• Volume: forte, piano
• Volume change: crescendo, decrescendo
• Pitch
• Word or letter emphasis, e,g., Crrrrrunch!
• Elongated, emphasized vowels, e.g., Booooooom!
• Repeated consonants for effect, e.g., drip-p-p-p, drip-p-p-p.
• Echo-layering words, e.g., swish-swish-swish (spoken repeatedly but with staggered entries to create overlay)

 
Explore onomatopoeia related to specific topics: Rain, Storm, Nature, Traffic, Farms, etc.
​Have students design a graphic composition using onomatopoeia words and letters directly onto a score.

Graphic composition below by Julia Paranay.  

For those who have enjoyed the Snap, Tap, Clap compositions so far, I've uploaded several new compositions including many for beginner/elementary level.  Please check them out at www.sheetmusicplus.com

As I worked on the monthly lesson plan this morning, I browsed through some student compositions and enjoyed the easy, uncomplicated melodies, rhythms, patterns that very young kids managed to compose when given an idea such as "stepwise" , "chords" , "repeated notes", "harmony", a catchy "rhythm", and so on.  

Compose triad based melodies using chord cards: Provide students with cards (one of each, or some tones doubled), e.g. C E G (C major tonic) and G B D (C major dominant).  Have them arrange the cards in a pattern, play, explore, and write down.  Provide guidelines, e.g. CEG for measures 1 and 2, GBD for measure 3, and CEG again for measure 4 and voila!, an easy entry into a melodic phrase that makes harmonic sense.  

In addition to amazon.com, jwpepper.com recently listed my publications and is now also hosting my book sales.  Many schools have accounts with jwpepper.com and this might be a more convenient sales point for many school teachers.  Check the listing at
http://www.jwpepper.com/sheet-music/search.jsp?keywords=adriana+janse+van+rensburg

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Great session on "Music Composition in the 21st Century Classroom" yesterday in Columbia, SC.  Great group of teachers: enthusiastic, responsive, particpated - what great work you must do in your classes.  Thank you for all the kind emails!  

Watch Boris Giltburg's neat video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td6k7qjjg74

"Scales are, or at least could be, music". Scales are an integral part of the compositions of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and so on.  Think of the opening of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 1, the Emperor Concerto 2nd movement, and so on.  

​Student compositions could use sections of scales, or octaves of complete scales.  Ideas:
Write the scale, and

• Add rhythm and beat
• Add a harmony
• Add an ostinato
• Add paused notes and in the pause let left hand (or voice/second instrument) add a few melodic notes/ornamentation
• Repeat some of the notes in the scale as a motif
• Cluster the notes of the scale and insert short motivic developments of those segments
• Add rests and insert body percussion (snaps/claps) at the restsIdentify the notes of the tonic arpeggio and pause or accent those notes
• Add different accompaniment styles to the scale, e.g. waltz bass, walking bass, drone bass, etc.

I am presenting "Music Composition in the 21st Century Classroom" at the South Carolina Music Educators Statewide Conference on Friday February 3rd, 2.30 p.m.  If you're in the Columbus, SC area, please drop in and join us for this exciting event.  I would love for you to attend our session to get inspired for teaching music composition, so stop by and introduce yourself and join in our community of teachers! Free materials available.