CREATIVE MUSIC CLASS

www.creativemusicclass.com
creativemusicclass@gmail.com
Adriana Janse van Rensburg, Ph.D.

Publications available on amazon

§ Music Composition for Teens – a graded first course
§ Music Composition for Teens – a graded second course
§ Music Composition for Teens and Pre-Teens
§ Piano Pieces for Kids by Kids
§ Music Tells My Story – integrating Music Composition and English Language Arts Skills
§ Music Paints My Picture – integrating Music Composition and Visual Art
§ Music Composition – It’s Elementary
Piano Solo Compositions available on www.sheetmusicplus.com
Lesson Plans available at tes.com
21st Century Skills

The Assessing and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) organization, sponsored by Cisco, Intel,
and Microsoft, commissioned a white paper to define 21st century skills (Binkley, Erstad, Herman,
Raizen, & Ripley, 2010), which proposed the following taxonomy:
§ Ways of Thinking (creativity and innovation; critical thinking, problem solving, and decision
making; learning to learn and metacognition)
§ Ways of Working (communication; collaboration and teamwork)
§ Tools for Working (information literacy; information technology and communication literacy)
§ Living in the Word (life and career; personal and social responsibility)

How do the Arts contribute to engaging 21st century skills?

Activity #1 Creativity and Innovation

Aleatoric Music
Human wind chime (Music Composition – It’s Elementary, pg. 44/ Music Composition for Teens, 2nd course pg. 65)
Hopscotch Melody Maker (Music Composition – It’s Elementary, pg. 39)

Activity #2 Problem Solving

Cryptography (Music Tells My Story, pg. 10)

§ Write the musical letters in your name:

§ Notate the musical letters in your name (whole notes only):

§ Now adjust the note values to form a motif of one measure in duration.
§ Write a second measure but use half the note values of the motif (diminution) and add rests.
Why composition?
Activity #3 Collaboration and Team Work
Human Xylophone (Music Composition – It’s Elementary, pg. 44)

What about technology?

Activity #4 Information Technology
Sound Sculpture (Music Paints My Picture, pg. 54 – The Forty Part Motet by Janet Cardiff)
Cell Phone Symphony (Music Composition for Teens, second course, pg. 66)
Video Fun (Music composition for Teens, second course, pg. 49)

Activity #5 Visual Compositions

Direct translation of visual image image to score, e.g. buildings, grid patterns, etc.
(Music Paints My Picture, Chapter 1: buildings, shapes, line)

Activity #6 Communication and Team Work

Words on the Chopping Block (Music Tells My Story, pg. 56)

§ Toch’s Geographical Fugue

§ Write a rhythm of one measure in 4/4 time for the name of a state you have never visited:

§ In groups of 4, link the 4 rhythm patterns. You now have a 4-measure phrase.
§ Class: Rhythm for Kansas (or Georgia, or North Carolina, etc.)
§ Perform

Student Engagement
Novelty and Variety (Music Composition - It’s Elementary, pgs. 63-73)
§ Dominoes
§ Post-it-notes
§ Buttons
§ String
§ PVC Pipes
§ Mirrors
§ Deck of Cards

Activity #6 Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Beyond standard notation – Music in the 21st Century
§ Contemporary composition skills: polymeter, serialism, atonality, polychords, etc.
§ Graphic Scores and Shaped Scores
§ Multi-media work
§ Phones, iPads, composition software, apps.
§ Found Sound
§ Speech choirs
§ Integrating various art forms: visual art, drama, film, etc.
§ Listening, exploring, creating
What about notation?
§ Standard notation: Start with two or three notes – understand this as the copositional “motif”.
Generate a motif through random choices: aleatoric principles, roll of the dice, letters in your
name, numbers, cards. (Multiple examples in all my publications)
§ Rhythmic writing, e.g. percussion ensemble, body percussion scores, drumming scores,
graphic scores, etc.

But how do we compose melodies?

§ Motif (Music Composition It’s Elementary, pg. 37, Spaces)
§ Repeats
§ Sequence
§ Augmentation
§ Diminution
§ Fragmentation (Music Composition It’s Elementary, pg. 16, Years)
§ Inverse (Music Composition It’s Elementary, pg. 70 “Mirrors”)

Contemporary Composition Techniques

§ Graphic Scores
§ Multi-media work
§ Phones, iPads
§ Software, apps
§ Found sounds
§ Speech choirs
§ Arts integration
§ Spatialism
§ Soundscapes (Music Composition It’s elementary, pg. 28, Hours)
§ Sound Sculptures

Body Percussion
See blog lesson at www.creativemusicclass.com

What now?

Creative Music Class is all about assisting music teachers in providing meaningful, engaging, and
comprehensive lessons tapping into the creative and innovative abilities of students.

Resources for teachers, check www.creativemusicclass.com for:

§ Free monthly lesson plan (includes templates, printables, soundtracks, video, etc.) Sign up on
the website.
§ Weekly lesson ideas on the blog: includes ideas, pictures, links.
§ Publications: available on the website or amazon
§ Presentations available for your class, school or district
§ Adriana’s presentation schedule
§ PDF documents for download: lesson plans, conference handouts, composition templates,
etc.