The Young Composers Playground
Step-by-Step Process
The following is a step-by-step plan, with explanations, for creating the ideal Young Composers Playground (YCP) program in the classroom. Rarely does the program perfectly follow these steps, however. Music teachers will often make modifications to fit the age and level of the students, as well as the scheduling and budgetary needs of each particular school. This document is designed to give teachers and administrators a better idea of what the program looks like from a time and budgetary perspective.
In the DOWNLOAD RESOURCES area of this portal you will find a number of individual lessons. These lessons can be used before the Program Kickoff as a way to get your students prepared for composition. They can also be used throughout the process (see Step 5, Classroom Teacher Drills) as a way to help students generate musical content. Classroom teachers experienced in our program have used the individual lessons both ways with great success.
We also encourage you to use the lessons as individual composition drills as needed in your music curriculum.
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1. Program Kickoff (See Kickoff Lesson Plan and matching videos)
WHO: Lead Young Composers Playground Teaching Artist.
WHAT: An introduction to the program.
Students are given an explanation of the YCP program, often with video examples of students participating in the program in other schools. They are introduced to the concepts of chamber music, program music, storytelling, and composition. Students are then led through a brief storytelling composition game to help reinforce the concepts.
NOTE: In a school with multiple classes in each grade, this step can be done in individual classrooms but is often done with all classes together to keep costs down.
2. Story Writing (See Story Writing in Preparatory Lessons & Materials.)
WHO: Classroom teachers, with help from onsite language arts or literacy teachers.
WHAT: Story creation.
Each class is responsible for writing a story that will be the basis of the music composition. Story creation can be done as a group activity with the music teacher but is most successful when it is done in collaboration with the school’s language arts teachers.
NOTE: Most often the students in a class work in groups. Each group is assigned one paragraph of the story, which will become their specific part of the larger composition. Groupings for the paragraph assignments are decided by the classroom teacher, who has a better idea of the classroom culture and behavior. While this step is accomplished without the help of YCP Teaching Artists, we are happy to support the school’s literacy needs by suggesting story ideas and prompts.
Experience has taught us that ideal group size is 3 to 4 students. With larger groups, shy students do not feel as comfortable sharing ideas and some students are able to hide and not participate. (See Creating Classroom Groups in Preparatory Lessons & Materials.)
3. Instrument Demonstration Day
WHO: Young Composers Playground Teaching Artists
WHAT: In-class demonstrations of the instruments students will be composing for.
Each student is given an Instrument Demo worksheet to help them remember what they have seen and heard during the demonstrations. It is recommended that students be finished with their stories and be assigned to their composition groups by this time. The classroom teacher could have students prepare questions for the Teaching Artists about the instruments as they relate to specific parts of their paragraphs and their composition ideas.
NOTE: Instrument Demonstrations can be done for individual classes but can also be done in one session for all classes to save time and money.
4. Timeline/ Pre-composition
WHO: Classroom teachers/ and YCP Teaching Artists.
WHAT: Creating graphic story timelines and determining first composition ideas.
Graphic story timelines can be created with or without the help of YCP Teaching Artists. Students will identify the specific parts of their paragraph that they will turn into music. These will be written out along the top of a horizontal line to create a graphic timeline. (See Timeline Examples.) Beneath the timeline students will record preliminary decisions as to what each event on their timeline will sound like. These decisions could include:
• Which instruments will play during this section of the story?
• Will the instrument be it loud or soft? Fast or slow?
• How long will the instrument play?
5. Classroom Teacher Drills
WHO: Classroom teachers
WHAT: Classroom lessons to reinforce concepts.
Between the Instrument Demonstration Day (Step 3) and the Midway Reading Day (Step 7), the classroom teacher can use any composition and music drills they believe will help students with their compositions. These drills can be specifically aimed at coming up with ideas for the final composition or can be exercises used to get students to think about their music creation. (See Download Resources tab on the Young Composers Playground portal where you will find lesson plans with examples to reinforce the concepts of music composition students are learning.)
6. Composition and Notation Day 1
WHO: Classroom teachers and YCP Teaching Artists
TA’s & Classroom teacher (all hands on deck!)
WHAT: Student composition ideas are solidified and notated.
A Teaching Artist and the classroom teacher are assigned 2 or more groups that they are responsible notating the group’s musical ideas. Each group has to start working on the exact musical ideas that are represented on their timelines. This is where the magic happens. Composition and Notation Day is the most fun and is also the most chaotic. Teaching Artists do not make suggestions or influence student creativity in any way. While they are only the music scribes, Teaching Artists do use questions to encourage creative ideas with the student composers. (See Composition and Notation Day -- Questions.)
Note: This day requires each group be given the time and space needed to come up with their ideas. The classroom should to be set up so that each group has access to some kind of pitched instrument to demonstrate their melodic and harmonic ideas. Percussion is also an important part of the compositions but must be handled carefully because of concert logistics and the sheer classroom noise volume it adds to notation day. (See Percussion in the Classroom.)
Notating student compositions requires YCP Teaching Artists to use tablets and cellphones to record student ideas. (See Composition and Notation videos.) Teaching Artists will then upload these recordings to a shared Google Drive folder. This technique for capturing student composition ideas has become our methodology of choice. Teaching Artists and classroom teachers will then be able to access the recordings and enter them into notation software such as Finale, Sibelius, or Musescore to be used on Midway Reading Day and for the final concerts. Do not underestimate the amount of time notating takes.
7. Midway Reading Day
WHO: Classroom teachers and Young Composers Playground Teaching Artists
What: First YCP Teaching Artist performance of student composition ideas.
The full YCP Teaching Artist team performs what the students have written so far. This first play-through is followed with an opportunity for students to make comments, clarify mistakes the musicians may be making, and ask for changes to the way their parts are being performed by the musicians.
Because music education is so performance-focused, young students struggle to realize what they are composing will be performed not by them, but by the YCP Teaching Artists, even when this part of the program is explained multiple times. The Midway Reading Day helps to clarify this to students. We have also found that student musical ideas take a significant jump after midway reading. (See Midway Reading Day.)
NOTE: The Midway Reading Day can be done in individual classes or in a group setting. Unfortunately, when budgets are tight this is one of the first steps to be cut.
Midway readings are often followed with some kind of in-class writing prompt allowing students to reflect on the work they have created and are hearing for the first time.
8. Students Finish Composing
WHO: Classroom teacher.
WHAT: Final composition ideas are added.
Because Composition and Notation Day 2 is the final opportunity to get all of the student composers ideas recorded for notation, it is good if the classroom teacher can give each group some time to prepare whatever music ideas they have left on their timeline for that session.
9. Composition and Notation Day 2
WHO: Classroom teachers and Young Composers Playground Teaching Artists
WHAT: Final notation of compositions.
This is the day we finish all compositions. The process is the same as Composition and Notation Day 1, when the students demonstrate their ideas and Teaching Artists record them to be notated later.
NOTE: Between now and the dress rehearsal the Teaching Artists will notate all of the students’ musical ideas for the entire composition.
10. Dress Rehearsal
WHO: Classroom teachers and Young Composers Playground Teaching Artists
WHAT: Students hear a final run-through of their composition and are offered another opportunity to make comments and some changes. This step is absolutely as important for the performers as the students.
11. Concert(s) (See School Success Stories)
WHO: Classroom teachers and Young Composers Playground Teaching Artists, as well as the students and their families, and the whole student body.
WHAT: Final All-School Celebration and Concert
The final concert is the end goal of the entire process. The student compositions are performed in a concert for the entire student body. In situations where the auditorium won’t fit the entire student body it is possible to do back-to-back-performances. Another performance either right after school or in the evening accommodates the students’ families and the community. Attendance at these concerts can vary. (See Getting Families to the Concerts for some successful strategies to build audiences to come.)
NOTE: Final concerts are often followed with in-class student writing prompts and an assessment.
