Let It Be: Teachers, Week Four

Week Four

This week the students will focus on composition. They have been given a composition task. In lessons this week, I would recommend allowing time for both theory and practical in each lesson, if you have enough time. Start the lesson by discussing composition. Ask the students some questions to figure out what they know. For example:

1. Do any of you write your own songs?
2. How do you go about writing a song?
3. Why do you think I want you to compose?

Then, provide some options for students. I found that when I asked my year 7 class to compose, it was met with fear. Most students exclaimed that they didn’t know how to “make stuff up”. They especially had trouble with writing a melody. So, it is a good idea to get them started with some guidelines. One activity I tried was getting students to write a melody over a chord progression I provided. I taught them the scale, and told them to use any notes in that scale. This seemed to give them something to go from, and some groups managed to come up with original melodies without my assistance.

There are lots of resources on You Tube. I found quite a few different videos of people describing and showing how to write a song. There are two on the student page, Step Four, that you might want to take a look at.

Next week