Informal Approaches to the Development of Young People's Composition Skills

Jonathan Savage, Senior Lecturer in Music Education, Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University

Disciplines: Music

Status: Complete

Start date: 1/7/2002

Outcome format: Report

Outcome available: Yes

Composition should be at the very centre of a music curriculum. It has tremendous educational value. Yet often composition is portrayed and practised in our classroom in an inauthentic way, as a kind of sub-culture separated from the ‘real world’ of composition as carried on by song-writers, popular musicians, DJs, classical composers and others.

In my teaching about composition I have drawn lessons from my observations of electroacoustic composers, who generate and develop their musical ideas using a range of innovative technologies. But there are many skilful and articulate popular musicians, DJs and other composers whose compositional working practices and ideas could be very informative and applicable in developing stronger models of classroom composition. Dr Lucy Green’s recent publication How Popular Musicians Learn has highlighted the need for those within formal educational settings to examine and analyse musical practices within informal settings.

This research will carry some of her working practices into the world of composition outside the classroom by developing detailed audio and video case studies of a number of popular musicians, focusing closely on the practical ways in which they carry out the task of musical composition. A CDROM of materials will be produced that carries forward the case studies in such as way as to develop interesting classroom models for composition. These materials will facilitate teachers and pupils as they seek to develop a range of more authentic ideas, experiences and examples for composition work at Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. This material will be tested and evaluated within a high school in Manchester.

Jonathan has developed materials based on his research into using case studies of a number of popular musicians, focusing closely on the practical ways in which they carry out the task of musical composition, in order to develop interesting classroom models for composition. The collaboration between Yamaha and the Virtual Learning Environments Foundation, together with Jonathan's own interests in songwriting, led to the production of a CD-ROM entitled "Found Sound - Exploring Songwriting." This CD-ROM was conceived by the education wing of Yamaha Kemble and distributed freely to every high school in the UK through their financial support. The Found Sound website contains detailed teaching notes that staff from the VLEF and Jonathan wrote in support of Yamaha Kemble's CD-ROM. Jonathan's report for PALATINE, Found Sound - Exploring Songwriting: An "Outside-in" Approach to Composition in the Classroom PDF File provides further details and an overview of the complete project:

You might also be interested to read Jonathan's article, Informal Approaches to the Development of Young People's Composition Skills. PDF File