Composition Project
Recently in class we have reviewed famous composers and some of their music. Many of these composers have used their music to portray an emotion or to tell a story. In this project, we will be writing music and using it as a means to portray an emotion or tell our own story.
A Students will use the following links to listen to examples of music that tells a story.
Vivaldi The Four Seasons
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
B Keeping these examples in mind, students will think of an emotion or story they would like
to portray in their own composition. Using Microsoft Word, students will create a journal
entry and write a short paragraph explaining the emotion or story they have chosen and why.
Their journal entries will be graded using this rubric.
C At this point, students are ready to create their music by going to the website
http://www.noteflight.com/. Students may create an account or use the free live demo.
When given the option, they should select treble voice for their composition.
Students should keep in mind the minimum requirements for their composition, which
can be found by using this rubric. Students may find the following websites helpful
to review music notation.
D Once their composition is complete, students should print a copy and turn it in. Keeping
the noteflight website open, students should access their journal and write a second entry
describing the process they used to compose their music. Was it as hard or as easy as they
had imagined? Were they able to express their story/emotion the way they had wanted?
E When their journal entry is finished, students should get into groups of two or three for the
next step. Students will reach this point at different times, which is okay. Those who finish early
will group up with others who finish early, and those who finish later will group with others who
finish later.
F At this point, students will play their composition for the others in their group. They may tell
the group members the story/emotion of their piece, or ask the group to guess after listening.
Each group member is responsible for giving constructive feedback, stating one thing they liked
and one thing that could be improved upon. Group members will rate each other using this rubric.
G After the groups have listened, given feedback, and rated one another, the groups will split back
into individuals for one last journal entry. The students should write about their experience in
having their peers listen to their composition. They should state whether the feedback they
received was helpful, and if they would change anything about their composition now that they
have received that feedback. Students should save their journal as Music Composition Journal
and send it to me via the school's shared folder titled Gillis.
Students who finish early and are waiting for others to finish may review the websites on
this page or may go back to noteflight and write a second composition any way they desire.
Ideas for Working with Diverse Learners
This lesson can easily be simplifid or made more complex for a variety of students. To simplify it, the composition requirements can be cut in half. The journal entries can be shortened and even spoken to someone else to type or into a recorder instead of typed. Head phones can be used to help increase computer volume and to eliminate distracting background noise. Computer screens can be edited to cut out as much distracting information and colors as possible.
To make the assignment more complex, students can be required to write longer journal entries or to compose a second piece of music in addition to the first. They could even be asked to lengthen their first composition, making it a more defined piece of music.
This lesson meets National Music Standards 4,5,7,& 8.
This lesson meets NETS-S Standards 1b, 2d,& 5b.