This document provides 10 suggestions for classroom composing activities: 1) composing pentatonic melodies, 2) layered ostinato pieces, 3) compositions using the Dorian mode, 4) setting scenes musically, 5) composing ringtones, 6) working with graphic scores, 7) composing with chords, 8) creating moods and atmospheres, 9) sound exploration, and 10) incorporating improvisation and arranging existing tunes. The suggestions include restricting compositions to certain scales, building up textures, reinforcing cadences, evoking moods through choice of instruments and motifs, and exploring timbres, intervals, scales and chords.

1. CLASSROOM COMPOSING SUGGESTIONS: SPRING 2011
1. Pentatonic melody-writing (C - D - E - G - A)
• Students compose short phrases and answering phrases using 5 chime bars. They can also be
restricted to the black notes on piano / keyboard / xylophone / glockenspiel / boomwhackers
• Compose over a pentatonic rock riff.
2. Layered ostinato piece comprising 2 bars in 4-time.
• Compose separate rhythm patterns to each of the following and build up the texture: metal
instrument, wooden instrument, snare or mid-range drum, shaker, bongos, low drum,
cabasa. Use a metronome mark (e.g. crotchet = 100). In a performance, call this section A.
Section B could have everyone playing one rhythm pattern in unison.
3. The Dorian mode (scale of D with F natural and C natural)
• Students use chime bars, tuned percussion, keyboard or piano and are restricted to the ‘white
notes’ based around the notes D - E - F - G - A - B - C’- D’
• They are instructed to compose 8 bars as follows: two bars ending on A, the next two bars
ending on D, the following two bars ending on E and the final two bars ending on D. This
reinforces the idea of having a cadence at the end of phrases.
4. Setting the scene
• Instead of full-scale pieces, ask students to evoke the following moods or settings by choosing
instruments and a short musical motif – even one or two notes: lullaby, repetitive work, time
slipping away, new life, sadness, creepy place, calmness, nightmare.
• Give the students a picture or a few lines of text and ask them to provide a soundtrack for it.
Give them parameters e.g. the piece must have a certain duration and must include elements that
you list. ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ by Mussorgsky is good listening preparation for this.
5. Ringtones
• Listen to existing ringtones. Students compose their own ringtone to suit their own
personality. They label them and upload them to their phones if they can.
• This composing could be extended to radio jingles. Short and sweet.
PDST Part 3 of Music Trilogy: Composing (Spring 2011)

2. 6. Symbols for sounds: working with graphic scores
• Use the classroom percussion instruments in a listening exercise. The students have to invent
symbols for them e.g. a scraping sound on the cabasa, a vibratone sound, a whisper, a creak, a
rattling chain, a twanging ruler, a drum roll on a desk, tapping two pencils together, slapping
your thighs, doing a finger pop with your mouth, sounds produced by shaking a milk carton
containing uncooked rice, clicking your fingers, blowing across a bottle top, dropping coins.
7. Composing with chords
• This is the idea behind Question 4 in the Leaving Cert Composing Paper. Make it real by
giving the students a sequence of chords and instructing them to compose their own rhythm
for the chords, to include a mixture of block and broken chords, to change the order of notes
in the chord, to choose the tempo and dynamics and to add notes to the chords.
• A typical phrase might be C -Dm - G - Am.
• Extend this to play the blues. Give a blues bass line using the chord sequence: C - C - C - C;
F - F - C - C; G - F - C - C). The students compose tunes over these chords with the following
notes: C - D - E flat - E natural - F natural - F sharp - G.
8. Creating Moods and Atmospheres in Music
• Suspense: tick-tock, silence, sudden loud moments, unpredictable happenings, intervals of 2nd
in the high register of the piano. Vibraslap, shakers, cabasa, chain…
• Spooky: diminished 7th
(C - E flat - F sharp - A), low piano notes, creaking, random rattling.
• Fear: the tritone (C - F sharp), chromatic passage, top and bottom notes on the piano, vocal
sounds, heartbeat becoming uneven
• Danger: The ‘Jaws’ theme is recognised by everyone (C - C sharp - C - C sharp); changing
time signatures unexpectedly, heartbeat getting faster.
• Mystical: The whole-tone scale (C - D - E - F sharp - G sharp - A sharp - B sharp)
especially on tinkly instruments. Random notes with no obvious beat on glockenspiel,
hand bells, chime bars, triangle, finger cymbals, metallic instruments.
9. Sound exploration
• The students find chords that they like on the piano / keyboard and notate them for further
use. They label them by the mood they evoke. Hang the list on the wall for general use.
• Encourage them to hear major and minor intervals and to accept dissonance-resolution as an
effective composing ‘strategy’.
• Keep the composing sessions under control by getting one ‘leader’ in each group to ‘conduct’
or guide the entries.
10. Don’t forget to…
• …incorporate an element of improvising or composing in vocal warm-ups (as demonstrated
at the inservice session).
• …use existing tunes as the basis for composing. Encourage students to arrange these for their
own instrumental groupings.
PDST Part 3 of Music Trilogy: Composing (Spring 2011)