Arranging & Composing with Students
Lo Peter (4th grade lesson)
Source: Jackie Wiggins, Teaching for Musical Understanding
From 1867 to 1957, the British colonized the area of Africa now known as Ghana. During this time, many British families relocated here. Young British children would sing songs and play games and the Ghanaian children would watch and listen and want to sing and play as well. However, since they did not speak English, what they sang sounded a little different than the English children. Let's play detective and try to figure out what words the Ghanaian children may have heard. What else do we hear in the recording?
Examples of student observations:
- She has an interesting voice and accent
- It gets faster (instruments and voices) as it goes and it adds instruments (Cowbell and drum)
- The last time is slow again
- It might say, "Soap pita, soap pita, soap pita, soap pita, soapy latte, soapy latte,"
- It repeats 13 times
- It gets louder as it goes!
- It has two people's voices (man's voice sounds like it is in the background)
- It might say, "Hello, Peter"
- It might say, "No, Peter"
- Reminds us of a limbo song
As reported to Jackie Wiggins from a Ghanaian woman studying at Oakland University, the "real" words are as follows:
Row, Peter, row, Peter, row, Peter,
Send my letter to my love
Just the way I want it.
I am not entirely sure of the accuracy of these words, but it honestly doesn't much matter because by this time, the kids love the version the kids from Ghana sang.
Row, Peter, row, Peter, row, Peter,
Send my letter to my love
Just the way I want it.
I am not entirely sure of the accuracy of these words, but it honestly doesn't much matter because by this time, the kids love the version the kids from Ghana sang.
Next, we worked on discovering how to play the melody on barred instruments. I gave them the starting note and let them go to work!
After students have listened to, danced to, sung, played the melody of and otherwise obsessed over this simple melody, I gave the the opportunity to create their own Lo Peter arrangements. Before beginning, however, we created musical goals and behavioral goals as a class.
Musical goals:
Behavior goals:
- Must include our melody, either sung or played (English words or the words the kids from Ghana sang)
- Everyone must play at least one instrument
Behavior goals:
- Listen to and try out everyone's ideas
- Everyone work hard; don't let others do all the work for you
- Be kind and encouraging
- Compromise!
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Why compose and arrange?
- Increases student participation
- Gives students agency/ownership over their learning
- Lets the students be the ones doing the musical thinking and doing instead of the teacher
- Creates independent musicians who do not need a teacher to make music
- Develops teamwork and collaboration skills
- Builds a sense of community and ensemble
- Gives a variety of students the chance to assume a leadership role
- Allows students the opportunity to practice being a polite audience
- Gives opportunity for solos/duets etc.
- Inspires students to create music outside of class time (i.e. at home, during recess, at the end of the day, etc.)
- Differentiates to each student's abilities (success for one student might be to play a steady beat with the group while success for another might be playing several complicated parts on a variety of instruments while singing)
- Allows students to show mastery of a number of skills
- Allows teacher to assess a number of skills (Steady beat, vocal accuracy, head voice, behavior, instrument technique, etc.)
- Provides the opportunity for students to evaluate performances afterwards and create learning goals for future performances
- Meets the highest educational goals of Blooms Taxonomy
Graphic by Jessica Shabatura https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/
Other project ideas:
Ghost of John (5th)
This was our first arrangement project of the year. After listening to and singing the song we explored adding a chord to our song. After practicing singing and playing the chord in a variety of ways, we created parameters for our arrangements and students got to work.
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More Chords (5th)
Using a I chord, students accompany themselves playing a simple song. This was our second arrangement project.
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Lion Sleeps Tonight (5th)
This is our most recent project. The fifth grade boys had a blast at male vocal arts day where they sang this song. This was a great opportunity to increase our chord vocabulary. They used a I, IV and V chord in the key of F.
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First Grade class arrangement!
Each first grade was assigned a simple folk song and as a class, they created an accompaniment to go with it. Here is a practice of one first grade's arrangement of the Ants Go Marching. It helps to encourage a strong student to create a part that plays the whole time to act as the conductor and source of steady beat.
Compositions Following a "mentor text"
Inspired by the writer's workshop model, students can study a piece of music in depth, discover the musical decisions the composer made, and then compose a new piece of music following some of the compositional techniques (i.e. exploration of timbre, dynamics, tempo, etc.). Along with focusing on a specific goal, students are welcome to show what else they know and think through a vast array of musical choices.
For example, after listening to Ibert's Parade students create a dynamics map. I also read the book "Thump, Thump, Rat-a-Tat-Tat" by Gene Baer to students and we compare the dynamics map the book creates to the piece by Ibert. Students then have the opportunity to compose their own pieces of music that follow one of those maps. Or they could create a new dynamics map and compose a song following that.
For example, after listening to Ibert's Parade students create a dynamics map. I also read the book "Thump, Thump, Rat-a-Tat-Tat" by Gene Baer to students and we compare the dynamics map the book creates to the piece by Ibert. Students then have the opportunity to compose their own pieces of music that follow one of those maps. Or they could create a new dynamics map and compose a song following that.
Another piece I have used as a mentor text is Peter and the Wolf. After studying how Prokofiev created "theme songs" for each character that match the qualities of each character, students can create their own "theme songs" for a character. I often use the book, "Cock-a-Doodle Moo" by Keith DuQuette to give students interesting characters to compose "theme songs" for.
STOMP! Compositions
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Songwriting as a class
In previous positions I engaged in song writing with first and second graders and plan to do so again this year after our concert. Here are the steps:
- Brainstorm song topic ideas on the board
- Begin creating lyrics on the board and melody (students often will sing their lyrics as they come up with them). Getting the first line started is the hardest part. Once they do, the rest goes pretty quickly!
- Teacher can support their melody by providing underlying harmonies on a keyboard/xylo
- Record everything! Ideas can come and go quickly!
Open Composition
After students have had a variety of opportunities to make musical decisions through a variety of activities in music class, including creating arrangements, they are ready to create original compositions. Because the process has been scaffolded throughout the year/years, there are actually many musical parameters in place, though they are usually unspoken with this project. This is a great activity towards the end of the year and students rise to the occasion. Alternatively, you could allow students to choose a song of their choosing to create an arrangement of as a final project.
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Teacher's role in student composing and arranging
- Facilitator - help create the framework and rubric for the project so students know what their goals should be
- Mentor - students will ask for advice on musical decisions. I try to ask them what they like best and why
- Cheerleader/encourager - some students struggle with confidence or are overly concerned with perfection
- Referee/counselor - in case of group drama, I step in as necessary
- Idea bank - I sometimes step in to offer advice and guidance if I see a group struggling
Other considerations:
- This can be a messy and loud process
- Encourage students to work through the loudness, practice as quietly as possible, not play when a group member is speaking, etc. You and your kids can create class norms for this
- You will want a signal to get their direction (lights flashing works for me) and insist they all instantly stop playing to hear directions
- If possible, put a group of students in a separate space (an office, an empty classroom nearby, etc.). If not possible, spread students out as much as you can
- This requires a release of control from the teacher that can be initially uncomfortable
- Be sure to record student performances and provide time for students to watch themselves and give feedback. I am impressed with the encouragement they give each other as well as the suggestions for improvement. This time is valuable and I believe it helps them become better creators