Games

How to Guide Children’s Improvisation and Composition

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How old do you have to be to compose music? 18? 12? 5? Younger?

Mozart was only five years old when he wrote these first compositions.

My son isn’t yet five and he writes compositions, too… but he’s no musical prodigy. He is not as proficient in music playing or writing as Mozart was. He can’t yet articulate his musical thoughts on paper, but he can improvise musically with words, rhythm, and melody.

Everyone who has been around music and is allowed to experiment with music has the ability to do this. With proper encouragement, every child can improvise. So, how did we get to this point?

  • SING. All the time. Play instruments or just play rhythms by clapping or patting or beat-boxing. What you will find is that your child will start repeating the things you do at different times.
  • Let them experiment, even if it is annoying. Sometimes they will sing loudly or sing the same word over and over. Try to put up with it. You can try to redirect their efforts or ask them to try it more softly, but don’t tell them to stop!
  • Start by giving them ideas to riff on- start a silly song about what you are doing and give them a turn to improvise. They will probably start by changing the words to a tune they already know, which is ok.
  • Provide an accompaniment for them or have them provide an accompaniment for you. Beat-boxing is a fun way to do this. This shows them you can improvise something without words and is an easy way to practice ensemble singing/playing.
  • Make any time a good time to improvise! Do it in the car, in the bathtub, at dinner…
  • Let them play at conductor and tell you what the song or piece should sound like. Have them try to describe it to you as best as they can and try to make their composition come to life.
  • As they get older, start introducing technology to record themselves. They will spend so much time playing back their songs, and with programs like the iOS’s Garageband, they can add drums or other instruments to their recordings and have fun making it sound new and different.
  • As children progress in their musical learning, they can make composition maps- that can be anything from crayon drawings of what it sounds like, to prompts like “high, major, duple, du de du de, soft, fast.”
  • When your children learn music reading and writing, you can have them compose on free printable staff paper, like that found on this webpage: http://www.blanksheetmusic.net/

The most important thing is to find time to make music together and have music-making be fun and feel judgement-free. Perfecting a composition or figuring out how to express verbally or visually what you hear in your head can be frustrating. Make them feel safe and not on-the-spot when composing and improvising. Allow them to see you make mistakes and laugh it off. Music-making at home doesn’t need to be perfect to be enjoyable.

How do you improvise or compose with your family?

Musical Dialogue

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Girls Hand Clapping. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Girls Hand Clapping. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Yesterday I posted about how making music together was great for social learning. Music is inherently social, but there are ways to make the music itself social! So, here’s the challenge: have an exclusively musical dialogue with your little music-makers!

Just a warning: some children will rebel against this idea, so it may take many attempts to get them used to the idea of conversing with you musically. Find the way they are most comfortable expressing themselves musically. For one child that may be through movement and dance, another with instruments, another with chanting, and yet another with singing. Keep at it until you find what works. This is a great exercise in working around individual differences, a skill that is useful for all those early childhood battles, like potty training.

You can use this rhyme from the James T. Callow Folklore Archive, which has been modified for this purpose.

My mother, your mother
Lives across the way
Every night they have a chat
And this is what they say*

After the introduction rhythm, you can make up a chant, a rhyme, or melody and then the child can respond. Often, children will mimic exactly what you do, which is ok. Encourage them to make up something different. You’ll find as they grow older they have more musical ideas to choose from.

In my experience, sometimes children will refuse to respond “musically” -probably out of discomfort or embarrassment- but I have yet to see a child (or adult!) give a musical response that was inappropriate. For instance, in the audio examples above, I’ll chant the rhyme in its original duple (think “in two,” like a march) meter, then in triple (think “in three,” like a waltz). Once the meter is established, a child with enough musical experience in duple or triple will tend to stick with the meter provided. Their response may be longer or shorter than yours, and that’s ok, too.

You can be creative and change the words to suit musical movement instead of dialogue, with “every night they hang their clothes and this is what they do.” Instrumental improvisation, with “have a jam,” or even silly improvisation with “my doggy, your doggy…” You could go so far as to try to sing it in different tonalities, also. The possibilities are endless.

Let me know how your musical dialogue goes and how you found how your little ones were most comfortable improvising!

*I first came across this rhyme used to start improvisation at a workshop given by Wendy Valerio, so credit goes to her for the original idea! It’s just too good not to share!

Musical Play

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Babies like to be bounced on laps; it’s a great way to elicit those infectious baby giggles. Did you know it’s also good for their musical development? Babies that are bounced on laps internalize the steady beat of the music. You can bounce to music you are listening to, or you can sing.

How about using this opportunity to make classical music fun? I sing themes from Rossini’s William Tell Overture while my daughter bounces on my lap and holds my hoodie strings like a horse.

It doesn’t matter if you sing it exactly right. The point is you are isolating the recognizable themes from the larger piece and portraying them in ways more relatable to a young child. They will begin to recognize those themes when they hear the Overture.

What musical games do you like to play? Do you listen to classical music with your family?

Ok, now what am I supposed to do?

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Alright, you’ve committed to being more musical at home. You sing more, dance more… but what else could you possibly do? How about enjoying some musical prop time? It’s a great idea to have some instruments just for your kids that are kid friendly, like shaky eggs, drums, and small percussion instruments. You can put on the CD player or sing your favorite songs and play along. You can also encourage musical movement by dancing with scarves.

Dancing with scarves

If you are feeling adventurous, like some of my local mom friends, you can conduct your own preschooler ensemble! The kids were given simple directions like when to start, stop, get louder or softer. They had tons of fun and it is very simple to put together. If they don’t follow the directions, that’s fine, too. They can work on their beat competency while the song is going on. Check out our little ensemble below!

*Thanks to the mamas that helped with the video and donated their kids and their time to this blog post!

Waiting Songs…

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When you’re little, waiting is THE WORST THING EVER! If you’ve played one too many games of I Spy, try singing a song next time. Here’s two songs from different countries that you can try.

A Ram Sam Sam – Morocco (go to Wikipedia to hear midi and read about the game)

A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam
Guli guli guli guli guli ram sam sam
A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam
Guli guli guli guli guli ram sam sam
A rafiq, a rafiq
Guli guli guli guli guli ram sam sam
A rafiq, a rafiq
Guli guli guli guli guli ram sam sam\

Part of the fun of this song is starting to sing it slowly and each time getting faster and faster. It leads to lots of giggles, but it might earn you some funny looks in the checkout line! This might be a good one if you have to wait in the car, since you can play the game with hand movements while sitting.

Kye Kye Kule- Ghana (go to Mama Lisa’s to see video)

1. Leader: Kye kye kule*
Group: Kye kye kule

2. Leader: Kye kye Kofi sa
Group: Kye kye Kofi sa

3. Leader: Kofi sa langa
Group: Kofi sa langa

4. Leader: Kaka shi langa
Group: Kaka shi langa

5. Leader: Kum Aden Nde**
Group: Kum Adende
Kum Adende
Kum Adende, hey!

Because “Kye Kye Kule” (said chay chay koolay) is a call and response song, children can repeat what you just said, so they can sing it even if they don’t know it. Because each verse goes with a part of the body (1. Head 2. Shoulders 3. Hips 4. Knees 5. Toes), kids can touch each body part (think “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” but without the little ones always being behind!) after you show it to them and as they sing it back. This is a great song to help shake the sillies out!

Do you have songs that you sing to help make waiting easier? To which songs and games do your children respond best? If you’ve got a sure-fire boredom-buster, please share!