First of all I decided to use 'Pictures at an Exhibition' by Modest Mussorgsky as my model as the pieces can be analysed in many different ways and it also has a story to the music.

So based off the background story, the students will compose a piece of music that represents a chosen artwork and movement in approaching the artwork.

I assumed the following knowledge of the Stage 5/6 students based on past experience and also to set a frame:

• able to read traditional music notation
• know what scale degrees are
• plays at least one instrument fluently and knows the notes on a piano/keyboard
• knows how to use notation softwares i.e. Sibelius, Musescore, Soundtrap, Garageband

When it comes to composition, personally I would always have trouble when at the beginning. How to start. How do you just come up with a melody? Do you write the notes first or the rhythm first? So I decided to give the students to try both.

Using the idea of programme music, from 'Pictures' the students write an ostinato of representing movement (rhythm then add notes), then creating a motif illustrating their chosen artwork (notes then rhythm). Then developing the music through variations.

Through these steps, the students have created plenty of material that they can experiment further with timbre, texture, structure and expressions.

The original idea was to have the students pick TWO artworks from the same artist to create one piece but it seemed like it would be too much so it became an optional challenge.