To date we have made the following observations
Composition in a classroom setting benefits greatly from having a context or stimulus such as a picture storybook especially one with rich references to nature
Creating new 'sound worlds' is engaging for students and provides healthy social interactions
Call response activities are useful in building confidence to create music
Musical elements such as pitch, dynamics and texture are readily experienced using this approach and can then be notated and analysed by students
Project perceived by educators as a worthwhile strategy to engage students
Developing Partnerships
ASME has presented compositional workshops at Deakin University for pre-service teachers for the past 3 years.
ASME is developing a partnership with the Mawson's Hut Foundation where they supply original nature video clips to us. We then create soundtracks for these clips and send them back to the foundation . This creates a real life connection for students.