Composition Activities

One of the skills you will be developing this year is creating your own original music. This is a chance for you to explore your creativity, experiment, collaborate, and develop your own musicianship. 

Throughout this course you will complete a range of composition based activities. Some of these will remain simply an activity, while you may choose to develop others further into larger pieces. 

The culmination of your activities will be a complete 2 Original Compositions that have been developed , edited, and submitted to your teacher. 

One of these pieces will be notated. The other will be on a DAW. 

The due dates for these will be communicated to you by your teacher. 

Practice Activities

1. Pentatonic Phrases

Using only notes from the pentatonic scale, create a series of short musical ideas that will fit over a major chord. Think of these like sentences. They should be different, but related. You may want to start and end with the same phrase. 

• You may choose any pentatonic, but if you are stuck, try the C Major Pentatonic Scale (C D E G A C) and use C Major chord under this. 

• Try not to start each phrase on the tonic (first note of the scale). 

2. Shaping an idea

Using a single lined instrument, create a short melody. 

Your melody should be at least 30 seconds long

Start and end on the same note. 

Include musical interest - don’t just repeat the same short idea several times! 

Be able to replicated (should be played by you or notated)

Things to think about: 

• Shape of your melody - does it stick around the same few notes? Does it jump around or use stepwise motion? 

• Rhythm - remember that a melody is not just about pitch. You should vary your note lengths to keep your piece interesting. 

• Silence - make sure you include rests. This can help create interest in your piece. Silence is just as important as the notes you use. 

• Range of the instrument - you may need to check that what you want to do is possible on your chosen instrument. You should also think about how different parts of the instrument’s range sound. 

3. Contrast is good! 

Contrast is an important part of music. If the same thing was repeated over and over, it would be pretty boring. For this activity you are going to write a piece that demonstrates musical contrast. 

• You will create a melody or musical idea. This will be your A section. 

• Next you will create a second musical idea. This should be different from your first idea. However, not so different that it sounds like a new piece. This is the tricky part! 

• You will structure your piece so it goes A - B - A. For the final A section, you should do something slightly different to the first time you play it. 

• Think about all the ways you can create contrast. Harmonic progression, melody, rhythm, phrase length. You may find you need to combine these elements to create a musically interesting contrast. 

4. Kīnaki Chords

The most important chords in western music are chords I, IV, V, and vi. However, if we only used these chords, our music would get pretty boring! So, one way that we can create interest in music is by using more interesting chords. Think of this as adding some sauce (kīnuki) to your chips - pretty tasty by themselves, but adding some sauce makes them even better. 

You should create a chord progression using I, IV, V, and vi, but with the addition of at least one ‘kīnuki’, or interesting chord. 

Chords you could choose: 

7th Chords - Major or Dominant (Cmaj7, C7)

Suspended Chords (Csus2, Csus4)

Parallel chords (C maj - Cmin)

Remember, just like with tomato sauce, you don’t want to use too much. If you add too many kīnaki chords, they will lose their impact

5. All together now!Now it’s time to start putting melody with your chords. You need to be thinking about dissonance and consonance. Make sure you have a mixture of both of these. 

• Your piece should have at least two sections that contrast. Think about the different ways you can make something contrast! 

• Your piece should be around a minute. You may want to include an intro and outro. 

• Your melody can be played on anything, but should be an instrument that will sit on top of your harmonic accompaniment. 

• You should aim to use what you have learned during your earlier activities to help develop this piece. 

6. Doing it in style! 

Every type of music has specific musical elements and conventions that we can expect to find. In this task, you need to be aware of these and use them to shape your piece. 

• Choose a style of music. You should also find an artist that creates music in this style, and look to emulate them. 

• Be realistic about what is possible. If you choose something with many more instruments that you have available, or a song but don't want to sing, etc., you are unlikely to create a piece that is convincingly within your style of music. 

• You will likely need to analyse your style to work out the things that it must have. Think of these like an ingredients list for a recipe. There might be some things you can swap in and out, but there will be some things it must have to work! 

• Your piece should be 1min - 1.30minutes in length and should use elements of what you have learnt in your previous activities.

Summative Composition Activities

Composition 1 - Notated

• This piece can be in any style but must be written using traditional western style notation. 

• Must be at least 32 bars long (or around 2 minutes in length) 

• Notation must be clear - ideally using a notation software like MuseScore or flat.io. 

• Ensure all music is physically playable - check with your teacher if you are unsure. 

• Make sure you have a title, composer, and all other relevant score information. 

• You may write for a solo instrument, but ensure your piece is stylistically appropriate (ie. what is a typical instrumentation for this style of music?) 

• Submit your piece as a PDF Score and an MP3 audio file. 

Composition 2 - DAW 

• This piece can be any style, but must be realised using a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) like BandLab or Garage Band.

• The piece must be around 2 minutes in length

• You may use some loops and/or samples, but the majority of your piece must be original and created using MIDI and/or recorded sounds. 

• You will submit both the audio as an MP3 and a short document that describes your musical choices with annotated screenshots of the studio. 

For both of these completed pieces, use what you have learned through the practice activities. 

• Make sure your pieces make sense stylistically. 

• Ensure your melodies and harmonies work together

• Make sure your pieces have structures/forms that make sense musically. 

• Ensure your musical ideas are developed. 

• Present your pieces clearly and appropriately to the style. 

You will be assessed holistically based on both of these pieces. Use the rubric below to self assess your progress.