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The challenges of teaching composing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Mandy Winters
Mandy Winters*
Affiliation:
Oxford Brookes University, School of Education, Harcourt Hill, Oxford OX2 9AT, UKmwinters@brookes.ac.uk
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Extract

It is a familiar comment from some new beginner music teachers, ‘I'm not a composer, how do I teach composition, I'm not sure about this, I don't feel confident . . .’. Since the work of Paynter (1982), Swanwick (1979), Swanwick and Taylor (1982) and others, whose work has influenced the National Curriculum in England, classroom music-making has focused on the key musical activities of listening, performing and composing, assuming an experiential learning approach which builds on the inter-relatedness of the three activities. Visits to school music departments reveal a range of pupil music-making but often the area which is least confidently facilitated and supported (and perhaps misunderstood) is composing. Why is this and what are the challenges of teaching composing?

Information

Type
Teacher-Practitioner Contributions
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 19 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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