This weekend’s guest writer is teacher and composer Jeni Warder who owns the Keys Piano School in Greater Manchester, UK. Jeni is writing a series of articles for this blog focusing on how to develop a student’s composition skills at various levels. Today, she tackles Grade 2.
As a teacher at Keys Piano School in Greater Manchester, I am lucky enough to work with over three hundred students from a huge range of backgrounds, and an equally diverse and dynamic teaching team. We are constantly seeking ways to engage students in the most demanding levels of musicianship, staying true to our classical roots, whilst staying relevant to a new generation. Over the past few years, we have incorporated composition into our curriculum as a fundamental learning tool throughout the school.
The school is delighted to be entering its’ third year as a Trinity Champion Centre! We use their exams exclusively as their syllabus, especially the progression of technical work, fits well with our own curriculum. However, by far the strongest motivator for this commitment is the opportunity for students to play their own composition in place of a third set piece. This means that, even under the pressure of exam preparation, we have the chance to deepen understanding of wider concepts.
In my experience, the benefits of composing – for children in particular – are immense. Phrasing, harmony, structure, form and musical decision-making can be explored from the earliest stages within a context which is meaningful and motivating for them. It’s important to note, however, that the purpose here is to develop learning through the compositional process, rather than creating a notable final outcome.
In this blog series I have been sharing the ways we can guide children through a series of activities towards a compositional outcome at various levels. For each level, I have focused on a particular musical element at the core of teaching. At initial level, we explored phrasing, and at grade one, used basic chords as accompaniment to a melody. At grade two level we will be exploring key stylistic features of composers of various musical periods and deepening student’s understanding of harmony. As you read through these activities, you will see that this isn’t a ‘quick’ process. I understand some teachers work under extreme pressure from parents to ‘achieve’ as fast as possible. My simple advice is to be assertive and stick to your plan. Teaching the piano is not about ‘short-term’ wins but developing lifelong understanding.
The series of activities below will guide teachers through one of the approaches we use to support children in composing at grade two level, bearing in mind the Trinity requirements. You can read more about this here.
The required keys for composition at grade two sit along the technical work, using B flat major, G minor, D major or B minor. I will reference two students of mine who recently sat a face-to-face grade two exam. They are both 9, and each composed their own third piece, generally following the process here. Daniel chose to work in D major as his other pieces were both in a minor key. Ava chose to work in G minor as her other pieces were very lively pieces in major keys and we decided to show a different side of her character.
Activity 1: Revision of Natural Chords within a Chosen Key
In the previous post, aimed at grade one level (read it here), I shared a resource we used to generate the natural chords within a given key. Using this method again at grade two level, or as a starting point if not covered previously, will help to consolidate this knowledge and will act as a basis on which to explore more exciting harmony. It’s also a great opportunity to consider how chords work together and highlight the relationship between chords I and V. My student Ava explored the difference between using D minor as chord V, occurring naturally in G minor, or D major using the harmonic scale, leading to a revision of a perfect cadence. She was also really interested in the ‘weird’ sound generated by chord ii in G minor (A, C and E flat). I explained how this was a diminished chord (in very general terms).
Activity 2: The Wild Card!
Now let’s now think a bit more creatively and encourage our students to move away from using only the naturally occurring chords in their key. For the purposes of this activity (and to use engaging language!) I call them “Wild Card” chords! This is a fantastic starting point for a discussion, and as always, teacher demonstration is really important here. This allows students to hear and evaluate the emotional impact of small changes in tonality. For this you can use anything that comes to mind – pop songs work well and are generally simple to explain. For example, Elvis Presley’s ‘Love me Tender’ is a very basic example of a major chord (II) that’s naturally a minor one. I played this to Daniel (in D major, to develop his confidence in this key) firstly using E minor as this second chord in this sequence and then the alternative E major. He could immediately feel the ‘lift’ created by this alteration. This allowed us to move on to discussing other chords which could be altered in this way and trying them out in his sequences. In the end, he settled on using a G minor chord, iv, in his finished composition.
Activity 3: Exploring Style and Texture Through Listening
When I first started teaching composition, one of the biggest challenges was getting students to move away from using basic triads as a left-hand accompaniment. Even when inverted, this sounds static and lacks momentum. I’ve now discovered an effective way of developing style and texture and that is through listening.
This task involves children going away with a list of pieces to listen to over the week. I usually ask them to write something down about each one. This firstly ensures they actually do it, and secondly helps to jog their memory during the following lesson. Asking them to rate them in order of their ‘favourites’ is also a great motivator as it allows them to share their opinion.
My go-to pieces are as follows, although I wouldn’t usually ask a child to listen to all of them, and certainly not in one task.
Bach, Prelude in C major,
Mozart, Sonata in C, 1st mvt,
Beethoven ‘Moonlight’ sonata, 1st mvt,
Chopin, Nocturne in E flat,
Schumann, Kleine Studie from ‘Album for the Young’,
Rachmaninov’s C sharp minor prelude.
I have deliberately chosen some of the most famous pieces in the piano repertoire which ought to become familiar to all young pianists. Using the resource attached, you can develop a set of activities to explore these pieces over the course of a few lessons.
Activity 4: Copy Cat!
Having explored the style and texture of these contrasting works, children usually lean towards using one particular idea in their own composition. At this point, they will attempt a ‘copy cat’ attempt of one of the pieces, using the student’s own harmonic ideas. It is, of course, impossible for a grade two-level pianist with small hands to ever attempt to replicate a Beethoven sonata, but the general texture and mood of a single theme can be conveyed in an achievable manner. It is usually only at this point where I encourage the child to find their melodic lines. This may be an added line in the texture, or may simply be generated through the harmonic movement, as in the Bach and Schumann pieces above. My student Ava was inspired by Rachmaninov’s C sharp minor prelude. You can hear the reference immediately in her opening chords, in the video shared via the YouTube link at the end of this article.
Once students have a reached this point, they typically become confident in the direction of their work. Sometimes, they deviate from the original ideas, but the piece begins to take on a life of its own. Daniel’s piece flew off in an entirely different direction than the pieces he listened to, but he is a naturally creative child and was very fast to secure his style. The harmonic structure remained true to his original intentions. If a student begins to go wildly off-track, it may be a chance to discuss why it may, or may not, fit comfortably within the overall work. Ultimately, however, the piece remains their own, and any final decisions will always be theirs.
You can hear Ava’s final composition and others on the YouTube playlist accompanying this blog series here:
