This week students have been working on their own compositions. We’ve had music about frogs, snowy nights and crackling fires. All utterly unique in their composition and totally brilliant in their performances.
Children are not constrained by rules when making music. They have no limits and their imaginations know no bounds. I love listening to their ideas, seeing their enthusiasm at the piano and applying their ideas and even getting them written down in some way.
Encouraging imagination, creativity and story-telling at the piano helps learners to understand the stories that other composers are telling through their music, and is a fantastic springboard for learning about and interpreting every aspect of music.
Some great music to listen to that tells stories:
- Carnival of the Animals – Camille Saint-Saens
- Peter and the Wolf – Prokovief
- The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Paul Dukas (or in fact anything from Disney’s Fantasia)
