Inspiring children to compose

When children are learning to play an instrument, parents are often reluctant to let them just play around with it. They may be worried that the child may damage the instrument and many musical instruments, even beginner ones, can be quite expensive. They may also worry that the child may not take their studies seriously if they're encouraged to simply have fun. Yet I believe that composition and improvisation, or as your child will see it, simply playing, is one of the best parts of practice time.

One thing that I hope I've made clear throughout all my posts on this subject is that it's important that children practice mostly because they want to, not because they're being forced to. Now, of course there will be times when the child initially doesn't want to practice. That's understandable. I don't always want to cook the dinner, but once I've started I'm fine. So it may be that quite frequently a child will need a little nudge to begin with. Once they're into their practice session, though, ideally a child should be interested and enjoying it enough to put some effort into playing well.

One thing that can be the 'fun' part of practice can be simply playing the instrument by making things up. Children can then really experiment with sounds and the effects of how they play. They can let their imagination roam free and really express how they feel. (I have to confess there have been some times when my son has apparently been rather grumpy and fed up with practicing, according to what I've heard in his improvisations!) They can feel as though this part of practice is entirely under their control, and that it is something they're doing to please themselves.

Some children will baulk when faced with a carte blanche opportunity though. They need some sort of minimal guide, or some kind of starting point, to spark their inspiration. Some ideas for inspiring a child to compose are:

• Choose an animal and play the way it sounds. The parent has to guess the animal.
• Play a story with different characters (Peter and the Wolf is a great starting point for this idea)
• Choose five notes in an octave and play using only those notes
• Play with your hands crossed over
• Choose a favourite character and play their tune
• Play a particular emotion (or a series) again for the parent to guess
• Play the black notes only
• Use any part of your body to play - palms, forearms, elbows, forehead, feet
• If your child has a favourite musician or type of music, play like......
• A lucky dip of random words

As you can see, there are many ways to give a child ideas on composing their own music. Here's my son having fun:

It's important to always be 100% positive about your child's efforts. There is no right or wrong, after all, and it can be crushing to receive criticism for something you've created as a personal expression. I've found that over time my son's attempts have become more musical and coordinated without me imposing my advice. I think his compositions are one of the parts of his practice that he listens to most intently and learns the most from.