There are many benefits to teaching piano students music composition.

I personally love using music composition to help students who are struggling with note reading and rhythm.

Composition gives students an opportunity to experience music in a different way that can reinvigorate their interest in music.

And you don’t have to wait until a student reaches a certain point of musical understanding in order to teach music composition. 

Benefits of teaching piano students music composition

I was thirteen when the door of music composition and improvisation was opened to me.

My new piano teacher asked me to play “As the Deer.”

I looked at her then at the empty music stand. She told me to start on E and that was it.

I fumbled and made a lot of errors, but I fell in love with the idea of creating my own music.

While I have primarily arranged hymns since that day, composition has been a natural hobby.

For me, composition and improvisation are ways to express feelings that simply playing written music doesn’t reach.

There is something about creating music rather than just reading music. 

Not all piano students have the natural ability or desire to compose, and that’s okay.

But many students are like me–they have that natural ability but it needs a key to unlock the potential and open the door to a future of creating music. 

Teaching piano students music composition is not only a way to open a door of creativity, but it is also a way to teach music theory in a fun and engaging way.

This year, one of my beginner teen students is primarily focusing on composition.

While she is still learning many theory basics like note values and note names, composing is helping her to understand how music works together and she’s loving it.

We have many discussions about themes, motives, and storytelling while we also nail down the basics of whether a note should be an eighth note or quarter note.

When to start teaching piano students music composition

You can start teaching piano students music composition as early as you’d like.

Though some of these ideas are technically more improvisational than compositional, you can help a student create their own composition from the first year of lessons.

If the student has learned C, D, E, encourage them to come up with their own little melody using those notes.

After introducing the note names, I like to ask my new student to tell me what order to put the notes in and I usually write it down for them then get them to come up with a title.

We usually do about 8 notes.

My favorite story of doing this is when I was teaching a set of twins and they separately composed the exact same melody. 🙂

From that basic beginning, you can start adding a little bit of rhythm to it, even if your student knows nothing about quarter notes, half notes, or whole notes.

Simply discuss which notes should be “faster” or “slower.”

As a student progresses in their musical understanding, you can help them expand their composition experience.

Discuss topics, themes, rhythms, tonalities, and more.

Even if you know very little about teaching piano students music composition, you can help guide them by simply having discussions.

I have found that the students who naturally lean toward composition just need someone to encourage them and be a guide in the right direction.

An easy way of teaching piano students music composition

If you have never taught composition before or you don’t have as much time to dedicate to teaching music composition to your piano students, you don’t have to do it alone.

Creating a unique composition is as easy as rolling a die with Create and Compose: Frog Pond easy composition activity.

Even if you know nothing about composition, you can walk your students through this guided composition activity to create their own original composition to play on the piano in the keys of C, G, or F.

Use this easy composition activity to help students create their own composition–whether they are primer, beginner, or intermediate students.

I’ll break down how I’d use this composition activity for each level of students, but if you’re visual, here’s a video where I walk you through exactly what I’d do. I even came up with a delightful composition that surprised me.

Don’t see the video above? Watch How to Create & Compose: Frog Pond easy composition activity from Music Game Club here.

What is included in Create and Compose: Frog Pond

• Teacher guide
• Level 1 composition page (key of C)
• Level 2 composition page (key of G)
• Level 3 composition page (key of F)
• Staff paper
• US Letter and A4 sizing
• Not included: die (You can either purchase a dice set or download a free dice rolling app on your phone/tablet)

>>> Get Create & Compose: Frog Pond here

Now available: Create & Compose: Frog Pond easy SOLFÈGE composition activity

For our international friends, we have made the Create & Compose: Frog Pond easy SOLFÈGE composition activity.

It’s the same great activity, but this time using solfège instead of note names.

• Teacher guide
• Level 1 composition page (key of Do major)
• Level 2 composition page (key of Sol major)
• Level 3 composition page (key of Fa major)
• Staff paper
• US Letter and A4 sizing
• Not included: die (You can either purchase a dice set or download a free dice rolling app on your phone/tablet)

>>> Get Create & Compose: Frog Pond easy SOLFÈGE composition activity here

Teaching primer piano students music composition

If your very beginning student only knows the white notes on the piano, they can still create their own composition.

Some students are timid about making up music on their own, so rolling a die will encourage them to put notes on paper to start their own little melody.

Simply have your student roll the die and then write the corresponding letter name.

From there, you can discuss if all the notes need to be equal value or some shorter and some longer.

In just a few minutes, your student will have their own composition to bring home to their parents and show off.

Teaching beginner students music composition

I like to teach triads as soon as possible.

And, because the key of C has all white notes, it is super easy to teach triads.

Once a student understands triads, they can easily create compositions in the Key of C. 

Their compositions can either be chord-based or they can start by writing simple melodies based on the chords the die gave them.

For this level, I would start by having my students roll the die to come up with 8 chords and write them down.

Then, I’d ask them to pick one chord tone for each of the chords.

In their left hand, they’ll play the triad and in the right hand, they’ll play the chosen chord tone.

Teaching intermediate students music composition

Even students who have mastered their chords can use this easy composition activity to learn how to write melodies with passing tones, neighbor tones, and more. 

They can start with the basics like the beginner students, but once they have their melody notes established, they can embellish it with different rhythms and notes.

Even more options for this easy composition activity

If your student is fluent in the keys of C, G, and F, you can expand this composition activity to cover all three keys with key changes to transition from one to the next.

Staff paper is also included so your students can transcribe their composition if they’d like.

Use Create and Compose: Frog Pond easy composition activity in group lessons.

Give each student a die and have them all work at the same time to fill out their composition page.

Play through each student’s composition and see how beautiful they all are.

Use this easy composition activity to work on different rhythms.

You can begin with chording in quarter notes, but as the student gets confident in their chords, assign them different rhythms to apply to their composition.

The options are endless… and all you need is a die.

>>> Get Create & Compose: Frog Pond here

Are you Teaching Piano Students Music Composition?

If so, what works for you in teaching piano students music composition?

Add a comment and share so we can all learn together!

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