From Lorenz

by Mark Burrows

A New Approach To Composing In The Classroom

Two of the nine National Standards for Music Education address creating music, either by composing or improvising, but that doesn't make teaching it any easier, nor does it make it any more fun for your students. By turning composition on its ear, Mark Burrows has made composition in the classroom accessible and enjoyable. Each activity is designed to free your students so they can focus on expressing their creative ideas without worrying about breaking musical "rules."

Students will work with everything from picture notation to a one-line staff as they participate in composition activities that are educational, rewarding, invigorating, and yes, fun! Your students can compose a soundtrack, shape a river of sound, create a soundscape to accompany a famous painting, even build a cool percussion groove using box notation. But most of all, your students will learn that Outside The Lines is all about communicating, creating, and connecting! Reproducible activity pages are included. (Grades 2-6)