by Cecilia Roudabush, Director of Education
Are we saying that anyone of any age or ability can compose music? YES! Hyperscore music composition for “littles” (toddlers through Pre-K) is a perfect opportunity for children to express themselves musically.
For this age group, we recommend starting with a group activity. The teachers controls the Hyperscore program, shared over a display monitor, and leads the class in collaborating to create music. Use the following lesson ideas to create a delightful group composition based on a storybook, an artwork or picture, or an upcoming celebration.
Perhaps your littles can understand ideas about arranging notes in patterns to create a melody and have the fine-motor skills to manipulate a mouse or pick out keys on the computer keyboard. If so, they could compose their own compositions as well!
Our Composition Cycle
We encourage a Group Composition Activity for the first presentation of Hyperscore with students. This gives them the opportunity to ask for, and increase their understanding of, musical choices melodically, rhythmically and harmonically. The teacher provides the knowledgeable questioning, guidance and interpretation of student cues to elicit responses from each child. While modeling our composition cycle, the teacher will be asking them to create then intentionally listen to the results throughout the experience. Responding to what they hear gives them the opportunity to edit, or take satisfaction in, their work until they feel it is complete.
Having the teacher manipulate the Hyperscore workspace allows every student to have a turn to focus on telling the story through note placements in the melody window, note values in the percussion window and combining these motifs in the sketch window. In addition, having the teacher purposefully making and correcting common first-time user errors allows their understanding of the tools to be solidified for future independent work. Choosing a meaningful prompt will be the first step.
Prompts for littles
Storybook prompts might include classic and heartwarming books such as Corduroy by Don Freeman, and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Books that are engaging and interactive might include The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle or Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Chenowith and any of the Berenstain Bear books by Stan and Jan Berenstain offer wonderful life lessons. Character development is a Social Emotional Learning theme in Harmony Hare and Her Three Voices by Tammy Vallieres and How Do You Say it Today, Jesse Bear? by Nancy White Carlstrom.
Paintings with bold colors and strong lines, like those of Henri Matisse or Keith Haring, might suggest shapes and patterns to portray in melodic motifs or the sketch window. Vincent van Gogh’s and Claude Monet’s impressionistic works, can prompt thoughts and feelings about color and light, while Henri Rousseau dreamlike jungle scenes may provide such interesting story lines and character development. Photographs of various topics such as animals, places and people may be excellent prompts for musical storytelling.
New Harmony Line’s favorite prompts have to be from our Hyperscore Challenge 2024 and 2025, during which composers are invited to create a soundtrack for a YouTube video. Favorites include “Newborn Chicks“, “Underwater“, “Dancing with Robot“, “Labrynth Gameplay” and “Outer Space“. It will be easy to find a YouTube video that is about a concept you are studying–turn down the sound and let the students create the new soundtrack!
Independent composers
If you ever have the joy of working with a single child in creating a music composition, I’d like to share some tips I’ve learned over the years in festivals, parks and rec center Tot Time. A toddler, 1.5 years old, wrote “Fishies Go Back To Their Home” while sitting on my lap. I had control of the mouse so they could guide my hand to move it up or down and left to right. They had choice, but I was providing the fine motor control (“A Hungry Boy“). If an opportunity arose for making a specific choice, I would set the mouse in the correct place, point to the left mouse button and ask them to click it.
By far, the most advanced piece I’ve heard was written at ArtsFest Iowa City by a 4 year old whose parents said “give him the mouse and watch him go”. “I Live on Planet Earth” is truly magnificent. There was another wonderful moment when 2 and 4 year old siblings wrote “Earth Lava” together using the rainbow melody window allowing the 4 year old to ask the 2 year old what color she wanted for her notes in the melody window. ADORABLE!
Littles can make BIG sounds
The New Harmony Line team hopes that you will take the opportunity to try out Group Composition with the littles in your home, school, library, parent/child group or recreation center. For your free lifetime subscription to the cloud-based interactive Hyperscore Classroom, use this link. You can also use Hyperscore offline (Hyperscore Lite) by going to http://www.demo.hyperscore.com and clicking the “install now” button that pops up in the lower right hand corner of the screen. If you miss the opportunity to click the prompt, simply click the information button in the upper right corner and click the “install now” button in the center of the pop up window.
Saving, opening scores
In the cloud-based versions of Hyperscore your scores save automatically to the Cloud. If you use the offline Hyperscore Lite, your work will store in the safe. However, it’s to your benefit to save on the desktop in a folder such as your music file. Watch this video for how to save and open scores using Hyperscore Lite:
We hope you’ll love Hyperscore for littles as much as we do!