Reply To: Composition IN-ovations

[nafmeadmin]

At Temple University, we have a course called “collaboration and creativity” that is required for Undergraduate music education majors where they do a lot of composition, songwriting, and improvisation. I had the privilege of teaching the course for a year and it was fun to see so many students come out of their comfort zone. I think we need more courses like that which emphasize experimentation in music. Also, I think it’s important to include it in all courses! Like you said, there is so much to cover. But, if we think of the national standards, there is so much more to music education than reading and performing music. We are expected to model listening, analyzing, improvising, creating, writing, etc. Like you said, if undergraduates never experience these diverse forms of music making, they may be unlikely to implement them in their practice.