You’re a Composer, Harry: The Magic of Student-Created Tunes

Unlock the magic of student-created tunes in your music classroom! In this engaging session, we’ll explore how to help students move from playful vocal exploration to confidently creating their own musical ideas.

Designed for early childhood through upper elementary, this session will walk through a scaffolded progression beginning with recognizing the singing voice, exploring neutral syllables, creating tunes with familiar words, and eventually writing original lyrics through activities like sung stories, musical questions and answers, jingles, blues songs, and more.
You’ll see how simple, low-pressure activities can help students build confidence, take creative risks, and begin to see themselves as musical creators. We’ll also discuss how to support reluctant singers, build a classroom culture where students feel safe being vulnerable, and use student-created tunes to reinforce musical concepts like melody, rhythm, form, expression, mode, and meter.

Walk away with practical, ready-to-use ideas that spark imagination, support improvisation and songwriting, and bring a little everyday magic into your music classroom.