How to compose a tune: a first guide for kids

To compose is to make up music and keep it, on paper or in a recording. A child who can sing or pick out notes can compose. This guide builds a first tune in six steps. It uses five notes on a piano, a keyboard, a xylophone, or the voice.

What a tune needs

Part	What it is	The choice in this guide
Notes	The set of pitches the tune uses	Five notes: C, D, E, G, and A
Rhythm	The pattern of long and short sounds	One note for each syllable of a sentence
Shape	Where the tune rises and falls	Up in the first half, and down to the end
Ending	The note where the tune comes to rest	C, the home note

Step 1: choose five notes

Use C, D, E, G, and A. These five notes make a pentatonic scale. Any of them sounds good with any other, in any order, so no choice is wrong.

On a piano, the five black keys make a pentatonic scale too. On a xylophone, take off the F and B bars. Read Orff instruments for home.

Step 2: find a rhythm in words

Words give a tune its rhythm. Write two short lines with the same number of syllables. Here are two lines of seven syllables each.

• Rain is tap-ping on the glass
• Pud-dles grow-ing in the grass

Say each line and clap one clap for each syllable. Hold the last clap of each line for two beats.

Step 3: ask a question

A tune often comes in two halves. The first half is the question. It ends on a note away from home, so the ear waits for more.

Put one note on each syllable of the first line. Start on C, climb, and stop on D.

Rain	is	tap	ping	on	the	glass
C	D	E	G	G	E	D

Step 4: give the answer

The second half answers the question. It starts in a new place and comes home to C.

Pud	dles	grow	ing	in	the	grass
E	G	A	G	E	D	C

Play or sing both lines. The first line leaves the tune open. The second line closes it. That is a whole tune.

Step 5: check the shape

Three habits make a tune easy to sing and easy to remember.

• Move to the next note most of the time. Notes that sit side by side are easy to sing. “Ode to Joy” moves from one note to its neighbor almost all the way through.
• Have one high point. In the rain tune, the highest note is A. It comes once, in the second line.
• Repeat something. A rhythm that comes back helps the ear to hold the tune. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” uses one rhythm in every line: six even notes and one long note. The rain tune borrows that rhythm.

Step 6: write it down

A tune that is not written down or recorded is easy to lose.

1. Letters first. Write the note names in a row, with a dash for a held note: C D E G, G E D -.
2. Then the staff. Copy the notes on to big staff paper, or print a page with the staff paper maker. The treble clef note chart shows where each letter sits.
3. Add the rhythm. A note that lasts one beat is a quarter note. A note held for two beats is a half note. Read note values explained.
4. Add a title, a speed, and a volume. A tempo word tells the player how fast to go. A dynamic mark tells the player how loud to play. Read tempo words in music and dynamics in music.
5. Sign it and date it. Composers do.

A recording on a phone counts too.

Make it longer

• Add a middle. Compose a second tune that sounds different, perhaps lower or slower. Play the first tune, then the new one, then the first again. That plan is called ABA form. Read musical form for kids.
• Write a variation. Keep the notes and change one thing. Play the tune twice as fast, or low on the keyboard, or soft. Mozart wrote twelve variations on the tune we know as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
• Add a second player. One person plays the tune. The other plays a low C and a low G together on each beat. Those two notes fit under any tune made from these five notes.

Three composing games

Roll a tune. Number the five notes from 1 to 5. Roll a die eight times and write down the notes. A 6 means hold the last note. Play the result, and then change any note that sounds wrong to you. Dice games for making music were popular in the 1700s. One was printed under Mozart’s name in 1792, the year after he died. Nobody has proved that he wrote it.

Spell a tune. Music uses the letters A to G. Spell a word with them, such as BAG, CAGE, FACE, or CABBAGE, and play the letters as notes. Bach spelled his own name in music. In German, the note B flat is called B, and the note B is called H. His name gives four notes: B flat, A, C, and B.

Paint a picture. Pick a subject: a cat on a fence, a storm, or a train leaving a station. Decide three things before playing a note. Is it high or low? Is it fast or slow? Is it loud or soft? Then find notes that match. Vivaldi wrote birds and a storm into The Four Seasons.

For parents

• Let the tune stand. A first tune is finished when the child says it is.
• Ask, and do not fix. “Which part do you like most?” and “Where does it end?” are useful questions.
• Keep everything. A folder of dated tunes shows a year of progress.
• Share it. Play the tune for a grandparent or a music teacher. A teacher can help to write it out.

Mozart began to write music at about age five, and his father wrote the first pieces down for him. A child who makes up a tune at the piano is doing the same thing.

Print and play

Print staff paper or big staff paper for kids. Use the rhythm cards to build a rhythm before adding notes. For the parts of a tune, read the elements of music for kids. For how scales work, read major and minor scales explained for kids.