Creating Music at Home
This collection includes composing activities for children and young people that they can do at home with or without instruments. All the activities are inspired by or linked to existing pieces of music. Themes include: sounds in the house and garden, superheroes and graphic scores.
Illustration: Mina Braun
Creating Music at Home Resources
14 Resources
Composing Made Simple Creating Music at Home
Composing is often thought of a magical art that only a few special people can do. In this simple guide to composing, discover that composing is something anyone can do if they open their ears, play and experiment.
In the garden... Creating Music at Home
In this activity you will create music using things you find in the garden or park inspired by composer John Cage's Child of Tree.
In the house... Creating Music at Home
In this activity you will make music for your family playing objects that you find around your home, inspired by John Cage's Living Room Music.
Graphic scores Creating Music at Home
In this activity you will create your own musical graphic scores inspired by composers such as Cornelius Cardew, Cathy Berberian and John Cage.
Superheroes Creating Music at Home
In this activity you will create music for a superhero of your own design. This might be a melody, a rhythm or sound effect or a combination of these.
Doodling Varèse Creating Music at Home
In this activity you will listen to BCMG oboe player Melinda Maxwell performing her own composition Sounding Out Varèse inspired by Octandre by Edgard Varese. You will doodle along to the music and then use your doodle to create your own music.
Ionisation Creating Music at Home
In this activity you will create your own percussion piece inspired by Ionisation for 13 percussionists by composer Edgard Varèse. Varèse was fascinated by the quality of sounds and revolutionised how percussion instruments were used in Classical music. Many of the titles of his music borrow from scientific ideas.
Music My Map Creating Music at Home
In this activity, the map of your daily walk, scoot or cycle will become a 'musical score'. Your musical ideas will be inspired by how you move and what you see.
Lockdown Sequenza Creating Music at Home
In Sequenza III for Voice, composer Luciano Berio asks the singer to mutter, gasp, laugh and whine as well as go through a range of emotions from tense to dreamy to bewildered. Lockdown has also been a roller coaster of emotion for many people. In this activity you will compose your own 'Lockdown Sequenza' for voice.
Deep Creating Music at Home
In this activity you will create music for imaginary or real deep sea worlds, inspired by Deep by composer Shiori Usui. You will also be encouraged to use the free software Audacity to help create your music.
Noisy Toys Creating Music at Home
In this activity you will use the noisy toys around your house to create music inspired by the music of Joseph Haydn, Benedict Mason and the Modified Toy Orchestra.
A Simple Guide to Audacity Creating Music at Home
This resource is a simple guide to using the recording and editing software Audacity
What Next? Creating Music at Home
In this activity you will have the chance to compose a duet for BCMG's NEXT musicians by creating a graphic score. Send your graphic score to us, and the NEXT musicians will perform a selection of your music in an online concert on Tuesday 22 July.
Zodiac Creating Music at Home
In this activity you will create simple melodies to describe friends and family thorough the lens of the zodiac, using a music box app and/or a real music box, inspired by Tierkreis by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen
