Composing for the Classroom: Writing Music That Inspires Learning

Music is many things: it’s a source of inspiration and reflection; it helps us to communicate, connect and collaborate; it develops our resilience and wellbeing; music is part of both our identity as individuals and the identity of the communities in which we live; and music is for everyone, from all walks of life.

So it follows that the music we include in our education – the music we learn and teach – has great value, influence and impact. Composers throughout history – from Bach to Boulanger and beyond – have recognised this, creating music that is both artistically engaging and pedagogically rich.

Compositional beginnings

My musical journey as both a pianist and composer began at the age of seven. Ever since I started playing the piano I’ve been composing – noodling around, improvising, finding new melodies and exploring this wonderful thing we call music. I feel very privileged to have had piano lessons from a young age, with a teacher who was inspiring as both a pianist and an educator. And while I developed my craft through structured lessons, including graded music exams and much more besides, composition was always at the centre. I’d spend hours each day playing the piano, most of it unrelated to ‘practice’ and entirely related to pure love for the instrument and the music.

Composing for education

Having established a career in music education through roles with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) and as a composer, I have become fascinated by the intersection between composition and education. How do we write music that captivates, engages and inspires, and that helps to develop technique or introduces learners to new concepts? How do we create music that is accessible – both to learners and to those teaching it – while offering something new, fresh and challenging?

As Deputy Head of Engagement at ABRSM, a key element of my role is to support next generation composers to develop skills in writing music for educational settings. ABRSM’s composer mentoring programme, Writing for Music Education, is a six-month initiative – for cohorts in both the UK and Asia – that introduces composers to key concepts around composing for education, equips them with the skills in writing to briefs, and provides mentoring from established composers. Through this programme, it has been a joy to see so many composers thrive in this context. There has been much success for Indian composers, including Shruthi Rajasekar, Amit Anand and Santosh Baynes, whose pieces have been featured in ABRSM’s recent piano syllabuses and played by pianists all over the world.

Key musical ingredients

So what do we consider when writing for music education? I often say that composers can write almost anything they like if they’ve been commissioned by a professional ensemble, choir or soloist – the musicians can generally play whatever you give them, having developed their craft over many years. Part of the challenge may be to explore new horizons for an instrument or to find new sound worlds to thrill an audience.

But writing a piece for a beginner pianist or intermediate string quartet is different, and yet demanding nonetheless. Composers have a wide range of limitations to consider – a non-exhaustive list includes:

• What notes have musicians at this level actually learned?
• What keys and time signatures are appropriate to the level?
• How long should the piece be, taking into account things like stamina?
• In the case of music suitable for exams, is there sufficient material for an examiner to make a valid and reliable assessment of a learner’s performance?

These questions offer composers not a strait jacket, but a framework from which to explore their creativity.

Music to inspire

One of my piano publications, Adventures & Accolades, brings together a collection of piano pieces that addresses some of these questions. I wanted to write music that felt inspiring to the learner – music for the ‘aspiring virtuoso’ – while balancing the technical demands and offering teachers opportunities to develop their students’ musicianship: there are pieces that explore harmonies (including one piece, Rafa’s Lullaby, that employs extensive use of major seventh arpeggios); pieces that explore different articulations; and pieces that introduce swing rhythms.

While the music may be played in homes, practice rooms, assemblies, festivals and exams – rather than in large concert halls and on radio stations – its role is to inspire, to equip, to challenge and to spark curiosity.

I remember one of the first pieces that did this for me: Burgmüller’s Arabesque (Op. 100, No. 2), a piece so captivating that once I’d mastered it I felt like a concert pianist. This piece – along with many others – inspired me to return to the piano each day in search of new adventures in repertoire. And for composers today there is a wonderful world of opportunity awaiting in music education – to write music that inspires the next generation of musicians all over the world, many of whom may just be at the beginning of their own journeys.