GCSE Music group composition activity

This works really well as a group activity at GCSE level but can also be done as an individual activity.

The activity involves getting students into groups of 3 or 4 and then they select a series of set criteria for their composition from the pack at random. The criteria are things such as ‘your piece must start with a crescendo’ or ’ you must use the blues scale’. It is a great activity for helping students learn or reinforce key words for GCSE Music.

If someone in the group doesn’t know what one of the key words are, other students can normally help them. I often have music dictionaries available for students who aren’t quite sure what some of the key words are to encourage them to research them before asking me.

Print off this document (each page on different colour can be good). Cut up each statement on pages 2 - 6 and place in a pile with the other statements from that page.

Students select 1 statement (can be at random) from each pile and they then need to compose a piece based on the statements that they have selected

Students then perform their composition to the class and the other students have to guess which of the key words (on the last page) they have used in their composition. I normally give all students a copy of the last page to tick off the key words that they have heard.