Key Stage 2 music · Composing

KS2 music: improvising, a guide for parents

To improvise is to make up music as you play or sing it, with no time to plan or write it down. The Key Stage 2 curriculum asks children to improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure. Improvising is the quick, spontaneous half of that pair, and it is where children discover that they can be musical without being told what to play.

Improvising music, explained

Improvising is not the same as playing anything at all. Teachers give children a framework so that they can succeed straight away. That might be a steady pulse to play against, a short length such as four beats, or a small set of notes to choose from. Many schools use a pentatonic scale, a set of five notes with no two next to each other that grate, so almost any combination sounds pleasant. On a school glockenspiel the teacher may take off the F and B bars, which leaves C, D, E, G and A. Schools choose their own frameworks, and the curriculum does not list any, but the idea of freedom inside limits is the same everywhere.

The most common activity is question and answer. The teacher or a partner plays or sings a short phrase, the question, and the child replies with a phrase of their own, the answer. Other games include echoing a rhythm and then changing one thing about it, improvising on untuned percussion over a backing track, and making up a vocal line to fit a mood or a picture. As children grow in confidence they are asked to use the dimensions on purpose: try your answer higher, softer, slower, with a different sound, or starting the same as the question and finishing differently.

Improvising and composing are related but different. Improvised music is made in the moment and may never be played the same way again. Composed music is worked on, kept and refined, so that it can be repeated or performed by others. In practice they feed each other: teachers often ask children to improvise freely, notice the bit they like best, and then keep and develop it into a composition. That is why the curriculum puts the two together, and why work in Key Stage 2 leads on to improvising and extending musical ideas in Key Stage 3.

Teachers listen for a few things. Did the child keep the pulse? Did their phrase have a shape, with a clear start and a sense of finishing? Did they use repetition and contrast? Did they listen to the person they were answering? A child who plays only three notes and leaves space is doing more musical work than one who plays a rapid stream of notes with no relationship to the beat. Improvising also builds confidence, because children discover that they can make a mistake and carry on, and that in the right framework there are very few wrong notes.

Words your child will hear

Improvise: To make up music on the spot as you play or sing, without writing it down first.
Pulse: The steady beat that runs through a piece, like a heartbeat.
Phrase: A short musical idea, like a sentence, with a start and a stopping point.
Question and answer: A game where one phrase asks and another phrase replies. It is often also called call and response.
Pentatonic scale: A scale of five notes that sound good together in almost any order, which many schools use for first improvisations.
Ostinato: A short pattern repeated over and over, often used as a backing for improvising.
Dimensions of music: Pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure: the things you can change to alter how music sounds.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught to improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music
Aim: pupils understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: answering a musical question

A class has glockenspiels set up with only five notes: C, D, E, G and A. The teacher plays a question and each child must answer. How might a child go about it?

Find the pulse. The class taps a steady beat with their foot or beater. Every phrase is four beats long, so the answer must fit in four beats, with the next question following straight away.
Listen to the question. The teacher plays four steady notes, E, G, A, G. It ends by coming down from the highest note, but not all the way home, so it sounds unfinished, like a question.
Choose a rhythm first. Before playing any notes, the child claps an answer, for example four steady beats, or three beats and a rest. Settling the rhythm first is a common teaching tip, because it leaves only the notes to think about next.
Add notes from the five. The child plays G, E, D, C on the four beats. It starts where the question stopped, moves down through the notes and finishes on C, the home note, which makes it sound like a full stop, so the answer sounds like an answer.
Change one thing and try again. Play the same answer more quietly, or with a different rhythm, or starting on a high note. Talk about which version felt best and why.

There is no single correct answer. A good one keeps the pulse, lasts the full four beats, uses only the five notes, is clearly related to the question (perhaps the same rhythm or a similar shape) and ends on the home note C so that it sounds finished. G, E, D, C works, and so would C, C, D, C or a rhythm with a rest in it.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking that improvising means playing random notes

Without a framework, children play whatever comes and it sounds muddled, which seems to confirm that improvising is chaotic.

What helps: Cut down the choices. Start with two or three notes and a fixed length, so that every attempt sounds musical. Add notes once the first set feels easy.

Believing that a good improvisation is fast and full of notes

Speed is what children often notice in recordings of skilled players, and they feel that their own playing must fill every beat.

What helps: Point out that space is music too. Try an answer with only two notes and a rest, then ask which one sounds more confident. Simple, repeated ideas are often the best.

Stopping when a “wrong” note is played

In most music lessons notes are right or wrong, so a child who plays a surprise note assumes they have failed.

What helps: Use a limited set of notes so that there are few wrong ones, and tell your child that the pulse matters more than the note. If a note sounds odd, play it again and it becomes an idea.

Thinking an improvisation is no good if you cannot remember or repeat it

Children assume that real music is something that can be played the same way each time, and see improvising as a lesser kind.

What helps: Explain that improvising and composing are different jobs. If your child likes something they played, they can remember it, repeat it and turn it into a composition. Recording it helps.

How to help at home

Echo and change. Clap a short rhythm and ask your child to clap it back with one change, such as one extra clap or one rest. Swap roles. It is improvising with a safety net, and no instrument is needed.
Question and answer without words. Have a conversation using just humming or made-up sounds, where one person asks a musical question and the other replies. Notice whether a phrase rises like a question and falls like an answer.
Three-note rule. If there is a keyboard, xylophone or glockenspiel at home, agree to use only three notes, such as C, D and E, and later the five notes C, D, E, G and A. Play along to a steady beat tapped by someone else. With so few choices, nearly everything sounds good.
Improvise to a favourite song. Tap or hum your own pattern in the gaps of a favourite song, keeping to its beat. It trains the ear to hold a pulse while inventing something new.
Keep the best bit. Record a few minutes of free playing on a phone, listen back and ask your child to pick their favourite ten seconds. This is the first step towards turning an improvisation into a composition.

Builds on

Key Stage 1: Creating and combining sounds

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Improvising and extending ideas
Key Stage 3: Composing with structures and styles
Key Stage 3: Using music technology