Group Composition

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Group Composing: Pupil perceptions from a social psychological study - Robert Faulkner

As the title of the research paper suggests, the author, who was both teacher and researcher, examined pupil attitudes towards composing music as part of the group.

While common practice in a school environment, there are arguments both for and against this approach, with group composing activities being viewed by some as inefficient. What became apparent throughout this research paper is the transient nature of creative ideas. The paper brought home to me an aspect of my practice which I had not considered to this point. When young people are composing as part of a group, there are also periods of time when they are working as individuals. The process of idea generation is often a solo activity and need not necessarily be restricted to a classroom environment. Young people can work at home, or during lunchtimes or in a host of other settings generating and shaping ideas, which are then brought to the group where a process of arranging takes place. Members of the group adding their ideas and as a group evaluating and shaping the piece. This is an important concept and its significance should not be under played. Bringing an idea to a group provides something tangible for the members of the group to work from and develop. This provides a strong starting point.

Faulkner adopts a qualitative methodological approach for this study and pupils are interviewed in groups but also watch and respond to videos of their groups compositions. It is interesting to note that Faulkner did not provide the pupils with a set criteria for evaluating their composition work and their responses tended towards a focus on the process of composing and not the product.

Faulkner developed a model of the effectiveness of collective music making.

In this model, it is clear to see that individual contribution and idea generation are built in to the process and a series of arrangement, discussion and ongoing evaluation is embedded throughout the process.

Building evaluation into the model is positive as removes it from being an end of composition activity and rather as an ongoing part of the arrangement and dialogue.

I found this to be an interesting article, and although it was conducted in a small school in a remote area of Iceland, I can see strong echoes with the approaches taken through my own practice.

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