Outside The Lines

Grades 2-6. That two of the nine National Standards for Music Education address creating music, either by composing of improvising, speaks to its important place in the music classroom, but that doesn't make teaching it any easier, nor does it make it any more fun for your students. By taking an approach that turns composition on its ear, Mark Burrows has made composition in the classroom both accessible and enjoyable. Each composition activity in Outside the Lines is designed to free your students so they can focus on expressing their creative ideas without worrying about breaking any musical "rules." Your students will be invited to work with everything from picture notation to a one-line staff as they participate in composition activities that are educational, rewarding, invigorating, and yes, fun! Your students cancompose a soundtrack, shape a river of sound, create a soundscape to accompanya famous painting, even build a cool percussion groove using box notation. Butmost of all, your students will learn that Outside the Lines is all about communication, creating, and connecting!