Dr. Maud Hickey’s workshop about composition and improvisation is an important workshop to attend to. In the beginning of her workshop, Hickey engaged her students in an activity called, “Tuning Meditation”. In this exercise, students would need to hear a certain pitch and either match or sing a new pitch. This exercise was used as a warm-up as well as, a way to allow students feel the vibe of the workshop. After the activity, Hickey provides information about how American schools teaches music. She mentioned, “Improve and composition does not really exist in American schools.” Dr. Hickey talks about how the music curriculum in America follows a paint by number format. She believes that improvisation and composition should be a teaching concept in American schools. She then explained the myths of music composition. Students at an early age were taught that, nobody can compose until they have had years of music experience. She explained that statement as a myth because no matter how long you have knowledge about music, anyone can compose any piece they want. This statement has led to another activity where, students compose a musical scenery with any instrument that is available to them. After they composed their pieces, another group will interpret the original group’s piece. After the activity, Dr. Hickey explained why she was using these activities in a certain order. She presented a diagram of her preferred teaching methods which include, “Define, Listen & Explore”, “Compositional Prompts”, “Forms”, “Musical Elements” and, “Big Elements”. This diagram will lead to a more in-depth analyzation of the rest of the workshop. Dr. Hickey talks about how composers can find inspiration from anywhere. For example, composer, Charles Ives got inspiration from a parade on Main Street. When teaching children, educators can show a picture to their students and they could find inspiration anywhere. When composing a piece, Dr. Hickey mentions that a good piece should have an interesting beginning, middle and, end. She then asked the students to compose a short melody with the phrase, “O Canada, Our home and native land.” After the activity, students learned that you can make any good melody if the melody is memorable. Dr. Hickey ended the workshop with the topic, “Assessment”. Since music is a creative program in all schools, Dr. Hickey believes that open tasks can not be easily assessed than, defined tasks. Therefore, it is not right not to assess students in open tasks. Dr. Hickey gave students suggestions on how design good assessments. She instructs us to ask ourselves questions when we are designing assessments. Questions include: “what is the purpose for asking children to compose in your classroom?”, “What is the task? And how many parameters will you set for the task?” and, “What are the evaluation or assessment stakes for the assessments?”. If we ask ourselves these questions, educators can develop an assessment that will be fair for all students.

            While listening and participating in this workshop, I have become very interested in how composition can be helpful in a classroom setting. Throughout my high school years, I have encountered with composition as an assessment in music. At first, I didn’t understand why composition should be a type of assessment. After the workshop, I learned that composition is a good way to understand concepts being taught by the educator. I have learned a lot about improvisation and composition. I have learned to appreciate that anything can become music. After listening to the workshop, I will use Dr. Hickey’s teaching methods in my future teaching styles.