Creativity Cache - Composing a Medley

This Creativity Cache Starter focuses on composing a medley. Students work individually to choose several songs or melodies that fit some theme. They then enter the melody lines, and consider techniques demonstrated in the sample or other techniques they may have heard to connect the songs (with or without lyrics) into a satisfying composition, arranging them for piano.

Background: School concerts, particularly those around the winter holidays, often feature medleys. If a medley is being performed, it can serve as a jumping off point. If not, perhaps a student medley of winter songs can be performed. The sample score “The O(h) Medley” was designed to showcase some techniques for connecting the songs.

Adaptations: You can adapt this project to a variety of contexts. You can change the opening text of the worksheet to include different medley examples that might be of greater interest or more germane. In an instrumental or vocal class, you can encourage students to study their repertoire for examples of medleys and to write for an ensemble of class members. In a composition class for younger students, you could limit the assignment to joining two songs and/or supply two songs in the same key and meter and work as a class to create a transition. In an upper level composition class, you could encourage students to create fuller arrangements, for example, writing for an SATB vocal ensemble with piano or for other instruments. In all cases, you could encourage students to: learn how to enter lyrics in the music notation application you use; think more about how songs begin and end; and think about pitches in terms of the different triads they can appear in.