Music & Art: Compose Your Own Music

cross-curricular thumbnails
Dan Dennehy/Minneapolis Institute of Arts/Wikimedia Commons

Age Range: Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School, Grades 4-12

Learning Objective: Students will compose music inspired by a well-known artwork.

Download This Free Lesson Plan

INTRODUCE composing with an explanation

“In this lesson, you get to try to create your own music inspired by a famous painting. You don't need to be able to read and write music notation, just have your imagination ready to go!”

COMPOSE with this activity

  1. Invite students to look closely and list the elements they see in this painting by Vincent Van Gogh. Students might list mountains, trees, sun, and dry grass.

  2. Using found objects, or instruments if you have them, ask students find a sound to go along with each element.

    Here is an example, using a combination of simple auxiliary percussion instruments and found objects. The examples also use a combination of traditional and alternative notation symbols.

    Composition grid
    Katie Condon/MPR
  3. Say, “Now draw a grid like the one below to make your own composition, inspired by Van Gogh's painting. Make sure to give it a title!”

    Blank composition grid
    Katie Condon/MPR

MORE composing

Choose one or more of the following activities to enhance learning.

  1. Repeat this composition process with another piece of art: look carefully at an artwork, list the elements in it, find sounds to go with each element, and write down which sounds happen when.

  2. Invite students to try performing their compositions with someone in their household with found objects at home. One person can play two parts at a time if necessary!

  3. This Class Notes video, and this lesson to go with it, explores the elements that music and art have in common.

Related Lesson Plans

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This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.

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