Colourful Composition

Write your own music using colourful cues.

What you’ll need: Different coloured pens, scissors and paper, and something to make sound with (this could be your voice, any instruments you have, or homemade instruments like bottles, rubberbands, etc.)

What’s it for?

This activity will help you playfully explore your creativity. This will help you explore how you can try new ways of playing and expressing yourself.

Check In:

Notice how you’re feeling right now. Close your eyes and notice what’s going on inside your mind and body.

• How are you feeling?

• What are you thinking?

• How does your body feel?

Method:

• Gather your musical sounds together. This could be instruments you have at home, toys such as a baby sibling’s xylophone, or instruments you make. You could get some ideas for making instruments from the CAT Corner website! You could also use your voice, and try making different kinds of sounds.
  

• Assign each of your sounds a colour. For each sound, make a few cards of that colour. For example, if you have made a shaker from some beans you might assign that ‘blue’. You would then cut out a few pieces of paper that you would colour blue. Create coloured pieces of paper for each of your sounds. You might like to create a key to remind you of what each colour represents (ex. “blue = beans” “red = drum” “yellow = sing high”)
  

• Now you can start composing! Remember, there is no right or wrong way to arrange your music. Choose a few colours and place them in a row, and play the sounds in this order. Try arranging your colours in different orders to create a piece of music. You can make this as short or as long as you like. Try playing your piece in different ways, such as loudly or quietly, until you are happy with your final result.
  

• You might like to perform your piece of music for someone in your home, or have them try to perform it from your colours!

Extra Activity: You could use your colour cards and key to play a memory game, on your own or with a friend. Start with two or three cards in a row and try adding a new card each go to see how many sounds you can remember without looking. Can you memorise your whole composition?

When you’ve finished, spend a moment reflecting on the activity and ask yourself the following questions:

• What did your music sound like?

• What title would you give your music?

• Sometimes composers write music to represent a feeling or event. What could your music represent?

• If your music was the soundtrack of a movie, what would be happening on screen?

Conclusion:

This activity uses colours to help you create your own musical composition and play with the sounds in different ways. This can help you to practice being creative and flexible in your play.

Take a moment to notice how you are feeling at the end of this activity. Did you discover anything surprising? What can you take away to make you feel better about yourself from this activity?

If you would like to, share something about your experience with this activity with someone you live with! Ask the person who looks after you to send us an email if you have any questions or comments about the activity, or would like to send us any pictures (info@catcorner.co.uk). Don't forget to subscribe for more fun CAT activities!

Created by Heather Dingle © November 2020

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Creative Arts Used: Music

Psychological Areas Explored: Play, Resilience

If you enjoyed this activity, you might also like:

Making a Good Mistake: Create some artwork that helps you stay flexible when things go ‘wrong’.

These activities could be done by children of all ages, but some may need the support of their parent or carer to read the instructions or complete the activity safely.

This website was made by CAT Corner to help you explore your feelings through fun creative arts activities. The people using the website and the people responsible for them need to make sure they stay safe (full disclaimer on About page).