students may visually recognize music notes as representations of musical sounds and

be capable of verbally decoding the letter names or solfege symbols of the pitches,

playing the pitches on an instrument presents an eye-hand coordination challenge.

Often, elementary music teachers face this obstacle and find unsatisfactory results in

students' performance on classroom instruments such as the xylophone.

      Many elementary music teachers implement teaching strategies and methods to

assist students in playing the xylophone successfully. For example, teachers may focus

on technique and posture, may remove unnecessary bars from the instrument, may use

mnemonic devices to direct students, or may provide visual reinforcement of the

material. Even with these strategies, some students still experience difficulty in

decoding written music notation and transferring it to the xylophone.

                            Significance of the Problem

      Teaching young students to compose and perform their own music presents

many challenges. Yet, if music educators are to address this national standard within

the curriculum, it is important that teaching strategies and materials offer appropriate

experiences for music students. It is also important that students feel confident in their

abilities to notate and perform their own creations. Failure to provide composition

opportunities at the elementary school level because of the challenges involved not only

excludes one of the national standards for music education, but also deprives students

of the creative process and performance of their own original work.

      Various factors may affect music educators' exclusion of composition in the

elementary music classroom. Music teachers may not have experienced the process of

composition enough themselves to feel comfortable teaching it to their students.

Teachers may be concerned that the notation skills necessary are too difficult to teach.