Creative aspects of musical compositions and invented stories by 3-5 year old children: originality, structure, and expressiveness

The purposes of the study were 1) to illustrate creative aspects of musical compositions and invented stories by 3 - 5 year old children in terms of originality, structure, and expressiveness, and 2) to find out similarities and differences between the creative aspects in musical compositions and invented stories. Initially 36 children aged 3 - 5 years old participated in the study, but only seven of them could finish the tasks of composing music and story-telling. In total, 19 musical compositions and 14 stories were collected by videotape-recording, which were evaluated by expert judges in music and children's literature. Interjudge reliabilities were r = .87 for musical compositions and r = .72 for invented stories. The results showed the following: 1) Children made their music compositions and stories original by producing variations of well-known songs and stories or by making up completely new and unusual songs and stories. 2) Children structured their musical compositions and stories with clear beginnings, middles, and endings. Structures used for musical compositions had clear tonal centers, sequential phrases, and structural unity between the melody and the words; and those for story-telling used search themes, cumulative stories, and narrative stories. 3) Children made their musical compositions and stories expressive by changing musical elements, such as dynamics and pitches and by using adjectives and descriptive words; and by using expressive delivery with gestures and facial expressions in both activities. The findings can be useful in instructing creative activities with composing music and story-telling.