These findings suggest that: (a) age and developmental factors had an impact on the students' compositions, (b) involvement with their families' musical and nonmusical activities was somewhat related to the scores students received for their compositions, (c) the children's verbal and behavioral responses revealed quite a bit about their creative strategies and musical thinking skills---the compositional process---and that these were closely related to the judges' scores of the final product, and (d) the judges gave higher ratings to compositions that exhibited the conventional structural and musical characteristics of a "good" melody.

The purpose of this study was to examine the creative strategies children use when they composed a simple melody and to explore how these strategies were indicative of their musical thinking skills. The areas of particular interest were: (a) the effect, if any, that a child's gender, age, grade, musical experience, and previous musical training might have on his/her compositional outcome; and (b) the nature of the relationship between a child's observed behavioral and verbal responses with his/her composition ratings.

Forty children, between the ages of 8 and 12, composed a melody on a MIDI keyboard using only the black keys with a digitally recorded accompaniment. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, field notes, audiotaped recordings, and MIDI files. Three independent judges, using a consensual assessment technique, evaluated the compositions with a 7-point, Likert-type scale. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis procedures was used to define four data sets: Student Demographics, the Product, the Process, and Judges' Ratings.

A great deal can be understood about the compositional process through the examination of children's responses (verbal and behavioral) and the environmental, instructional, and psychological contexts of music-making activities and products. Further study is needed to address the importance of assessing compositional outcomes in the general music classroom while maintaining focus on the process elements, and the use of technology to assist in the construction and evaluation of compositional processes and products.

Due to the small sample size and exploratory nature of this study, these findings cannot be generalized to a larger population. However, the results indicated several areas that were significantly correlated with the Judges' Ratings, including: (a) age, grade level, and participation in family activities (musical and nonmusical), (b) each of the variables that defined the Process, and (c) compositions that had a limited, singable range, fewer individual notes, a higher number of keystrokes, and exhibited elements of continuity between phrases.