ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the kind of classroom environment needed to support children as they learn to write and read music creatively. It also explores not only the types of resources and activities that support creative work, but also the ways that the teacher can model creative approaches and demonstrate trust towards the pupils. The chapter examines a few open-ended activities that teachers introduce to help young pupils develop their own notational systems, including examples produced by primary school children. Throughout, the interaction between musical performances and notational systems will be described, showing how ideas are linked and developed further. The chapter also examines the relationship between invented music notations and invented notations in language. It looks at how invented notations can be bridged to standard notational forms through composition and performance. But when children are immersed in an environment rich with possibilities for musical creation, they develop an astonishing variety of symbols and strategies to notate rhythms and melodies.
