Historically, music programs in K-12 schools have emphasized performance opportunities for children and young people. Until the release of the 1994 National Standards in Music, targeted instruction in composition was frequently overlooked due to the emphasis on performance as well as the expectations of what a school music program ought to produce…

This article reports on a school-based research project into teaching composing at GCSE, setting this alongside a review of the literature. It suggests that research into cognition in composing in school students and teaching composing within a school context may be synthesised by understanding composing as problem solving. Composing is described…