Originally Posted by ultramarina
We keep offering my DD9 piano lessons on the theory that that would help her write music. She turns them down because she does not want to practice--although any time she's near a piano or keyboard (we don't own one), she sits and makes up songs. (She also writes songs on her recorder and writes them down.) Her free time is very precious to her, which I understand, given that she is in several after-school clubs she enjoys and has close to two hours of HW a day (yes, really). I guess this is a separate post, but I do wonder if I can enable the interest in songwriting somehow without getting her committed to a lot of time in lessons. It may just be a matter of finding some good software?

um, it sounds like you don't need to "enable her interest" - she's actively writing, isn't she? I'd let her continue as she is, and I suspect that at some point she'll most likely want further knowledge in music theory etc. It's ok if it doesn't happen right away as long as she's having fun. My ds loves to write songs too - he's taking piano lessons, but the songs he writes have nothing to do with what he studies in his piano lessons, they are mostly inspired by things he hears and enjoys, and just by banging around on the keyboard and finding something that sounds good to his ear. As long as your dd is satisfied she's able to write down and play back what she's hearing, I wouldn't stress over finding her technical help (lessons or online) at this point. Just let her be creative smile

polarbear