Compositional devices are the techniques composers use to shape and structure musical ideas over time—things like repetition (using a musical idea more than once), contrast (introducing something different), ostinato (a repeating rhythmic or melodic pattern), call and response (a musical conversation between parts), and variation (taking a theme and changing elements of it). In the Fun Music Company COMPOSE unit, these devices are introduced practically through the composition projects rather than as abstract theory. Students encounter repetition and contrast when they work with their own melodic fragments in Year 6; they work with ostinato in the improvisation projects; they use call and response structures in their vocal rap and chant projects. The devices are tools for making music, not vocabulary to memorise.