Teaching composing

[bizgirl]

How do you teach student to compose?  I have a few who absolutely love doing it, and if I give them a stack of manuscript paper they will bring it back the next week filled with music they have created.  I know composing comes naturally to some and is very difficult for others.  I told one student we were going to try to compose something, just a few lines, during his lesson one day and he just stared at me like I was crazy.  We talked about things he liked and how they would sound if rexpressed in music, etc., but he wasn't very interested.  How do you get these creative juices flowing?  Do you ask any particular questions?  Or just let them go at it?  Thanks!

[willcowskitz]

Just an idea: maybe you could give them interesting melodies and ask them to change certain amount of notes to something else. This would make them try find their inner music by altering existing music a little, maybe even have them understand why is it that they like that particular melody, etc...  Help them open the channel.

[ted]

Perhaps improvisation would be a good idea. Writing out music is very slow, after all, and possibly puts many spontaneously creative people off. As you say, some like the act of writing, but many find improvisation a more natural vehicle of expression. Once that is established, they can write out whichever bits they want to preserve in the form of compositions. Improvisation can be either an end in itself or a compositional tool - doesn't matter which - it's all creative.

[bizgirl]

Great ideas!  Thanks!

I know some students are just too self-conscious to try to make something up on the spot (If my first teacher had asked me to do this when I was just beginning lessons I don't think I could have done it).  I always try make sure my students feel perfectly comfortable around me, but some are just too shy.  I think asking them to change a specific number of notes would be really great because they could do it at home a few times and get used to it and then we could progress to other things at the lessons.  Thanks again!

[lostinidlewonder]

Teach them particular scales. Like The Pentatonic, Whole Tone, Dorian etc etc. Jazz scales, chords, rhythms riffs etc. Show them how to derive all the different type of modes from the scales examined, and which mode progressions are useful for their own compostions. These are building blocks for music, so if they have good foundation on these then it offers them more to base their compositions on. Show them chrod progressions and ask them to utilise them in a short piece or just a single phrase of music. Getting overly strict on form, and classical composition is useless, teach the building blocks of music first, then if they are still interested they will naturally go deeper into "stricter" composition.

[richard w]

Well, this is just another idea which might work for some students, but you could try out the more formal approach of harmony or counterpoint. Such skills would be of great benefit to musical learning, whilst at the same time would give some constraints to the student's creativity. As you have identified already, it is often very difficult to know where to start when you can do absolutely anything. Once the student has learned the rules of a certain idiom, they may find it easier to start from scratch with a completely original composition. In fact, you needn't feel constrained to harmony or counterpoint - you could choose any number of styles in which to give the student a very limited range of options. Start with a filling-in-blanks approach, and just gradually extend the blanks.

[pianonut]

dear bizgirl,  i agree with richard.  i do a little composing myself, when i am done practicing.  it is a fun creative outlet, but i never could have done it without some knowledge of theory, harmony, and counterpoint.  i would suggest to your students to take some at a local community college, or university.  OR, just buy them the books and say "in your spare time."  there are workbooks galore to fill in, as richard suggested.  then when you want to create, you can explain your process.

if you are an especially creative composition teacher, you could also take a piece of music (already created) - and go through an analysis with your student and then ask them to analyze a similar piece.  then the following week, to compose a piece of that style, genre, and feeling.  copying music is a good way to familiarize oneself, too, to the intricacies of writing staff/notes/ etc. properly.

[willcowskitz]

dear bizgirl,  i agree with richard.  i do a little composing myself, when i am done practicing.  it is a fun creative outlet, but i never could have done it without some knowledge of theory, harmony, and counterpoint.

I disagree. To compose one needs nothing but an instrument, pen, paper, musicality and some creativity, for the least. Sequencing your music - articulating it on paper in an understandable, universal language that can be understood and interpreted by others - is another thing. Sense and concepts of rhythm and beat come on by itself when one listens to sensible music written in that universal language. Of course, *generating* music becomes heaps easier when one is familiar with theory, but that has necessarily nothing to do with creativity.

[pianonut]

Dear Will,  Yes, you can compose music without a lot of knowledge of theory, harmony, and all, but it's a more laborious project.  After going through workbooks and copying some music, it becomes easier to write time signatures, clefs, notes, dynamics, etc.

i used to transpose music for my husband, and found that the pieces i transposed first were very hard to read.  i'm not perfect yet, but the music i copy now is a bit easier to read (unless it's a hastily written something that i needed to jot down quickly).  i suppose that budding composers might find something on the internet to help them put things down in a correct way, and step wise (like a theory workbook).  i'll look.