Composing is hard work. But creating things is one of the most satisfactory feelings known to humankind. These posts are written to help you as a composer or as a teacher who wants to help your students learn how to compose more easily.
This page shows you the 10 most recent posts for composing. If you wish to see more composing posts, please click here.
- Inspiration, Procrastination, Distraction, and Efficiency – The Truth About the Creative Process
Last year, there was almost no new holiday, Christmas or winter pieces. After the autumn webinar, I hit a wall. I was exhausted, several crises had happened, I had been sick for weeks, things were ramping up with my kids starting school. And I just didn’t feel like composing holiday music. This is unusual for… Read more: Inspiration, Procrastination, Distraction, and Efficiency – The Truth About the Creative Process - Falling to the Level of Our Systems
We’re a month into the new year and this is always a good time for me to process how my goals for the year are progressing. So far this year, I’ve found this quote has been very helpful: “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your… Read more: Falling to the Level of Our Systems - Your Smart Scales Questions Answered by Diane Hidy
Smart Scales is such a unique resource that we wanted to take a moment to help you understand how to use it. We’ve received some wonderful questions in the past, so we thought a Q&A blog post featuring the author and composer, Diane Hidy, would be a great idea! If you have other Smart Scales… Read more: Your Smart Scales Questions Answered by Diane Hidy - Creating the Cover for an Elementary Piano Solo
This is Part 4 of a series called The Process of Composing an Elementary Piano Solo. Here is Part 1 on writing the lyrics and Part 2 on composing the music and Part 3 on editing the music. Besides composing the piece, creating the cover for an elementary piano solo is one of my most… Read more: Creating the Cover for an Elementary Piano Solo - The Editing Process of an Elementary Piano Solo
This is Part 3 of a series called The Process of Composing an Elementary Piano Solo. Here is Part 1 on writing the lyrics and Part 2 on composing the music. Call me a weirdo, but I really like the editing process. Maybe it’s because editing means that I’m through the difficult process of coming… Read more: The Editing Process of an Elementary Piano Solo - Composing the Music of an Elementary Piano Solo
This is Part 2 of a new series called The Process of Composing an Elementary Piano Solo. In the first post of this series, I talked about how I write lyrics for an elementary piece of music. The article told you about the tedious (and fun) process in a careful, need, and linear way. But… Read more: Composing the Music of an Elementary Piano Solo - Writing Lyrics for an Elementary Piano Solo
This is Part 1 of a new series called The Process of Composing an Elementary Piano Solo. I did something a little unusual as I was creating the two new Adventures of Little Fuzzies pieces: Easter Egg Hunt and April Fools’ Mischief. I started journaling about the composing process. It was fascinating even for myself… Read more: Writing Lyrics for an Elementary Piano Solo - How to Add a Composer of the Month to Your Studio
It was my first “real” teaching job – the elementary music teacher for a small school. I was to share the class with the upper grades music teacher, who had been there for years and had many traditions. One of those traditions was “Cool Dead Dudes.” I found a poster labeled “Cool Dead Dudes”, with… Read more: How to Add a Composer of the Month to Your Studio - 4 Words to Get You Moving and Creating
I ran across an article a few months back that I now think is so important in my life that I re-read it every week. Even without the pandemic and its continuing strain on our energy level, the difficulty of finding time to do our most important projects is difficult. I’m sure you’ve heard of… Read more: 4 Words to Get You Moving and Creating - Not Feeling Your Pre-Pandemic Self?
Last week, I said in the ComposeCreate newsletter that I had some encouraging thoughts percolating if you weren’t feeling your pre-pandemic self, but I joked that I had to find some pre-pandemic energy to write about it. That was no joke. Where is the energy I thought I’d have once vaccinations rolled out and things started opening… Read more: Not Feeling Your Pre-Pandemic Self?
