On June 6th, I had the privilege of giving a presentation to the Kansas Music Teachers Association entitled, Composition for Kids: Time Saving Ways to Encourage Composition.  The KMTA teachers were very encouraging and participatory and I enjoyed their contributions

I’m finally making some progress on editing the Composition for Kids video presentation.  I do hope to have some of these available to watch starting next week!  I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t forgotten.  In the

Linda Kennedy, an amazing teacher from Arkansas, has been adopting a composer every year for 11 years!  Her program has been such a success that I have asked her to write an article about how other studios and organizations could

Setting musical parameters is important for students who are learning to compose.  When there are no parameters and the “skies the limit,” students have trouble focusing and often produce directionless music.  I love what Janet Lanier recently suggested on Twitter

I’m getting ahead of myself, but my 2nd point at the KMTA Conference lecture Composition for Kids was “Relate Theory To Composition.”  I’m going to be talking about this in a later post, but I thought the KMTA members might

Thanks to all the KMTA members who helped make my presentation on Saturday successful.  I appreciate your participating in the session though it was early in the morning!  I am grateful for your interest in the topic of Composition for

In working with student composers, I have discovered that students struggle with 2 major areas of composition: melody and form.  These trouble areas tend to manifest themselves in the following ways: Too many motivic ideas in one piece Too much repetition (too