In preparation for my lecture for the KMTA conference, I corresponded with a number of composers about their years as a piano student. I asked them the following questions:
1. What did you or your teacher do that helped you be a great composer?
2. What do you wish you would have done that you think would have made you a better composer?
I knew these were open ended questions when I asked and I also knew that I would receive very diverse responses. I was hoping that there might emerge some common thread amongst some or a majority of the respondents. Although no responses were identical, I did find some common threads that will help music teachers know what is important in helping composition students. In addition to the specific things that I was looking for, I was also blessed to receive some incredibly helpful thoughts from some very talented composers! I am so grateful for those who took the time to email me and further correspond when I had follow up questions. I especially enjoyed getting to know each composer and their diverse backgrounds better. I hope to be able to process their responses in a helpful way to piano teachers.
The following composers submitted details responses to the questions posed:
Tony Caramia
Carol Klose
Bradley Sowash
Jennifer Linn
Phillip Keveren
Gail Lew
Jason Sifford
Jon Ophoff (Randall and Nancy Fabers’ Creative Assistant and a composer himself!)
Mark Brymer (Arranger and choral composer for Hal Leonard)
Lisa Lukas
Mason Conklin
Robert Vandall
I’m going to be sharing some wonderful pieces of advice given by these composers, but for now I’m like to summarize what I believe were the three things that composers most often referenced:
1. Encourage Creativity. Some composers were grateful their teachers did this, while others wished their teachers had done this more.
2. Teach Theory. I think this might be obvious, but I’m often surprised when students tell me that their former teachers didn’t really work on theory with them. It’s not only good for composition, but a host of other things! For my lecture, I elaborated on how teachers can relate theory to composition for every new theory concept they introduce. This was my favorite part of the lecture!
3. Facilitate playing by ear. Don’t worry, none of them said that they only played by ear! But, a number of composers mentioned how important it was that they picked out tunes by ear, played by ear, played jazz (especially this!), etc.
These three things became the outline of my lecture. I’ll be sharing some of the subpoints about how to accomplish these tasks in later blog posts. Please feel free to share comments if this is an area or a post that interests you!
Thank you to all the composers who took the time to weigh in on this topic. I hope to make your responses as useful as possible to music teachers everywhere!
