Getting a Student Started Composing

Some students have an intense desire to compose, but just don’t know where to start.  For these students, it is helpful to have a subject or topic for composing.  

Every year the Piano Explorer has a composition contest and announce a subject in January.  After the subject is announced, some of my students just take off and begin composing.  Others just sit on the bench and look and me, shrugging their shoulders when I ask them about their ideas!  For these students, I go through a series of questions.  To illustrate this process, I will use the subject of this year’s composition contest: Your favorite character (in a book, movie, or play).   Here are the questions that I asked my students to get them started:

1.  What are some of your favorite characters? red-question-mark
Some students will need more specific questions:
What are you reading? What is your favorite book?
What is your favorite movie? Which character do you like in the movie?

2.  What are these characters like?
This is one of the most important steps as the student begins brainstorming with words that will suggest certain kinds of music.  Answers might include things like: scared, shy, smart, clumsy, friendly, creepy, etc. 

3.   How would you make music that sounds like your character?
How would you make music that sounds creepy?  How would you make music that sounds clumsy?  What would shy music be like?

This is the point that teaching usually begins for me.  If the student shrugs at the question of how to make music that sounds creepy, I start giving them ideas about how other creepy music is constructed.  Half steps, tritones, tremelos, minor scales…I love to use this opportunity to teach new theory concepts that students might normally yawn while learning.  I can also ask them if they have any pieces that they have been playing that are “creepy.”  Then, we take a look at that piece and ask, “What makes it sound creepy?” 

If there were one thing that I would encourage all budding composers to do, it would be to ask more questions.  Asking “Why” and “How” and taking the time to answer these questions gives the composer more ideas and vocabulary with which to work .

Teach your students to ask “What,” “Why,” and “How.”  Even if you don’t know the answer, brainstorming together can open the door to new possibilities for composition.

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