PE Composition Contest

The January issue of the Piano Explorer has arrived and the details of their annual composition contest are included.  If you are a student in my studio, you can pick up your copy at your first lesson in January, but I wanted to give you the details so that you can work on this over your break (since you will only have 1 month to complete your piece due to our schedule).

This years theme is animals.  You are instructed to pick and animal (or animals) and describe it with your music.  “You can write about a pet, an animal you saw at a zoo or in a book, or any creature you are interested in.” 

Here are some questions to answer to help you get started:

1. What animal do you want to write about?
2. What kind of things does this animal do?  (Make a list.)
3. How does your animal act? 
4. What kind of personality does this animal do? (Think about some of those adjectives we used in the Jingle Bells Variations…energetic, lazy, angry, animated, etc.)

Remember that good answers to these questions in the beginning will help you shape the composition.  After you have answered these questions, ask yourself how the answers might be depicted on the piano.  For example, if your animal is scared, how would you depict that in music?  (Some possible answers might be use minor, high sounds, fast and frantic music, half steps which sound creepy, etc.)  Then, try to come up with a good motive and melody for your A section.  We can fine tune your A section at the first January lesson.

Here are the rules of the contest:

1. You must subscribe to the Piano Explorer (all my students are).
2. Only solo piano music will be considered.
3. All submissions must be postmarked or faxed by March 5, but you’ll need to have yours finished by the end of January because of our unique schedule this year.
4. All of your composition must be written by you, but I can help you write it down.
5. Do not copy other pieces of music in your compositions.  Your piece will not be considered if you use other people’s music as that is a violation of copyright laws.
6. No submissions will be returned, so we will keep a copy for you.

Good luck!