an article from…The American Music Educator’s Journal, Spring 2002

Focus on Advocacy and Partnership:
Teaching Composition to Young Musicians as a Residency Artist

The prospect of introducing junior high and high school age music, orchestra and band students to composition can be an intimidating one. During those awkward teenage years, kids often have difficulties being expressive and creative in constructive ways, especially with an instrument with which they may not be entirely comfortable or proficient. In this article I will outline some of the methods with which I have had success while teaching composition to young musicians as a residency artist. The residency described here was intended to take place in five sessions during one school week with a core group of students, but is relatively easy to expand or truncate.

Although a basic knowledge of music theory, especially counterpoint and harmony, are helpful if not necessary for any budding composer, it is better to begin composing by diving into creating music and sound. It is important that a student get comfortable with and interested in the idea of making his or her own music before he or she becomes too involved in and possibly bogged down by theory. This is especially important for students who have only a peripheral interest in music and composition.

With that in mind, I begin my first meeting with a group of composers-to-be by introducing myself and talking briefly about why I became interested in composing when I was their age. I then play excerpts from a set of eight preludes for solo guitar, each of which represents a specific emotion (desire, anger, elation, regret etc.). Rather than telling the class which emotion is being depicted by each prelude, I prefer to have the students deduce what the subject of each piece is by listening to basic musical elements such as rhythm, tempo, key (major or minor), texture and dynamics. This leads into a discussion about ways in which music can depict emotions, focusing on examples from the class of songs they know and like that do this successfully. In the second half of the session, each student chooses an emotion and improvises on their own instrument for a few seconds in a manor they feel represents that emotion. There are no restrictions regarding what sounds can be used and the students are encouraged to experiment. With some limited guidance after each improvisation, the students are asked to further develop their chosen emotion at home into a 10-20 second piece to present in the next class.

The second class begins with each student performing his or her ‘emotion piece’ for the class. I like to allow plenty of time for this so that each performer can talk about why they chose the sounds and notes they did and for comments from myself and from their classmates. After the student performances, I play a set of pieces called "Four Native Tales", each of which is based on a Native American myth. I use them to introduce the idea of writing music that tells a story. As with emotions, the students are asked to give examples of music they know that is descriptive or narrative. I end the class by talking about and demonstrating some of my favorite textures and sounds that are idiomatic to the guitar and that I have used to represents parts of stories or poems, and by giving the class a two-part assignment. Part one is to choose a story or poem they would like to depict with music. Part two is to explore some sounds on their instrument that they could use to represent events in their chosen narrative.

Session three begins with each student telling the class what story or poem they have chosen and playing the idiomatic sounds they have found that could be used to represent aspects of that story. In the second half of the session I introduce music that ‘paints a picture’, by playing a variety of pieces that either describe a scene ("Dance of the Harvest Fires" and "Starry Night on the Beach") or an area, city or country ("Mallorca"). We discuss songs they know which have a similar goal and they are asked to write a 10-20 second piece depicting a scene or a place they know to present in the following class.

As with the previous two workshops, the fourth session begins with the students presenting their pieces to the class, but rather than introducing a new compositional theme, the second half of this class focuses on ways in which the students can expand their short pieces into longer, more complete compositions. Using plenty of examples, I give cursory explanations of musical tools such as forms, sequencing, and variations (diminution, augmentation, inversion, etc.). For their final assignment, students are asked to choose one of the three compositions on which they have worked and begin developing it into a one to two minute piece to be finished over the next two weeks and presented in a student recital or assembly.

The final session is organized as a master class often is. Each student presents the piece they have chosen to expand and I discuss with them more specific ideas for finishing their work.

Because composition is arguably the most abstract of all the creative arts, it can seem daunting to many young music students. It was my goal when designing this residency to give young musicians more concrete ways of approaching music writing and to create an environment in which students feel comfortable taking chances. Though the pieces I use are ones that I have composed, there are plenty of pieces in every instrument’s repertoire that would be as effective in presenting the themes on which these workshops are based. However, I would recommend to any teacher wanting to adapt these methods for their own class, that he or she use some of their own music to create an atmosphere of reciprocity with his or her students.