Here is a list of some of the composition competitions of which I am aware. If you know of others, please leave them in the comments section and I’ll add them! (more…)
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Tips and Tricks for Upcoming Composition Contests
Tips and Tricks for Upcoming Composition Contests
I know there are a number of states that have composition contests around this time of year. Last year I was privileged to judge the Texas MTA contest with Melody Bober and David Karp. This year, I get to hear and evaluate the students in Indiana. So I thought it might be appropriate to share some articles about how to teach composition or help […]
Your Students Will Surprise You!
I’m a few weeks into the Fall Lesson Book Bash incentive program and I am absolutely thrilled with what my students are doing*. Yes, they are making great progress in their lesson books, but more importantly they are coming up with all kinds of little “creative flairs” for their pieces. What’s thrilling to me is that several students who have never thought of […]
Advice for Beginner Composers
This is a wonderful collection of advice from Ira Glass, writer and host of This American Life. It’s great advice to the young songwriters that I trained last week, and even continues to be good advice for me though more experienced in composing.
Summer Camp for Junior Composers
Someone recently told me about an excellent summer opportunity for jr. composers called The Junior Composers Institute. JCI will be held this year from July 15-21st in Minneapolis, MN.
There is no restriction to applying for any of the three programs other than age and paying the fees. There is even a two week program that has no formal restrictions other than age (14-20). […]
Thoughts on Teaching Composition with Carol Klose
I am thrilled that there is finally a resource book for teachers on teaching composition to piano students! Carol Klose has written Piano Teacher’s Guide to Creative Composition and it contains a great list ideas and tips on teaching composition to our students. I recently interviewed Carol about her book at which time she also gave a number of tips for working with […]
Creating Interesting Harmony: RE-harmonizing
One of the first harmonizing activities I like to do with all levels of students is to harmonize and re-harmonize a familiar folk tune. I particularly like to do this with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as it harmonizes with traditional I, IV and V7 harmony as well as harmonizes with many secondary chords and seventh chords. Here is how I introduce it, sometimes combining […]
Harmonizing Compositions
There’s now a pretty extensive index of how to work on composing melodies with your students. Check out the Index of Composition Corner Articles for lots of ideas! Several of you have asked about how to proceed with harmony, so I wanted to write some posts about this.
It might be helpful just to begin listing all of the things you could teach in […]
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Index of Composition Corner Posts
Index of Composition Corner Posts
Recently, I published an Index of Dollars and Sense posts so that you can quickly find the areas that interest you. I’m getting more and more questions about teaching composition, so I thought it might be helpful to also post an index of the Composition Corner posts. In addition to seeing them below with annotations, you can also see these articles here.
Keep […]
Students Who Compose but Can’t Read Difficult Rhythms
I wanted to revive the Composition Corner Q & A segment since I’m getting all kinds of questions via email and Facebook. Recently, Becky asked me on the ComposeCreate FB page:
I just finished working with my students and submitting their compositions to our state composition festival (Indiana). Three of my elementary students composed pieces where I had to help them with their more complex […]
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