DIVING DEEPER INTO COMPOSITION

(part 12 of 20)

Getting Started with Composition

While improvising, an especially interesting little melody, bassline, pattern, or other musical idea might appear. Stop. Write it down. It’s easy to rapidly forget these ideas, so get them down fast. Keep a notebook of them. Jot down a little description for each: “light and delicate,” “dark and intense,” “fast and effortless.” This way when starting a new composition there will be plenty of material to draw from.

Compose many short pieces, about one page each, built with only melody and bassline. Write the melody and bassline simultaneously. Simple two-part baroque dances for keyboard are great models (such as the famous Minuet in G from the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook). Write the first section (A) to be roughly eight measures long. Next write a second section (B) of similar length to compliment it. The B section might share the same character as A, or it might contrast A. For example, if ‘A’ is in a major key, ‘B’ could be minor, or in a different key, or rhythmically more active, etc. Either section can include a repeat, or both can repeat. Eventually sections roughly sixteen measures long can be attempted. Younger children can start with shorter sections, roughly four measures long (likely with repeats).

After several pieces like this are completed, try composing a piece with a bassline alone first. Think of it as a simple low melody. Once complete, add a melody above. Then try the opposite: melody first, bassline second. Try each approach several times. Later on, try these methods in longer forms.

Study the work of the masters, starting with their shortest/simplest compositions. Many composers wrote little piano pieces. Play them and learn their form: where sections repeat, where there are variations, where there are sequences, transitions, codas, introductions, etc. Study a wide variety of these little pieces and use them as models.

Carefully studying scores can be very beneficial. However, by playing them at the piano–with an eye (and ear) towards structure–much more will be absorbed than through analysis alone.

There are many collections of short and simple pieces by great composers. Denes Agay compiled several, like Easy Classics to Moderns and More Easy Classics to Moderns.

Next

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Index

• Introduction
• Why Piano?
• Improvisation:
  • Performance-Improvisation vs Composition-Improvisation
  • Learning to Improvise
  • More Improvisation Techniques
• Notation:
  • Computer Notation
  • Learning Notation
• Related Skills/Knowledge:
  • Music Theory
  • The Artist Trains the Mind’s Eye, the Composer Trains the Mind’s Ear
  • Ear Training
  • Musical Form
• Composition:
  • Getting Started with Composition
  • More on Baroque Dances, Simple Forms, & Repetition
  • Composition Exercise using Baroque Dance
  • More Advanced Composition
  • Other Forms
  • Counterpoint
  • Aesthetics
  • Writing for Other Instruments
  • The Elusive Creative Flow