DIVING DEEPER INTO COMPOSITION

(part 12 of 20)

Getting Started with Composition

While improvising you might occasionally stumble upon a little melody, bassline, pattern, or other musical idea which you especially like. Stop. Write it down. It’s easy to rapidly forget these ideas, so get them down fast. Keep a notebook of them. This way when you start a new composition you’ll have plenty of material to choose 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 8 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 major, ‘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 16 measures long can be attempted. Younger children can start with shorter sections, roughly 4 measures long.

Once you have a few pieces like this under your belt, also try composing 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. You should try each approach at least 3 times. Later you might 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, 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 for your own compositions.

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

There are many good collections of short and simple pieces by great composers. Denes Agay compiled several, for example 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