(part 9 of 20)
The Artist Trains the Mind’s Eye, the Composer Trains the Mind’s Ear
When composing, it’s important to keep the mind open to anything interesting that might turn up. Experiment and listen deeply. As soon as an interesting idea is discovered, stop. Repeat the idea, manipulate it, try to ‘hear’ where it wants to go, what might come before it, what sounds good underneath it, etc.
Mental focus will usually be trained on fine details, but it’s important to regularly ‘zoom out’ to hear the big picture. Quickly play a bit of the music that leads into this current section. Periodically skim through the entire composition to see if things flow as desired, and try to think about what would work well next, or what kind of end would be nice. Don’t lose sight of how all of the musical ideas work together to create the overall composition. The subject of ‘musical form’ can help with this. It will be covered a little later.
Whether experimenting with fine details or checking how ideas flow together, this whole process is like an artist sketching as a face gradually takes shape, visualizing how it might look with deeper set eyes, or with wild hair. The composer must learn to ‘visualize’ their music, hearing it in their imagination (audiation) as they play and manipulate it at the piano. They must learn to find the notes they hear. Ear training will help immensely, and in fact the composition-improvisation process itself helps train the ear.
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Index
- Introduction
- Why Piano?
- Improvisation:
- Notation:
- Related Skills/Knowledge:
- Composition: