Music lessons are offered in our music studios in Coquitlam and Port Moody, and online.

Composition (Songwriting)

Description and Objectives

 

In this course, students will focus on the ‘craft’ of musical composition through developing and practicing diverse compositional strategies. These strategies will be drawn either directly from the music material or from extra-musical ideas related to the material. As a part of this practice, students will be faced with different compositional challenges for which they have to find creative solutions.

 

During the course, students will become prepared for handling large-scale compositions through practicing ‘idea generation’, ‘idea exploration’ and, ‘plotting and planning forms’. The goal is to generate a huge amount of musical materials that would then be used as raw material to be organized and put together using a variety of formal strategies.

 

Discussion and analysis of students’ compositions in the class is an important part of the work. Class participation is thus very important as the students will show work in progress and provide constructive feedback on each others’ compositions on a weekly basis.

 

Listening, score-reading and analysis of compositions by prominent twentieth and twenty first century composers is also an important component of the course.

 

 

Recommended Resources

 

Materials and handouts provided by the teacher.

Samuel Adler, Orchestration

The Orchestra: A User’s Manual, http://andrewhugill.com/manuals/intro.html