puananni

I forgot to ask in my last post -- I have been reading and re-reading all these comments and the comments from my daughter's judge, and basically the comments are beyond my knowledge of music, so I am wanting to learn more about chords, cadences, progressions, harmonies, etc. I don't even know what the words "chromatic" or "harmonic" mean. I'm a voracious reader and researcher of any topic that interests me, so having a new topic to read and learn about will be a joy for me. Can you suggest a few lesson books, especially theory books with exercises that are useful to young composers who need to learn theory, even historical works about composers and composing techniques over the centuries, would be interesting. Then if she asks me why she can't get such-and-such section to sound the way she hears it in her head, maybe I can give her some guidance and explain why it works that way.

Thanks. I am going re-read your post many times to absorbe it all, and maybe read a few books and analyze some music. She really enjoys composing and sets her own goals for contests and just loves to create pieces to share with us, so there's no issue of pushing her. I think her love of composing is actually pushing me to learn more! She plays piano and flute, experiments with other things laying around the house like guitars, a pan flute, drums, etc. She has an excellent piano teacher. Maybe I should ask her teacher for a few extra lessons that are focused on chords, cadences, harmonies, progressions. But too much focus on composing does take away from learning the classical piano repetoire, so her teacher is helpful and supportive, but wants to balance put her lessons. Her ear and imagination are far beyond her techincal/theory/music knowledge so she gets frustrated when she thinks something is just not the way she wants it, but she doesn't know why or how to make it the way she wants it. So I thought if I could learn more about chords, progressions, harmonies and cadences, I could give some guidance. I'm enjoying watching this creative process because I never saw anything like this up close before. Thanks for writing all that. I'll be reading it over and over til it sinks in!

Thanks, so she should play the melody several times and each time put different chords with it to see what it sounds like? Are these cadences or chords in different keys? Sorry, I don't even know the right words to use! Basically, she wrote a 3 movement Sonatina. Each movement has maybe 2 different melody ideas or themes. She repeats the same thing too many times without varying the themes with different sounds. That's what the reviewer was getting at basically I think. If she could experiment with different ways of harmonizing, then when she repeats the same 8 measures, for example, it would sound different enough to be more interesting. Thanks. I will help her to experiment. Maybe she'll hit on something that she can use in her next round of pieces.

I was reading this forum to decide whether or not to let my daughter on it. She is 11 and started composing piano music when she was 8. She has competed in a few local and state original composition contests, mostly for piano music, but recently has composed some small ensemble pieces for flute and classical guitar. She is currently trying to write popular style Christmas songs. The reason I'm posting is that the review of her most recent classical-style contest pieces had some specific suggestions that I don't really understand, so I can't help her interpret them. He really liked her pieces, but his suggestions are beyond my knowledge, so I haven't been able to interpret them for her. Maybe someone can point me to some resources, books or lessons on melody and harmony, cadences, chord progressions, or other areas of theory that would be helpful. I can play several instruments, but I never composed or arranged anything. I've got high school level piano music theory. This is some of what he said about her Sonatina: - "In Mvt I, I felt that some of your pitch choices for melodies and chords could have been more carefully chosen. I like that you went for a chromatic feel with lots of half step accidentals, just be careful how you use them so that the audience can still follow where you are trying to lead them." - "...staying in one harmonic are for that long can make it hard for the audience to notice that you've made any variations, even when you did." - He rated her piece Superior. This is some of what he said about her flute and guitar ensemble piece: - "I wish that you would have developed more melodies and especially more harmonies." - "You use the same two basic chords as the background for the entire piece. I would challenge you to explore developing the harmony more ... - "You can still create a cohesive piece, but going further would increase interest and audience enjoyment." - He rated her piece Excellent. Then he made this comment about her composing skills in general: - "I think that you need to make expanding your harmonic vocabulary your main goal - your melodies are too good to be limited by a small collection of pitch to surround them with." - This comment seems very helpful, but I don't undertstand it well enough to give her a few examples to illustrate his point. If I could do that then she would really really understand it too. Maybe some of you that know more about composing and theory can help me to interpret these comments. For example, I don't know how to even tell what "basic chord" is in the background, and what it would sound like to vary that, and what chords to use to vary the sound. Right now, I can't show my daughter examples or anything like that to illustrate his comments. If I could, then she would take that knowledge and apply it to her own creativity. Even if she never really understands these comments, she'll continue to enjoy composing, but she is so bright that if I can help her to get what he's saying, she'll run with it. Thanks!