Lesson with Kia

We have decided with Kia that she will write a piano sonata. I asked her to analyse a piece and she wrote to me a very detailed analysis from which I could judge her music knowledge and how she approaches to the understanding of it and decided that she could be able to write a piano sonata.

Kia, now I want you to do these.

-Write 5-6 themes. One of them a melodic one. One rhythmic, one of them with chords (no melody just chords, top voices of chords should be the melody), and another one with accents (accents should dominate the melody), and some other ones that comes to your mind. These melodies should be very short, maybe 3-4 measures. It's up to you. Don't think big- just yet.

From these themes we will work our way on developing them and preparing our materials towards the piece. But remember, now you should limit yourself to only themes don't think big for now, there will be time for that later. Concentrate on the themes and don't over think them, write the first thing that comes to your mind. Often when you think so much you loose your creative energy and find yourself forced to do something.

Just a few questions:

Do these themes need to be in regular meter, or can it be more free-form? Also, what file format should I post in? I can post in both Finale and MIDI.

I am sorry for responding late, but currently I am on a short holliday in cyprus.

KSP, remember, I am not going to restrict you in anything. What I will try you to do is to help you develop your ideas your way and lead you through the process of composing. So keep in mind this and please be free as possible.

As I said before write off some materials, themes that we can work on and develop. Follow my previous post for guidelines.

I prefer Finale format, thats what I use. However if you use sibelius, midi will do.

On the other hand, if you use finale it will be great since I will have the possibility to attach text comments on the score.

So go on and write some melodies, do not over think! Improvise on piano and come up with some themes. Try to write contrasting themes as I have tried to explain on my previous post.