Music Composition Toolbox

Composing music is a rewarding, creative learning experience. For students it offers an unparalleled insight into the underlying workings of music and develops musicianship. Performance-orientated students become more sophisticated interpreters through the task of composition. A musicology student who composes will quickly learn useful observational tools for analysing historical works. Above all, composition is a form of self expression, and as such helps students� personal growth and self esteem.

In designing this book, the authors kept returning to the same issue: teaching composition can be daunting. Composition is a living, breathing artform which adapts and grows as society changes. There is no definitive text from which to teach. The question for a music teacher and student composer therefore remains, "Where do I start?" This book provides a solution.

Music Composition Toolbox offers modules, examples and exercises which introduce and illustrate a range of useful basic composition techniques. In this book the student will encounter suggestions covering pitch, rhythm, harmony, texture, timbre and organizing material. It also deals with creativity and aims to provide initial inspiration.

The modules in Music Composition Toolbox are applicable to secondary or early tertiary students. The exercises in each module are designed to encourage students to work with targeted concepts, learning discrete compositional techniques which can later be used in combination. These features provide starting points every student needs to write their first compositions, develop their own compositional techniques, and perhaps in time, develop their own distinctive compositional voice.

Preface

Table of Contents