Composition Folio

Blog Entry (16.10.17) Now it's my turn to test out my "Baby steps" formula to see how it works and if it can lead to a 2-3 minute considered composition. I need to make sure that the structure in place can work and helps students move quickly from the blank page to something workable. Also that along the way, should they (or I) get stuck, there is something to go back and point them in the right direction.

My first step (besides listening and playing some other minimalist works which I had been doing for the first part of this project which helped immensely) was to improvise using the A minor pentatonic scale and some given rhythms. I used the two against three triplet idea and improvised first on the piano, then using Soundtrap. Playing around with only 5 notes was extremely helpful in the beginning, with limited choices I had to use what was available to try to be creative with "no wrong answers" (Freedman, 2013, p. 134). However I did very quickly extend this to the full natural A minor scale. An option that would not be a problem to provide students, but having the limited choice in the beginning definitely helps to get started. As DeSantis (2015) states to avoide the dreaded blank page just"begin with just one part...before thinknig about adding more elements" (p. 55)

Following my "baby steps" I began with developing the main ostinato and then played around with what happened when I changed two notes. I was aiming to get the minimalist feel of pitch slowly evolving with the ostinato. I then added a drone but decided to test out this as a repeated note instead of a held pedal point note. Adding the drone made me also start thinking more about instruments and which instruments would be playing what part.

Post reflection: Interestingly I kept a lot of these initial improvised ideas in some way or other in the final composition work.

DeSantis, D. (2015). Making Music, 74 Creative Strategis for Electronic Music Producers. Berlin, Germany: Abelton.

Freedman, B. (2013). Teaching music through composition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.