Paint The Canvas

This is the "doing" part of everything that you have learned so far! It is, by far, the single most important thing when learning to write music or just learning in general. In high school, most of the facts and material is handed to you. Someone may study (or more so memorize) certain facts for a test. They may get an A, a B, or possibly a C. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean he or she can apply what they have learned to tangible situations. They might have forgotten everything and they have no use for those dumb facts after the test. Same thing applies to everything I said on previous theory pages; everything is rendered pointless if no application of those fundamentals is done. If anything, that fundamental knowledge is a tool you can use at your disposal!

Here I attest that physically or mentally creating something with the knowledge and experience I have accumulated is more rewarding than a stupid test. The knowledge and experience sticks with you. So I challenge you to start to sketch out an actually image in your mind. An image that you can base your music off of. Use bass lines and chords to do a rough sketch. Next, bring in the melody and then harmonize. These two aspects of the music create the line work on the canvas. Look closely at voice leading and what kind of character is presented in the piece. Then, look at each musical phrase as well as dynamic contrast; these are your colors you wish to paint onto your canvas. Music is what will describe the image you're creating and, more or less, become part of the image.

If this does not work out, start over from scratch or revise until your happy with your piece. Get feedback from your peers or other club members. As I probably said before on other pages of this website, they are here to help!