Workshop #13 Young Composers & Improvisors Workshop Recordings

I started with my main melody. My main melody came from a different assignment. The clarinet plays my main melody. I named the title of my piece Flowy mountain time with Mr. Schnall because the notes look like a flowy mountain and it is by me. My last name is Schnall. A challenge for me was that some of the notes didn't sound right together. Also I had a hard time not going from a low note to a high note right away. It has been easy and hard at times. I have learned that It takes a long time to compose music.

I started with a main melody. I really like high notes. I really like smooth shapes so I made a main melody with both of those things in it. Most every instrument plays the main melody in different parts. The title of my piece relates to it because it is in a high range and it goes up and down. A challenge for me was fixing clashes in between two or more notes. I learned that when you are composing music, it is hard to come up with a background part. Also, that every instrument has to have a dynamic marking.

I made a melody then I made another one, then another one to see what I liked. Finally I made a good one and then I chose it and added different things like just steady beats. Though it was hard to get a melody and make notes connect it was super duper fun. I learned how to check other peoples songs and what its like to make music.

I started with a main melody and then added the other pieces like flute, violin, bassoon, then added my solo piece and finally added details . How I usually come up with ideas is I make a sound in my head or rhythm in my head that I like and then try to put it on noteflight. I once got inspired from Matt when he showed us something we could do on noteflight and then our group saw little videos of his pieces. I would then think, oh I like that, and see if I could do something not the same but similar to what he showed us. My piece is called Bumpy Ocean in Motion because my piece never really stays the same volume, never really stays fast or slow, it mostly goes up and down like an ocean in motion. The bumpy part of the title means basically the same think (up and down). Motion means move/action and that is what my piece is doing, it is moving everywhere. My piece's main melody is in the cello, but my solo piece is the violin because it can play fast and I have a really fast part in the solo. In my sequence you can not really tell where the main melody is but that’s my best part. I had a challenge when I had to make the background part because I wanted to hear the main melody and at the same time I wanted it to sound good so that was hard for me to do. It was also kind of challenging to try to make all the notes sound good together, (not as many clashes). I think that it is really fun to compose music, also I have never done it so I have learned a lot. It was fun to experiment with a lot of notes to see what sounded good and what didn't, I thought that was really fun. Making up your own piece and everything is up to you to decide. I learned a lot. I learned how to add dynamics, how to add articulations, what a sequence is. I also learned about clashes and about crescendos and decrescendo. I learned even more then that, I have learned a lot. I hope you enjoy it.

I wanted to start with C position and then go scale back up. The instruments that play the main melody are the flute and french horn. I named my piece the way I did because my mom told me she liked the parts where all the instruments play and I thought it sounded like a frog so my story was supposed to be about a frog singing and being happy until it gets agitated and then croaks and then is happy again so that is my story. I had some trouble picking what instruments I wanted to play my piece. At first some instruments didn't sound right together, and that lead into another problem that wasn't as big but we had to fix the dissonances. I think I learned a lot more about articulations and dynamics because before I wasn't so good at that but now I know more symbols in music.

Composing a piece takes a lot of different steps. We first chose 1 instrument and made a 4 measure piece. That is what everyone started out with. Then we started to learn more about which notes sounded good together and which didn't. Every step leaded to another from making new sections and orders in our piece to adding new instruments. I know my piece has evolved so much and everyone else s. My piece is called the Wind in The Woods because background parts represent the woods and the high, main parts like the flute or the violin represents the wind and how it gradually moves through the woods. An important thing about my piece is that each time the chorus changes a little bit with loudness and softness and the articulations. I struggled making this piece when I was adding Dynamics, Articulations and the other instruments we had to add. Finding out what sounds good can be a little hard. This year I have learned so much about making music like Dynamics, Articulations, Skips, Steps, Leaps, things I would have never learned without making this piece. Composing feels like a whole lot of responsibility, but in a good way. You can make those beats in your head or the songs you hum a reality. That feels amazing.

I just put in all steps in the C scale then pushed some notes around to make them sound the way I want to. The Violin has the main melody that means that it is playing all the time. Some challenges were when you have to go into your composition and color all the clashes red. Clashes are when two notes are dissonant with each other.(that makes you piece sound bad). I learned that you can make your piece sound any way you want. I also learned that you need to look for clashes because if you don't your piece would sound terrible.

Well I used my first melody. My first melody was a simple up and down melody that we had to do for an assignment. My main melody is the Violin, he will be playing mostly the same thing. My title is the long black river that means that it will have some smooth parts and some rough parts. I had trouble adding dynamics and articulations to my piece. It was a lot of fun making music this year especially with Matt. I learned that music can be a lot of fun if you put effort in it.

I came up with my melody by playing notes together and hearing how they sound together and I heard notes that sounded good together and I picked those notes. The cello,violin and the flute play my main melody. The Bass Clarinet plays my melody once in the beginning. I picked the name because my song sounds bumpy because the note go high and low. I think the story is one main melody that goes and meets others. One challenge I had was to put articulations in because at first it was hard to learn how to put them on your piece and what they mean. I think that music was challenging but fun because I learned a lot and I now know new stuff like what dynamics and articulations are.

First I made main melody, it was pretty random at first. Then my second part was a lot different, I was totally stumped on what I wanted to add, but then I thought of putting my main melody into the next instrument. I changed a lot on my piece by adding and subtracting. I have loved composing music. I had so much fun and I look forward to my next one.