Composition Project

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson I'd like to guide you through some steps for creating your very own
original composition.
That's right. Today you are the composer.
To help with this composition project, I've prepared a worksheet for you to complete which as always you can download from our website.
Go ahead and pause the video now to download and print this worksheet so you can fill it out as you go through this lesson.
Alright, let's start with step one for your composition project,
which is to choose a mood or emotion for your piece.
Today I'll guide you through creating a piece in the form A B A with that last A having a coda.
So you'll want to choose a mood or emotion for your A section, and then you'll want a different mood or emotion for your B section.
Now, they don't have to be total opposites. In fact, they can be similar or they could be contrasting. Anything is possible.
Now, why am I having you start by choosing the mood?
Well, when I compose I find it's very important to know clearly the feeling I'm going for
because the mood affects every other compositional decision I make.
So, now at this point pause the video and choose the mood or emotion for your A section and also for your B section, and remember
don't stress about getting it perfect. You can always change your mind later. This is your composition.
Okay, go ahead and pause the video and decide on the mood for your composition.
Step two is to choose a tempo key and time signature for your composition.
In choosing your tempo, try and choose something that will support the moods you chose for both sections up in step one.
If we were going to compose a long piece, then we might think about having one tempo for our A section and a different tempo for our B section.
However, for this composition project since we're just going for a medium-sized or short size composition,
I recommend choosing one tempo that will work for both your A section and your B section.
Of course, you're the composer so if you're really itching to throw in a tempo change in the middle of your piece, go for it.
You and you alone have the final say on everything.
When choosing a tempo, you can use one of the traditional Italian tempo indications that are frequently used in music
like largo, adagio, allegro, or presto,
or you can go with a more modern trend to use standard English words or whatever your native language is to describe the tempo.
Like, your tempo indication could be moderately fast, or your tempo indication could mention both speed and mood
like peacefully flowing or fast with excitement.
So now pause the video and choose your tempo indication.
Once again, remember this doesn't have to be permanent.
Just put something down to get started. You can always come back later to modify it.
Go ahead and write down a tempo indication for your composition, then press play to go on.
Next up in step 2 is choosing a key.
How do you choose a key?
Well, once again you'll want to choose something that supports your mood.
For example if the mood you've chosen is joyful, most listeners would expect to hear a major key like "Ode to Joy" which is in D major.
Imagine how it would sound in minor.
It doesn't have much of a joyful feel right?
Now if you want something suspenseful or mysterious, we would generally expect to hear a minor key like the "Mission Impossible Theme"
which is in G minor,
but remember that there are many moods that could easily be either major or minor. Like if you've chosen exciting for your mood,
you can easily create an exciting mood with major or minor
You can get exciting from either one.
Now, if you want to keep things simple choose one key for both your A section and your B section,
but if you like, you could try changing keys in the B section.
So you have one key for A section and another key for your B section.
If you want to change keys, I recommend that you choose a related key. Otherwise the transition could sound awkward.
For example, remember that C major and A minor are related, meaning they share the same key signature of zero sharps or flats.
So if you wanted to start in A minor.
Maybe in the B section you shift to C major,
or you could do something like what happens in Burgmuller's "Ballade" and start in C minor
and then in the B section switch to C major.
C minor and C major are not relative because they have different key signatures.
C minor has three flats, and C major has zero flats.
But they are parallel keys, which simply means that they start on the same DO or the same tonic pitch.
So you can either do relative, you can do parallel, but choose a key that has some relationship to each other.
Now, it's time to pause the video and choose a key or keys for your composition.
Finally to finish up step two, it's time to choos ...