Customize Your Sheet Music!

I have been searching the internet for a good website for free, blank sheet music, and I think that I have found it!

Blanksheetmusic.net is an amazing site - it lets you customize your blank sheet music so that it suits your needs. You can choose how many staves you want on the page, whether the page is in landscape or portrait orientation, which clefs to include, the time signature, the number of bars....the list goes on and on! In addition, there are basic options (which are a bit easier to use) as well as advanced options, which allow you to further customize your manuscript paper.

This is a good website to keep in mind as we start composing our own music this coming week. I'll post this link on our "Links for the Musically Minded" section, below on the right.

Preparations for our Composition Recital

Dear Students,

I've talked to each of you about our end-of-the-summer recital - it will be centred around you and your compositions! Here are some of the specifics our our studio composition goals:

• We'll be creating lots of compositions during the summer to help us get more comfortable with the idea of composing.
• You will each be choosing one of your compositions to perform at the end of the summer, as well as another piece that you choose.

So how do we start composing?

We'll be talking a lot about this during your lessons - don't worry! I won't leave you to struggle through this on your own. We'll be working through the process of creating and writing down music together. To get you started, you might want to think about the following things....

• Let's start with a rhythm! 
• Sometimes, you can start your piece by thinking of an interesting rhythm, and then continue by adding notes to that rhythm.

• Start with an image and try describing it with music
• You might start composing with a picture in your head. That picture can be anything: an animal, an event, a memory, a place....if you're stuck, try drawing a picture first!

• Do you want your music to tell a story?
• If so, think about what story you'd like to tell, and how you can use your knowledge about music to help the listener "see" that story when you play your piece.

• What notes will you use?
• You've all been working hard at learning notes: their sounds, their keys, and what they look like on paper. Now is your chance to play with those notes to create a masterpiece!
• Composers write music in different ways. You can start by writing down a set of notes, and then playing them on the piano and tweaking them, or you can start by playing with sounds at the piano first. Do what feels best for you!
• If we have been talking about different types of chords in our lessons (ex/ tonics and dominant sevenths), this would be a great time for you to try using those chords to colour your pieces.

Composing music is a great way to express yourself, and it can be a lot of fun. We'll be working together in our lessons to create your compositions, and we'll be talking about these ideas as we start working on translating your ideas into music and onto paper.

Here's to a creative summer!

Interested in Composing Music?

I know that some of you have already started composing your own piano pieces - what a wonderful way to engage with the piano!

For those of you who are interested in setting your compositions on paper, there are a number of ways to do it. The more traditional method (a la Beethoven) is to sit down with a pencil and some manuscript paper. Some musicians like to play their piece, then write it down. Others like to write down their ideas first, and then test-drive it at the keyboard. Either way, writing your music by hand is a great place to start. Long and McQuade has a large variety of inexpensive, bound manuscript paper. If you're looking for a quicker, cheaper alternative, there are tons of sites online that offer free staff paper. Anton Jazz has a nice selection of paper for you to choose from.

An alternative to writing your music by hand is to use a computer program to give your compositions a professional look. There are lots of products that you can buy to help you with this. However, I've been test driving the free program MuseScore for putting together my choral arrangements. It takes a little bit of practice to work your way around, but I find that it gets the job done (and makes your music look as beautiful as it sounds).

I usually start by writing out my music by hand, and then I transfer it to the computer program. That way, I get the best of both worlds!

Happy composing!