Workshop #9 Young Composers & Improvisors Workshop Recordings

The style of music that I studied was Ragtime. I learned that Ragtime was first played by traveling minstrels, such as Scott Joplin. I learned about the form of Ragtime, about secondary dominants, and other things. I also found out that Scott Joplin named several of his pieces after fruit and other sweet things, so I decided to name my composition think my piece changes into different sounds a lot and I can't really say that it has one specific sound. The melody sort of changes at times, but you can tell which part the chorus is at because it is using the most instruments, and it is repeated. I can never remember how I started any of my pieces, I usually just put down random notes and it starts growing into chords and the main melody. I added to my piece by listening to a certain part constantly and then seeing what is wrong with it or seeing what it needs, and then I would add or change the notes. I think the main instrument was the piano, but from having to change it and putting basically the same notes in another instrument, I think the main instrument is now the violin. I knew that Ragtime has an uneven treble and a steady, rhythmic bass. I wrote a chord progression, then based a "off-beat" melody off of the notes, and then I created a repetitive bass off of the melody. Then I orchestrated it, creating the main theme of my piece. Then I wrote several other melodies to keep the composition interesting. It was actually a really fun. The main melody is played mainly by the violin and the trumpet. Also, I named my piece Mango Rag because Scott Joplin named several of his famous pieces after fruit and other sweet things, so I decided to name my composition something fruity and sweet. And what's more sweet and fruity than a Mango? Composing music has taught me a lot. I have learned so much. I have learned how to write a singable, memorable melody, how to orchestrate a composition, how to create a chord progression, how to make a harmony, and tons of other great skills. At the beginning of the year, I would not know where to start in writing music, but now I know exactly what to do. Now I know how to really write music!

I chose the Beatles for my style of music because I'm an enormous Beatles fan and I loved their musical style. I learned about their most commonly used harmonies and chords while studying this style. I incorporated The Beatles into my piece by using a bass line. The Beatles frequently used bass lines/guitar solos, so I think that part of my piece sounded a bit Beatles-esque. I think the melody is spread out between the instruments. I titled my piece Storm Clouds because my piece sounds dark and somewhat menacing, like storm clouds. Over the past few years I have improved a lot as a musician. My music has become more intricate, with better melodies and harmonies as well. Music has taught me to be calm and patient, because it pays off in the end.

My style was Metal. It didn't turn out that way though. It turned into more of a two part minor piece. I learned that it was incredibly hard to write a Metal piece. I've heard some Metal pieces that are slow at times, so I tried to incorporate some of that in mine. I titled my piece on a recomendation from my friends. Composing music the past two years has been interesting. I found out a lot, and I found it a good experience for me.

Before I wrote lightning rain I chose a style to base it off of, I choses Korean folk music. (not gangnam style!) I learned a lot about chords used and the tempo of the music. I used the chord style and the number of beats per measure in my piece I tried to make them similar to what I had heard in examples I found. I think that I have learned a lot about composing. I have learned how to use chords with melodies and a bunch of other things. Composing has taught me to experiment with different things and to base my work off of one thing, then go off in a different direction.

For my style of music I choose Blues. I choose blues because I feel that it has a very emotional feel and it is purely based off of peoples thoughts. I have learned a lot including what makes a blues piece. I have also learned that you can make any genre of music sound like blues just by changing the notes of the music. I incorporated elements of my style by taking small parts out of already made songs and then adding that to my song. After, I would use that to make a melody and use that melody to make my piece. I really enjoyed using the percussion in my piece because I found it interesting that one instrument could make so many types of sounds. It has been a lot of fun for me to compose this year because I have never done it before. I learned a lot about music and harmonies and how to make a piece sound good. Composing has also helped me improve on both the guitar and the trumpet. This year has helped and I have learned a lot. I look forward to many years like this one.

My style is reggae. I liked the idea of some of my piece being regge and some being classical. I think this makes my piece sound unique. I have learned a lot studying reggae. For example I have learned about the tempo. Also I have learned about drumming patterns. Some elements of reggae I incorporated were the beats of reggae. In most reggae songs the main beats are on counts two and four. I had trouble adding melodies to my piece that sounded like reggae. I experimented with many different types of instruments and patterns to fit the beat.The name of my piece is called Summer is Near. I titled it this because it is a very upbeat song and has a fast tempo. The vibraphone and violin both have big parts. I liked the violin because it plays very high and the vibraphone can play three notes at once which I think is good for reggae. It is such a great opportunity to be able to compose music for all different types of music and have musicians play them for us. I have learned notes, dynamics, chords and much more.

This year I studied the blues and I learned about 12 bar blues. Also I learned about what type of chords blues musicians use and what blues melodies are like.!!I added what I learned from studying the blues and mixed it in with what we learned in music class. The vibraphone is playing most of the melody. It is playing it because I used to play the piano. I found that the vibraphone is similar to the piano because it could play chords. Composing music taught me about many things. I learned about the instruments and what they sound like. I now know what chords to use in my compositions. For example not all chords go to together but I learned which ones do and don't.

I chose "The Beatles" as a style because I really love their music. I knew a lot of their songs, but I didn't know anything about the actual style. I learned many of the common Beatles Chord progressions and their form, along with some of the rhythms. I used a common Beatles Chord progression and tried to make my melody simple, but unique sounding like many of the Beatles songs. The violin has the main melody in my piece. I have learned a lot about composing music over the last two years. I really enjoyed learning about the Beatles for this piece because I really didn't know anything about it, and I love their music! Composing music has helped me with playing the violin and I really enjoy getting to watch the violinist from the Metropolis Ensemble play my music.

When I was writing my piece I wanted it to sound like a Beatles song but it turned out out to sound in a mix of country and pop. I learned that certain instruments can really help to get your style to sound like you want. I had a little trouble finding a melody but then I realized that I had experimented with my style so I copied certain parts of my other piece and tied it in with the other instruments I think this opportunity was been really fun because I had never composed before but I have gotten better and learned how to have all the instruments play at once and make it sound good.

Before we wrote our piece, we were required to study a style and incorporate different techniques from that style into our piece. I chose to study Irish music because I liked that it was fast and up-beat. I incorporated different things such as how the form of the chord progression flows and the scales I used to make it sound Irish. I put the main melody in the violin because it is a commonly used instrument in Irish music and also because it can play quite quickly allowing me to write fast and upbeat music that sounds like a jig. Composing music has allowed me to appreciate all of the great works of music written by the greats. It has taught me that music is pretty hard to compose, and takes a pretty long time, but in the long term it feels pretty good to hear your own piece that you wrote.

My style of music was classical. I don't think mine sounds exactly like a classical piece, but if you listen to different instruments at a time and to different measures at a time, I think it will sound more like a classical piece. I don't think there are a lot of elements of classical in my piece and that's why I don't think it sounds a lot like a classical piece, but when you listen to it, it flows like a classical piece would. For me, I don't really follow the usual steps of making a piece. I never know what my piece is going to sound like before I create it, and I just throw out chords and notes and somehow in the end form it into a piece. I've learned a lot of different ways to create a classical piece, for example, 1,5,1 chords and all of the traits of classical music.

I chose reggae as my style. I thought reggae was so interesting and I always wanted to know more about that style of music. While I was reading and making my Edcanvas I learned all about the chord progressions and what sort of beats can make a music piece sound reggae with classical instruments. I put a certain beat throughout my piece to give it a reggae feel. I added parts of how I compose my regular pieces but I had reggae pieces in there also. In the beginning I had a lot of trouble starting my composition but Matt helped me and I got the beat down that really helped the reggae feel. I chose my title because I want the listener to think about how the cold is coming to an end and the warm is coming and how everything is blooming. I really enjoyed composing music! It helped me see a whole other world of music then just listening and and singing. Composing music has taught how to be an artist and how to express feelings through the tone of my compostions.

I chose the style the Blues because I had never learned about it before and it is so different than any music I had written before. I learned about many blues musician and about the 12 bar blues which is a chord progression often used in the blues. I used the 12 bar blues as the chord progression in my piece. I did not have trouble using these chords, but I have a little trouble composing a melody that didn't clash with these chords. My main melody had nothing to do with my style. I chose many different instuments to play my main melody during different parts of my piece. I titled my piece Beyond Repair because of different sections of my piece. I think it has been a very good experience composing music over the last two years. I learned about writing music that I never would have learned unless I was writing music so I am happy that I had this experience.

At first I studied Blues. I learned so much about where it comes from and about what it's about, but in the end, I found myself very uninspired to write my own Blues piece, so I somewhat changed my genre to a more classical feel. I had already been composing a different piece outside of music class, and decided to use those notes and transpose them into different instruments. I think the reason why I didn't want to use Blues is because of the fact that I wanted it to be smooth but fast, sharp but slow, and Blues doesn't really have that. It has more of a consistant feel to it. I titled m piece 'Lullaby,' because that's exactly what it sounds like. Composing music has taught me so much, including improving my musical sense, learning new musical words, and improving my music reading skills which helped me outside of music class in my piano lessons.

Before I started my piece, I studied jazz. I learned a lot about jazz, especially what its made out of. We were required to make something like a presentation about our topic, and it had to be about 20 slides long, so we really needed to know a lot about our topic. Some things that I learned about jazz are 9th chords and syncopation. I had a really good idea for a composition and I liked it more than the idea I had for a jazz piece, so I went with that and tried to incorporate jazz into my piece as much as possible. I was able to do this even though my piece is something like a lullaby because I used a syncopated main idea in the vibraphone. In my first part the main melody is in the vibraphone, but then it switches to the bass because I wanted to change the parts that the instruments had. In the very beginning of 5th grade, I wasn't even sure I would ever be able to compose anything because everything was so new to me. Now, because I know so much more, I'm able to compose pieces not only in school and as an assignment but out of school on my own time. Music has really taught me to listen to my thoughts, which I couldn't do before learning about this. I think that learning to compose music will help me playing instruments as well because I will know what the music I'm playing is made up of.

I chose my style when I saw that other people were doing types of folk music, so I tried Japanese Folk Music. I liked it, so I used it as my style. Among other things, I learned that Japanese Folk Music uses the Pentatonic Scale. I mainly incorporated Japanese Folk Music into my piece by using the Pentatonic Scale, but I also listened to Japanese Folk Music and tried to emulate it. The trumpet played the main melody for most of the time. Most of the other instruments also play the main melody, but the trumpet plays the most. Over the last two years, I think music has been a fun experience. I enjoyed it overall. I have learned that if you work very hard, your piece can be very good.

I chose reggae because it is a unique style of music. From studying reggae I have learned its differences and similarities to other styles. Creating a reggae piece was hard for me. This led to me using only one aspect of reggae in my piece. I used the clarinet the most throughtout my piece because it fits the feel of my piece. Over the last two years, composing music has been fun and a good learning experience. Composing had taught me many things like creating melodies, harmonies, chord progressions, and many other things.

I chose Indonesian music for my style of music because I liked the instruments that Indonesian music used. For example, there is an instrument called the Kulintang Set which is a kind of drum with only cymbals. I like the sound of this instrument and the way it accompanies the other instruments. This is just one of many reasons I chose this style. I decided to make the melody of my piece Indonesian. I chose this because the melody of an Indonesian song is very unique and different from any other kind of style of music. I didn't have much trouble making my melody Indonesian because there is a distinct way to make your melody. Also, the vibraphone is very close to some Indonesian instruments which made it sound more like an Indonesian melody. The vibraphone has the main melody throughout the whole piece. It has been very fun to compose over the last couple years. I have learned a lot about chord progressions and melodies. I think my last piece really shows how I have progressed in my composing.

The style I chose before I wrote my piece was Motown. I learned that there are a lot of different types of music, a lot more then I know. It was hard to add parts of my style to my piece. I had difficulty because on noteflight when you here your piece it doesn't sound like my style. My style also has different instruments that we can't use. It has been a lot of fun to compose different types of music. I think that I have learned more about music these two years. I have learned all the notes, chords, harmony and a lot of other things.

As I began to study the blues I got to find new artists that focused on that style and its history. After creating my presentation on the blues I got a good sense of how it sounds in a musical piece. I used my knowledge on the style and turned it into my piece. I made sure I used the main instruments that take place in the blues, such as trumpet, percussion , etc. I used these instruments in my piece to give my piece a blues feel so you can get a sense of the genre. I used the trumpet and trombone as the main melody. Becoming a new member of the LREI music family has helped me grow in many ways as a musician. I learned how to compose and how to use instruments and tie them together into a composition. I hope to grow more and more as I learn more of the musical world.

I chose metal music because I like the fast pace music and a lot of harmony with a lot of instruments. I also chose metal because I like when music is repetitive but not too repetitive. I learned that you don't have to have certain instruments to make the music sound like the style, all you need is the right chords. I have a strong beginning and a good middle and end but I struggled with the main melody. I have a lot of short melodies but not one long one. At the beginning of middle school I had a hard time with music. Over the past two years I think I have improved and I definitely understand music notes better. I think this is my best piece so far.

My style was Doo Wop. I got the inspiration from the movie Grease because I loved the rhythmic and catchy songs throughout the movie. I learned that many different genres fall in to Doo Wop but it still has a distinct rhythm. I incorporated some aspects of Doo Wop in my piece but changed parts of it up so it's not as distinct as classic Doo Wop. The melody is very Doo Wop related but most of the contrasting notes change it up. I titled it Rhythm because the genre has a big aspect of rhythm and I wanted to keep in that theme. I feel so privileged to be able to compose my own music and then hear it played live in front of me. I loved being able to create whatever I wanted to but get the proper instruction from Matt. I learned a lot from knowing almost nothing to being able to read music and tell what's going on in the piece without hearing it.

My style is cool jazz. It was pretty hard to learn so much about a topic but in the end I was able to, and it was pretty fun. I would look up musicians that played cool jazz, specifically Miles Davis. It was hard trying to enter it, and make it sound like cool jazz, and I can’t really hear what my peace sounds like because I had to imagine the harmon mute. Composing music has taught me to listen to my melody more and edit it. It has also taught me notes, because before I was just putting notes on the page and seeing how they sounded, but now I am actually able to know what the notes are to prevent clashes.

The style of my piece is blues. I chose this style because most of my other pieces were more melancholy and different, more modern and sad. One of the things I learned from studying the blues is that all music is very different, but you shouldn't completely forget what you learned before in your new topic. One of the elements of the blues that I used in this piece is the 12-bar blues, this is just a chord progression. Another element I used was the blues scale, which I tried to use throughout the whole song. As you may hear, my song sounds pretty much like a traditional blues song. My main melody goes to the trumpet, because it is the most bluesy of the instruments. Also I based my title on the classic blues song. Composing music has taught me a lot, I had never composed before this and it is a lot harder then I thought it would be. It taught me that art does not come out of nothing, ideas have to spark. In other words our ideas don't come out without inspiration. So, thank you Matt for inspiring us.

My piece is something not to fast or to slow. I am really happy with the way it turned out and am excited to share it with you. My piece doesn't really have a main meaning. I really like my fast section with the violin and also the slow moments in the flute. Over all I really enjoy my piece and I love the combinations of slow, fast and everything in between.!When creating my piece, I made a strong bass line to back up my melodies. I used solos and repetiton to make my piece catchy. I used the blues scale in my piece as well. Its more of a shared melody between all my instruments. I named it Wait For Me. Composing music has taught me to let my ideas be free. It has been a new experience using noteflight.

At first I study blues but latter started to add a bit of swing. Studying this helped me by knowing what type of notes are used in the style. To incorporate both styles I decided to choose different instruments in both styles. I chose the bass for blues and trumpet mainly for swing. The main melody is in the bass and trumpet. Composing music has taught me how to read sheet music. It also taught me how to understand the musical alphabet.

I chose to study Classical because it was a style of music that is very familiar to me. My family listens to Classical music very often so I always hear something. I also really like Classical because it sounds so musical and I feel like there is an image in my head when I listen to Classical music. I learned that Classical can be very calm and also very loud and dramatic. I wanted to have a style and piece that was calm. I also leaned that Classical composers always had there "own" style. I incorporated some elements like having a calm and mellow piece. I also incorporated that there is a big ending and beginning. Sometimes it was hard because the Classical Composers had different "styles". The main melody is played by the Clarinet and Vibraphone. I titled my piece like this because it reminded me of dancing and also when I was in Washington D.C and I was walking though the Japanese cherry blossoms. I also wanted my piece to sound like dancing cherry blossoms. Composing has taught me a lot of things. It has been a great experience. If I composes in the future I will be prepared. I am very happy and grateful for this experience.

I studied the style of The Beatles. I chose to study this because I love The Beatles and I wanted to learn more about them. From studying this style I learned about the form of The Beatle's songs, I learned that most of The Beatles songs are written in major key and I learned many historical facts. I incorporated elements of The Beatles style in my piece by writing my piece in a major key (E Major). Also, as I was writing my piece and adding new sections I tried to make them sound Beatles-esque. The main melody of my piece is played by the violin. I titled my piece "Under Water" because after listening to my piece I think it sounds like it is under water. Over the last two years of composing music I think I have improved as a composer. I have learned a lot about composing pieces and good techniques to use. Also, I have learned a lot about music in the process of making my compositions.

I was very confused about what would be the best style for me to pick. I originally chose and learned about Bluegrass, and I could not come up with anything. I went to Marching Band Music, and I hated that, so I went back to Bluegrass, and for some reason, it was very easy to compose. It's hard to write bluegrass without a fiddle, mandolin, etc... I had to use a violin and a bass. I ended up using all of the instruments except the drums. I had a melody with the drums and the vibraphone, but there is only one performer for both the drums and the vibraphone together. Since I’ve been composing music I can now listen to a song and sometimes tell what instrument is playing. I like composing a lot.

I chose Irish Music. I learned that Irish music is fast and it has more skips and leaps than American Pop Music. It was easy to incorporate all the instruments except the bass because in Irish Music there is not really a bass. The main melody is in the violin. Composing music has taught me to make my music however I want.

I studied jazz before I composed my piece. I learned a lot that I incorporated into my piece. My piece really reflects what I studied. I incorporated elements of my style into my piece. This was easy for me and my piece really emulated a jazz piece. I named it Summer because my spring composition was named Winter. I’ve enjoyed composing music this year. Composing music has taught me a lot about music in general and I really understand the process of it now.

I honestly don't have one specific style. I have a mix between classical and a little bit of modern day music. I think that my piece is very different and it has lots of different parts and different rhythms. At first my style was funk music. I choose funk because it was very different and no one was doing it, so of course I did. I had a lot of trouble incorporating it into my piece because the beat (1 beat) was very hard to match and harmonize with. So then i changed my style to jazz, and then to classical, and now it's just like everything. I chose the title Walk Along because my piece has a lot of different rhythms, so some are slow like walking and others are fast like running. In the past two years I think composing music has taught me a lot. I think that it has definitely helped me with my understanding of styles and different beats. Since I play piano, I already know how to read music and how to make chords and a melody. Because of that, it has helped me a lot because I only have to focus on my piece and not learning to read music.

My style is reggae. I researched the origin and Bob Marley. I couldn't find a way to do it but than I put a chord in that is in many reggae pieces. The violin and the vibraphone have my main melody. I named it “Radio Active” because I feel the piece is contagious. Composing in middle school has been a big experience. It has taught me that there are ups and downs in music, and life.