This course provides private, individual instruction in music composition. Approaches to learning the craft of composing music or that intended for other media are many and diverse. Students enrolled are encouraged to write what they conceive based on what inspires them. All styles and genres are welcome and cultivated, especially those that push or blur the boundaries of said styles and genres.
In addition to writing music, students will regularly be tasked with listening and media review assignments. The latter could entail the review and study of music film, video, scores, and multimedia works. Additional reading assignments may be issued as well. The aforementioned assignments are student-specific and curated to encourage students' curiosity and exploration of musical spheres unknown to them.
Students' advancement through the applied sequence is predicated on their artistic growth, which could take many forms based on the scale and scope of their compositions. For example, a student's expansion could be in the number players for whom they compose, the length of the piece (and/or number of movements), the piece's inclusion of other media (film, video, physical spaces), the work's sounding realm (acoustic, electronic, or a combination), the piece being composed by/with computers and/or mobile devices, etc.
- Teacher: Derek Keller