"Envision the first note before you before you begin to play."
I'm not unfamiliar with this phrase or concept. It's something that my violin teacher constantly reminds me of before I start playing playing a piece for him the second time through. The first time, he sits quietly, head lowered, seemingly deep in thought. Then the comments come flooding in, as he critiques my every dynamic, accent, and phrase. He prompts me to consider the kind of tone quality I want to draw out, how much pressure to use, how fast to move my bow, and what kind of direction I want to give the first phrase of the entire piece before I even make a sound.
Today has been the 'before the first note' period of my 20% Time project. I took my class period to reflect on why I had chosen my topic and to outline the goals that I hope to accomplish throughout the course of this semester.
I am dedicating my 20% Time to learning everything about composing and ultimately trying my hand at composing my own pieces. Despite being so exposed to music and interacting with many composers, I have never seriously tried to write anything before. Of course I have formed melodies in my head, but I never attempted to develop them into something more complex than one line jingles.
I think that learning to compose will force me to think on a different level. Playing music involves not only reading music and being technically correct, but also incorporating emotion and providing an interpretation of what message the composer is trying to portray. Composing is looking at this same interaction between composer, performer, and audience, but from the complete opposite viewpoint. In this case, it is important to contemplate the best method to express a message or elicit a feeling in the listeners through musical notes and symbols. Composing involves a different kind of creative mindset than performing music does but the two are definitely closely related.
The challenge that remains is in finding the right mentality and creative well to string my composition together with. Building a strong background in music theory will also be important in the weeks ahead of me. Currently, I would say that my knowledge of music theory is average, but I'm improving in this aspect through self study and music theory class at school.
The part that worries me now is whether or not I can succeed in creating a piece that is not complete, discordant garbage. I have about 4 months to work on this project (the deadline is December 9th [which happens to be my birthday:3]) and in this time I am aiming towards composing a violin duet, since violin is the instrument that I am most familiar comfortable with (and duets are just more fun to play than solos are). Since I have absolutely no sense of time with regards to composing a piece, I am not making assumptions. However, in the event that I have finalized and am satisfied with my composition before the end of the semester, I will either shift towards rehearsing it for performance, or move on to exploring another genre of music.
On top of playing violin, I dabble in guitar, piano, and singing. I would be excited to challenge myself with the task of writing lyrics and composing an accompaniment for a lyrical song, which is something that I have wanted to work on for a while.
Overall, I think that my musicality and ability to think analytically about music will benefit from this experience.
Reading Ahead (Something you always have to do in sight reading music)
- Interview my violin teacher, who is a very accomplished musician, conductor, and composer: Juan R. Ramirez. I want to see how he finds inspiration for new compositions and what he considers while he is writing.
- Brainstorm melodies and harmonies.
