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Neil Moore

All the other comments are great, and I concur. Here are some of my thoughts.

Ian B., California

Sounds like he’s relying too much on his ear in general. Dangerous to let that continue. As for composition, I have several students that have said the same thing. Two general tips I give are:

1) Keep it short and simple. STP. Don’t try to make “a song” in one day. Just come up with a piece of the puzzle like a sentence or chord progression. That is also much easier to write down and remember.

2) Have parent/coach Video record the composition “practice session”. While an audio recording can work for some students, they’re used to watching the video tutorials and will get a kick out of making their own

Laurie Richards, Nebraska

Maybe stick with improv for a while so he doesn’t have to worry about remembering it. He *might* come up with a short phrase he likes while improvising and remember that. If not, no worries.

Or, dial comp expectations way down. E.g. choose the first 2 or 3 RH notes RH only and how you’ll play them. Keep it SUPER SIMPLE. Help him come up with a way to remember it (by shape, pattern, acronym, silly story, etc.). Like, fingers 1-2-3 starting on middle C – my Composition (starts with letter C) is easy as 1-2-3. Stick with JUST those few notes for a few weeks. Then, have him add ONE LH note to that part.

Just wittle tiny baby steps.

Evan H., Kansas

This might sound like a “cop-out,” but he could record himself while he composes. I’ve done this quite a bit, and it really helps.

Forgetting ideas is actually more common in the composition world than many realize. I’ve gotten a number of good ideas right before bedtime, and then lost them because I fell asleep! There will be other times when I am improvising, and I’ll spontaneously play something cool, only to be unable to recreate it immediately afterward.

Another way to approach things:

Memory can be improved by organizing the information differently, or even “pre-organizing” it. Before I write a piece, I often come up with a roadmap for it. It might just say, “3 sections – 1st one slow/sad, 2nd one hopeful, 3rd sad again.” Then, all I need is a simple melody, harmonized or developed along the lines of each section/emotion, and I’m done. This allows me to write more quickly, and it also makes it easier to remember what I’ve come up with, since the information is organized into a simple structure. (It’s easier to remember a jello mold if it’s in a shape, rather than if it’s just a blob of jello.)

Another way:

I start my students with very small composition projects, related to music they’ve already heard in the real world. They start by composing ringtones. After a couple of those, they make up commercial jingles for products they use every day. After that, they make up a short theme or motif to depict a book character they like, as though for a movie. I’m still developing these ideas, but that’s the gist of it.

Mark M., New York

Project 11 in Tune Toolkit volume has a handful of bits of advice for remembering compositions. In addition to keeping things simple and making recordings, there’s creating one’s own Reference diagram. I’m finding even with TFMM that students benefit from writing out playing-based instructions for themselves and turning those instructions, when possible/appropriate, into Foundation-like diagrams. All the same would remain true for creating — and remembering — one’s own compositions.

Really like all Neil said here, especially the bit near the end about the value of cultivating generatively as improvisation without worrying about timeframes for that leading to composition. It’s exactly what led me to make Tune Toolkit have only 1 out of every 11 projects be a formal composition, with the rest being improvisation. The letter of a project (in or out of Tune Toolkit, with or without structure as Neil says) may be composition. The spirit is always generativity.

Ian M., Indiana

At some point in the process, it might be a worthwhile strategy to have the student 1. Describe what he’s doing out loud in a couple of different ways, with just a short (musical) phrase or two (edited for clarity – he can describe as fully as he would like to); 2. Explore whether there’s a feeling or story that the student can associate with what he’s playing; and 3. Have him teach it, utilizing steps 1 and 2, to a parent and then to you.