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Vonnie L., Oregon

At Neil’s suggestion, I’m sharing a wonderful experience I had last week.

I had assigned a 14-year-old boy to compose a song using the chord progressions from Honey Dew in the pattern from Dreams, Arr. 3. I told him that lots of repetition of simply patterns and slight variations on those patterns, such as in I’ll Be There, was a good way to start. He came back with a beautiful piece. When I asked him the name, he replied “Vonnie’s Vision”! He confided that he played it for “this girl that I kinda like” and she cried and that his mom was asking him to play it over and over. I told him I’d like him to play it for our Musical Afternoon in May. That will help us have more variety of pieces and also show others what they will be able to do.

Then he asked for another composition assignment so I gave him another set of chords and improvised a short piece to show him one possibility. He said this time he wanted to write something that wasn’t sad, so I told him it wasn’t the chords that made it sad, and that he should experiment with a peppier tempo, staccato notes, etc. to write a happy song. This assignment will be harder for him, but I think he can do it. So I’ve been busy this week composing a happy song with those chords in case he comes back and says it isn’t possible! (The chords I gave him this time were Dm, C, B flat, and A. They’re kind of like the chords in Dreams-Arr. 3 but with the added A.)

One drawback is that he didn’t practice his foundation piece much because he got so absorbed in his composition. I think that’s fine occasionally, but I told him it was important to keep learning new songs because they are the source of ideas for future compositions.