composing

I’ve got a question for you. During each lesson, I have my students do an improvisation or play their composition. I just received a short composition in which the piece doesn’t end on a tonic key. I texted her mom about that, and she said…

• Last updated 10 months ago
• chord, chord theory, chords, comp, comp & improv, comp and improv, complex chords, composing, composing with chords, composition, compositions, deceptive cadence, ending, ending chord, final chord, imperfect cadence, last chord, Neil Moore, scale theory, student composition, theory, tonic, writing compositions

How would you explain to 12-14 year old kids why learning to improvise and compose songs is part of the simply music program? How does it help them learn to play songs, if that is their goal? Do you have the Tune Toolkit Program? The…

• Last updated 2 years ago
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Since my email last night regarding the “Swim Coach” reference to teaching students who play better than you do, I’ve had a couple of emails asking about what exactly “Self-Generating” or “generative” teaching or learning is. What it means, in a nutshell, is the ability…

• Last updated 4 years ago
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I’m having my students compose and notate a piece. Of course notating rhythm is a challenge for some, but a wonderful way to have them ‘self generate’ as best they can. We do a ‘back in forth’ where I help them tweak it so it…

• Last updated 4 years ago
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Below is an email from a parent. Any advice on strategies I could suggest? This student has been with me for about 6 months. He is in first grade and is moving through Foundation pieces at a just-under-average pace. I have noticed memory is an…

• Last updated 3 years ago
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When you teach projects from Tune Toolkit, are you assigning them as improv projects or composition projects? Do you have the students come back and play something or report on what they did? How do you keep accountability that they are trying the projects? In…

• Last updated 5 years ago
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One of my farthest-along students is pushing back on writing lyrics because she doesn’t want to sing. I assigned composition two weeks in a row–make up a song. Then I assigned to make up words for the song. Mom texted me today (their lesson is…

• Last updated 4 years ago
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Mark S. Meritt, any suggestions for starting Tune Toolkit with a student in level 7? Is there a way to accelerate through each project without impeding the layering process? I’ve been through the program a few times with other students but this particular student is…

• Last updated 5 years ago
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Is the idea with the 3-note comp/improv exercise that the students are to play three consecutive white notes in the RH or can they be any three notes, black or white? I get them to pick any 3 white notes without telling them about the…

• Last updated 5 years ago
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Would it work, when there is a month-long break from teaching, to suggest that dedicated students (at the appropriate level) work through Tune Toolkit and The Chord Drill on their own? I have the vaguest recollection from the training on those that “students can work…

• Last updated 5 years ago
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