Hello fellow Ichigo-ians!

I would like to propose to the members of the community an belated new years initiative. I would like to start a series of lessons in composition with the following goals in mind:


To spark interest in music composition in the Ichigo's community
To provoke more interaction between fellow members
To help Ichigo-ian talents in music composition improve
To have fun (the most important part)!


With that said, I have drafted a lesson plan for beginner composers who have little no no experience in music composition. Future goals would be to expand this to more advance topics such as orchestration and arranging, but I believe starting with the basics would be a more beneficial opportunity for newbies to get interested in what we do here in the composition forum.

This said, I would also like to ask for some help. This will be a large task requiring lesson writing and experienced members providing feedback to lesson assignments. If you would be interested in helping wether it be writing a lesson, preparing a lesson exercise, or just providing feedback please PM me your interest! The more people willing to share the information they know, the more fun this can be!

Please vote in the poll so I can get a good idea if this will be a worthwhile event to do with the Ichigo's composition community!

To spark interest in music composition in the Ichigo's community
To provoke more interaction between fellow members
To help Ichigo-ian talents in music composition improve
To have fun (the most important part)!




I think those are 4 points anybody would be hard pressed to argue against.

Sounds like a pretty cool idea! :)

This is a great idea
Its frustrating when theres music in youre head but you have no idea how to put it on paper

This will be a good way to give all our visitors a chance to discover a new passion.

Ichigo's - A breeding ground for composers

This is a great idea
Its frustrating when theres music in youre head but you have no idea how to put it on paper

A thousand times this.
Ughhhh, please save me, Porsche. ;__;

it's a cool idea but I feel like the compositions forums already serves this purpose...it's just that either everyone could be more active in critiquing other's work. One thing I wished is that people could post sheet music (pdfs or whatever) and not .mus files :/

I'd like to see more composing competitions, even if it's not for a prize. Have you seen the conceptual music competition in the young composers forum?

I'd like to see more composing competitions, even if it's not for a prize. Have you seen the conceptual music competition in the young composers forum?

I already have something that I will show soon that is related to this. It is not exactly a competition where you compose something specific, but people will vote for your piece if it is nominated, you would get a bit of exposure as composer and of your music in the main site . I will show it later. For conceptual compositions or any other kind of serious competitions, I do not think it would be worth to do at the moment. If the composition forum get a good boost, then would be fun to have that. Maybe in the summer (Around May) we can start competitions like that! When people have more free time. Because if you have noticed, the past competitions did not have many entries.

One thing I wished is that people could post sheet music (pdfs or whatever) and not .mus files :/
Yeah, I'd like to see that too. Midi and PDF are more universal. Nonetheless, we can't really force anyone to not post MUS, but maybe we can at least discourage it. Like when someone posts a .mus, a reponse might be "Hey, thank you for posting your music. We'd love to listen to it, but do you think you could do us the favor of posting it in the more universal format of midi, instead of .mus?"


Anyway, as to the thread topic, I voted (as everyone else did) that the initiative is worthy. My only concern is if it's going to be feasible.

But I guess we won't find out if we have enough people to write lessons, until we try this initiative. So, hey, it can't hurt to at least try.

I'm teaching a Music Theory course at a church this summer, so I could provide lesson materials/tips this summer (not 100% sure on this yet), but at the very least, I can be around for feedback. Great idea!

Seems Unanimous :)

This is an awesome idea. Just have to put music to my lyrics and it'd be sweet I think.

The protical moderator has returned! ... sorta. I have about three more weeks left in the semester, but I thought I'd post up the topics we'll try to cover in future lessons. Not that these lessons are aimed at beginners. An intermediate course is planned to follow this one, but here is the general idea for this one.

Essential Music Theory
Notes
Intervals
Rhythm
Key Signatures and Time Signatures
Scales and Modes
Chords and Harmony
Ear Training

Harmonic Composition
Chord Leading
Common Chord Progressions
Cadences
Perfect
Plagal
Imperfect
Interrupted
Harmonic Rhythm and Structure
Harmony Driving Melody

Introduction to Melody
What makes a good melody?
Building Blocks of Melodic Form
Motif
Phrase
Forms
Shape

Tools for Building a Melody
Scales
Major
Minor
Penatonic
Whole Tone
Diminished
Blues
Bebop
Modes
Ionian
Dorian
Phrygain
Lydian
Mixolydian
Locrian
How They can be Used

Melodic Outlining
Key Scale Tones
Stable and Unstable Tones
Approaching Notes
Passing Tones
Embellishing Tones
Neighboring Tones
Changing Tones
Working Outside a Key

Rhythm, Syncopation, and Tension
Repeated Notes
Embellishing Notes
Syncopation
Front and Back Phrasing
Themes and Variations
Tension
Unstable Notes
Chord Progressions
Dominant Seventh and Diminished Chords
Suspended Notes/Chords
Note Intervals
High Pitches
Faster Rhythms
Increased Syncopation
Increase Volume

Harmonizing a Melody
Fitting Chords to Structural tones
Chord Substitution
Chord Extensions


With each lesson these will be an exercise and ear training exercises. There will also be quizes after so many lessons. Get excited! It's coming!

Whoa... this is some intense stuff..... gulp...

Nah, it will all make sense in time young patawon.

This is good. For making exercises to put concepts into practice, I'd use William Russo's "Composing Music" as reference. He introduces concepts, not unlike the ones listed above, and immediately follows each with a short exercise based on rules and restrictions that help you focus on exploring the concept at hand. Looking at the structure of that outline, I wouldn't be surprised if you used Russo's book in your studies.

I would make exercises a part of the lessons themselves, and then include extra exercises at the end of each lesson.

I'm thinking something of a "buffet" of compositional tools that people can jump in, see the example uses and descriptions of each concept, and start putting into practice right away. Something that's quick and inviting to a reader, and packs a punch at the same time.

I am sure this will drive more traffic to Ichigo's once there are many lessons.

The main thing is using the opportunity to give our visitors resources that they otherwise wouldn't have access to.

The majority of our visitors are teens who play music, who probably would have interest in writing music but might not have any idea of where to start, as most music teachers only teach technique and basic fundamentals. So they never get into writing their own stuff.

But here, they can.

Nah, it will all make sense in time young patawon.

I believe it's spelled padawan.... master.

First lesson to appear in the next few days!

Sorry the first lesson hasn't come out yet. I have been working on it! I just want to make sure I don't confuse anyone too much. lol

As a wanna-be composer, I can't wait for the more complicated stuff to come! *I know some basics*

I won't be using it, but I love the idea. theory-wise I'm quite knowledgeable, and I know how to compose... If there's anything I can do to help, let me know. I really love the idea.

Nice. I've been working on the first lesson off and on. My goal is to release it on the first of July. The topic is key signatures, basic scales, ear training, and harmonic based composition. There's going to be some memorizing required, but nothing different than if you took an introduction to music theory class.

Will you marry me? You are a god!