What I Did this Summer!
Piano Students may think they have to be Beethoven or Mozart to compose their own pieces - Not True! Here are five tips to help piano students get started composing their own melodies. Share it with your piano student at home, or try this yourself.
1. Every piano student has a source of song - they just need to know where to find it!
I recommend students keep a “Piano Memory Box.” This is a special place to store keepsakes and mementos of special personal experiences to remember in the future. (I've just returned from a wonderful trip to China and brought lots of little things home for my piano memory box.) I made one of these for my son when he was a young piano student and he still has it. When he was little I suggested he put things in it like photographs of special events, a ball of cotton dipped in his grandmother’s perfume, a little jar of dirt from a special vacation spot we liked to visit, or the school paper he wrote on “What I Did This Summer.” Over the years he has put lots of things in this little box. Once, I happen to notice he threw in some ticket stubs to a movie he saw with his girl friend. As he grows into a man I hope he’ll remember to take a look back inside this little box whenever he’s looking for a source of song or inspiration, and remember who he is. Oh, there will be some sad memories there as well, but this too is the stuff song writers are made of. Just look back at your own history of experiences to compose a song that is meaningful to you.
2. Think of music as poetry.
Songs are basically poetry put to music. Start by writing a poem. Once you have your poem, white another short statement that summarizes your message. Use this as your chorus. Or write a short story that you imagine as a ballet or a play. If students can manage to do this in English Class they can do it in piano.
3. Hear the music in your head.
To hear some music in your head, start singing your poem or playing it on the piano. Think of the tone and spirit of your poem. Is it funny, or beautiful, or stormy? Then start creating your melody by asking a question. Then respond to it by giving an answer. This is referred to as a call and a response. The “Call” sounds unfinished, and the “Response” completes the musical idea. This will be your first verse.
4. Make sure the musical parts flow together.
Take your first verse and call it A. Then create another call and response for your chorus. We’ll call this B. Write as many verses as you want to. Here is a simple option for putting your song together. A/B/A
Here’s an example to show you how easy this is.
A: (Verse) Twinkle, twinkle, little star
Response – How I wonder what you are.
B: (Chorus) Up above the world so high,
Response - Like a diamond in the sky.
A: Repeat Verse
5. Create a Variation.
If you're still having difficulty developing a melody, try this. Create a variation on the simple melody above. This will help you begin to hear and understand how melodies are created. To hear more complex variations on this childhood melody, listen to the many variations on this theme composed by Mozart. Once you have a melody, a piano teacher's suggestions for an accompaniment part is very helpful for beginning students.
On my 2009 trip to China I visited the Water Cube at the Olympic Park in Beijing, and saw Swan Lake given by the Russian Ballet accompanied by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra. The music was composed by Tchaikovsky in 1875. Here is a photo from this ballet and a synopsis of the story behind it.
Photo by Virginia Balfour
Synopsis of Swan Lake Ballet
Act I
At his castle, Prince Siegfried is celebrating his twenty-first birthday with his friends. His mother arrives and reminds him that he must choose a bride from among the ladies invited to the ball the following day. When Siegfried's mother leaves the party continues, but Siegfried stands apart overcome by a vague melancholy. He sees some white swans fly overhead and decides to leave his friends and go hunt them.
Act II
At the banks of a moonlit lake near the castle, a group of swan-maidens appears. The prince has already aimed his bow when the Swan Queen presents herself and tells Siegfried that she is the Princess Odette changed into a swan, like her companions, by the sorcerer Rothbart, a spell from which she can only be freed by one who will swear eternal love to her. Now deeply in love, Siegfried swears he loves Odette and invites her to the ball, then dawn breaks and the swan-maidens are all turned back into swans.
Act III
At the ball the prince dances with six young ladies who are presented to him. Then a stranger arrives, Baron Rothbart and his daughter Odile, the evil double of Odette. After looking at her for a while Siegfried decides that she is Odette, his beloved, dances with her, and publicly declares her his bride. Rothbart and his daughter leave in triumph. Then Siegfried sees the white spirit of Odette momentarily at the window and rushes to the lake.
Act IV
At the lake, the swans dance sadly as they wait for Odette. When she arrives in tears she falls to the ground among her companions. Siegfried finds her and lifts her tenderly; she is dying. He takes her tiara and throws it into the lake, which rises to submerge both him and Odette. Their spirits fly upwards towards the sky above the lake, which is calm once again.
What a lovely story to compose a melody for. Maybe you could compose a melody of your own that tells this love story.
Best Wishes,
Cynthia Marie VanLandingham
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