Music students play personal compositions

May 20, 2010 • Kelsey Duncan  
Filed under Features

Friday, May 21 marks the end of the piano and orchestra composition project. This year students in all music classes taught by Dr. Richardson had to write and perform their own music. The students started this process in April and have been working on it ever since.

Both the orchestra and piano projects were given in three phases. Phase one was to choose a scale and fill out a chord progression chart. The second phase was to write a melody for the right hand using the piano. The melody could be anything the student wished. Phase three was to write notes for the left hand using the chord progression from phase one. Each student will perform the composition on Friday in class.

The orchestra class, however, had a different way of completing their project. Insiya Ahmed, a sophomore orchestra student, said she liked the “creativity involved in composing my own piece of music.” The orchestra students had to write their compositions for two instruments, and the honors class had to write pieces for four instruments. Insiya wrote her piece for violin, her personal instrument, and for cello, who her friend Melissa Jennings plays. The girls learned each others’ songs to play in class. Insiya enjoyed listening to other performances as well as playing her own piece.

Grace Parrish, a freshman piano student, said she “liked the fact that we were given ‘free-reign.’” The students had guidance with choosing the chord progression in the first stage. These progressions helped organize thoughts and ideas for the entire project. Grace said, “The project took a lot longer than I had planned because there are a lot of measures required.”

Tags:

 Email This Post        Print This Post