Student Compositions

Hello, and welcome back! As promised, I do have some pictures and commentary on some of the student compositions from this summer.

Just as a quick recap, I read about a wonderful idea on laytonmusic.wordpress.com where she had her students write their own songs, design their own cover art, then take the music to the local print shop where they were able to create beautiful pieces of sheet music. This project turned out absolutely beautifully in my studio this summer, and was by far my favorite summer piano project we’ve ever done. It was such a hit that I’ve decided we’ll definitely be doing it again next summer, and I already have plans in the works to make it an even better experience for the students.

Since I teach students of many different ability levels, each composition lesson turned out extremely unique, and as a result the lesson planning for this project turned out to be pretty varied and nuanced. I learned a lot along the way, and hope to do even better next summer when I have my students sit down to write a song.

I just have to say that each student really tapped into their creativity here. One student who composed a song entitled Wizards included a measure where five consecutive notes are played simultaneously, (which to me sounds like a wizard casting a spell!) Another student decided that after writing one line of melody, he wanted the next section to be the same thing - but backwards! This led to the song Topsy Turvy. Each created their own beautiful artwork for the front, and I couldn't be more proud!