Composing–Isn’t It Just Like Ironing Your Shirt? Part IV

In this post, we examine Games and Free Writing as tools for the composer.

Games 
Here is where Self-Analysis gets applied. Let’s say you’ve noticed that you have a strong tendency to compose songs that start with an 8-bar rhythmic introduction (generally referred to as a vamp ) with your guitar. Also, your lyrics are usually written after you’ve created your vamp. This is likely the reason that your songs don’t have the variety that you’re searching for. A quick way to address this tendency would be to compose three different sets of text, four lines each, on completely different subjects, and create a melody for each without any accompaniment. This game is designed to force you to deal with the inherent differences in text without the distraction of your guitar playing. 

Working on (and even creating) compositional games that focus on a weak area has many advantages. One is that each project can be short, quite short, in fact, so it will feel less intimidating. The next is that no real inspiration is needed for this; you treat it more or less just like a crossword puzzle, something you might do nonchalantly. Another is that it is easier to maintain a sense of detachment when reviewing your efforts because it’s fundamentally an exercise, though you may find yourself surprised to notice ho w invested you’ve become! Lastly, your game needn’t be developed into a completed piece or even performed, so this is a great way of taking the pressure off of the process. I recall one of my composition teachers saying to me, “Michael, your problem is that you think everything you compose has to be made public.” Point taken... 

Free Writing 
Composing without any restrictions is, in a sense, like breathing. It’s essential to maintaining a healthy sense of self-expression and artistic autonomy. If you have the time and focus to be able to fit in your other writing projects (and instrumental and/or vocal assignments), I generally recommend that you always keep it in your schedule to some extent. Depending upon your temperament, you’ll prioritize free writing to suit you, and this will almost certainly fluctuate over time. 

Occasionally, I’ll recommend that a student only listen to and write in one particular style, or in the style of an influential composer, or some specific parameter (a tempo, form, etc.) to address some imbalance in their writing. Let’s say that a writer tends to always write fast pieces with many chord changes. I might suggest that they compose a minute-long, unaccompanied melody where occasional quarter notes are the fastest events in the piece. I might also suggest that they listen to very slow pieces from various folk, classical, and world music traditions to help support this new-found sensibility. A comparable situation would be assigning a student to only make slow “hu” sounds to relieve chronic vocal tension. It’s amazing what a short immersion experience can yield! 

In Part V, wrapping it up with the final two modalities, Skill Building and Listening.