Joseph Hasper
Joseph Hasper
Composer

Blog

20 Mar 2013

Advice to High School Students About Studying Composition - Part I

I got in touch with an old friend this weekend who has a high schooler considering composition as a career. He asked me for some advice, which I glady gave, but on reflection there's a good bit more of explanation and detail that should be added. The two biggest points I felt important to make are (1) that composition studies shouldn't be taken INSTEAD of other musical studies, but IN ADDITION TO other musical studies; and (2) it's essential to write, write, and write some more--all the time, regularly, constantly--to develop the mechanics of composition, which are developing ideas and efficiently putting them onto paper (or into a sound file).

I got in touch with an old friend this weekend who has a high schooler considering studying composition in college. He asked me for some advice; the following is an elaboration of the brief advice I gave him.

My advice is based on several observations. First, if you write music--no matter what training or education you've had--you are a composer. A degree doesn't make you composer, writing music makes you a composer. Having a degree in composition doesn't make you good composer--and it certainly doesn't guarantee you a job after college--but it should mean that you've put a lot (A LOT) of time, effort, study, and reflection into being the best composer you can be.  However, you're better off majoring in something other than composition, like theory or musicology (if it's offered at your school), or an instrument.

No matter what your degree is in, you can still take composition lessons and related courses (orchestration, counterpoint, forms and analysis, electronic music, etc.). You may have to overload (take more classes per semester than normal), but you can get the same training that composition students get just by signing up for the classes. The critical elements of undergraduate composition training are ear training (all music majors usually get the same dose), theory/harmony (all music majors usually get the same dose), and private lessons -- which you can generally get just by enrolling in the class. The only difference between the private lessons of a comp major and a non-comp major is... nothing. There are some additional courses that might be required for composition majors, but optional for other majors--like orchestration, advanced orchestration, arranging and scoring, and electronic music--but you can always sign up for these even if you're not a composition major.


 

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