GPO User's COMPOSITION ACADEMY?

[Fabio]

Hi Community,
after some day of deep immersion in the nice world of our community, I understand that an incredible mix of really expert and educated musicians is living together with talented amators and hobbists.

Thinking to my past of music Teacher, and finding useful and deep suggestions of senior members, I'm wondering if we can create a sistematic place where who want studying seriously or light&funny, everything or only a specific detail about composition, and doesn't have a true professor (because of money, or time, or whatever reason) will find a tutor, or even better, a tutor's team ready to support his learning will.

I was maybe (no,...certainly..;-)) a better teacher than composer (because of very good results of my pupils), but I'm sure that somebody else here is available to partecipate.

What do you think about? ;)

[trentpmcd]

It sounds like a great idea. I’m assuming you would mean off-line (like e-mails, instant messaging, etc.). It might not be as good as face-to-face, but it could work.

That is, it would work if people are willing to give the time to somebody they have never met except for on-line. I would volunteer to help but I would be signing up as a student, not an instructor/mentor.

[Fabio]

It sounds like a great idea. I’m assuming you would mean off-line (like e-mails, instant messaging, etc.). It might not be as good as face-to-face, but it could work.

That is, it would work if people are willing to give the time to somebody they have never met except for on-line. I would volunteer to help but I would be signing up as a student, not an instructor/mentor.

Yes of course: a "virtual" place, as this whole forum is.

Just a little more specific and personal, if somebody want be more specific and personal about some technical detail, or a whole class (harmony? Counterpoint? form?)

I imagine that a workshop of innovative summarizing and different approach will be the result, instead of traditional school programs.

[imagegod]

Wow, what a great idea! I know nothing about theory but would love to learn...I don't have time/money for a teacher, but a virtual classroom would really 'hit the spot'.

[Joseph Burrell]

Sounds like a splendid idea to me. GPO Radio, GPO Composition School, what's next?

[SeanHannifin]

Sounds like a splendid idea to me. GPO Radio, GPO Composition School, what's next?
I look forward to the GPO theme park! (And I don't have any time to edit up a picture right now :D )

But this would be an awesome idea! I would definitely be a student . . . :D

[Stephanie Pray]

Sounds great to me!! I need all of the help that I can get. :)

[beach]

Hi Community,
after some day of deep immersion in the nice world of our community, I understand that an incredible mix of really expert and educated musicians is living together with talented amators and hobbists.

Thinking to my past of music Teacher, and finding useful and deep suggestions of senior members, I'm wondering if we can create a sistematic place where who want studying seriously or light&funny, everything or only a specific detail about composition, and doesn't have a true professor (because of money, or time, or whatever reason) will find a tutor, or even better, a tutor's team ready to support his learning will.

I was maybe (no,...certainly..;-)) a better teacher than composer (because of very good results of my pupils), but I'm sure that somebody else here is available to partecipate.

What do you think about? ;)

Great Fabio!!! ;)
It would be really fine!!!
I need of teachers that make me learn more about music.
I have never studied it in depth.
I would appreciate this thing very much.
Ciao Fabio.

[Fabio]

Excellent,
then it seems that I'm ready to create my first register of students...but...

WHAT ABOUT TEACHERS? I'm available of course, nobody else?

...please let me know, voluntary wanted... :o

My promise is that by the end of this week we will begin. :)

[southportJim]

Excellent,
My promise is that by the end of this week we will begin. :)

Yes...I would be very interested in such a thing, as a student of course. I have been studying counterpoint on my own and would welcome a chance for something other that "self-critique".

[jesshmusic]

I would be willing to offer my services. :)

[Fabio]

I would be willing to offer my services. :)

GREAT!

You certainly have a very good experience to share! Thanks.

Then LET's Begin! Students, be prepared, we come back soon with an introductory Q&A action to present each other and propose first actions.

See we soon. ;)

[Jonny Lost]

Fabio, you can count me in as a teacher if I'm needed!!


Jonny

[jesshmusic]

This is going to need to be organized so as not to cause more damage than good. ;) We already have three teachers. We are going to need a system! Any ideas?

[BermudaFlyer]

Fabio,

I'm happy to help as a mentor... orchestration and percussion are my strong suits. I've done some conducting, too, if anyone wants to share on that topic.

I also have lots of experience with getting the "MIDI orchestra" to sound realistic with various techniques and tricks. :cool:

[jesshmusic]

I'm trying to think of a system here, because I bet all four of the guys that have volunteered so far are interesting in teaching composition. And if I know composers, we all usually have very, very different ideas on how (and even if) composition can be taught. We need to coordinate our ideas and come up with a semi-organized system.

I would teach by an assignment method. I would tell the student what to write, be it a type of music, a form, instrumentation, or even give them a motive to compose from. I would then critique the work (much more honestly than is usually done on a forum) and tell them how to improve their skills. I do not believe someone is not cut out for composition and everyone with some background in music can be taught if they really want. I would teach as close to the same way I was taught by my composition teacher. There would be no critiquing the GPO performance or MIDI programming by me although I will help with the students notational skills.

I can also teach theory, counterpoint, and fugue. :)

[BermudaFlyer]

This sounds like a good approach, Jess. I agree with the Assignment/Critique method.

As I noted, my strengths are more in orchestration and MIDI implementation, so maybe I should work with folks who need help in these areas..., as opposed to being a composition instructor. Afterall, I'm a bonafide student of composition myself. :cool:

[JohnnyP]

Hey,

I think this is great. Jess and John are cool, and I don't want to take away from that, but didn't, shoot I forget his name. . . federico>, another gentleman in Italy had offer to do tutorial/composition lessons. His demos are AMAZING

Sincerely,

Jonathan

[trentpmcd]

I’ve done a few non-music on-line courses before. Here is a brief run down on how it was done –

The instructor would post “lecture notes” each week. There would also be an assignment.

Through the week students would post questions, comments, etc. on a forum devoted to the class. Students would also post answers to the assignments with the expectation that others would comment on the answers (usually 1 person would post on each question with the others making comments). Grades, which I know we aren’t doing, would at least in part, be based on participation on the forums.

Once a week there would be a chat about the lecture material and the assignment.

Tests and graded homework would be sent to the instructor via e-mail. Some classes had graded homework every week and the discussion on the forum would be limited to last week’s assignments.

These classes worked surprisingly well.

In our situation we have no prerequisites, etc. and everyone is at different levels. Unless there is a way to sort us by knowledge, experience and expectations in any virtual classroom you’d have some who are bored and some who are lost.

If, on the other hand, there are few enough of us to go one-on-one we have to make sure the right student is with the right instructor/mentor.

I think the task for all of us now, that is people who are volunteering to instruct and people who are looking for help, is to come up with a good form to fill out to help with placement. I’m thinking of a form directed at the “student”, not the instructor.

I think this form should have information about expectations; type of music the “student” is interested in writing; level of formal music education; level of informal music education; how long the “student” has been composing and/or studying; etc. Of course there is the question on exactly what the student is looking for – harmony? Counterpoint? Just somebody to make in depth comments and recommendations on their work?

I’m sure we can work something out. I think this could be quite fun and very helpful to a lot of us out here.


BTW – if there are people at a really low level and want some elementary help, I’ll volunteer. As far as knowledge of harmony, counterpoint, form, orchestration, etc. I am not at a high enough level to offer any more than the very basics.

[jesshmusic]

Yes, I would say that Fabio gets to do all of the coordinating. :D

I also imagine he will be the one who gets first choice at teaching the composition aspect. From what I hear, he is trained in the conservatory method which is very interesting indeed.

[Fabio]

Yes, I would say that Fabio gets to do all of the coordinating. :D

I also imagine he will be the one who gets first choice at teaching the composition aspect. From what I hear, he is trained in the conservatory method which is very interesting indeed.

I'm very happy for the high level of voluntary teacher (understandable by demos). Thanks, really.

As a thread proposer, I'm happy to coordinate the work with some Idea, and some sub-moderator function, because we really nead to create a method, and the base proposed by Jess and Trent is the excellent and logical way to go on. This is mainly to be effective and avoid chaos.

But I would like to start with a first "mission" concept to agree with:
"The right way to do, is what works, and what people like!"

In this concept i would like summarizing that I can't dictate rules or decide style or classes matter. Starting actions:

I propose a stock-exchange-like demand-offer brainstorming in a separate thread to collect needs of students and offer of teachers. (Fabio)

I propose that every student seriously intersted in, fill a form about his curriculum and his interest, as Trent perfectly describe.(Trent, can you prepare it please?)

I propose that every teacher can work in the way he prefer and he can (depending on time, media and skills), but we can imagine two main type of actions:
- free "open lecture" in a separate and dedicated thread,
- and personal tutoring one-to-one with the student the teacher want select to follow directly.

I propose a separate thread for teachers voluntary only, to share each other suggestions about methodology and didactic, and a private exchange of valuation to give to every student the chance of finding his own teacher (single or a team doesn't matter, to optimize resources) and be supported as frequently as possible.(Fabio)

If the first inprovisation of ruling will be successful, we can imagine to ask Gary for a separate topic/folder inside GPO Forum site...(if it's not an expense, as I hope: it must be free for everybody, including Gary...;-)

My first challenge: let you survive to my English... :D

[Stephanie Pray]

I think that this is a great idea and I'm sure that many of us can benefit from other's expertise. I'm wondering though, since I can't read music at all, is it still possible to get help? The biggest problems that I have deal with mixing and some orchestration. (the music is in my head, but doesn't always want to come out) Am I beyond help?

[Fabio]

I think that this is a great idea and I'm sure that many of us can benefit from other's expertise. I'm wondering though, since I can't read music at all, is it still possible to get help? The biggest problems that I have deal with mixing and some orchestration. (the music is in my head, but doesn't always want to come out) Am I beyond help?

You will be our challenge! Seriously, of course I'll be happy helping you.

[Stephanie Pray]

Thanks Fabio. It means a lot to me :)

[Joseph Burrell]

We need to see if Gary can open a dedicated sub-forum for this. So that there's a quick go to place for this topic. I'm really loving this idea. Fabio is my mentor now. ;)

[trentpmcd]

I think that this is a great idea and I'm sure that many of us can benefit from other's expertise. I'm wondering though, since I can't read music at all, is it still possible to get help? The biggest problems that I have deal with mixing and some orchestration. (the music is in my head, but doesn't always want to come out) Am I beyond help?
Unless you are dead set against it I would recommend learning to read music. Another thing you might want to do is pick up the book ABC of Music by Imogen Holst (the famous composer's daughter, also a composer). It is a great intro to music theory and assumes no knowledge (including knowing how to read music) from it's reader. It’s like 10 bucks on Amazon. A little out of date but a great read.

[trentpmcd]

I propose that every student seriously intersted in, fill a form about his curriculum and his interest, as Trent perfectly describe.(Trent, can you prepare it please?)


My first challenge: let you survive to my English... :D

I will work on something tonight and post it for comments. Once it is all set everyone who wants to participate as a student should fill one out. We are going to need to collect them somehow and keep them relatively private. Fabio, can you collect them e-mail? Somebody else?

And Fabio – your English is much, much better than my Italian. I’ve visited Italy twice and tried to learn as much as possible before I went but remember little beyond “ciao”.

[JohnnyP]

Perhpas we can incorporate things people have produced at Northern Sounds. Tutorials at the Garritan Site, Peters string writing and harmony books? yes? NO?

Sincerely,

Jonathan

[StrangeCat]

hey I'll be a student because I have study everything all the time.
Let's see I am interested in Modern Orchestration, why the music in Hollywood or big films is always orchestrated a certian way, Interested in why they decide to use wind swirls with the instruments to highlight melodies and harmony, what keys or not keys do they use and why, What upper harmony extentions do they use or not use(is this all subjective)do they just not include a third and have huge huge chords....see all the music sounds very much the same in terms of orchestra arrangements so I am interested in learning this approach and what styles in Classical music have brought it about. I guess this is Contemporary Orchestration Arrangements then?
Or Modern style popular Orchestra Cliche' Arrangements?

Just watch the film of big Hollywood movie take Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets for example, then watch a European film with Orchestration , then watch a Japanese Film with Orchestration, you will notice each is totally different. The reason for my question about Hollywood style orchestrating.
Thanks
and I'll check out all the stuff posted.

[BermudaFlyer]

A fascinating topic, indeed, Strangecat...

Orchestration (to say nothing of composition & arranging) is a subject worthy of years of study. :cool:

[StrangeCat]

yea I know and I am constantly studying it...LOL. and For years now.
it's just that do people get together and decide to Orchestrate a certain way on purpose for that part? It has become a Cliche' of Los Angeles to Orchestrate a certain way for Big Hollywood films. Maybe I'll have my own way of Orchestrating. Also the reason I wrote that is because most big name films have like four orchestraters for the film. Maybe the orchestration is a certain way because of Under Score.