Music Composition for the Young Artist
Students will study the building blocks of music and great compositions of the past as they discover the tools to shape their own artistic voice.
Jacob Richter
Average rating:
5.0
Number of reviews:(2)
What's included
8 live meetings
7 hrs 20 mins in-class hoursClass Experience
Students will meet via zoom weekly to discuss a variety of topics in music composition. The class is broken roughly into thirds studying melody/harmony, rhythm, and examining great compositions of the past. Each topic will be presented in a progression starting with the essentials, and progressing in a flexible way based on the musical interests of the class.
Learning Goals
Students will gain tools to express their own creative voice through music. They will also examine great pieces of music in an analytical light, gaining new insights on why they love (or hate!) what they're listening to. The course is broken down into thirds:
In Harmony/Melody we will discuss:
1) The 12 equal tempered pitches
2) Intervals
3) Scales as collections of intervals
4) The modes of the major scale
5) Harmony as chord/scale relationships
6) Common harmonic moves and the overtone series
7) Harmony as scale to scale modulation
8) Common Alterations to the major scale
9) Melody as the scale over the chord
10) Advanced harmony as stacked intervals
In Rhythm we will discuss:
1) Essential rhythmic terms
2) Rhythm as ratios
3) Western Notation, its limitations and advantages
4) Dividing up a piece: section/form, phrase, measure, beat, and subdivision
5) Traditional rhythms from a variety of cultures
In Listening we will discuss:
1) A variety of pieces based largely on the student's musical interests
2) Great compositions of the past
3) Other compositional concepts including contrast, instrumentation, orchestration, dynamics, lyrics, sound production, and much more.
Other Details
Supply List
Students will need their computer, and some way of making music. This class is designed to be very open ended, and students will be expected to be creative in finding ways to present their music for the final project. It could be as simple as a ukulele and iphone mic.
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Joined April, 2020
5.0
2reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
Hello! My name is Jake Richter, and I'm a New York City based composer, drummer, and educator. I teach music composition, drums/percussion, and music theory.
From a young age I was obsessed with music. I studied piano and guitar at a very early age, but like so many others I quit because my teachers did not understand how to balance necessary technical information with the joy that creating music brings. However, I rediscovered music when I was ten and by chance got to play my cousins drum set for an afternoon. I became obsessed, found an incredible percussion teacher, and joined every music program I could find in the Milwaukee area.
Years later, I attended the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music on a full scholarship to study jazz drum set. Now, I am about to graduate from the Manhattan School of Music with a Masters Degree in Jazz Composition.
My goals as a drummer and composer are to inspire feelings of joy, wonder, and beauty in my listeners. But, as the old cliche goes “give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.” So too are my musical goals perhaps better achieved not only through making music, but through sharing the joy of how to make music.Reviews
Live Group Class
$12
weekly or $90 for 8 classes1x per week, 8 weeks
55 min
Completed by 3 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 13-18
9-12 learners per class
