Every piano teacher can probably list off several of their favorite composition resources whether they are games or books. Many teachers use these in their studios each week and create so much amazing music with their students! So I was shocked when our local Music Teacher’s Association Chapter only had 2 entries total for the Texas MTA composition contest. Growing up, I was blessed with an amazing piano teacher who started helping me notate and turn in pieces early on. Looking back at the music I wrote throughout my life is so fun now.
As we discussed this lack of participation at our chapter meeting last month, the teachers all confessed that they didn’t know how to teach students about the software needed to notate their pieces or how to record the piece so they had an mp3 to turn in online. TMTA just began an online submission process that can be tricky. As one of the two teachers who had entered a student this year, I have been asked to give an hour presentation in May about this process. We will be starting from the beginning – resources to help students compose, beginning notation from paper to computers, and then the options for recording (from simple to a bit more complicated). If you have ideas to share, I’d love to hear them! Please comment with a link to your own blog too if you’ve already written about this. I hope to have lots of ideas to share with these great teachers so we can have many more students participating next year!
Today, to begin this series I will be listing ten of my favorite composition resources soon. I’m still sorting through everything to decide what’s best to share. And I’ll be posting an awesome new game for improv in lessons and to generate ideas for compositions to work on next week!
Next in the Composition Technology series: Part 2
Author: Whitney
Whitney Hawker, NCTM, teaches group and private piano at Weber State University, Utah. She loves surprising students with the perfect piece or a new exciting game! After graduate school, she missed sharing ideas and resources daily with colleagues so she and her friend, Spring, began blogging together at 4DPianoTeaching.com