songwriting

• • A unit on beginning songwriting, using only whole, half, and quarter notes and rests, and do, re, and mi in C, F, or G. I used this for an 11th grade general music class at Brooklyn International High School, a school that serves New York City's recent immigrant population.
• • Two other ways to look at songwriting, that are less notation driven.

tonal composition

I created the "Composition Missions" for grade 8 and IGCSE (grades 9-10) students as a way of teaching theory via composition and composition via theory. The idea is to give the students as much hands-on time as possible and very little lecturing. At first they work in small groups; then they must complete a mission individually.

• Composition Mission #1: 8 measures; whole, half, quarter, eighth notes; duple in 4|4; tonic, dominant in C major.
• Composition Mission #2: 8 measures; whole, dotted half, half, quarter, eighth notes; duple in 4|4; tonic, dominant in A minor.
• Composition Mission #3: 8 measures; dotted half, half, quarter, eighth notes; triple in 3|4; tonic, subdominant in F major.
• Composition Mission #4: 8 measures; dotted half, half, quarter, eighth notes; triple in 3|4; tonic, subdominant in D minor.
• Composition Mission #5: 12 measures; whole, dotted half, half, quarter, eighth notes, eighth rest; duple in 4|4; tonic, subdominant, dominant in G major.
• Composition Mission #6: 12 measures; whole, dotted half, half, quarter, eighth notes, eighth rest; duple in 4|4; tonic, subdominant, dominant in E minor.
• Composition Mission #7: 16 measures; dotted half, half, quarter, eighth notes, eighth rest; triple in 3|4; tonic, subdominant, dominant in Bb major.
• Composition Mission #8: 16 measures; dotted half, half, quarter, eighth notes, eighth rest; triple in 3|4; tonic, subtonic (dP) in G minor.
• Composition Mission #9: 30-120 seconds; rhythm and meter are open choice; only use one interval and its inversion.
• Composition Mission #10:
• Composition Mission #11: two pieces for solo flute; 30-60 seconds long; dotted quarter, quarter, eighth, rests; triple in 6|8; one in B minor using diatonic transpositions of a motive; one in open tonality/atonality using chromatic transpositions of a motive.
• Composition Mission #12:
• Composition Mission #13: two pieces, one for any solo melodic instrument, the other for percussion; 30-60 seconds long;
• Composition Mission #14:
• Composition Mission #15: