 |
| That's my music on the stands! |
Tonight (and tomorrow, and the next day) the sixth grade kiddos at Mason Intermediate School under the direction of Micah Ewing will be world-premiering my piece "Last Stage to Red Rock."
I'm kind of excited. The kiddos are excited.
(One kid thought my piece sounds evil.)
But HEY, I finished the piece. And I wrote a piece that was both challenging and fun to play.
So, obviously I'm now an expert on writing Grade 1 band music (no, no I'm not), so I will give you some tips.
First, eat something.
Second, here are some guidelines the director gave me.
- The performance duration could not be longer than 2'30". That's because their embouchures and attention spans would run out. Seriously.
- There were ranges that I had to stick to. (Long story short, the kiddos could play an octave at best.)
- The meter can only be common time.
- Rhythmic values can only include whole notes, dotted half notes, half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes (only in pairs). This also applies to rests.
- Eighth notes or rests should be composed in multiples of two (no isolated eighth notes or or synchopated eighth note rhythms) that are either repeated pitches
- The keys of B-flat major/G minor and E-flat major/C minor may be used. Modes within these key signatures are also acceptable.
When I was done writing the piece, I sent the school a PDF of my score and parts. Then I was asked to provide my Sibelius score so the director could upload it into SmartMusic.
I learned that SmartMusic is an interactive application that helps students practice their music at home. They can play along and the program uses a pitch tracking device that can tell the kids if they're playing the correct notes. This also logs their practice time.
Welcome to the twenty-first century.