please help me!!
im in yr 11 and i have to do a compostion for march and i dont know what i have to do please can somebody help me!!!

Oh dear....

Which board are you doing?

Do you have to compose more than one piece? Or in some sort of special style, period, or with a theme?

For general composition techniques, especially if you have no idea what to do (same problem as i had! ) it would be best to stick to some basic chord patterns etc...as these will get you the marks anyway.

There are loads of threads that can help:

http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopic=12496&hl=compose

(The second post of this thread by Car Expert is linked to more threads..)

Which noard are you studying and what is the composition brief.

For OCR I know you have to compose a piece on "exploiting the resource" using music you know for your instument as a starting point, and another based on one of your key study areas, eg. music for dance, minimalism.

What do you intend to compose this piece for. Why are your teachers at school not helping you.

If necessary PM me and I may be able to help.

why don't you do what i have done, and write a minimalist peice, stick some triplets in one part and duplets in another (at the same time), and say 'I was emspired to do this after listening to Berlioz's Symphony Fantastic.' it worked for me, as i got full marks in my brief and composition!

the_viola

Yes, I know this problem, having had a music teacher who could neither play the piano nor read a multi-stave score, and had composed nothing in her life as far as I could find out. And she was expected to judge too!

As the_viola says, try to bluff through.

Kai

im doind edexcel and my music teacher isnt helping at all he's bothered with the people that actuely play the piano. i have just about been able to get a peice to sing for in my oral exam in march.
thanks for the help so far.

dani,

I'm doing Edexcel as well. Do you have to do your compositions based on two Area of Studies? Just checking, because that's what I have to do.

Car Expert

in edexcel, one of our music teachers said songs from the musicals was a great one - being as though musicals are based on the popular music of their time, you can get away with writing anything you like (with edexcel anyway) and then just shove it in a storyline - ta dah! whereas with some of the other popular song ones there had to be specific features like blues patterns and notes, reggae offbeats etc.
the rondo/ternary stuff is quite easy too - you write a few sections then repeat them! they're the two i did anyway
good luck with it - it's awful your teacher isn't helping. you'll just have to write a really fantastic piece to rub in how brill you are
hoxie
x

Don't do world music - apparently it's really hard to get the marks.

The popular music is a bit of a cop out option, but if you just want to get it over and done with, it's probably a fair choice. If you can improv, then try the Blues option.

Theme and Variation is good, it's pretty structured so there are certain things which WILL work! Binary/Ternary take a bit more melodic effort though. Ground bass is a pants idea.

Now, I reckon doing something minimalist would be really interesting and different. Same with serialism. Maybe not electronic or experimental because in practice they are hard to pull off.

If you want any help or info about exactly what you have to do then PM me if you like. Oh and remember, since you have to perform one of them, you need to write it to be hard enough to get good marks, so if you are grade 4 or below, you need to make it as hard as you can play, if you are grade 5 or above then you have to make it at least grade 5 standard, but there's no point making it much harder than that...

thanks yopu this is all very helpfull.
i think ill do music for musicals as i am in to musicals very much.

thanks again

danix

i got lower marks for the minimalism one actually...i think it probably depends on what sort of music is 'you' - i'd never even heard of minimalism before gcse, and it was only really after composition time when i started getting into stuff like einaudi and michael nyman - so when i did my composition i didn't truly understand it and got lower marks.
songs from the musicials should be a good one - people in our group that did that option got pretty good marks for it
good luck with it let us know if you run into any problems, i'm sure someone will be able to help
hoxie
x

i have put forword to do the song
"over the rainbow"
my music teacher is putting me in for the exam and i am very pleased thanks for al the help!!!

danix

Are you intending to perform this?

This is the right standard for GCSE. Have you looked at the Eva Cassidy arrangement as well as the original?

As far as composition is concerned try writing a song in the style of any musical. You can write the lyrics too, or select someone elses. Just insure it is original.

Afterall this is the popular music in context area of study.

yes i intend to perform this!