The ultimate goal of any composer is to create music that moves the listeners. However, many students face the challenge of learning from composers who teach in a rigid and complicated way. This makes them feel frustrated or incompetent. This kind of teaching can discourage students or make them copy someone else’s style. Neither of these outcomes will help you express your own musical voice. Many instructors follow a traditional method of teaching you how to write the music they know how to write. They think this is a good way to learn because it is based on imitation. They hope that by writing like a more successful composer, you will improve your own skills. I often tell my students that the essence of the whole composition is hidden in the first four to eight bars of music. You may have heard that real creativity begins in the eighth bar, but once you learn how to go beyond the eighth bar effectively, you will start to grow and explore as a composer. The first few bars are easy to
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