Final Blog... (?)

Well.. this is it? It never ceases to amaze me how fast every term flies by. And here is another one, gone! I had a great time doing this course. As much as I was dreading it in September, and as much time and energy and frustration it took out of me, it was totally worth it in the end (and I'm not just saying this to make you happy Dr. Ross! haha). There's a weird kind of satisfaction when you hear your piece being performed or see the crowds pack the PC Hall to hear you and support you in the beginning of your compositional career.

This being my final blog, I am going to take my own advice (and also because Dr. Ross asked us to!) and give a few pointers to students in future MU3100 classes, and also a little about what I got out of the course...

1. Don't be scared! Its really rewarding and worth the stress in the end!
2. Get someone else to proof read your work. Its like writing an essay, you can not see your own mistakes, another set of eyes helps a lot and saves you a lot of time (and sometimes saves you having to edit your score on the DAY OF the recital.
3. Don't be scared to share you ideas with others. People are usually very open to your personal ideas and will kindly lead you in the right direction if they think you could use some constructive criticism.
4. Pace yourself, it is far more productive to take your time composing then it is to do in a rush. When you procrastinate you never really get the product you were looking for (I find anyway).
5. Have fun! Take the time to decide if you like your ideas, don't compose something you don't like! Or don't take a melody or set of chords you don't like. That just makes it hard for you to focus and enjoy what you are doing.

Good luck with it newbies!

-Melissa

Another Successful Concert...

Amongst all the other million concerts that go on this time of year, our composition concert was one of the bests. I loved the variety at this concert especially! Everyone had such good ideas about the clichés. It was a very good idea for a final project. I think that everyone picked something that they were interested in and that definitely helped us compose a great piece (everything is better when you like what you are doing)! I was pretty pleased with how my piece worked out (even though I fluffed a note at my favorite part of the piece... thats what you get I guess when a clarinet player decides to play a brass instrument.... haha). But considering I hated my piece and how I ended it on the Wednesday before the concert, I was very pleased with how it turned out. There are always improvements you can make, like Dr. Ross said somewhere down the road in class or on a blog... but wherever it was, you will always want to make "improvements" upon your compositions, but at some point you have to just leave it and settle for what you have, which is probably fine to everyone other than yourself anyway!

Again, to everyone else, great job Saturday night! We did it!

-Melissa