Before I started writing down any music, I played around with what key I wanted my composition to be in. I already had what key I wanted in mind, but I thought I would play around just to be sure I didn’t find anything that I liked better. I played arpeggios in various keys, and in both major and minor, but ended up going with A minor (as mentioned in my other blog post) – the original key and tonality I had in mind.
After improvising and figuring out which notes of the arpeggio I wanted to use, I started to right these down. I then came up with multiple different chord progressions that I liked. I didn’t necessarily put them in any order – there were just there for me to use at any time in my composition. I then altered the arpeggiated pattern to fit in with the chord that was over the top. Again, this was just a basic, skeletal structure of my composition. Below are the musical ideas I came up with.
When I had a composer look over my piece and talk it over with me, I felt a little better about my composition – I honestly thought what I had wasn’t any good. The composer gave me some good feedback. One of the things he said I should figure out soon was what piece I would use as a model, since I was unsure of what piece I wanted to use. After my first draft was handed in, there were still a lot of things I was unsure about. What instruments would I include? What would be the structure of my piece? How could I vary the melody so that it was not just arpeggios over and over? How could I incorporate a good harmony? How could I make the bass line interesting? I got to ask him some of these questions, and walked out feeling like I knew what I was going to do next.
Rachelle Pieri 