NAC Composition Workshop

The week of April 16th started with much anticipation.  For the next three days, my seniors & three junior music students would be participating in a composition workshop sponsored by the National Arts Centre of Ottawa.  The task was to compose a 2.5 minute orchestral piece that incorporates Inuit music and revolves around the theme of winter.  This piece would be combined with another 2.5 minute piece composed by Ottawa high school students to make a 5 minute instrumental work.  The composition would then be performed by the NAC Orchestra during their northern tour in the fall of 2012.

The workshop would be led by Tim Brady, a well known Canadian composer, guitarist, and record producer, and Nancy Mike, a local Inuit throat singer who has performed in many North American venues.

The workshops took place in the music room during the third period of the school day.  That is the period when I teach my senior musicians.  I made sure my three juniors were excused from their other classes.  Having the workshops during this period would prove to be the best option because lunch splits the period in two.  These young minds would need a break to wrap their heads around the concepts of writing music.  I originally thought of having the workshops during the last period of the day, but realized that I needed those periods to teach my juniors more music theory.

Tim & Nancy arrived before the start of the third block to set up and practice.  Tim had brought his own guitar and pedals.  I felt a little nervous but also privileged meeting Tim, a man who has made a successful career composing & performing music.  I have written my own music (jazz, piano, & electro lounge) but they have yet to see a public release.  I, the amateur, would be working with a professional.

When all the participating students assembled in the music room, formal introductions were made by Tim & Nancy.  After that, the two visiting professionals led the students through a 3 day journey of demonstrations, improvisations, and writing techniques.  I would hover in the background, taking photographs and making mental notes on how to compose. 

Composing music can be many things: easy, hard, fun, a pain, exciting, eye-opening, all of the above, etc.  It's a skill that requires focus & determination but also tolerates creativity and originality.  Before tackling the task of composing orchestral music, Tim & Nancy first started with the basics.  Composing is like writing an essay.  There is a main theme, supporting ideas, and a structure to the piece (beginning, middle, and end).  These ideas can be divided into the 4 main elements of music: melody, harmony, rhythm, and dynamics. 

            

The melody is the main idea, the part that audiences will remember and hum to later.  There are many ways to write a melody but for this workshop, Tim stuck to teaching my students the Arc Approach (think of a rainbow).  Harmony backs up the melody by adding colour and tone, in the form of chords and/or bass lines.  Sometimes, bass lines can be melodies on their own.  Rhythm is the speed & pulse of the composition and dynamics deals with volume (loudness & softness).    

            

Even with all this knowledge, one can still suffer from writer's block.  A way around this is to just 'jam' with a partner and improvise.  Improvising means to just play what comes to mind, either as a solo or a duet.  From these jamming sessions, a melody or harmony progression may pop out.  With his electric guitar in hand, Tim improvised with my students, playing everything from rock rhythms to extreme experimental.  The point was to show students that there are no limits.  On a grander scale, Tim held improvisation sessions with the entire class by having them repeatedly play three notes at different intervals to show how a group could stretch three notes into a tune.

            

Nancy joined in the improvising with her well trained throat singing voice.  She also explained how throat singing is done.  Usually, throat singers perform in pairs.  From my observations, throat singing is a challenging skill to master.  It's very rhythmic.  There isn't an established system of notation for throat singing so singers are left to create their own or learn the tunes aurally.  For Nancy, she created her own system of notation involving lines & dots.

            

For my students, and most aspiring music writers, the hardest part is to keep the music going.  After writing the main melody, where do you go?  There are many things you can do with a melody: stretch it out, make it shorter, invert it, play it backwards, and pass it around to other instruments in the orchestra.  The same can be done with harmonies, rhythms, and dynamics.  Thankfully, the students did not have to write a completed orchestral piece.  All that was required of them was to submit musical sketches of any kind with as many details as possible.  It would be Tim's job to go through all the pieces and arrange them into an orchestral piece.

            

To celebrate the conclusion of the 3-day workshop, I organized a pizza lunch on the last day.  Can't go wrong with pizza & pop.  While the students devoured the pizzas, I spoke with Tim & Nancy about our favourite musical genres and composers.  I also asked Tim about how does one go about making a successful career in the music industry.  With the conclusion of the workshop, my students would have an extra week to complete their musical sketches.

            

Overall, I think the composition workshop was a success.  The students got to work with two professional musicians and were exposed to the wonderful world of composing.  My students are quite lucky to participate in such an endeavour.  Down south, high schools would have to compete for the opportunity because there are so many of them.  Up here, Inuksuk is really the main high school in the north.    

The only other thing to report for the week was all-day parent-teacher interviews on Friday, April 20.  Students got the day off while the teachers had the pleasure of speaking to visiting parents about the midterm marks of their parents.  Unlike the parent-teacher interviews back in January where I didn't meet any parents (because I was the new teacher in town), I met quite a few this time.  I would have to estimate around 10 parents.  All the discussions I had were productive and positive.