Inventing Music 1 648526 PDF

Andrew Ford
Inventing
Music Ebook reissue
Australian Music Centre
2015
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INVENTING '
MUSIC
Andrew Ford
Illustrations by Rocco Fazzari
First published iin 1991

Ebook reissue by the Australian Music Centre in 2015
.....
Sounds Australian,* Sydney, Australia
* Sounds Australian was the trading name of the Australian Music Centre in 1989-2000.

Sounds Australian Music Resource Series
for Secondary Schools
1. Inventing Music
This book is published by Sounds Australian under licence from the

Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, which holds
copyright in the text. Sounds Australian holds copyright in the
illustrations.
Lifeboat Consulting assisted with design, and the cover illustration is

by Fay Wilson. illustrations to the text are by Rocco Fazzari. The
musical examples were computer notated by Oassical Publications.
The text was type~t and laid out at Sounds Australian by Kurt
Olofsson.
The text for this work was developed by Sounds Australian with
funding from the Commonwealth Curriculum Centre under its
Projects of National Significance program.
Sounds Australian is the trading name of the Australian Music

Centre Ltd. (incorporated in NSW, Australian Company No. 001 250
595). It receives core funding from the Commonwealth Government
through the Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council.
Australia
ISSN 1036-1766
ISBN 0 646 03 060 4
Published in 1991 by
Sounds Australian

CONTENTS
Foreword v
Introduction vi
What is Composition? 1
Improvisation 6
Sound 12
Rhythm and Time 22
Timbre 26
Notation 28
Form in Music 31
Composing with a Tape Recorder 37
Words and Music 40
Style 42
Bibliography 47
Discography 49
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Andrew Ford
Andrew Ford was born in Liverpool, England in 1957. He began to
compose whilst at St Olave's School in Kent. At the University of
Lancaster his plans to major in English changed after meeting Edward
Cowie with whom he studied composition.
Upon graduating with honours in 1978, Ford at the age of twenty-one

was appointed Fellow of Music at the University of Bradford, a post
which he held for four years and whichgavehimconsiderable conducting
experience as well as the opportunity'to run his own concert series. In
1982 Ford's piano pieces, Portraits, won the Yorkshire Arts Young
Composer Award and that year he also helped to found Big Bird Music
Theatre for whom he acted as Musical Director and performer.
In 1983, Ford emigrated to Australia where he took up a position of

lecturer in the new School of Creative Arts at the University ofWollongong,
NSW. Ford's talents as painter and music-theatre performer as well as
composer and conductor have all been employed in this multi-disciplinary
course. In 1984 he formed the School's contemporary music ensemble,
SCAW, with which he hasgivenmanyworld and Australian premieres.
Since 1984, Ford's music has received many performances in Europe

and America, as well as in Australia. In 1984 he was the Bennelong
Program's Composer-in-Residence at the Sydney Opera House where
he co-ordinated the devising of a large multi-:media work, Tall Stories,
by over a hundred young people. As conductor he has worked with the
Australia Ensemble, the Seymour Group and the Magpie Musicians.
Andrew Ford holds dual Australian/UK citizenship and lives, with his
wife, in Sydney. He continues to teach at the University of Wollongong
and has recently become known as a writer and broadcaster on music.
For an up-to-date biography, please see the Australian Music Centre

website: http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/ford-andrew
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Foreword
Inventing Music is the first of seven resource kits dealing with the creation of
music in Australia. Whereas Inventing Music guides secondary school students
and teachers in composing their own music, the subsequent kits in the series
show examples of the work of other Australian creative musicians and composers.
Each kit covers one stylistic area: Australian classical music, Australian popular
music, jazz, folk music, world music in Australia, and it is hoped, traditional
Aboriginal music and dance.
There is no question about Australians' abilities to re-create music. -But all of

these kits demonstrate the accomplishments of Australians in CREATING
music.
Additional copies
Additional copies of this text are available at greatly reduced prices if purchased
in multiples. ·
Supplementary materials
A great many of the Australian works mentioned in the listening lists or
resource lists are available from Sounds Australian in recording and/ or score.
Sounds Australian attempts to make available every recording or publication of
an Australian work, whether made here or overseas.
Copying
Sounds Australian does not object to copying of excerpts from the printed
materials, under normalprovisions of the copyright act. However, copying of
recordings or substantial parts of the text is illegal.
Important
Please ensure that resources on Australian music such as these continue to be
available to high schools, by purchasing additional copies of materials as you
need them.
If materials are illegally copied instead of purchased, it will not be possible for
Sounds Australian to continue to produce these special resources for schools.
Richard Letts
Sounds Australian
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Introduction
It goes without saying that composition is the single most important activity in
the field of music. Without it all the other activities would cease or, at best,
become little more than of antiquarian interest.
Traditionally, however, composition has been considered an inappropriate
activity for the classroom, either too difficultto approach (often for students and
teachers alike) or1 worse still, the province of an elite body of gifted men (sic),.
in touch, somehow, with a divine inspirational force. At least this is the all too
common conception of the Classical composer. Other areas of music have their
own cliches and stereotypes. And yet in most non-Western cultures this
attitude would seem faintly ridiculous and, as the following chapter describes,
the basic business of composition is something which we all do every day.
This resource kit makes little or no distinction between composition (which,
after all, is only notated improvisation) and improvisation (which is spontaneous
composition). When the word "compose" is used, "or improvise" should be
understood. The techniques of good improvisation are discussed in the chapter
devoted to that, and similarly with many approaches to notation, but as far as
making an effective piece of music goes, the skills and techniques involved in
improvisation and composition are much the same.
Given that musical composition (as distinct from harmony and counterpoint
and other exercises in pastiche) has generally not been taught in our schools, it
has been left up to tertiary institutions to carry outthe task. This has traditionally
occurred in the manner of an apprentice scheme (master and pupil). We may
question whether this is. desirable. Nevertheless in all the arts role models are
important. In musical composition: it is even more the case. For young
Australians, particularly females, such figures have often been difficult to find.
In this kit many of the examples and activities provided are of and by Australian
musicians. The kit aims to be a practical one. Students are not asked to sit back
and admire but to be involved and creative. If there is one single message it is
that music may be composed by anyone and that we all have the basic skills
required as of birth.
The kit is divided into chapters which deal with the fundamental building
blocks of any type ofmusic: sound, rhythm, form etc. It is arranged in terms
of Text and Activities. The Activity sections are in Bold type.
The kit has been designed to deal with archetypes rather than specifics,
although the final chapter, which discusses the concept of Style, concludes with
a non-compositional activity involving a study of contrasting stylistic approaches.
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Using the Kit
-The Activities
There are over forty separate Activities described in the kit. All may be
undertaken precisely as outlined here, but it is hoped that teachers will want to
adapt them and even combine elements of them to develop their own activities.
Most of those described are extremely flexible and have been used before in a
range ofsituations.. They work with young children and professional musicians,
(although, from experience, younger children frequently come up with more
elegant and imaginative solutions!)
The Activities aim.to break down conventional, style-bound notions of what is
music. Ifthisissuccessfultheimaginationmayoften beliberatedfor~reativity....
Liberation from conventionality, however, does not, on its own, produce a
creative frame of mind. Students must feel they have a clear structure in which
to work, otherwise they may lack the confidence and trust to be creative; As
mentioned in the chapter on improvisation, it is often the simplest and most
restricted activities which unleash the greatest amount of creativity.
-Which Age Groups?

The kit is primarily designed for use with Year 11 and 12 students and those
preparing for Years 11 and 12. If some of the activities seem rather basic for
these students (particularly those in the early part of the kit) it should be
explained that, often, it is precisely these more "sophisticated" students who
need to confront basic questions such as ''What is composition?" These
exercises are designed not only to make students more sensitive to musical
sounds, but also to remove many of the inhibitions and preconceptions which
will be in place by late teenage.
Clearly, there will be situations in which these activities are less essential. A
particular group of students may be very open-minded (either through
inexperience or because they·have already been exposed to a.good,deal of
twentieth century music by their teachers). In other cases exigencies of time
might necessitate beginning elsewhere in the Kit.
Nevertheless, these early exercises are an importantfoundation for the Kit as a
whole. They have been used with great success in primary, secondary and
tertiary classes, and teachers are urged not to omit them if at all possible.
-Where to begin
The activities are not graded in the text. However they are intended to be used,
within a particular chapter, in the order in which they appear. Teachers may
wish to employ the early Activities in each chapter with Years 7 or 8. Alternatively
some of these early Activities may be deemed too basic for more senior students.
Inevitably this will vary from school to school and from one group of students
to another.
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Once again it should be stressed that all activities have been tried and tested
with musicians and non-musicians of all ages. Teachers should never be afraid
to adapt the Activities to the needs of a particular group.
Because the composition of music necessarily requires the simultaneous use of
more than one of the building blocks it is not possible to devise an entirely
satisfaCtory chronology for this study. For example, experiments with sound
will almost inevitably involve rhythm. Conversely, it is clearly impossible to
experiment with rhythm without making sounds!
-Equipment
Very little special equipment is required for this kit. A tape recorder is about the
only essential item. The more thatstudents.can hear their compositions, the
more they ,are encouraged.to be self-critical about their work and to evolve -a
critical vocabulary for discussing it. Tape recording activities also, in our high-
tech, product orientated world, somehow legitimises the process. (Nevertheless,
as every enlightened teacher knows, it is the process, rather than the product,
which is of greater educational value). Finally, and most importantly, listening
to playbacks of composition activities will encourage more acute listening
during those activities. And, after all, composers' most important pieces of
equipment are their ears.
viii
What is Musical
Composition?
There is nothing like asking the Big Question first!

It might be argued that composition is the single most important activity in the
field of music. Without it all other activities would cease or become a
specialised, museum-like activity:.::Ofcourseit is also true to say tha~ without
performance music really does:not exist at all.
Is composition really such a specialised occupation? Or is it a natural part of

everybody's experience?
When someone sits down in front of a piece of manuscript paper or a computer

screen to invent a piece of music they are certainly entering a world which for
most people is rather mysterious. Somehow, writers of novels do not have the
same aura around them.
Mter all, practically everybody writes words fairly often. Even if we have not
written a book we can imagine quite easily how novelists go about their work.
Similarly everyone has painted a picture, as a small child if not recently. We
all know the sensation of making marks on paper, of doodling. And when we
visit an exhibition of new art it is quite likely that we will overhear a remark
such as "Oh, I could do better than that."
Is the composition of music really so different? So removed from our own every
day experiences of life?
Let's consider the things which go to make up a piece of music.
1. Pitch- that is to say the changing highness and lowness of sounds. These
changes are one of music's most notable features, they give rise to
melodies and harmonies. Admittedly, a composer like Sarah Hopkins can
work with one pitch for a very long time. But even in these works pitch
is important - through the absence of change.
2. Tempo - the speed at which the music moves.
3. Rhythm - the distribution of sounds in time.
4. Timbre- the "colour" of a sound. This might be influenced by the type of

voice or instrument which produces the sound, but also how the sound is
produced by that voice or instrument. For instance a flute playing a low
pitch has a different timbre from one playing high, a loud note on the flute
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gives a different timbre to a quiet note.
5. Articulation -connected to timbre is the notion of articulation. Really this

means the way a particular sound is "attacked". Is it accented or does the
note appear as if from nowhere -sounding very softly and then swelling
in dynamic?
6. Dynamics - loudness or quietness.
7. Silence- this is a very important part of music. For instance, a pause in the
middle of a piece of music can be very expressive.
All of these musical elements are a natural part of our process of communication.
Take pitch for example. We all use pitch every day of our lives. We use it when
we speak, to give our words meaning., In some. Asian languages, such as
Mandarin and Cantonese, a particular phoneme (that is to say, a single sound)
can have many different meanings according to how it is pitched. Think of how
this might happen in English.
At the end of the following activities students should be able to distinguish

between the various elements listed above, particularly as they occur in speech.
Activity
Take the word "Yes".
It is possible to say this

word in such a way that it
can mean "Maybe", "Yes
definitely'', "Oh all right
if you insisf', "Are you
serious?", ''Really?", "I
would rather not be having
this conversation, can we
talk about something else".
It is even possible to say

the word ''Yes" in such a
way that it means "No".
All of this is achieved by

our use of pitch.
Try saying "Yes" in all of

these different ways. Can you think of any other ways to say it? Listen to the
way in which you are changing the pitch of the word.
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Activity
The "Hello" Game
1. Everybody should find a partner. In a large room partners should face

each other from different walls. You should end up with two lines of
people along opposing walls - partner A on one wall, partner B on the
other.
2. Each pair takes it in tum to change places, walking past each other. and
saying Hello" - just "Hello", no other words - as they pass.
11
3. One person (the teacher in a classroom situation) provides a brief

scenario each time:
i) A and B barely know each other but meet at the bus stop
each morning;
ii) in a dark ally A is afraid of being mugged by B;
iii) B owes A money;
iv) A fancies B;
v) A has just left a restaurant and is still wearing a large white
napkin;
vi) B thinks A is an old, old friend (A isn't!);
vii) A and B are old, old friends who haven't met in ages but
both are in a great hurry;
viii) A and B had a huge and violent argument the previous
day.
And so on. You will be able to thinkof many more scenarios like these. The
teacher should ideally make a list before starting the game and set each scene
just before A and B walk towards each other, keeping the meeting as
spontaneous as possible. If it is possible to tape or video the game it is worth
doing so. It will help analysis of the pitch changes afterwards.
Once again pitch is vitally important in giving the word ''Hello" its meaning.
But it must by now have become apparent that other factors, especially
dynamics (loudness) and tempo (speed) are almost equally important. And, in
complex sentences, rhythm, timbre, articulation (emphasis) and the use of
pauses become essential.

Activity
Try reading anything at all without employing these factors. Take a long
sentence and read it on exactly the same pitch with no variation of tempo,
dynamic or rhythm. Make every syllable identical, like a string of sausages.
The sentence loses all of its meaning.
In actual speech, when we are making up the words as well as speaking them
other factors come into play. The use of recurring patterns (what we call
sequences in music), repetition of certain sounds to lend emphasis. All done in
the spirit of communication, of making our ideas and our feelings clear.
Activity
Listen to a politician making a speech~ What we call rhetoric, the politician's
use of dramatic devices which make us pay attention to the message and
possibly want to agree with it, is really nothing more nor less than musical
composition. Which of the politicians you listen to are the most effective
speakers? Why?
The tools which a public speaker uses are exactly the same as those used by a
composer: pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, articulation, pauses, repetition.
Even timbre, that is to say tone colour, the actual quality of the sound, is
important if one is trying to convey a particular "image" - and politicians
usually are!
Activity
Listen to comedians, evangelists, people in television and radio advertisements.
How are they using musical techniques in their speech?
We have seen then that using .the· tools of composition is a very natural. and
spontaneous part of everybody's lives. And yet it is so natural and spontaneous
that most people are unaware of it.
Activity
Listen to the way your family, friends, teachers speak. What are the characteristic
musical sounds they make?
Obviously we all make distinctions between what we have been describing

above and what we call musical composition. What are the essential differences?
A musical composition is a series of sounds given some form of organisation-

one might just say, "given some form". But what do these sounds mean? Can
they mean anything?

This is a question which cannot be answered here. For one thing the answer
depends upon the particular piece of music and the intention of the composer.
More than this it depends upon the listener. Exactly how a listener interprets
a piece of music- or whether, indeed, the listener interprets it at all, is probably
more important than what the composer intended.
In a medium such as music it is very hard to make a specific point unless words
are used in addition to sounds or unless the sounds used have a particular
meaning outside the music- the sounds might themselves be linked to words
(if a piece of music quotes the tune of Advance Australia Fair even without the
words we might be forgiven for having patriotic or antipatriotic thoughts); if
the sounds are familiar (police sirens, church bells, flowing water) then once
again we might receive a specific meaning; if the style of the music is well
known (a Viennese waltz, a Jolksong,. rock 'n' roll) we might fine!_ familiar
feelings stirring within us.
But this whole question is enormously complex and might be better asked when
we have listened to and composed music a little more ourselves.

Improvisation
As mentioned in the introduction,

this kit makes no real distinction
between what is ~~improvised" and
what is "composed", since only
. differing degrees of spontaneity are
at stake. Of course many composers
will spend months, even years .in
) calculating the sounds in a particular. .
composition. But the process,
however slow or fast, is still
essentially the same.
Nevertheless, the art of

improvisation, of spontaneous
composition, is important to all
creative musicians, no matter how
carefully worked out the finished
product might be.
The most important factor in

improvising for beginners is to have
Improvisation rules. To demonstrate this you might
begin by staging a totally free
improvisation. There should be no decisions made at all before the players
begin. The participants will be baffled and frustrated, they will have no
direction and, if they are at all experienced players, will almost certainly resort
to playing scales and arpeggios or fragments of their repertoire.
The next stage is to limit the possibilities of the improvisation. (Lenin said:
''Freedom is precious, so precious it must be rationed." He might have been a
musicimprovisor!)
For this exercise, the most important limitation is to restrict players to making
"single sounds". That is to say even as many as two notes next to each other are
wrong for the purposes of this exercise. With each new limitation the possibilities
are reduced and paradoxically this will make the players more imaginative. H
they can only play single sounds they must experiment with long and short
sounds, loud and quiet sounds. They will also have to listen harder and
listening is the basis of any improvisation. The suggested stages of improvisation
are outlined below.

Activity
Work through the following stages, preferably in a single session.
It is extremely useful if you are able to record each attempt. It will encourage
players to be self-critical and will heighten their listening powers.
1. Decide only what instruments to use and improvise freely. Let the
improvisation run for about five minutes before bringing it to a close.
Listen to a playback and discuss the strengths and weaknesses - what
was there too much of, too little of?
[N.B. This stage will inevitably be a bit of a ''free for all" and it is important
to move on to stages 2 and 3 as soon as possible so that students do not become
discouraged. Stage 1 is, nevertheless, an important starting point since it
allows students to gauge their development.]
2. Limit players to single sounds only. They may make a range of sounds
but only one at a time. A single sound is anything which is less than
two distinct sounds (you might consider a glissando as a single sound
because it is continuous, even though a large number of pitches may be
covered). Play back and discuss - were there enough pauses, enough
highs and lows?
3. Encourage more pauses for individual players. No one should feel

obliged to play all the time. Stress the importance of listening. Play
back and discuss- was there enough listening? Are players performing
little solos or really feeding off each other? There should be a sense of
inevitability about a good improvisation, a feeling that the sounds
which occur do so for a reason.
4. Stress again.the importance.of listening and encourage it by setting up

a ''musical conversation". Players should be as widely spread as
possible in the available space. Have them face in different directions
and close their eyes~ They have then to attempt to communicate with
each other "through" their instruments or voices or body percussion.
They should still be limited to single sounds. Play back and discuss -
is there still a reliance in the music on familiar things? Does the
improvisation really have a life of its own or is there a tendency for
players to make sounds which come from other pieces of music they
know?
5. Restrict players to producing sounds on their instruments in an

unconventional manner. This stage, as with the initial limiting to
single sounds, will provoke far greater listening, thought and imagination.
Players will have to be imaginative because there will be less opportunity

to rely on what they can already do. Play back and discuss -how is the
listening process now? Even the smallest sounds must be significant.
If players have no reason to make sounds they should remain silent.
6. By this stage improvisations should begin and end under their own
steam. Begin with a period of silence and let the players break it with
the first sounds -nothing should be prearranged, someone will begin!
As the players become better listeners they will also intuitively know
when an improvisation is finished. This ability will probably have to
be worked on. There is always someone in a group who wants to keep
playing when all others have ceased•. Try this stage a few times, play
back and discuss the ending of the improvisation.
7. Devise some possible scenarios for an improvisation. The simpler

these are the better.· For example, a piece in which players are .asked. to .
feel extremely tired or extremely hot. This might well be done in
conjunction with theatre improvisations.
These stages are cumulative. By the end, participants should be·makingl

playing single sounds, produced unconventionally, eyes shut, some distance
apart with a simple scenario. The order in which the stages are introduced is
only one possible order. Teachers should feel free to adapt the structure to the
needs of their class. But it is important to add the stages one at a time rather
than trying to assimilate all the information in one go. In this way the players
will feel a sense of development and achievement.
Probably at this point the participants will want to find a way of preserving the
improvisation, of notating it in some form so that it can be repeated. See chapter
on Notation.
The next stage in the development ofimprovisation is to begin to replace some

of the elements which were removed above; In general, if the seven stages ofthe. .
first Activity have been worked through carefully and successfully,. perhaps a
number of times, the next stages will be comparatively easy to manage.
The danger is always that students may revert to dealing in musical cliches
(scales, arpeggios etc.) and that the imaginative ground gained will be lost.
Teachers should always be aware of this possibility and, depending on the
maturity of a class, the matter might be raised as a discussion point.
Generally students seem to find the notion of cliches a difficult one to grasp.
However if the experience of the initial stages of improvisation has been
positive, effective and stimulating it may be possible to channel some of the
benefits into dealing with rhythm and melody.

Activity
Rhythmic improvisations should be undertaken in conjunction with the
section on rhythm.
Beginning after stage 7 (above) introduce the concept of each player evolving
an individual rhythm, perhaps based on their names. Players should
initially be quite independent of one another and should vary speeds and
attacks. Perhaps at a preordained point (or maybe this can happen in a less
contrived way) players should begin to bring their rhythms into
synchronisation with each other. By the end of the improvisation there
should be virtual rhythmic unity.
The next stage is to allow considerably greater freedom. The aim is not now
that everyone should end up playing the same rhythm, but that there should
be a 11Sense" of unanimity. In other words the players begin by being
"individuals" and move towards playing as a group.
What can be done for rhythm can equally be done for pitch. The following
activity works best with a large number of people -the more, the better.
Activity
1. Take or write a short poem, comprising a number of short lines of
unequal length. Some of the lines might just contain one word.
Allocate each line a number from one to ten- you may repeat numbers
and should use more large numbers than small. This represents how
many times each line should be sung.
2. Each performer begins simultaneously and very quietly on any pitch (a

dense cluster of sound being produced). Performers. are to sing each
line on one breath holding it as long as possible and repeating it as
many times as are indicated.
3. The actual placing of words is up to each individual singer. Because

each participant has different sized lungs there will be no possibility of
synchronisation.
4. Singers may move slowly around the space, from time to time, though
when they are standing still they should have their eyes closed.
5. When each singer reaches the last repetition of a line, the pitch may be
altered and the singers should adopt the pitch being sung by a person
nearby. As the piece progresses, then, the number of different pitches
in use will gradually diminish and, if the piece goes on long enough, a

unison will result by the end.
6. When all lines of the poem have been sung the requisite number of
times, each singer should hum the note they have arrived at ten or more
times.
7. In order to give the music a greater variety of texture, a couple of lines

may be singled out and each sung once or twice loudly in the prevailingly
quiet atmosphere. There should be no attempt at any kind of
synchronisation except for the gradually emerging unison of pitch.
The above activity can be extremely powerful and can be prolonged for half an
hour or more. Clearly the longer it lasts the more likely it is that a unison will
be obtained. However it would be a:shame' to··see the goal of the piece asthe
search for a unison. As with the rhythmicimprovisation above, the aim is really
to establish a point of rest, of resolution.
Almost the opposite of this pitch improvisation is a simple melodic one. Any
melody might be used, preferably one which is well known and does not
involve a large number of pitches. The opening line or two of Advance
Australia Fair might serve.
Activity
1. One singer begins by slowly singing a short, simple melody (with or
without words, although words will give the piece a more interesting
texture). The melody is repeated over and over. Other singers
gradually pick out the pitches in the melody and prolong them, humming,
building up a chord based on the pitches in the theme.
2. When each singer has firmly established one· of these pitches, they can
begin to sing the melody themselves using their pitch as the starting,
point. Do not try to synchronise rhythmically with anyone else.
3. The result will be a gradual "fanning out'' of the theme and an

increasing harmonic richness. The melody, beginning on a series of
new pitches, derived from the original melody, will, in turn, produce a
new series of pitches on which further versions of the tune can be built.
4. If it is desired, the moment of maximum density of pitches can be

turned into the beginning of the previous improvisation and the
singers can then progress towards a unison.
All the above improvisations are tried and true and all have worked with
students of different ages, from primary to tertiary. They can often be combined
in various ways and should be regarded with the utmost flexibility. The
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This eBook is licensed
importantthingtorememberistotakethingsgradually,sothattheparticipants
feel an increasing sense of achievement and, indeed pride in what they are
doing.
These activities should be undertaken on a regular basis. The early stages of the
first one might be omitted as students become more practiced. But "practice"
is indeed the key word here. Good improvisation is a skill and like any other
will improve with regular work.
After frequent participation in these activities students should:
1. feel less inhibited about spontaneously inventing sounds
2. feed off the ideas of other participants and therefore enjoy a constructive
and cooperative environment
3. be much more accustomed to listening hard and critically
4. be much more verbally articulate concerning the critical aspects of music

making
5. begin to have an instinctive feeling for the shapes of pieces of music.

Sound
The most important single ability of any composer is the ability to listen. We
live in a society where listening is not as important as it once was; we have
become extremely visually orientated. How often do we really listen- even (or
especially) to music? We hear it all the time, in lifts, in supermarkets, in
restaurants, in doctors' and dentists' waiting rooms. But hearing and listening
are not the same: we choose to listen or not to listen; often we can't help but hear.
Every day we are surrounded by sound. If we live in the country these sounds
may be of nature - of birds, of other animals, of the wind in the trees, of
pounding rain, or possibly of planes passing overhead. In the city we hear
sounds more associated with human beings: traffic, sirens, trains, voices, radios
and televisions.
We tend to group sounds into the categories "pleasant'' and "unpleasant''. Bird
song is good, traffic noise is bad. Note the terms used to describe each. Singing
is a fine thing but noise is an irritant. This "pleasantness" or "unpleasantness"
is extremely subjective.
Sound
Activity
Make a list of the sounds you can hear from:
a) the classroom
b) the playground
c) your bedroom
1. Describe the sounds in words. What do they consist of?
2. Try to draw the sounds. How can you best represent them visually?
3. Now try to perform some of the sounds you have heard/described/

drawn.
4. Give some of your descriptions/drawings to other people and ask them

to perform them. Don't tell them what the sounds were, just give them
your descriptions and drawings. How successful are the others in
performing your sounds?
5. Now tell the other people what the actual sounds were and ask them to
perform themaga~ How.do·their·performances change?;. - . .
Scientifically, the term "noise'' is used to describe more complex sounds. When
a bow is drawn across a violin string it produces two sounds- the tone produced
by the bowing and the "noise" of the bow itself on the string. The tone is a
relatively pure sound, on an oscilloscope (which measures vibrations) it would
produce a regular pattern, but the noise of the bow would produce an irregular
pattern.
In the following examples, the relatively "pure" tone of an instrument such as
Tone
'Noise'
a flute is contrasted with "noise" or a complex combination of tones.

Every sound or noise has pitch. In fact most sounds contain many pitches, and
the more pitches the more complex the sound (and the more likely we are to
think of it as a noise).
This eBook is licensed 13

Pitch is related, then, to the number of vibrations per second a sound produces.
Activity
1. Take a wire coat hanger.
2. Tie a length of cotton (about a metre) to the coat hanger, so that you can
suspend it with the hook hanging down.
3. Place the cotton over the top of your head and push the cotton into your
ears with your fingers.

4. Now knock the coat hanger gently against something and listen to the
vibrations.
Activity
Speak to your Science or Physics Department. They will have experiments
which you can do to demonstrate how these vibrations occur.
The purest sound of all is a sine wave. All other sounds are made up of many
sine waves.
H someone in your class plays a stringed instrument ask them to demonstrate
the harmonics on each string. These harmonics are very similar to sine waves
(though they are not quite as pure).
The following line represents one of the strings of a violin (or any other stringed
instrument, including a guitar or a piano). The wavy lines are its vibrations.
When we touch the string at its halfway point, we reveal the lowest and simplest
of the harmonics which go to make up the tone produced by bowing or plucking
the open string. This harmonic is· one octave above that tone. We call the tone
itself the fundamental.
H we touch the string one third of the way along its length we reveal the next
harmonic. This is one octave and a fifth above the fundamental.
151 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

If we take C as our starting note or fundamental then the harmonics which are
found in it are as follows:
II
., 0
e- etc
"fundamental"
We have an inbuilt response to these harmonics or at least the very simplest

ones. We use pitches related to the lower end of the harmonic series in our
everyday life.
Activity
Try calling your friend's name across a distance. If you are intent on making
contact you will not scream or shout the name but sing it and you will
inevitably sing one particular interval, the falling minor 3rd.
This is true in virtually every culture in the world and there is a reason for it.
The reason is the Harmonic Series.
The minor third or "calling interval" is so natural to us because the pitches of
which it consists are the first two notes of the harmonic series which are not C
-namely G and E (where Cis the fundamental).
If we add in the next different harmonic;. A, we end up with the pitches which
constitute that international playground favourite:
Our sense of (simple) pitch, then, is almost as natural as breathing. If we

continue the process begun above, taking each new harmonic we soon end up
with the pentatonic scale.
The pentatonic scale can be very useful in classroom improvisations using

simple pitch relationships. Most teachers will be aware of this, particularly if
This eBook is licensed16
they have had any contact with the methods of Carl Orff. If each student uses
the same pentatonic scale, there is no combination of notes that they can come
up with which will not sound consonant.
Activity
Use a pentatonic scale [say, C-D- F- G- A] to create a pitched improvisation.
Tuned percussion creates an attractive sound and presents no intonation
problems, but any combination of instruments and voices may be used.
It will help if a simple rhythm is used (once again this might be based on
people's names- use surnames as well as first names). Once the rhythm is
established add to it, embellish it, change it.
The pitches can be used randomly but what you are now producing are
simple melodies.
The next stage is to attempt to repeat the melodies you are producing. Which
sound the best? Try to notate them with their rhythms.
Similar activities can be undertaken with other scales.
Activity
1. Take four pitches which are very close together - they might be four
consecutive chromatic pitches.
2. Experiment with using these in different orders.
3. Experiment with the scale using ''name rhythms".
4. Develop. patterns and, once again, notate the most effective ones.
Activity
This is for more advanced students.
1. Write the names of the twelve chromatic pitches on small pieces of
paper (each pitch should appear twice- ie. there should be twenty-four
pieces of paper).
2. Draw five or six out of a hat. You might have one or two notes repeated.
3. You must use the pitches in the order in which they appeared from the
hat and repeat none until the others have been used.

4. How can you tum them into an effective melody? You are free to use any
rhythm, any octaves, any dynamics.
5. What instrument(s) would suit the melody you devise?
Pitches as we have seen can be ordered into groups or scales. Besides the
familiar pentatonic, chromatic, major and minor scales there are many others.
Here are some examples.
u {e)
O II e
0 II
Greek Dorian Mode
II e
e fe
Whole Tone Scale
II
e e II
e
II II
II II
e
A Japanese Scale (Insenpo)
Of course you can invent your own scales as well.
Activity
1. Make up a scale using the intervals of a semitone, whole tone and minor
third.
Example.
.. j~ct e
e ., fe II
Do not use this example. Make up your own scale.

2. Can you describe in words the differences in their sound? Open or
closed? Light or heavy? Bright or dull?
3. Are any of the notes in the scale more important than others? Can you
say why?
4. With the whole tone scale (above) you can start on any note and the scale
will sound the same. What happens to the scales you have invented
when you play them from different starting points?
Activity
1. Use one of your scales. to' make a piece of music. Use only th~ notes of.
your scale.
2. Which of the notes are you playing most often?
3. Is there a sense in which any of the notes in the scale seem like a 11tonic"
or home note? Is there a musical 11centre of gravity"?
4. What happens if you suddenly add in a 11foreign" pitch? Does it sound

11out of place"?
Block and Line

Most music comprises either blocks of sound or lines of sound.
Blocks of sound can be arranged in various orders and contrasted with each
other, or superimposed on one another. We call the vertical accumulation of
pitch harmony.
Linear music ranges from a simple unaccompanied melody or monody tothe

intensely contrapuntal music of a composer like J.S. Bach. By "contrapuntal" or
"counterpoint'' we mean music in which different lines are intertwined or
superimposed to work with or against each other.
These twin concepts of harmony and counterpoint are common not only to
music but to most other art forms.
If we take drawing as perhaps the best example, it is quite clear that the pencil
or pen can be used to create single lines- continuous or fragmented. The Swiss
artist Paul Klee spoke of "taking a line for a walk"- that is, he would put his pen
on the page and then allow it to wander around without leaving contact with
the paper. But a pen can also be used to shade an area of paper, producing a
larger mass or block.
Look at some of the work of the artist Brett Whiteley. His paintings are an
especially good example of the differing uses of blocks and lines.

Activity
1. Play a recording of a short piece of music. At the same time, with your
eyes shut, place your pencil or pen on a large blank piece of paper
(butcher's paper is best for this). The pencil and paper must remain in
contact at all times.
2. Now make a movement for every sound you hear. This exercise can be
carried out with a variety of different styles and moods of music. If you
can find a way of anchoring the paper you can also use a pencil in each
hand (if they are of different colours you will be able to see what you
have done better when the music stops and you open your eyes).
3. Does this activity bring. you ·closer to the music to which you are
listening?
4. Can you see the link between the block and the line in the music and on
the page?
5. Are there any other links between what you heard and what you drew?
Mood, for example?
NB. THIS ACTIVITY IS BEST CARRIED OUT ON THE FLOOR WITH THE
LARGEST PIECE OF PAPER POSSIBLE. EVEN SO IT IS RECOMMENDED
THAT THE FLOOR IS FIRST STREWN WITH NEWSPAPER, OTHERWISE
WHENYOURUNOVERTHEEDGEOFYOURPAGE~CHYOUALMOST
CERTAINLY WILL) YOU WILL BE DRAWING ON THE FLOOR!
Activity
1. Listen to a wide range .of. pieces, of music (different styles, different
genres). [Ex. a piece by Ros Bandt, a short movement from John Antill's
Corroboree, a song from Arnhem 'Land, by Don Burrows.]
2. Can you identify what is "block" and what is "line"?
3. [For older students] Is there any such thing as truly nonharmonic music
or does even a monody carry an 11implict harmony"?
Activity
1. Compose (improvise) a piece of music which makes use of the distinction
between 11block" and 111ine". The blocks should be dense accumulations
of sound and fairly static (you might use repetition, fewer pitches,
rhythmic unison etc.). The lines should involve a certain independence
on the part of the instruments or voices taking part.

2. Begin by notating your piece in diagrammatic form. An example is
given below.
•••
0
8Jo
Once again, this is only an example. Dense, black areas might indicate loud
sounds or they might simply imply many instruments or voices. Black dots
might refer to small 11explosions" of sound, pauses, unisons, anything... It
is important that students devise their own notation and also provide a Key
to the symbols used.
After working through these activities students should be able to:
1. analyse and describe sounds
2. begin to be able to manipulate pitches, melodically and harmonically
3. have a strong feeling for musical texture and a sense of "where a piece is
going''
4. be more self-critical and. more articulate in terms of the. music they
compose.
They should also be more attuned to connections between sounds and visual
signs. In other words the last Activities .in this chapter should enable students
to go beyond the level of associating a piece of music with a particular mental
picture. Instead they may begin to grasp connections between musical and
visual shapes, colours and textures.
These concepts can be difficult (and rather sophisticated to explain) and so,
instead, these Activities will help students to experience them.
This should be an invaluable aid to working not only on further aspects of
composition (especially notation), but also an aid to more advanced and critical
listening. It could even provoke a more innovative and imaginative approach
to the area of musicology, prompting an interest, for example, in works of visual
art, contemporary with musical works studied.

Rhythm and Time
Rhythm is quite a hard word to define although we probably all think we know
what it means. It should not, for instance, be confused with pulse or metre.
Pulse is the underlying unit of tempo (time), metre describes the groupings of
pulse into which the music falls.
In the following example the tempo is allegro (fast), the pulse is crotchets, and
the metre is three crotchets to the· bar~
Allegro
So, what is rhythm? The rhythm of this example is the "rate of change" of the
pitches. We hear this as a pattern, formed by the sound durations.
Rhythm is a very important part of our every day speech (see Chapter 1: What
is Musical Composition?)
Activity
Find the rhythm of your name as you speak it. Clap it. Different names have
different rhythms.
Example.
.["l.
Ro - bert
JDa J
vid
r==:Jco - JIa
Ni -
3
J
Cyn -
~
thi - a
J
) r==:J J
E - li - za - beth
Now try putting together the names of your friends and yourself. Put them
end to end, overlap them, superimpose them. Speak or clap them.

There are other types of rhythm which we
experience all the time, even if subconsciously.
These are the rhythms of our body- we might
call them corporeal rhythms or endogenous
rhythms (these are rhythms which come from
within us).
Activity
What are our endogenous rhythms?
Breathing, pulse and heart beat, walking
etc. What do these rhythms have in common?
One answer is that they are duple, they

come in twos. . We breathe in, we breathe
out. We put weight on our left leg, then on
our right. Try walking in triple time - you
will either fall over or find yourself waltzing!
Rhythm and Time

Activity
Find a floor which makes a bit of a noise- but not in too resonant an acoustic.
One person begins to walk, slowly but evenly. Another person walks a little
faster, but also evenly.
Listen to the two pulses. When do they coincide? After how many 11beats"?
Now each 11Walker'' should put a stress on their right foot, but keep the pulse
of their steps absolutely steady - still one 11Walker'' faster than the other.
How does this alter the sound?
One half of the class ~ight clap with one 11Walker", the other half with the
other. You must be very precise.
Just as there is endogenous rhythm there is also endogenous time.
Activity
Time your breathing. Keep it as natural as possible (difficult when you are
concentrating on it). How many seconds does it take to complete a cycle (in
and out)?
Now make the cycle as slow as possible. What is the difference? ·

Sing a note for as long as possible. Does it help to sing low or high? Loud
or quiet? Why do you think this might be?
Activity
Someone with a watch should clap a beat every five seconds.
Everyone else, with eyes shut, should attempt to clap with them.
Then the interval should be increased to ten seconds, fifteen, twenty, even
thirty.
1. Why does it become more difficult. as the gaps become greater?
2. What is the best way to make the clapping accurate?
3. Should you attempt to count beats? Or simply 11feel" the beat?
Activity
1. Take a scale (see pp.17 and 18). Begin with two players each with a
metronome.
2. Set one metronome to mm.60 and the other to mm.90.
3. Start both metronomes at precisely the same moment.
4. Each player uses the scale to improvise at one of the two speeds. (It
might be a good idea if the two players have become used to their
respective pulses separately, prior to putting them together. It might
also be wise to place the.playersat opposite ends of the room so that they ..
can concentrate better on their individual pulses.)
.5. The players should not simply play one note for each beat, but use the
pulses as a basis and subdivide as much as they like.
6. Later on you might try more players and more pulses and/or metronome
speeds which are more complex (e.g. 60 against 69, 80 against 90). Here
there is little or no relation between the pulses and so each voice will
retain its independence - at least at one level. However, does the
listener, perhaps, attempt to find connections between the different
musical lines? Can the listener's perceptions be altered by using
instruments/voices which blend or do not blend? [See next chapter on
Timbre.]

Activity
Listen to some of the following pieces of music.
1. A range of music by Aboriginal Australians from different areas of the

country. (Try to hear a vocal piece, a piece using didjeridu and clapping
sticks and also a piece which combines a number of different voices/
instruments.)
2. Songs by Midnight Oil or The Rock Melons
3. Peter Sculthorpe's String Quartet no.S
4. Ross Edwards' Mountain:Village in .a Clearing Mist
5. Vincent Plush's Bakery Hill Rising
6. Michael Smetanin's Ladder of Escape
What can you tell about the different layers of sound? Do they blend? Would
you say that the music makes a great use of rhythm? Can you walk to this
music? Can you dance to it? Does it make you want to tap your foot?
Can you perceive a strong and regular sense of meter? If not, how does the
composer or performer use meter? Are there many changes?
After these activities have been worked through, students should have developed
a strong sense of:
1. endogenous time
2. endogenous rhythm
3. pulse
4. tempo
5. simple and complex rhythms

6. simple and complex combinations of meters and pulses.

Timbre
In discussing sound it is possible to distinguish between its pitch and what we

might call its uquality''. The quality of the sound refers to the type or 11Colour''
of it. We call this timbre. An E flat on the flute is not the same as an E flat on a
guitar. One produces a breathy sound which will last as long as the breath, the
other has a string which is plucked (a sound in itself) and the tone dies gradually
from that moment on- it cannot be prolonged, it can only be. played again. Each
instrument (and each voice) is different in this respect.
Activity
1. Compare the sounds of all the instruments and voices you have available.
2. How different do they sound in various parts of their registers? The

clarinet, for example, has a rather gentle middle register, a high register
that can be either strident or very sweet depending upon the dynamic
and a low register which is dark, furry and slightly sinister.
3. What are the ranges of each voice and each instrument in your group?
4. Which are the easiest and most difficult pitches to play?
Activity
1. Try pairing the instruments - have them play together.
2. Which instruments blend? Which don't? Why? Try to put into words
the similarities and differences of character of these voices/instruments
as they are paired.
3. When a number of instruments play together, are any more prominent

than others? Is this simply a question of volume?
Activity
Compose a short piece of music for one or more instruments and try to take
the characteristics of each one into account.
For example a flute can play from middle C to the D three octaves higher, but

the range of colours alter from one octave to another. Whilst it is hard for the
player to produce much in the way of loud dynamics at the bottom of the
register, it is almost as hard to obtain a quiet sound at the top.
A flute can however produce a relatively long note whereas, as we have said,
a guitar cannot. But even a flute player has to breathe and the note must stop .
eventually. A violinist, on the other hand. can (theoretically) keep going for
ever. All that might hinder a continuous sound is the player's ability to make
even bow changes and risk Repetitive Strain Injury!
Try to take as many of these factors into account in your music. If you play
an instrument yourself, compose your piece for someone else. You will need
to ask the player a lot of questions: about their instrument and what they can
and cannot do on it. -
Probably after they have played your piece, you will also need to make some
alterations. It's a bit like being a tailor fitting a suit.
These activities aim to make students more sensitive to timbre and instrumentation
in general. After working on them, students should be able to:
1. recognise and describe the timbres of various instruments
2. combine instrumental timbres in imaginative ways.

Notation
Most music is not written down. Aboriginal music, folk music, the blues, jazz,
the classical music of India, African drumming, Indonesian gamelan, rock 'n'
roll - all have tended to belong to oral traditions. The music, like the skills
required to perform it, has been passed on from player to player, or from
generation to generation, by imitation and by word of mouth. And since the
invention of the sound recording there has been even less reason to write music
down.
The Western classical tradition, of course, is different. It has always existed on
paper. It is not alone. The Chinese, for instance, were notating music at least
two thousand years ago. The reasons for this important difference, between
broadly "classical" and "folk" musics will be discussed in the chapter on Style.
What concerns us here is the enormous range of possibilities connected with the
notation of music and the almost equally large range of potential meanings
which those notations have.
Why notate? Well if you have already worked through some of the activities
described on the earlier pages, you will almost certainly have found the need to
evolve some form of shorthand means of writing down some of the music you
have invented.
Really, all musical notation is shorthand of one sort or another. To notate a piece
of music precisely is, ultimately, impossible. To attempt it would require more
space in the score than would be sensible or indeed practical. If we take what,
on the face it, seems to be a fairly straightforward piece of notation, the
pizzicato, we will begin to see the problem.
In most Western classical music the plucking (as opposed to bowing) of a string
is notated by putting the abbreviation "pizz." above the note to be plucked. But
what exactly does this mean? Plucked how? With the finger nail? The pad of
the finger? And which finger? And plucked in what direction?
The notation of Chinese lute music tells us all this; it also has distinct symbols
for twenty-six different types of vibrato. In the Western classical tradition,
vibrato is either not notated at all or simply represented by the abbreviation
"vib" or a wiggly line over the note.
Of course it all depends on what you need to notate. Western music has
traditionally been less concerned with the quality or type of sound than with its
actual pitch. Whether or not music is notated, and, if it is, how it is notated,
depends upon the musical traditions of a particular culture. As dance has
developed over the centuries and become more complex (particularly in ballet
and its related areas) many people have attempted to notate steps and gestures.
We still have no single, unified system for dance notation.
Activity
With a partner, try to write down as many features of a particular sound as
possible. One person might play or sing a sound, the other person tries to
record all its aspects.
For instance, what pitch is it? How long? How loud?
What about articulation? How does the sound begin, how is it 11attacked"?
Was the sound·thesame for'its·whole duration or did it change?.

From this exercise the size of the problem can begin to be perceived.
When a classical composer writes "Allegro" or ''Lento" what exactly does he
mean? How fast? How slow?
And what is "pianissimo"? We know that "pp" is quieter than ''p" and louder
than "ppp". But exactly how loud is that?
We return again to the earlier comment. A musical tradition has the notation it
requires. Given that space will be limited if a score is to be practical, it is a
question of only notating what is seen to be essential for its performance.
Activity
Try to find appropriate ways of notating sounds around you.
In pairs, give each other sounds to notate (eg. dropping a saucepan lid, tearing
paper, snapping fingers, clapping hands, etc.)
Activity
1. Divide into two groups working quite independently.
2. Listen to a recording of a short improvisation which you have taken part

in, but the othe.r group hasn't.
3. How can you record it on paper so that the other group can play it? If you
want it repeated as exactly as possible (and you do!) what will be
essential to notate?
4. Once you have decided on that, the problem becomes one of finding the
clearest means of notation. In some ways words are always the clearest.
29
to invent signs which would produce the required meanings? Don't
forget that if the signs are invented, rather than borrowed from another
source they will have to be explained in words, otherwise they will not
be understood at all.
5. You might use colours, pictures, words, diagrams or anything at all. But
in order to produce the best perfomance from the other players who,
after all, do not have the advantage of having heard the tape, the score
you give them must be clear and simple.
NB. These activities should be undertaken with reference to the section on graphic
notation beginning on p.19 (Block and Line).
These activities are designed to enable~students to make connections betwen
sounds and signs. At the end of these activities students should be able to:
1. invent appropriate notations for the music they create
2. interpret creatively notations which are presented to them by other
students.
Eflat

Form in Music
If musical composition is the organising of sound, the form into which these
sounds are arranged is obviously very important.
Contrary to what many text books say, there are no rules governing form .. To
read certain authorities is to learn that, for example, Sonata Form was handed
down to composers on a stone tablet. In fact, as with any other successful
musical structure,. it arose quite: naturally' out of the musical,,Ianguage .of the,,., ..
eighteenth century;~ a harmonic tendency to oscillate between the twin .poles of
the tonic and dominant created a musical form whose very existence depends
upon that type of polarity.
Nevertheless, it is possible to identify certain forms and structures which might

be said to be almost archetypal, independent of a particular musical language
or style. One such is the verse and refrain.
The concept of a section of music which remains the same on each appearance
and punctuates the rest of the music, which is changing, is extremely basic and
relates to what we might call the "fixed" and the "free". In all art it is possible
to analyse works in terms of what is fixed and unchanging and what is free and
constantly developing. It is very rare to find a piece of music or a painting in
which nothing is repeated.
Activity
Take a scale and, using the principles ofblock and line (see p.19), treatitfirst
horizontally (one note: after: another) and then vertically (several notes. at
once). The appearances of the vertical blocks should remain the same each
time, but allow the horizontal line to change fractionally.
In the above activity the blocks form a kind of chorus responding to the lines.
We might say that the lines are the verses.
It is possible to represent the music you have composed in the following way:
A - B - A - Bl - A - B2 - A - etc.
This kind of verse and refrain form is extremely common in all manner of
musical styles, from rock music to opera. But it is certainly most common in
"folk-related" music.
An extension of the form also occurs in classical music. This is the Rondo. Here

the refrain remains the same but the music of the verse (that is to say the notes
as well as the instrumentation or words, if there are any) changes on each
appearance. In other words we could represent the music as follows:
A-B-A-C-A-D-A-E-A-~c
This is an even better example of "fixed and free".
Activity
Take two contrasting scales. Use one for the refrain and one for the verses.
Invent a short, repetitious melody for the refrain and find a way of using the
other scale for the verses so thatit begins on a. different pitch each time. Aim,
also, to give the verse a different rhythmic shape on each appearance.
So far we have considered form as it applies to a whole piece of music: large

scale structures. But form, clearly, applies on a much smaller scale: the form of
a melodic line, in terms of pitch, rhythm and so on. Large scale structure has
been considered first because it is more important but also because, most often,
it is the first concern. A piece of music is generally first thought of in terms of
its overall shape.
But once the basic idea and shape of the piece has been invented small scale form
becomes important. Indeed it can easily happen the other way round; a
particular melodic shape or rhythmic structure might give rise to the overall
form of a piece. Whichever way it happens, small scale form is important.
Activity
(The examples provided are only illustrations. Students should find their own
scale and invent their own transformations).
Take a scale.
e e
II
e fe
Order the pitches so that they make a satisfying pattern.
~ • • • • • #• • • •
• • •
Find a rhythm which is appropriate to your pitch order. In doing this you
will need to consider which of your pitches are more important than others.
Where are the points of maximum tension and relaxation as you hear them?
How can yottemployrhythmctolendemphasis to thesemomentsZ
Is it possible further to increase the effect of your melodic line by the use of
Octave Displacement? In other words, does it help to move certain pitches
out of the octave to increase their potency?
What about speed and dynamics and articulation? You can alter the 11meaning''
of your melodic line quite a lot by varying these elements.
>
f ===- pp f :::::>- -== f L- 3
..J
::::::==- p -==== mf = - PP

Do you now need to change the rhythm you originally invented in the light
of the other changes you have made?
II
f ::::::- mp
Of course that activity is rather artificial.
If you are composing a melodic line you may well know from the beginning that
you want it to be very quiet, or to begin fast and then slow down. You might also
have an idea of the shape of the melody before you decide on the pitches to be
used.
It is often the case that a melodic line will grow in a rather "organic'' way, from
note to note.
Activity
(As before, examples are only illustrations).
Take a single pitch.
Give it a shape.
/P ---=========
How can you make the shape clearer?
$1J J
> ~---------
Jp
fp f

Can you add another note which will make your original musical gesture
more effective?
Extend your gesture. You might repeat it exactly,
> " - - " ' --------- > "--"'.....___....- >

I P =I P I
or shorten it,
or lengthen it,
I
> .._.... - - - - - - -
p 1===-P I P--
>
=
..__...
or modify its pitch,
I P --=========== I

35
or invert it,
or find an answer for it.
f p =f p --======== f
All music has form, large scale and small scale. It is the principle by which the
sounds are organised and given meaning.
When we compose we analyse the form ofthe music we are writing. Obviously
we do not generally do so in quite as clinical a way as we have in the previous
two activities. But even if the process is largely subconscious or even instinctive,.
the decision which governs what note to compose next is basically an analytical
one.
At the end of these activities students will have a knowledge of some of the
various means of allowing a simple musical idea to proliferate and grow into a
more elaborate one.
In this section we have spoken of form as though it is related only to pitch and,
specifically, to melody. But form can arise from any aspect of music. Density
of sound, dynamics, timbre, rhythm .., all are capable of defining form.
It will be valuable, at this stage (as at others) to return to the section on

Improvisation (p. 6) and to work through these exercises once more, paying
special attention to the form of the music. How is the form defined in your
improvisations? This is a question you will probably have already asked when
first working on the improvisation activities, but it is worth asking again now
that form has been discussed as a separate issue.

Composing with a Tape
Recorder
Throughout this book you will have been recording your improvisations and
compositions in order to help you criticise your work.
Sound recording revolutionised music. At the touch of a button we can hear
practically any music we want~4essthan a·hundred years ago listening to music
was a far more difficult business unless you played or sang it yourself.
But the tape recorder has done more than change people's listening habits, ithas
also made a big impact on the composition of music. Besides commercial
considerations (ie. it is now possible to make an enormous amount of money
from composition if enough people buy your recording) the technical resources
of the composer have been greatly expanded.
Activity
You will ideally need tape editing facilities or two tape recorders, one of
which has four or eight tracks. However if neither of these facilities is
available two or more single track tape recorders will do (the more, the
better).
Build up a piece of music as a sound collage. This might involve recording

sounds at different locations (in the town, in the country, in school, in a
factory, on a busy street, on the beach etc.). Discuss first the kind of piece you
wish to make. You will·have to ask yourselves the following questions.
1. What types of sounds are most appropriate?
2. Will the piece include the sounds of instruments and voices?
3. Will these be prerecorded and a part of the tape or will they be played
live in performance, alongside the tape part?
4. Will the sounds of the instruments blend with the other sounds? If so
how?
5. Are you going to select instruments and voices because they blend or
because they don't?

Experiment with the sounds you have recorded.
Now consider the following options.
1. Do you want your sounds to be recognisable as birds, machinery or

whatever?
2. How can the recorded sounds (including voices and instruments) be

altered by the tape recorder?
3. Do they sound more interesting at a different speed? Or backwards?
4. How can they be combined?
If you want a sound to repeat continuously you might consider setting up-:-a
tape loop. This is easy to do. You:.will only need a milk bottle and a tape
recorder, although obviously you will need a reel to reel model and not a
cassette player!
1. Take the sound you want to have repeated and edit it off the tape- even
if you don't have editing equipment you can make a rough edit with a
pair of scissors.
2. You now have a loose length of tape. Make it into a loop with a small
piece of editing tape and thread it through the heads of the tape recorder
with the neck of a standing milk bottle taking up the slack.
Below is a diagram of how the tape loop set up should look.
3. Now play back and the tape will run continuously.
4. Once you have managed to create your loop with its repeating sound or
sounds, how can it be used most effectively? In other words, what

sound or sounds will benefit from endless repetition? Try experimenting
with different rhythms. You might begin by recording your voice,
speaking some rhythmic words. How does this sound, speeded up or
backwards?
5. If you are fortunate enough to have more than one tape recorder, try
setting up a number of loops of different lengths. Some will repeat
more frequently than others.
Activity
Even if your school does: not have a reel to reel tape recorder, you can still
achieve excellenhresults .with: as few as· two· cassette recorders,. recording , .
sounds from one to the other. As you do this some of the earliest recorded
sounds will deteriorate in quality, but this in itself can be interesting.
The American composer Alvin Lucier has a piece entitled I am sitting in a

room... Lucier (who has a fairly pronounced stammer) reads a text beginning
with the words of the title into a cassette recorder. Because of his stammer,
the text has an unusual rhythmic quality. Lucier then plays back his
recording and records that on another cassette recorder. He repeats this over
and over again and with each successive re-recording, more and more of the
noises in the room get on to the tape. Eventually the actual text is obliterated,
leaving the rhythm of the composer's voice and the superimposed sounds of
the room in which he is sitting.
Try something like this yourself. You will be surprised how noisy is the
room in which you are sitting.
The tape recorder is a particularly flexible means of constructing a piece of

music. Tryusing·itnow in conjunction with some of the earlier activities in this
Kit.
These activities will give the student a great deal of flexibility and control in
ordering and arranging sounds. Particularly important is this element of
control.
But also one should not under-estimate the degree of "instantaneous gratification"
-that is to say that the results can be heard almost immediately. This should not
only instil confidence into the student; quick results will also make for effective ..
teaching.
Finally, the exercise is useful in that students will have created a piece of music
which will sound identical each time it is played, and this makes it easier for
them to hone their powers of self-criticism.

Words and Music
Song writing is the most common

form of composition. Indeed the
voice is the most important
instrument, since we almost all have
one and even if we only use it in the
shower, we probably all sing with it
from time to time.
In previous sections of this kit the

voice has been used as an instrument,
as a producer of musical sounds. In
the final activity in the previous
chapter, words which originally had
a meaning turned into pure sound. It
is time to examine how words and
music can combine.
Much music, such as folksong, begins

with a need to 11put over" certain
words. We might speculate that the
origins of all music in fact were in the
telling of stories. For example we
know that the Anglo-Saxon epic poems were recited to music and their
extremely rhythmic sound suggests that they might have been somehow sung.
Many poets today also regard their workas a kind of score to be performed- by
themselves or others.
Setting words to music is, therefore, a very basic function of composition. How
isit done?
Activity
1. Take or write a short poem.
2. Read the poem to yourself.
3. Read it aloud.
A poem will have its own rhythm, in a sense its own music. Certain words are
more important than others, both in meaning and in terms of that rhythm. As
we have seen, we use pitch all the time when we speak and when you read

your poem you too will already be pitching the sounds - almost singing it.
4. Try to invent a tune which fits the way in which you read your poem.
Listen to the rhythm and the pitches which you use when you read it out
loud and make these the basis of your tune.
If speech has built-in rhythms and pitches, singing can sometimes distort them.
When we sing words we often take more time than if we had spoken them. We
can, for instance, give two or three (or more) pitches to one syllable. The tune
will usually have a life of its own, even if it has been inspired by the words. The
words occasionally have to be made to fit the tune.
Activity
1. Take the song you wrote or write another or take any other song.
2. Can you find instances where the words have been made to fit the
music?
3. And the other way round? Are there places where the music has been
changed to fit the words?
Music can be used in order to give words extra meaning, to make them clear or
to illustrate them. It can even say the opposite of what the words appear to
mean. Think of Midnight Oil's songs. Very often the words are extremely
angry, even depressing or lacking hope - but the music is uplifting and
optimistic.
In some songs the music actually paints pictures or imitates the meaning of the
words. If, for instance, the words of a song suggest someone ascending stairs,
the melodic line might also move upwards. This example is very simple, but the
device can be extremely effective.
Activity
1. Try to make your music match your words. Think of the meaning of the
words you are using and find some musical counterparts to them.
2. Are the words angry or calm? Do they have energy or not?
3. Do they describe any particular images which have sounds built into
them (eg. bells, water, wind etc.)?
4. How can you represent these images in the music?
These activities will help students to combine words and music with sensitivity.
The students will need to think about the words and the way in which the music
fits them.
Style
"Style" is a word which we tend to use quite a lot in our everyday life. We might
say that someone "dresses stylishly'' or even that they '1ive stylishly". Things
"come into style" and go out again. We are generally talking about outward
appearance and about what is fashionable.
But we can also say that something is "really not my style"- meaning that it does
not fit in with our preferences;,our likesandcdislikes;the way we live our own
life.
In a sense both of these meanings can be attached to the use of the word "style"
when we are talking about music. If, for the sake of argument, Peter Sculthorpe
were to compose a country and western song, the music would be in that
particular style - it would have the outward appearance of a country and
western tune. But, almost inevitably, it would also have another kind of style
-Peter Sculthorpe's own style.
In fact Sculthorpe has provided us with quite a few real examples of precisely
this distinction. His piece Koto Music, for piano, is based on the music of that
Japanese instrument, Sun Music III and Tabuh Tabuhan use musical ideas
from Bali, his orchestral piece Kakadu uses some melodic ideas from the music
of the Aboriginal people in that area. But all of this music is recognisable as
Sculthorpe. It bears the stylistic traces of the composer, rather like musical
finger prints.
A better analogy for "personal musical style" might be a "voice print''. If you
have ever tried to disguise your voice
on the ,telephone, you will know
how difficult this is to do. The
friend on the other end of the phone
usually sees through the disguise
almost immediately. We can try to
sound like someone else and adopt
some of their vocal characteristics
and mannerisms, but there will
always be elements of our own voice
remaining.
The distinction between what we

might call "personal musical style"
and "generic style" (the style of a
type of music) is well worth following
up. Ultimately both are connected
to the notation or lack of notation associated with music.
Music which lives as an oral tradition, which is not generally written down
obviously requires a very strong sense of 11generic style". An extreme example
of this would be the music of Aboriginal Australians.
Of course there are many types of music amongst the Aboriginal peoples. A
great deal of it has specific functions. It is often associated, for instance, with
particular rituals (the same could be argued of most other kinds of music, but
that discussion can wait).
Because much Aboriginal music has a ritual significance, it is vitally important

that it be recreated and performed accurately. Without written notation (or
even with it), this implies that performers should have a very strong sense of
~~generic style'~'.," They have,tO'Jget.the music right or it wilL have a-:: different e.
~~meaning''. Authenticity is important.
Today in the Classical concert hall there is a number of ensembles and

orchestras dedicated to performing the music of the 17th and 18th centuries in
the manner in which it was originally performed. This music, of course, is
notated. But, as we discovered in our Chapter on Notation, there is a great deal
in a piece of music which we cannot notate. Scores will give us the relative
pitches, durations and dynamics of a piece of music, but for other, stylistic
matters we have to use our imaginations.
Therefore, in the twentieth century, many music scholars and performers have
been attempting to uncover the equivalent of an oral tradition surrounding this
music. They have gone to paintings of the period and noticed the size and lay
out of orchestras. They have consulted writings by composers and performers
of the day and discovered details about instrument design of two and three
hundred years ago and about performing practices, such as the use of
ornamentation in melodic lines.
Through thistype of research musicologists have come as dose as they can to .

recreating theauthentic performing style of baroque and classical music for the
audiences of today.
Activity
Spend some time turning the dial on your radio. Listen to the different types
of music you hear and try to categorise them.
Folk? Which country does it come from? Is it a love song, a protest song or
what?
Jazz? Do you know which type of jazz?
Pop? Is that rock 'n' roll? Or soul? Or reggae? Do you think the musicians
are black or white?
Oassical? Do you mean baroque? Or romantic? Or twentieth century? Can
you tell which country the music comes from? Or even which composer?
Each time ask yourself, #How do I know? What is it that tells me?" And try
to write down the characteristics of the music which lead you to your
conclusion.
We said earlier that Aboriginal music often has a function, that it is often part
of a ritual. But there is also a strong element of ritual associated with many
other types of music.
For example, when people go to a concert of classical music they often dress up.
Even if they do notthe musicians almost always do. The audience generally sits
in silence and anyone, who .claps between .movements will be hushed by. th~
others. In other words there is a whole pattern of behaviour which is regarded
as "normal" in the concert hall, but which would be seen as quite bizarre, say,
at a disco.
Activity
Make a list of the kinds of ritual behaviour which you might notice and be
expected to follow in the following situations.
1. A symphony concert
2. A rock concert
3. A jazz or folk club
What are the differences?
Can you find any connections between these. patterns of behaviour and the
music itself?
The Western classical musical tradition dates back to aroundJ200. We might

say that it begins when composers first began to compose music for its own sake
and to notate it. Of course most oral music. traditions date back many more
centuries, even millenia.
Jazz however has a far more recent history. And, whilst there has been music
which we might describe as "popular" for as long as there has been a sheet
music business and a recording industry, rock music is very recent indeed. We
can point to the roots of rock music in the blues and in country & western music.
We can go further back and discover connections in the drumming and vocal
music of West Africa and the dances of Europe. But rock music itself really
began sometime in the 1950s.
Because of its relative youth and the fact that the twelve bar blues provides an
extremely strong model for much of rock music, there have not been changes in

style in this musical form to any large degree - certainly not if we make
comparisons with jazz, and the difference between, say, dixieland and be bop.
Nevertheless it is precisely these facts -its thirty year history and its blues
template- which make it good to study from a stylistic point of view. We can
see and hear the changes in style more clearly.
Activity
Listen to a range of rock music from the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties.
Try to find accompanying photographs or videos of the performers.
What differences do you detect in the following areas?
1. The instrumentation used
2. The use of the voice
3. The structure of the music
4. The message of the songs. (What is their function? Do they make a

particular point? Are they just for dancing? You might also look at the
dancing which accompanies them..• )
5. The attitude of the singers to their audiences
6. The visual appearance of the performers (how important is it?)
We have begun to see, then, that the style of a piece of music, at least its "generic
style", is related to its social function and this is true whichever culture's music
you look at. In Indian classical music, for example, a particular Raga (a partly
improvised piece based on a certain scale) is associated with a certain time of
day. To perform anearly.morning raga in the evening would be the equivalent
of serving Weetbix at a dinner party.
It follows that there are many concepts which are important in one type of music
which are quite unimportant in others. The idea, for instance, of having a
''beautiful" voice- so important in Western operatic music- would not be
understood in parts of Africa. To be sure, there are singers in African
communities who are widely regarded and revered for their singing ability, but
this is much more connected to how they sing than it is to the quality of their
voices. Indeed this is just one example of the Mrican influence on rock music.
Activity
Collect, with reference to the other kits in this series, examples of Aboriginal,
folk, classical, popular, ethnic and jazz music. A couple of examples of each
will do.

For example, take recordings of music by Aboriginal musicians from two
different parts of Australia, a Bushwackers song and an Eric Bogle song, a
piece of Asian inspired classical music (Peter Sculthorpe's String Quartet
no.B) and a piece in a more European tradition (Roger Smalley's Piano
Concerto), a song by Midnight Oil and one by Mental as Anything, a dance
piece from the Greek community and a Chinese song, a piece of Dixieland
jazz and a piece of Be Bop. Compile your own selection.
Listen to them several times and discuss the following questions.
1. Is the music intended to be beautiful? Do(es) the composer(s) want us

to find the sound of the music attractive?
2. Is the music melodic?:'Are the music!s,themes memorable? What do the ,

answers to these questions tell us about the music?
3. Is timbre important in this music? Can you say how it's important?
4. How many layers of sound can you detect? Are the pieces of music with
most layers more complex?
5. What do you think is the function of this music? What is its point?
6. Once again, make a list of the stylistic characteristics of each piece of

music.
These activities will help students to become more critical listeners. Whilst this
is very important for analysis and musicology, it is also vital for composition.
After all, all composition proceeds from listening.

Bibliography
There is any number of books on the subject of composition many of which are
just a little dubious and full of value judgements - one type of music is better
than another. Below is an extremely select bibliography which is largely
technical rather than inspirational. For further reading teachers are referred to
the other Sounds Australian kits on Aboriginal, Ethnic, Jazz, Popular, Folk and
Classical music, each of which. contains compositional exercises in particular
styles and each·otwhich has• its~ own bibliography.
Bandt,R Sounds in Space: Windchimes and Sound

Sculptures (Victoria Arts Council & Council of
Adult Education, Melbourne 1985)
(A good, stimulating and practical book by one of
Australia's foremost composers of experimental
music. It describes many different ways of building
sound sculptures.)
Bartolozzi, B. New Sounds for Woodwind (OUP, London 1967)
(Very technical but comprehensive account of
possibilities of creating new sounds and the methods
of doing it.)
Booth,M.W. The Experience of Songs (Yale University 1981)
(Excellent series of essays about the nature of song
from folksong, through art song to commercial jingle.
It is rather academic and much too advanced for
classroomuse, but should make stimulating reading
for teachers interested in word setting and song
writing. And many of the ideas can be adapted for
class discussion.)
Cage,J. Silence (Calder and Boyars, London 1939)
(Seminal book about listening and the nature of
music.)
Cole, H. Sounds and Signs (OUP, London 1974)
(Survey of notation from an historical and practical
approach. Lots of illustrations.)
Cope, D. New Directions in Music (Brown, Iowa 1976)
(A decidedly American bias, but very good on 20th
century trends in "classical" composition.)

Dwyer, T. Composing with Tape Recorders: Musique
Concrete for beginners (OUP, London 1971)
(Excellent practical introduction)
Griffiths, P. Modem Music: the Avant Garde since 1945
(Dent, London 1981)
(Comprehensive survey of developments in European
and American "classical" music since the Second
World War.)
Jenkins, J. 22 Contemporary Australian Composers (NMA,
Melbourne 1988)
(A good survey of our less mainstream, more
experimental composers. Lots of photos)
Leek, S. Spriir.gboard~rto'New Music: Creative Approaches,,, ,
to' Vocal Exploration and Musical Development
(St Peters Press, Queensland 1989)
(A terrific resource package for the classroom and/
or choral ensemble. Full of ideas for developing
concepts in Australian new music through an exciting
and stimulatingly original approach. Comes with
plenty of "user friendly" written notes, aids and
suggestions to get you started. The author is a
composer and has worked a great deal with school
students in the area of composition.)
Russcol, H. The Liberation of Sound: an Introduction to
Electronic Music (Prentice-Hall, New York 1972)
(A good introduction to composing with a tape
recorder.)
Roederer, J.G. Introduction to the Physics and Psychophysics of
Music (Springer-Verlag, New York 1973)
(Very technical indeed, however the book is about
the best available and very comprehensive. The first
two chapters are approachable enough).
Smith-Brindle, R. Contemporary Percussion (OUP, London 1970)
(Covers percussion instruments from around the
world, concentrating particularly, though not
exclusively, on their applications in an orchestral
situation. Photographs of most instruments
mentioned, together with musical examples.)

Discography
This is a select discography. of music which will be of use for listening and
discussioninrelationtotheprecedingchapters. Aswithanydiscographyitwill
be out of date within weeks of publication. New recordings will have been
released which should be included and some of those mentioned below will
have inevitably been deleted- such is the "shelf-life" of recordings. Nevertheless
all items listed are good quality recordings and all contain several works of
interest. All will be of use with other AMC Resource Kits.
What Is Composition?
Mann The Rationales NMATAPES 5, NMA Publications
Nagorcka Atom Bomb (excerpt) NMATAPES 2, NMA
Publications
Improvisation
Bandt Genesis MD 3075 CD and cassette, OZM2006
Stargazer: Car Park Pieces Move Records MS 3075
LP, MC 3075 cassette, MD 3075 CD
Sound
Burt Music for Tuning Forks Scarlet Aardvark Tapes
SAT-TFI
Hykes Hearing Solar Winds
Rhythm
Antill Corroboree TCOASD7603
Smetanin Ladder of Escape Attacca Babel 8365-4
Wesley-Smith For Bass Clarinet & Tape·Attacca Babel8365-4
Various Australian Percussion Music Vol.l/Michael Askill
Southern Cross SCCD 1021, LP or CD, includes
Westlake's Omphalo Centric Lecture (also Wesley-
Smith's White Knight & Beaver, Sculthorpe's How
the stars were made and Edwards' Marimba Dances)

Sculthorpe String Quartet No.8 Nonesuch 79111-2 LP, CD or
cassette, OZM2006 cassette
Timbre
Australian Percussion Music and Sculthorpe as above
Notation
Bauld One Pearl OZM2005 cassette
Lumsdaine Kangaroo Hunt OZM2004 cassette
Meale Corruscations RCA VRLl-0083 LP
Form
Smetanin and Sculthorpe as above
Sculthorpe Sun Music I-IV OASD7604 LP and cassette
Composing with a Tape Recorder

Douglas Homage to Bessemer OZM2006 cassette
Reich Come Out
Words and Music

Anything by Judy Small or Eric Bogle
Henderson Confessions to My Dogs OZM1003 CD, OZM 2003
cassette
Plush Australian Folksongs OZM1003 CD, OZM 2003
cassette
Style
There are some suggestions made in the chapter itself but it is best to make your
own, varied selection. A good starting point, however, might be the compact
disc/ cassette mentioned below which contains five very different orchestral.
pieces.
Various Tropic of Capricorn (includes music by Gerard

Brophy, Colin Brumby, Wilfred Lehman, Richard
Mills and Andrew Schultz)


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What is the book about?

What is the book about?

What are some of the topics covered in the book?

What are some of the topics covered in the book?

Andrew Ford

This eBook is licensed for 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

First published iin 1991

This eBook is licensed for 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

This book is published by Sounds Australian under licence from the

Lifeboat Consulting assisted with design, and the cover illustration is

Sounds Australian is the trading name of the Australian Music

This eBook is licensed for 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

iii 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

Upon graduating with honours in 1978, Ford at the age of twenty-one

In 1983, Ford emigrated to Australia where he took up a position of

Since 1984, Ford's music has received many performances in Europe

For an up-to-date biography, please see the Australian Music Centre

This eBook is licensediv

There is no question about Australians' abilities to re-create music. -But all of

v 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

This eBook is licensed vi

-Which Age Groups?

This eBook is licensed vii

There is nothing like asking the Big Question first!

Is composition really such a specialised occupation? Or is it a natural part of

When someone sits down in front of a piece of manuscript paper or a computer

Let's consider the things which go to make up a piece of music.

2. Tempo - the speed at which the music moves.

3. Rhythm - the distribution of sounds in time.

4. Timbre- the "colour" of a sound. This might be influenced by the type of

5. Articulation -connected to timbre is the notion of articulation. Really this

6. Dynamics - loudness or quietness.

At the end of the following activities students should be able to distinguish

It is possible to say this

It is even possible to say

All of this is achieved by

Try saying "Yes" in all of

This eBook is licensed2for 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

1. Everybody should find a partner. In a large room partners should face

3. One person (the teacher in a classroom situation) provides a brief

3 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

Obviously we all make distinctions between what we have been describing

A musical composition is a series of sounds given some form of organisation-

This eBook is licensed4for 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

This eBook is licensed for

As mentioned in the introduction,

Nevertheless, the art of

The most important factor in

This eBook is licensed6for 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

3. Encourage more pauses for individual players. No one should feel

4. Stress again.the importance.of listening and encourage it by setting up

5. Restrict players to producing sounds on their instruments in an

7 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

7. Devise some possible scenarios for an improvisation. The simpler

These stages are cumulative. By the end, participants should be·makingl

The next stage in the development ofimprovisation is to begin to replace some

This eBook is licensed8for 1 copy to Angela Pryce. 26 Feb 2016.

2. Each performer begins simultaneously and very quietly on any pitch (a

3. The actual placing of words is up to each individual singer. Because