Great workshop this past weekend in Wichita, Kansas with a great group of enthusiastic and responsive teachers!  We explored all kinds of compositional techniques and strategies: aleatoric, electronic, spatial elements, sound sculpture, body music, shaped scores, motivic development, student engagement, novel items, etc.  Thank you teachers!  Share some of your successful ideas and lessons with other teachers on the blog.

I am presenting "Music Composition in the 21st Century Classroom" at the Kansas MEA statewide In-Service in Wichita, Kansas.  My session is on Saturday, 11 a.m.  If you are attending, stop by, introduce yourself and I would be happy to let you have a FREE publication.  Looking forward to working with our music educators in Kansas.  

A compositional technique that reflects the literal meaning of song, e.g. if the lyrics mention "mountains", the melody rises and is high pitched; likewise "valleys" equals low pitched melodies, etc.  Tone painting goes as far back as Gregorian Chant and was often used in Renaissance and Baroque compositions.  The most well-known example is perhaps Handel's "Every Valley Shall be Exalted"

​Looking for composition lessons on Word Painting?
See the Word Painting Composition Lesson from my publication, "Music Tells My Story", pg. 50:

Teachers often ask me for music composition lesson ideas for the performance class: chorus, orchestra, band. So, looking over some choral lessons this weekend, I am reminded of the many fun composition, listening, singing, and performing lessons I taught using solfege.  Some ideas:  ​​

• See my publication "Music Composition for Teens - second course" pg. 22 for a composition assignment for a 2-part solfege (photocopiable template page):