Two days at the Music & Drama Education Expo...

Walking into the Music & Drama Education Expo is always a whirlwind of creative energy, but this year felt particularly electric. Between the consistent hum of the exhibition floor and the buzz of the seminar rooms, I had the privilege of experiencing the event from both sides.

Sharing a stand with the teams at Yamaha and Steinberg provided a brilliant vantage point to see how their latest innovations are directly tackling the workflow and engagement challenges faced in the classroom. Meanwhile, delivering my own session (Composing Catalyst – Strategies to Spark Student Creativity) allowed for some truly grounded conversations about the realities of teaching today.

New product launch

At I Can Compose we were thrilled to launch a brand new FREE mini course in partnership with Dorico notation software: How to Compose Video Game Music.

The course is designed for secondary level students and introduces the key features of gaming music, as well as guiding them through writing a theme and sting.

Course includes:

FREE access to Dorico notation software
FREE downloadable Dorico project guide
Video content
Exemplar listening
Key features

Session: The Composing Catalyst: Strategies to Spark Student Creativity

“How can we get our students working creatively and make composition exciting and relevant?”

I opened my session with this question. We then explored a number of short composing activities (with a bit of audience participation!) to build students’ bank of composing techniques, and that can easily be done in 1 lesson. I finished by sharing a 4-step method for writing a theme.

With limited time and resources in the classroom, it’s important to be efficient about teaching composing skills and to do so in a way that will engage students.