Workshop Schedule & Materials
Composers Guild 2021-2022
Workshop Schedule - Spring Semester 2022
Tuesday, April 12 - Guest Speaker Series: Leah Getz
Thursday, April 21 - Songwriting Workshop #2
Wednesday, May 4 - Flight! at Morton High School
Guest Speaker Series: Leah Getz
Leah Getz is a graduate of Morton High School and is an independent singer-songwriter as well as a visual artist. She released her debut album, “Only God Sees Me Cry,” in 2019, and she performs regularly in the greater Peoria area. She spoke to the Composers’ Guild on April 12, 2022 about her creative process and performed two of her most recent songs. Press on the link to listen to this inspiring and motivational session.
Workshop 05 - Score Presentation
As you work to complete your composition, you want to start perfecting the look of your score. Make sure you aren’t making careless notation mistakes, and start adding things (articulations, dynamics, etc…) that will make your music pop! In this workshop, Mr. Getz shows off scores from Composers’ Guild concert’s past, and you can learn how to polish your score into a nice, finished product.
LINK TO 2017-2018 COMPOSERS’ GUILD SCORES (Piano, Cello, Flute year)
Workshop 04 - Harmony 101
Our Western Tonal System lives and dies based on harmony. But what exactly is it, and how can we, as composers, manipulate its tendencies to accomplish our creative vision? In this workshop, we will explore harmony through the lens of musical gravity (hence, the solar system), and discuss how and why it is so important for young composers to master.
LINK TO GOOGLE SLIDES
Workshop 03 - Songwriters Workshop!
Want to learn how to get started with writing basic pop/folk songs? In this workshop, we talk through some basic songwriting tips, learn some helpful templates to get started, and Mr. Getz composes a quick song on the spot about the Tortoise & The Hare!
A big thanks to Kat Reinhart & Sarah Gulish, the creators of Songwriting For Me, for the awesome resources!
Workshop 02 - Form & Structure: Creating Worlds for Your Melodies to Thrive!
Once you’ve written a melody, you have to broaden it and expand it to fill the entirety of your piece. Before you begin writing more, take a step back and think about the large-scale form of the piece you want to create. Pretend that your melody is your story’s “hero” and you now need to create the setting of the world in which they will explore. We will explore terms like phrase, themes, binary form, and theme and variations.
LINK TO GOOGLE SLIDES
Workshop 01 - The Creative Process & How To Get Started: Writing Melodies
In this workshop, Mr. Getz gives an overview of the creative process, talks about his “Lego” philosophy of composing, and gives an introduction to Western Tonal Music’s greatest hero…the melody! Students are instructed how to setup a Noteflight account and how to get started writing music today!
LINK TO GOOGLE SLIDES
Introduction
In the opening meeting of the 2021-2022 Comp. Guild season, Mr. Getz welcomes a new set of students, talks about the nuts and bolts of Comp. Guild, shares some of his favorite inspirational quotes, and recounts his journey of composing.
Link to GOOGLE SLIDES