Plusses:
- Students get to hear each other's work on a weekly basis, which can create a sense of shared mission, and can foster a supportive and positive learning environment.
- Hearing others' works in progress can give us ideas we can use in our own compositions.
- Commenting on the works of others can help develop critiquing skills, and the more developed these are, the better we can critique our own music.
- Students can draw upon classmates' performance skills to arrange readings of works in progress, and to get tips on how to write idiomatically or use extended performance techniques for the instruments they play.
- Feedback given to any particular student is often relevant to other students.
- It gives students multiple perspectives on their compositions, which, since perspective about one's own creations is easy to lose, is particularly valuable.
- There is less time for individual feedback.
- It makes it harder to deal with details, and, as I think everyone understands by now, details are of tremendous importance in composing music.
- The peer feedback process works really well when you get useful feedback, but it works less well when people either don't comment, or don't feel comfortable saying anything 'critical' about others' work.
Any other plusses and minuses you can think of?
What do you think of the the group composition class format?
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8 comments:
I definitely enjoy a group setting for composition because it gives you a chance to see how every one else is progressing, and it is definitley great to have a chance for performances. At the same time I think it would be great if along with the group classes, the course could offer a one on one session. Then we could get the best of both worlds.
I think its great that Dr. Ross offers so much of his time outside of class to help as well, which offers everyone the opportunity for guidance whenever needed.
At first I was a little hesitant about being in a class like this because I was really insecure about composing.
The first and only time I truly composed was when I was six! (Music For Young Children competition)
Once you get past the fact that people are judging your music you realize that they're trying to help and trying to make it better for you!
I really enjoy feedback from my classmates but I also enjoy the feedback I get from my instructor.
If there was anyway to mix the both I think it would be a perfect course. Like Jill said above me, Dr. Ross is always available and that's great, but I certainly think some alloted time per week would be great because my schedule doesn't allow me to go visit and ask questions very often.
On that note I also think that if you are doing a composition/theory degree that you should have regular meetings with a teacher to work on compositions just as you would your lessons with your applied teacher. My friend have talked about that quite a bit and I definitely share his opinion.
I'm all for group composition lessons. Hearing other's works and hearing their points of improvement can help ourselves too (to know what not to do in the future, to hear the way other's think about composing, and etc..)
I like private lessons too because there is more time to work on your own piece specifically... but I mean then there is only one person giving feedback (well... in our group classes that is the case anyways...but you know.. its different!)
Also.
Sharing your music with others is a surefire way to stay on top of your game and stay ahead and get things done on time.
Thats all!
Kim
I also enjoy a group setting. We all learn from each other, and it's great to hear what everyone else is up to and how you can relate to their pieces. I agree with what everyone else has said - that incorporating individual *and* group settings would be ideal, but perhaps that is not possible.
I've gotten some good feedback outside of class from other classmates, which is also another pro to the group setting. Yes, we are very shy in class and don't like criticizing each others' work, but I've heard some honest and helpful stuff outside of class, which I really value! I don't think I would enjoy composing as much if it were only private lessons. Just like in our studios, we have masterclasses so that we can hear each other play. If all I got was a private composition lesson once a week, I think I would be much less motivated to get stuff done and try my hardest. Also, I wouldn't know what the rest of the class was doing and therefore couldn't relate to anything.
So...I think that the group setting is much better, but we should really take advantage of Dr. Ross's office hours and get some one-on-one help with our pieces so that we can get a more detailed opinion.
I think the format of the class allows for a successful learning environment - we learn through listening to others. I know for me, when listening to different compositions, I have given different thoughts to my OWN composition and further understood aspects of atonality. For example, when we heard Saird's piece a few weeks ago, it reinforced the fact that atonal music can sound attractive, beautiful, but not just chaotic (like my initial impression.) I then started to think about this type of music in different ways.
I agree that sometimes our feedback mostly consists of supportive comments and not so much of "how about you change this section and foreshadow the motif in the violin", or "why did you write this here?". Maybe if we introduced a "checklist" for various elements to look for, I think that may guide our thinking a little more closely. Of course we know what we are evaluating, but maybe this would help us just a little.
It's a great class though - very well constructed. A workshop setting is definitely the best setup for the composition courses.
I really enjoy learning a in a group setting. As we discussed on Friday, hearing different composers is one of the best tools for learning about music and how it's constructed. One of the biggest things I've seen in a group setting (that I doubt you'd see as much of in an individual setting) is that you learn a lot more about extended techniques for instruments. We've had class discussions about these, and because there are so many different instruments being played by people in the class, everyone has different and creative ideas. I've learned more about different string instruments and especially in the class with Dr. Bendzsa, different woodwinds. I don't think you would get the opportunity to go into such detail with these instruments if you were being taught individually.
Like many of my peers I too enjoy the group setting in learning composition. Granted the feedback can be minimal sometimes but that's when Dr. Ross steps in and gives you lots to think about so that you don't go away empty handed. Regular lessons would also be cool, I know myself and a few others had a chance at a short private lesson with Larysa Kuzmenko (sorry if I spelled it wrong) and I found I got a lot of really great feedback from that on some details that I wasn't getting from class.
There are definitely pros and cons for both.
To get the best of both worlds, group vs. private lessons, I think both would have to exist.
Group lessons are great for getting feedback about general ideas, like overall effectiveness, feeling of the piece, use of form, or audience impact. But to get detailed feedback on things more technical such as harmonic language, orchestration, or developing of ideas, I think personal lessons would be needed.
What we do now is very effective, but that doesn't mean that in the future the programme can't become more effective.
Just my 2 cents.
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