Music Theory In Action: How Composing Motivates Learning

At some point, we’ve all had the experience of learning something new and wondering, “When am I ever going to use this?” Students can struggle with learning math for instance, because it isn’t always clear how those math concepts relate to their daily lives. The solution isn’t just more word problems, it’s using motivating, real-world projects to keep students engaged in a learning process that matters to them. When a student needs to use algebra to build a birdhouse for their mom, or convert measurements for a cookie recipe for their friend, they become more motivated to learn, and they're more likely to retain that knowledge and have a deeper understanding of the material.

​Perhaps it’s no surprise that this same idea applies to learning music theory. Pieter, an Orpheus guitar student, has developed his understanding of music in large part by writing and experimenting with his own compositions. These original pieces give him the chance to put theories like melody, harmonization, and instrumentation into practice, and apply them to something he really cares about. Pieter’s teacher, Jesse, spoke with Pieter and his dad, David, about Pieter’s compositions and the role they have played in his musical education.

Jesse: Pieter, how long have you been playing the guitar?

Pieter: At least three years. 


Jesse: What’s your favorite part of playing music?

Pieter: I suppose it’s performing.

​Jesse: Does it make you feel a certain way, or do you like preparing for a big special event?

Pieter: I suppose I like showing off.

Jesse: Fair enough. You acquire a skill, you want people to see you show that skill off, so I understand that completely.


Jesse: What is your favorite kind of music to play?

Pieter: Music that I’ve played over and over and over again. Because it’s really easy for me to play.

Jesse: Yeah! Well so that means just about any style of music is fun for you to play once you feel comfortable, confident playing it?

Pieter: Yeah.


Jesse: What first made you interested in composing music?

​Pieter: I suppose it was just… I was shown it one time and I wanted to try it. I was shown a tool to make music and I suppose I just liked it.


Jesse: ​Is there a particular style of music or instrumentation or instrument you like composing for?

Pieter: Well, I generally compose pieces that have multiple different instruments in them actually.

Jesse: Yeah, what is it you like about that?

Pieter: Seeing how they might fit together, I suppose.

​"I was shown a tool to make music and I suppose I just liked it.
​

Jesse: Why do you like composing your own original music?

Pieter: I suppose it’s art!


​Jesse: How do you come up with your new ideas for composition? Or maybe to phrase it in the way you just stated, how do you come up with the ideas for your art?

Pieter: I just throw stuff together!

Jesse: Can you think of any other artists in any idiom, like painting, visual, that do the same thing?

Pieter: Yeah! Just, the flicking of a brush onto a canvas. Or maybe just a jumble of ideas like… just cutting up pictures, like a collage.

Jesse: So how do you discern, like what is worth keeping when you have this idea of just like flicking or just putting notes down? What makes that process advance to the next level? How do you then from that moment go, “Oh I like that flick of notes!” Like what differentiates from one flick to another flick in your mind?

Pieter: I suppose it’s just personal preference of the notes.


Jesse: And then more specifically, what kind of software do you use? What’s the platform that you use?

Pieter: Noteflight. 

Jesse: What’s the most difficult part of working with the software?

Pieter: I suppose the fact that the notes aren’t completely accurate to what they would actually sound like.

Jesse: So like the instrument playback?

Pieter: Uh-huh.

Jesse: Yeah I agree, that’s so frustrating when you have this idea in your head of what it’s going to sound like, and then you press play and all of the sudden it’s like, “Ew. No, that’s not at all what the guitar sounds like.” So yeah, that is a pretty difficult part of the software usage.


Jesse: What is the most difficult part of composing for you?

Pieter: Honestly? Naming.

Jesse: Naming? Ah, interesting. I suppose that makes sense because your whole approach first is just to kind of experiment, and then after–

​Pieter: Yeah, my whole approach is: make the music! Um… Huh. Now what do I name it? What does it sound like?​


Jesse: ​Does composing help you learn or think about music in different ways?

Pieter: Well, yes!

Jesse: Well certainly I imagine, coming from your three years of guitar playing experience, you have been told what to play and you experience what to play through listening and through movement and through watching notes and pictures. Now you actually get to create that sound just by writing it down first. So you’re kind of experiencing music completely backwards from how you were taught it.

Pieter: Like everyone who has composed can think about music differently. You have to think about it differently from playing and composing.

"Everyone who has composed can think about music differently. You have to think about it differently from playing and composing."
​

Jesse: David, have you noticed a change in Pieter’s approach to music since he started creating his own original compositions?

David: Yes, in that he has spent some extra time thinking about his compositions versus just playing songs that he’s learning along the way. I think he’s also been willing to dig in and try to learn some new things in playing his compositions. Whereas before I think–  particularly given just a kind of a challenging song that he might not be able to get through, and to try to do it sight-reading… You know, he would have just, “No.”

And I think that he can play it on the composing software, then he’s willing to kind of just dive in and see, “I wonder what we can do on the guitar.”

Jesse: That is a pretty cool element of it, and I do see in his development, that when he begins to see music he can also have an inner ear and an inner idea of what that music sounds like. And that will certainly help in the future when he’s exposed to new, more challenging music. Although the fingers might not be able to do it, the eyes and the inner ear can understand pretty much what it’s going to sound like. I have noticed the same thing and it’s been pretty exciting. I have thought that was a new motivating factor, he can create the sound but then he can instantly get feedback with what it actually sounds like.


​Jesse: Does Pieter share his compositions with you?

David: He has. Not all of them, but yeah. And we have a weekly Zoom call with my family and we’ve been able to share the screen and play his compositions for them. And he’s much faster to do that than he has been to be willing to get on camera and play his guitar for us, although he’ll still do that every now and again too, but he was really keen to share his compositions.


​Jesse: Pieter, can you tell us about some of your compositions? Is there one that you’re particularly proud of?

Pieter: “The Streaking Fish.”


Jesse: ​David, are there any in particular that you enjoy or that he enjoys playing for you?

David: Yeah, we’ve been mostly thinking about “The Streaking Fish.” It’s been interesting to hear him try to play different pieces of it, because again, it’s very different than when the whole thing is kind of put together. It is very reminiscent– you know one of the things that Pieter really likes, as a lot kids do, he likes video games. But one thing he likes as well, is he really likes a lot of the little soundtracks. He, before, was always playing little loops and little pieces that were background music from some particular game. I am reminded of that with some of his compositions.

Jesse: Now that you say that, I do get a sense of like, Zelda. You know listening to it, it does sound like playing The Legend of Zelda when you hear it. 

David: Yeah. And I’ve been more interested to listen to his composition, than to listen to lots of video game snippets too, so [laughs].

Jesse: Maybe he’s training you to enjoy that.

David: Mm-hmm [laughs].

Jesse: David, what have you learned about Pieter through his compositions?

David: I’ve been surprised at his ability to just put things together and tweak it and have it– I mean, he’s very quick to make interesting sounds and rhythms, you know. And I think again, it’s some of it, the ability to just use the editor to do things quickly.

Generally with any of his compositions I’ve been like, “Where did you– Did you start with something that you then edited to then get to this? Or did you just…?” He was like, “No, I just threw it together. I just put things together and moved them around until I liked how they sounded.” 

And you know, I had assumed at first that he’d taken some particular something and then, you know, just added a tweak here or there in some way, shape, or form.

I guess what will be fun is seeing a progression from putting things down and adjusting them to get it how you want, to being able to think about what you’d like and kind of start there.

​Jesse: I like the idea of him taking an idea, which is like a lump of clay, and then forming it. It’s an interesting insight into the way his mind works and the direction he’s going. I think one of the cool things you get to experience right now is him starting with just this collection of sounds, and then see how it’s forming and as he’s listening more and more, what his ear and what his mind is shaping that into. I think that gives pretty deep insight into his personality and just musical intuition.

David: His music theory is, I’d say stronger than his guitar playing. He gets the idea about what it means to move things to different keys and so on. He may not know the ins and outs perfectly, but he sort of gets the idea. And the same is true about rhythm, and so that’s been fun.

When his sister was home in the spring, then his guitar playing was getting a lot better because he got to practice with her a lot. But she would comment on how  she’d played guitar for four, five, six years and had never learned some of the sort of theory pieces that Pieter knew about, you know, how to find different notes on the guitar that were the same or how to move things around. And I think some of that’s playing out in the composition as well.

"And it’s like, "Oh yeah, you are just learning music, and guitar happens to come along as something that you’re going to learn how to play.”"
​

Jesse: Are there any specific struggles or challenges Pieter has faced in his Musical Journey? And how do you help Pieter through those?

David: I think the biggest is just kind of diving into practice. And, you know, he loves to be able to execute songs well. And he’s frustrated if he can’t. And he hasn’t quite made the connection that it’s the practice that actually gets him over the barrier, then it’s easy and just flows and goes. But again, I don’t know that that’s different than a lot of folks starting out. And I think Pieter’s really at a place where he’ll start to be able to play his own music and either his own music or music of his own choosing in some way, and then I just think that’s a real tipping point to where you want to hear how it sounds or you want to play something familiar to you. And then you’re willing to dive in and see if you can really get it to go. The other thing I’ve wondered too is whether he might want to explore playing keyboard or piano or something. I think his interest in music– he has a stronger interest in music than say in guitar, which I had not anticipated when he started learning guitar that actually what he would do is learn music.

Jesse: Hmm. That’s so funny that you say that.

David: I think it’s from my own experience... I mean I learned some music playing– I’m a poor piano player and I’m a really terrible saxophone player. And I learned a little bit of music when I learned piano. But it was always very technical and it was always about actually making the instrument do something, versus really learning a lot about the ideas behind music, and you know, I noticed that right when Pieter started. I had asked Pieter what he’d had to do at his lesson and he said, “Well we sang a song.” And I’m like, ”You were singing? Like this is a guitar lesson man.” And he was like, “No, that’s how I’m learning.” And it’s like, “Oh yeah, you are just learning music, and guitar happens to come along as something that you’re going to learn how to play.”

But you know what I wonder now is, especially with the composition pieces, would he enjoy learning to play piano or keyboard, where he could start to do other things.

Jesse: Well I’m sorry about your other music education as a child. Sorry we weren’t there [laughs].

David: [laughs] Yeah!

Jesse: I had the same experience as you, I’m like, “Well why wasn’t I taught music this way?” I would be more confident in singing in front of people, for one thing. But, you know, that is our job. When we discover a better way to do something, we share that with our kids, our next generation, and they learn to do it even better than us hopefully.

David: Yeah.

Jesse: As long as that’s what we’re seeing through the experience of our children, then I think we’re doing it right.

David: Absolutely, we really like it and you know, Pieter– obviously it’s been a great part of all that he’s doing now. And I think it’s something that he enjoys and ironically of course the composition piece is a good mix of music and still getting to mess around on the computer, so there’s a little extra bonus there in terms of motivation. But actually I thought he might be more interested in the just kind of playing around on the computer aspect, but when he’s doing his work kind of composing it’s not to sneak time on the computer or something like that, he really wants to.

Jesse: Oh yeah, he’s very serious. I’ve noticed that too. I can’t even really make a recommendation without him testing it and then simply saying, “No, that doesn’t work.” [laughs]​


Jesse: ​Pieter, what would your advice be for others interested in composing music?

Pieter: I suppose just try different things.