Developing Your Creativity as a Composer

Richard Carrick

Authored by Richard Carrick

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Course Code: OCOMP-350

Rather than following traditional rules of melody, harmony, and form, explore new composition strategies that spark ideas and expand your stylistic range. Using non-conventional approaches, this undergraduate course focuses on developing your creative instincts in music composition.

Level 3
Intermediate Plus
Modality
Online
Duration
12 Weeks
3-Credit Tuition
$1,575
Semester Starts
June 29
Accreditation
NECHE

Key Learning Outcomes

  • Apply non-traditional compositional strategies to generate musical ideas and expand stylistic range beyond conventional melody, harmony, and form
  • Develop original compositional techniques and apply them across multiple styles, ensembles, and approaches to music making
  • Compose coherent works using rhythm, timbre, texture, form, and orchestration as primary creative drivers
  • Write and revise original compositions using experimentation, feedback, and reflection as part of a sustainable creative process
Overview Syllabus Requirements Instructors Related Music Career Roles
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Course Description

Developing Your Creativity as a Composer focuses on the student developing their own creative instincts in music composition through experimental practices, musical puzzles, enabling constraints, and other non-conventional approaches to writing music. These approaches can spark new ideas while developing the student’s own sense of style and technique, and can be applied to a wide variety of musical styles and writing scenarios, including composition, arranging, and orchestration. Whereas most composition courses build from historically established composition strategies about melody, harmony, and form, this course encourages the student to find their own solutions to unconventional scenarios, not limited to any musical style. The goal of this course is for the student to develop their own musical language and preferences.

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This course can be taken by musicians with rudimentary experience with notation, as well as intermediate and advanced students who are looking to push their creativity, instincts, and personal musical language further.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Analyze contemporary musical styles and experimental approaches to inform creative decision-making
  • Compose using unconventional sound sources, found objects, and readymade instruments to expand sonic vocabulary
  • Create and interpret graphic scores, text-based instructions, and alternative notation systems as compositional tools
  • Apply extended techniques and ensemble-specific considerations when composing and arranging for strings and voice
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Syllabus

Lesson 1: Compose Yourself

  • Creativity
  • Flow
  • Storytelling
  • Beginning, Middle, and End of a Composition
  • Making New Sounds
  • Assignment 1: Instant Composition

Lesson 2: Rhythm, Meter, and the One-Note Composition

  • Rhythmic Review
  • Rhythm as Part of a Musical Phrase
  • Rhythms in Vocal Music and Speech
  • Transcribing Vocal Melodies into Instrumental Rhythms
  • Meter, Mixed Meter
  • Assignment 2: One-Note Composing

Lesson 3: Timbre, Texture, the Farben (One-Chord)

  • Non-traditional Chords and Pitch Sets
  • Orchestration: Instrument Characteristics
  • String Trio Demonstration
  • Chamber Music Techniques
  • Best Practices for Pursuing Live Musicians to Record Your Composition
  • Assignment 3: One-Chord Composing

Lesson 4: Ready-Made Instruments

  • Explore Ready-Made Instruments
  • Map the Sonic Possibilities of a Ready-Made Instrument
  • Traditional Instruments Used as Ready-Mades
  • Extended Piano Techniques
  • 'Ionisation' by Edgard Varèse
  • 'Variations pour une porte et un soupir' by Pierre Henry
  • Recording Techniques
  • Assignment 4: Composing with Ready-Made Instruments

Lesson 5: Graphic Scores

  • Notation, Interpretation, and Improvisation
  • A Brief History of Notated Music
  • History of Graphic Notation
  • Beginning Your Graphic Scores
  • Experimental Music
  • Graphic Score Sketches
  • Assignment 5: Graphic Score Composition and Performance

Lesson 6: Trio Score 1/3: Brainstorm, Notate Fragments, and Sketch Outline

  • Brainstorm
  • Translating Fragments into Notation
  • Additional Resources to Consider
  • Sketch Outline
  • What Is a Draft?
  • Assignment 6: Trio Composition Fragments and Draft of the Opening

Lesson 7: Trio Score 2/3: Compose First Draft

  • Compose the Score for Instrumental Trio
  • 'À cause du soleil' Flow Trio
  • Articulations, Dynamics, and Extended Techniques
  • Tips on Offering and Receiving Feedback
  • Assignment 7: First Draft of Your Trio Score

Lesson 8: Instruction and Text Composition

  • What Is a Text Piece
  • A/B Piece
  • Analyze Text Piece by Oliveros
  • Analyze Text Piece by Stockhausen
  • Analyze Text Piece by Cardew
  • Assignment 8: Instruction/Text Composition and Performance

Lesson 9: Trio Score 3/3: Revise and Finalize Score

  • Get to Know Your Draft Well
  • Review Your Draft
  • Finish Composing Final Score
  • Proofread Score and Parts
  • Mock Reading Session
  • Assignment 9: Complete Final Trio Score

Lesson 10: Trio Arranging with Extended Techniques

  • Choose a Song to Arrange
  • Basics of Arranging
  • Arrangement of 'La La Love You' by the Pixies
  • Brainstorm Ideas for Your Unique Arrangement
  • Assignment 10: Create a Non-traditional Arrangement for Trio

Lesson 11: Composing for Voice

  • Basics of the Human Voice
  • Vocal Types
  • Vocal Rhythm
  • Text Setting and Prosody
  • How to Set Text with Prosody
  • Melody Writing for the Voice
  • Vocal Music Notation
  • Assignment 11: Writing a New Piece for Voice

Lesson 12: Reflection on the Creative Process and Your Compositional Output

  • The Composing Cycle
  • Best Practices After Listening to Your New Composition
  • Edit and Mix Your Audio
  • Journal Your Creative Path
  • Program Notes
  • Next Steps
  • Assignment 12: Final Submission

Requirements

Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements 

Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
Completion of Tonal Writing and Analysis, Music Theory and Composition 1, Music Theory and Composition 2, Counterpoint, and Music Notation and Score Preparation Using Sibelius Ultimate or Music Notation and Score Preparation Using Dorico Pro, or equivalent knowledge and experience is required.

Software

Hardware

  • Students are encouraged but not required to capture a live performance of their composition(s) in high quality and monitor audio output. Options include:
    • Input (one recommended):
    • Output (one recommended):
      • Headphones (required if multitracking and/or input monitoring)
      • Studio monitors and audio interface
      • Built-in or external speakers
  • Note: Depending on your setup, you may also need an XLR cable, microphone stand, and pop filter.

Other

  • Blank paper (tabloid or A3 size) and colored pens
  • Recommended: Manuscript paper with 8 or 9 staves per page (printable template provided in the course)

Student Deals
After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu with any questions.

General Course Requirements

Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Classes. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course. 

Mac Users

  • macOS Monterey 12.0 or later

PC Users

All Users

  • Latest version of Google Chrome
  • Zoom meeting software
  • Webcam
  • Speakers or headphones
  • External or internal microphone
  • Broadband Internet connection

Instructors

Richard Carrick
Richard Carrick

Author & Instructor

Composer, conductor and pianist Richard Carrick is a Guggenheim Fellow who writes music of spatial depth and robust stasis, characterized by the evocation of profound human experiences. Described as "organic and restless" by The New York Times, Carrick's music has been presented internationally at festivals including NYPHIL Biennial, ISCM World Music Days, Enescu Festival, released on numerous critically acclaimed CDs, and published by PSNY. His music spans solo, chamber and orchestral compositions as well as works incorporating dance, graphic scores, electronics, video projection, and conducted group improvisation.

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Carrick has presented concerts, master classes and lectures throughout the US, Europe, Israel, Rwanda, Japan, and South Korea, where he was a Korean Gugak Fellow in 2015. He currently serves as Chair of Composition at Berklee College and co-founder of Either/Or, with former faculty appointments at Columbia and New York Universities and as New York Philharmonic Teaching Artist.

Born in Paris of French-Algerian and British descent, Carrick received his BA from Columbia University, PhD from the University of California-San Diego, and pursued further studies at IRCAM and the Koninklijk Conservatorium. Read Less

What's Next?

When taken for credit, Developing Your Creativity as a Composer can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:

Related Certificate Programs

Related Degree Major

Related Music Career Roles

Employers look for skills learned in this course, when hiring for the following music career roles:

Composer (Concert and Stage)

Composer (Film)

Composer (Television)

Composer (Video Games)

Freelance Composer

Questions?

Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.

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