I’m so excited to be starting the Tim Topham TV Podcast by interviewing my good friend and Australian teacher/composer/presenter, Daniel McFarlane and we’ll be chatting all about student composition: how to help students create music at the piano from scratch and how to develop their own ideas further.
It doesn’t matter if you’re completely new to working on composition with your students or whether you are already doing some composing, you’re going to get a lot out of this episode. I learnt heaps!
Daniel has created a big niche for himself in the international piano publishing industry in the last five years by creating highly-appealing original music in a style that is very much based on groovy rhythms, chords and patterns, so I figured he was going to be the perfect person to help us understand more about student composition.
How to help students compose music
I don’t know about you, but I often have students come to lessons with a tiny fragment of an idea that they’ve made up on the piano. It might be the simplest melody, a few chords or a bass line.
Nothing that you’d really call ‘music’…yet!
What do you do next? Do you help them make a melody? Do you write more chords? What if they don’t want to do anything else? How do you build upon what they’ve already done without taking over?
And what if you really want to help your student compose music from scratch, but don’t know where to start?
In this episode you’ll learn:
- How Daniel works with his students on composing new music and what his own inspirations are
- How to get the most out of his Supersonics website – including some amazing special offers
- Why he offers studio licences that permit you to print as many copies of his music you want…for life
- How you can start composing your own music and helping your students do the same
- Daniel’s 5-point composing “cheat sheet” of ideas that you can use in your lessons right away
Items mentioned in this podcast:
- Supersonicspiano.com – Daniel’s website
- Piano Maestro –Â one of the best sight-reading/play-along/teaching apps for piano teachers
- PianoPronto – the great method from Jennifer Eklund
- Frangipani by Ross Edwards – link to buy here
- My previous composition posts:
- Daniel’s Composing Cheat Sheet (see above)
More about Daniel
If you haven’t explored Daniel’s music yet, then make sure you check out some of the posts below.
His music suits students of all ages and is excellent for teaching purposes as you can easily discuss patterns and chord progressions and it will help students with rhythms.
I’ve already blogged extensively about Daniel’s music as I have been a big fan since I came across his work soon after starting this blog in 2010.
Some of the posts that I’ve written are:
- Get unlimited piano sheet music copies with the Supersonics Studio Licence
- Piano music for teens: Groovy Beats by Daniel McFarlane
- Piano music for boys | 15 of the best pieces by Daniel McFarlane
- Soundscapes & Supersonics – more cool music for the boys!
Got any more questions for Daniel?
Interested in following-up on any of the points Daniel raised today?
Please leave your comment/question below.
Did you enjoy this podcast?
If you know any other teachers who would value the information in this podcast, please share this page by clicking one of the sharing icons on the left side of the page (bottom of page on mobile).
Oh, and I’d love to get your honest review of this podcast, keeping in mind it’s still early days! If you have a spare couple of minutes, please head to iTunes and leave your review. I’d really appreciate it.Â
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18 Comments
Trying to find the
Daniel’s Composing Cheat Sheet (see above)
It says see above? But I don’t see it anywhere above?
Hi Susan – your page may not have loaded properly. The place to enter your details is just above the heading “how to help your students compose music”. Pls reload your page and/or try an alternate browser. Hope you enjoy it!
Hi Tim, just listened to this fantastic podcast. I was after the blog Daniel mentioned. I see you don’t think he did it though? Too busy composing! Brilliant episode though.
No, it never happened sadly. But I’m happy not to distract him from his composing work!
Thanks so much! I really needed this podcast. My difficulty is that I can’t always identify what mode is being used in a piece I’m learning or teaching when it’s not Major or minor. I know some improvisers do this by ear. It takes me time to figure out.
Hey Anita – make sure you check out the Modes cheatsheet in the Inner Circle or dev.topmusic.co/modes for more info.
Tim, I recently moved, and I’ve misplaced my composing “cheat sheet”. I tried to download it again, but it just tells me I’m already subscribed. Is there any way to view it again? Thanks.
Hi Amanda. I’ll email you privately.
Daniel have you thought about doing a teacher’s resource pack of composing/improv starters?
Hi Kate. Daniel is planning to write a big blog article going into more depth about all these suggestions. He’s a big snowed-under at the moment, but as long as you’re a subscriber, you’ll be first to hear when it goes live 🙂 cheers.
Hi Tim, Did Daniel ever write the blog post that goes more in depth about these composition suggestions? Loved the episode and would love to use his post as a reference for implementing the ideas. II looked for it, but did not find anything. (I did get the cheat sheet though.) Thanks SO MUCH for your podcast. I just stumbled upon it this week and am finding so much useful information that I know will benefit my students!!
I don’t think he did sorry, Jess. I do remember that he mentioned it. I think he got swept away with the popularity of Supersonics!
So glad you’ve found the podcast. Make sure you download my app for easy access. Just search for Tim Topham in the app store 🙂
Thanks so much for this podcast – keep them coming
You’re welcome Kate. Please leave a review on iTunes if you’ve got a minute 🙂
Really great video. Learnt a lot and also reinforced some things that I already do that I wasn’t sure about. I teach natural minors and pentatonics before harmonic and melodic minors and I have had some strange comments from some traditional teachers when I start going on about how good these things are for students musicality. I really think this is the way forward for music teaching, just need to spread the word. Keep the podcasts coming.
Thanks Lynda – that’s great feedback. I also like having my own ideas reinforced when I see others teaching. Always a good feeling!
One hour well-spent! I picked up so many improv ideas and learned to look at modes and composition in a new light. Can’t wait to try this out. It was fascinating and inspiring to see and hear Daniel play, and appreciate the many repertoire suggestions/tips along the way (this works well/kids love this/that etc).
One minor criticism – was tempted to skip to the business (13 minutes in), but understand the need for introductions, pleasantries and a bit of background.
Thanks Tim, look forward to more in the series.
Hey Alex – thanks so much for your positive feedback. Daniel and I really enjoyed putting it together so stay tuned for more! If you’ve got a few minutes, I’d love for you to put these thoughts into an iTunes review. You can follow the instructions here if you’re unsure about how to do it: https://dev.topmusic.co/tim-topham-tv-piano-teaching-podcast/leave-a-review/ . It would mean a lot to me to get some reviews early on 🙂
And yes, the intro was longer than I expect for future ones given it was the first 🙂 Look forward to hearing more of your thoughts in the coming months.