Composing Choral Music with Andrew Maxfield
Turn any text into a complete, published musical composition
I'm Andrew Maxfield
An Award-Winning Composer and Your Instructor For This Course!
I’ve loved composing choral music since I was singing in my high school choirs, but let's just say I’ve learned a lot about my craft in the 20 years since then!
Writing choral music isn’t just for “composers with a capital C.” If you sing in a choir at church, school, in the community, or even professionally, chances are you’ve wanted to write or arrange something for the choir. Well, the difference between writing something that "kind of works" and something really elegant rests on your developing some core skills and learning a good compositional process.
In this course I’ll teach you my process using three pieces as in-depth examples: one piece was a recent Special Commendation in the King’s Singers New Music Prize, another was a private commission, and another was featured at the NCCO National Convention. We'll work from the earliest stages of choosing a text, through the maze and matrix of composing, through to a finished, polished piece. This creative process is my favorite kind of journey, and I hope you'll join me!
This course is for you if...
- You want to learn how to turn any text into a musical composition
- Looking for a framework that works
- You want to learn how to publish your finished work
HOW IT WORKS
With courses made by the creators you love and produced by Lightbulb Courses, you will get the guidance you need to learn and grow.
Gain the skills, confidence, and clarity you need to get back on track and realize your full creative potential.
With your creativity in full swing, you can get back to focusing on new outcomes and will feel ready to take action.
BLOWN Away
"I am SO impressed with this course. It is EXACTLY What I needed, although I did not know it. I am a life-long musician who has only piddled with composition.
Enough to get through school and a bit more... I usually do not review things until I finish them, but I have learned so much already, it was worthy of an early
"two-thumbs up!"
~Bari Brumfield
So Concise
"I took the course to learn a little bit more about music. I sing in my church choir and with a community chorus, and since retirement I have been wanting to learn more, and this became a wonderful opportunity to do that."
~Nancy Morrissey
Here's what you'll learn in this composition course:
Welcome & Intro
- Welcome & Introduction
- How To Use This Course
- Download Your Course Materials
Module 1
- Text First Composing
- Voice, Color, and White Space
- Assessing The Text, Asking for Permission, and Singing Things
Module 2
- Analyzing The Text Of "The Door"
- Analyzing The Text Of "The Singing Bowl"
- Activity 1
Module 3
- Form - Content & Containers
- Creating A Narrative Map
- Activity 2
Module 4
- Audience, Purpose, and Resources
- Activity 3
Module 5
- Internalizing The Text
- Activity 4
Module 6
- Crafting The Music - Principles To Put Pencil To Page
- Composing "The Door"
- Composing "The Door" Part 2
- Composing "The Son Is Shining"
Module 7
- Composing "The Singing Bowl"
- Composing "The Singing Bowl" Part 2
- Activity 5
Conclusion & Next Steps
- Your Turn! Go And Compose On Your Own
Enroll In The Course
Get instant access to all lessons and start your journey to composing a finished choral piece, or upgrade to get a mentoring session with award-winning composer Andrew Maxfield