Composing Using the Movement Around You..........................................
Many musicians, especially pianists, have a secret weapon in their composi-
tion arsenal that they almost never discuss with non-musicians, because it
seems either too matter-of-fact or just silly. When they’re having “dead” peri-
ods of no inspiration, they work on writing mini-soundtracks for the activities
going on around them. For example, a cat walks into the room. What sound
would the cat’s footsteps make if you were trying to capture the image in
music? How about the cat’s voice? Let’s call the cat’s soundtrack Part A.Now, what if the cat continued on into the kitchen, where your mother, or
brother, or a1950s housewife was cheerfully washing dishes? What would
that soundtrack be? What if the dishwasher was actually your tired, stubble-
faced roommate, who was rather unhappy about washing the dishes? What
would his music sound like? How would both or either of those people react
to the cat? There are your Parts B (the dishwasher) and C (the dishwasher
and the cat) — practically a whole composition waiting for you in this
scenario.Look and listen around you. What did you do last night, this morning, whom
did you see, what stories were told? What happened in your dream? Almost
anything can serve as a starting point for some kind of soundtrack. Make a
movie in your head out of the action in your life and then score that movie.Your soundtrack can be a simple melody line that deftly “haikus” and con-
denses each character — or it may be a full melody with accompaniment.
Capturing the essence of the activities around you in music can actually
result in full-fledged compositions. On the other hand, they can end up as
pieces of music you’ll never use in the real world. The purpose of this idea,
however, is to get you to start playing and writing music again, to work past
your composer’s block. Plus it’s fun, too, and playing music for the fun of it
is a great way to get your mind to relax and open itself up to new musical
possibilities.If you think this all sounds too silly to try yourself, try to wrap your head
around this one: Much of Pyotr (Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s famous score for
the The Nutcracker Suitewas composed afterthe ballet had already been
choreographed. He came in after all the “footwork” was already done and
wrote music to accompany the physical movements of the dancers. The
dancers were his “movie,” and he wrote their soundtrack.As helpful as this everyday soundtrack idea can be, there is a more system-
atic approach available to you: effort shapes.126 Part III: Harmony and Structure
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