Composing Through Reference: How Listening Inspires Original Creativity
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Abstract
The purpose of my project is to develop composition skills through the process of using a reference as a guide point. I have incorporated listening, transcribing, improvising, recording, and production as main elements of my process and through trial and error the outcomes have given me a rewarding journey of three compositions. My research was self-ethnographic which required hours of isolation in the practice room by exploring new ideas on guitar, active listening, and exploring my musical influences. The deliverables of my work include three original compositions, sheet music, video transcriptions, video improvisation ideas, my project bio, my artist bio, my artist website, artist photos, and my social media platforms. This year I have learned basic to advanced steps on creating original music and bringing it to life by live recording in the studios and production software. My improvisation has leveled up, and I have also learned how to extract my emotional ideas and apply those feelings to my music as a way to fully express my thoughts musically. This project is just the beginning step for a whole future in music composition for me and I aim to inspire other fellow musicians whom might also have a similar background and hope this project will be a useful resource.
Publication Date
7-1-2020
Campus
Valencia (Spain) Campus
Keywords
composition; music exploration; transcribing; recording; development; production
Recommended Citation
Ehrgott, Bailey. “Composing Through Reference: How Listening Inspires Original Creativity.” Master's thesis, Berklee College of Music, 2020. https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-contemporary-performance/168.
Comments
Project Components: paper (.pdf), presentation (.pdf), audio files (ZIP file containing 1 .wav files, 3 .mp3 files), videos (ZIP file containing 8 .mp4 files), scores (ZIP file containing 4 .pdf documents).