The Composer’s Playbook
by Danny Clay
Four workshops that will transform your kids into mini composers!
Watch the trailer below or go straight to the episodes:
Episode 1: Musical Puzzle Pieces
Episode 2: Drawing Sound
Episode 3: Creative Clues
Episode 4: Better Together
Trailer
The Composer’s Playbook is a crash course in musical creation for families and curious minds of all ages, but specifically targeted for kids ages 6-10. Participants will be led through the process of finding and collecting sounds in their everyday spaces, organizing those sounds into patterns and sequences, and creating drawings to represent those sounds in the form of notation to compose with. Anyone can be a composer with a little bit of creativity, imagination, and curiosity!
Join our mailing list to know when our next workshop video drops!
The Composer’s Playbook
Episode 1: Musical Puzzle Pieces
Check out this neat Zine!
About this episode:
Composing is the art of putting sounds together, and anyone can do it—including you!
In this video, composer and teaching artist extraordinaire Danny Clay explores how making music is like solving a puzzle, shows you how to make your own composition, and leads you in an interactive play-along with professional musicians.
This video features performances by Kronos Quartet, Delphi Trio, and MyCincinnati Youth Orchestra.
Be sure to click on the Zine to the right for a DIY sonic scavenger hunt activity!
Episode 2: Drawing Sound
About this episode:
Here’s another neat Zine!
Anyone can compose music from their own sounds, but how do you remember your music after you’ve made it? One way to do this is to make drawings of your sounds, otherwise known as notation. In this video, composer Danny Clay and his friends will take you on a whirlwind tour through the loopy, squiggly world of notation and show you how to design drawings and symbols for your own sounds. Be sure to check out the zine below, too, for more music-making ideas! This video features vocal and instrumental performances by Friction Quartet, Phyllis Chen, MPLS, Volti, and young musicians from across the country.
Episode 3: Creative Clues
About this episode:
Zine for Episode 3!
The world is full of cool sounds to compose with—but how do we choose which ones to use? It all depends on what we notice. In this video, composer Danny Clay and his friends will show how our brains make sense of the noisy world around us, and how we can trick ourselves into making music from anything and everything just by paying close attention to our creative choices. Be sure to check out the zine, too, for more musical inspiration!
Episode 4: Better Together
About this Episode:
Zine for Episode 4!
Composing is something you can do by yourself, but it can also be a way to connect with the people around you. In this episode, Danny and his friends look at how music is like a conversation and explore how sound can be used in collaborations with other types of art forms, like dance, art, and poetry. You’ll also get a chance to perform over video with professional violinist, Maiani Da Silva! Among many other artists, this video features performances by the San Francisco-based youth arts program Little Opera, and an interview with 8th grade artist and musician Frances Park.