Writing your own music - reviewing and evaluating
Reviewing is an easily overlooked stage in the composing process. When you take a step back to evaluate your composition, consider the following questions:
- To what extent does your piece fulfil the composition brief?
- Does it 鈥榤ake sense鈥 as a piece of music as a whole?
- If there are some less attractive sounding sections, why is this?
- Can you identify exactly what needs to change? Is it the instrumentation? Is it the texture?
Don鈥檛 be afraid to revisit previous stages of the composition process as many times as you need to in order to refine your music. Composers rarely finish a composition having gone through the various stages just once.
Success criteria
Successful GCSE compositions usually contain the following elements:
- distinctive melodies - or rhythms - with well-shaped phrases
- harmonies that work with the melody
- melodies that are well developed
- a clear structure
- effective instrumentation and timbres that are suited to the music
The most important thing is that your composition should be musical. You should be happy with what you have composed and have as much confidence as you can in your own musical voice.