Bob C. by Collin (Let's Play Music Composition)

Almost two weeks ago marked the end of 3 years of Let's Play Music for Collin!  Now he is ready to start private piano lessons with Bob, Allie's piano teacher.  Collin learned so much music theory without even realizing it - the songs are fun and the weekly classes with Ros, who is a great teacher were entertaining as well.

To cap their third year, all students were required to compose an original piece using their knowledge of chords and patterns.  I was amazed at what Collin came up with.  I coached him thru the "pre-making" of the song - I thought he was gonna come up with some kind of story with Lego people involved, but I was wrong.  First, he had to make up a story that will become the theme of the song.  Then he chose the melody, playing it over and over, piece by piece until it matched the story line he made up.  I wrote it down on paper so I wouldn't forget.  After the melody was done, he added the left hand chords - I was impressed with how he was able to do that all on his own!  Then he had two private piano lessons with Ros to polish the piece, who then transposed the song and printed it on beautiful paper and made it look official.  On May 12th, he played the song at his recital. It is called Bob C (for Bob the Clock).

Collin and his teacher, Ros Ellsworth

Collin and his class: Carter, Cajsa, and Josh and Jesse Williams with Ros.

Here is a video we took of the piece:  The story goes like this - Bob is a clock hanging up on a store wall.  He gets bought and is taken down (listen for the hammer), and then taken home.  He is hung up on the wall once again (listen for that hammer), and stays on the wall, happily tick-tocking til the day is done.  This piece has a section A, section B, a bridge, and a coda - which apparently I was not aware of until Collin pointed it out to me.  His composition was entered in a valley-wide Let's Play Music Competition for his age group.