The little composer summer camp is eye-catching, and you can complete independent creation in three days after training
Juvenile composition, make the best use of the situation or unravel the seedlings?
Our reporter Han Xuan
In the popular impression, composer is a mysterious and difficult profession. Recently, Zhongshan Park Concert Hall “Opened the Door to Art” opened the “Little Composer-Pop Music Creation Summer Camp” for the first time, attracting 23 teenagers from 11 to 16 years old to study composition in the camp, which attracted attention. Is this taking advantage of the situation, or pulling the seedlings to encourage growth? After some visits, the reporter found unexpected results.
Witness a day collectively create a song
There are only three days of classes in the Little Composer Summer Camp. On the first day, as soon as the campers met, they received the task: to create a “camp song” for the summer camp in one day.
Seeing that there were still some “recognized” children, Chen Chao, the art director of the summer camp and a senior music producer, encouraged them to speak out the reasons why they studied composition. “Learn knowledge”, “make friends”, “express yourself in music”… The children answered one by one aloud. Chen Chao asked them to organize their wishes into a few lyrics with relatively neat number of words, and then led them to read the lyrics aloud. According to the rhythm of the four tones of Chinese characters, the melody was initially developed.
With the lyrics and the melody frame found, the children were excited and rushed to the piano to play the melody in their hearts. While guiding the children to create, Chen Chao taught the music theory knowledge such as scales, harmony, major and minor, and instructed them to apply these knowledge to creation. Amid the exclamations of the children, the first draft of the camp song “I Love Summer, I Love Music” with lyrics and melody was completed.
Chen Chao said that this year, “Opening the Door to Art” launched the pop music creation summer camp for the first time, and received more than 50 applications from students. However, considering the professionalism of creation, only one advanced class was opened. Door melody musical instrument. “The professional level of the students in music has exceeded expectations, and their sensibility and comprehension are very high.” After a short two and a half days of intensive study, the children have created their own works. At the closing ceremony, someone had already come up with highly-completed compositions and lyrics.
The threshold of creation is inside the door
Composing is a tough job, how do teenagers learn? What level of creativity can they accomplish?
“Music creation is ‘the threshold is in the door’. Anyone can hum a few lines, but humming these lines to become a work that combines lyrics and melody requires a lot of effort. Therefore, music creation is first and foremost talent, but also experience. It’s very important.” Chen Chao said that the level of songs in the music world is uneven now. Some singers hum a few melody, ask someone to memorize a score, ask someone to compose a piece of music, then go into the studio to record, repair it with high-tech software, Known as “singer”. In fact, the integrity of a song’s melody, the match between the melody and the lyrics, and especially the use of harmony are very important and require training or long-term experience accumulation to complete. “Creation seems to be relatively free, but the standardization in it is also very particular.”
Children who attend summer camps feel the same way. Wang Haozhou, who graduated in the third year of junior high this year, has studied piano for 8 years and cello for 4 years, and has also tried to create before. He said: “In addition to observing life and enriching my world, I obviously feel that creation requires some technical and theoretical aspects. Even if it is to break the theory, it must be mastered and then broken.”
Talents in the industry also need to work slowly and work hard
The emergence of “young composers” has not surprised senior conductors, performers and practitioners. Li Changjun, head of the Beijing Chinese Orchestra, exclaimed: “There are many young people who have the ability to compose, and there is no shortage of geniuses now!”
According to Li Changjun’s understanding, the Central Conservatory of Music and the Middle School Affiliated to China Conservatory of Music have set up the comprehensive direction of composition, conducting and theory. “The competition in this major is extremely fierce, and the children are very good.” , and also planned to open a special concert for young composers. “The children’s works can be composed of seven or eight pieces of music, and there is no problem at all.”
In Li Changjun’s view, there are more and more teenagers who know how to compose music. The biggest reason is that art education is getting better and better. Many children have the experience of learning musical instruments, and those who are interested will explore further. “High-tech products are becoming more and more popular. The more the score, the more music does not have to be handwritten, after the melody is created, the computer and professional equipment can automatically match the trombone, trumpet and other instruments according to the orchestration method.” In addition, there are many arrangement software to make up for the lack of creators, and also Motivated the children.
Although young composers can produce eye-catching works, young composer Li Yuejin, who has composed a large number of concertos, orchestra works and film and television music, reminds that, “If you want to achieve success in composition, you still need to work slowly and work hard. “Li Changjun also believes that with the accumulation of children’s life perception, cognition and professional skills, more flesh-and-blood works will gradually be formed.