Melody Writing and Solo Composition

July-August 2026
More details TBA very soon…

Melody is the origin and foundation of all modern Western music. This course will teach the basic principles of good melodic writing, which are remarkably similar and enduring from Gregorian chant through popular music, film music, jazz, and modern classical music today. Basic melodic writing is a crucial technique for composers to learn to help their music advance to greater expression and levels of sophistication in any genre.

This course will explore and analyze melodies from throughout the centuries as well as composition written for unaccompanied solo instruments. The students will get to write melodies and also to compose a short solo work for an unaccompanied violin, which will be premiered in a concert at the end of the course.