Systems Sunday: My Composition/TME Writing Kit

Lo and behold, I have found yet another system to share on this Sunday morning. Today, I'm going to talk about my composition/TME writing kit. This is a box of materials that I keep at work so I can compose while I am doing something else - usually as I am doing formal observations of my interns. I can grab a shoe box of materials to keep near me while I am sitting outside the group.

Materials:

• Pencil - always a pencil. I never compose with a pen - this is probably because I've been told that a good musician always has a pencil, but it is really because I change my mind often, and pencil marks are easier to erase than pen marks. Right?
• Index cards - 4X6 inches. These are my go-to composition tools. I write the words on one line, skip three lines to write the next stanza, and then I use the blank lines to indicate rhythms, notes, and chord structures. If I mess up horribly, I can always rip up the card and start over, or erase the entire thing.
• Post-it notes - 3X3 inches. These are where I put my TME ideas for my compositions. If I am REALLY organized, I have post-its for each of my color-codes for therapeutic domains.

That's it. I could keep this in a pencil pouch, but I use a shoe box at the moment. I will be finishing up my pizza box storage pretty soon, so I will be transferring all of this into a new storage system pretty soon. It is time to consolidate and make things look snazzy!

The storage is only part of my system, though. I can't forget the "how I use this to make my life easier" portion of any of these systems, so here's how I use this one...

While I am in a composing type of mood, the ideas often come fast and furious, so I use my index cards to keep track of melody snippets and thoughts and whatever arrives in my head. When it is time to figure out a new song, I write the title of the song at the top of the card along with the date of composition. I also include any sort of source material or dedication. Then, I start to compose.

When I'm in the middle of a music therapy session observation, I can't do what I do when I compose away from a session - I can't really sing or move over and play the keyboard while an intern is trying to lead a TME with clients, so I make guesses about what the melody is and I write down all the guesses. I am horrible at rhythmic notation, so I approximate what I think the rhythm is until I can put it into a notation program to see if what I wrote approximates what I hear in my head.

Many times, I use more than one index card for compositions and TME development. I continue the labeling of TME/song title and date along with a card sequence indicator. As I am working on various parts of the compositions, I often find myself leaping ahead to adaptations, extensions, and variations of the original idea. These go on another index card. As I finish up the brainstorming and development process, I can attach these cards to one another until I get ideas into my digital file.

After I have finished a melody line, a rhythm approximation, and a chord structure, it is time to start formalizing the song into a therapeutic music experience (TME). This is where my TME system comes into play.

If you are interested in how I write my TMEs, please search this blog for "therapeutic music experiences" or just jump to this link.

At the end of this process, my index cards either go into the trash can (if I have mined all the information from them) or they go into my archive box (where I can keep working on them at a later date). 

Systems, systems everywhere!