A Student's Guide to Music Composition: A New Method | Featuring exclusive interviews with: Pete Anthony - Peter Cincotti - John Rutter - John Pickard

Beautifully presented, with quite some original graphic design, this book is all you need if you are a school student.... or a classroom teacher! It helps shaping a composition course so that final work is inclusive of important features. Surely a delight for coursework moderators to see compositions submitted following this advice. No publication on general music composition can be fully comprehensive, but the direction chosen by the author here is to look at universal techniques, rather than genres, so he shows you what to do with what you have rather than talking about how to compose a soundtrack or a symphony from scratch. The exercises are rich of repertoire to explore after each mini chapter. The interviews with composition giants like Pete Anthony and other guests are very interesting indeed as they talk about their own process. Great book!

A fantastic book which will be extremely useful as a classroom resource for teachers and students. Content ranges from how to choose instruments, all the way to quartal harmony for effect and more. Never dull, it explains some difficult concepts within a few pages without including tedious details. Perfect for young students needing structure and direction to improve their coursework. The song contest is a great idea for students to produce work towards a prize. The interviews with successful musicians, including a Hollywood composer, are full of insights. A book conceived for young learners, a great tool for the classroom without sounding pretentious. Will adopt in school!

I bought this book for my niece who is at grade 7 on her piano at aged 12. She went through it very quickly and said the following: "really interesting and accessible; has inspired me to write my own music." This really says it all. A great guide for anyone who wants to compose their own music. And if you don't play anything yourself, like me, it makes for a brilliant present for someone who does! Highly recommended!

This is a comprehensive but handy guide to composition for teachers and students of GCSE and A Level Music. Topics are well chosen and explained, with plenty of accessible exercises and recordings to put some techniques in practice. The composers interviews are a welcome bonus too - giving young people an insight into the minds and approaches of professional composers. Highly recommended resource!

A great book for teenage composers and beyond. A new resource for classroom music teachers and students in high school. Kudos for the graphic layout, which wraps the book beautifully. Content and activities are worth every cent.

I fully recommend reading ‘A students guide to music composition as it offers some great solutions and resources for teachers and students alike. Very satisfied and well recommended!

Excellent text on principles of composition explained in clear terms. The author covers very interesting topics that will help with any musical style. I can highly recommend it!

An outstanding book. It is presented in a simple, readable format yet is both insightful and inspirational. An indispensable primer for any young aspiring musical composer.