I had a minor epiphany while helping my girlfriend create a composition assignment for her music students. Being young and new to composition, her students might be overwhelmed if she said “Make a composition from scratch.”

So we decided to take the “coloring book” approach and give them some guidelines for their compositions.

I created a rhythm line and a blank staff below it. Using that rhythm, the kids are going to choose the pitches.

This got me thinking. Why haven’t I composed this way before, in all my years of composition training?

In my music theory classes, rhythms always took a back seat to harmonies, melodies, and even orchestration. I asked my composition professor once if he had advice about writing rhythms, and even with his extensive theory background, he couldn’t really give me a straight answer.

Music as we know it can exist without discrete tones (think of drumlines), but it can’t exist without rhythm (even ambient music is dependent on time). So I think it’s time for me to start thinking consciously about this basic building block.

So now, I’m going to try composing an entire piece just using rhythm, and later I’ll add pitches. No tonal distractions. My prediction is that I’ll learn a thing or two about phrasing. I’ll keep you posted.

I’m going to start posting these quick tips on composing, so if you have any suggestions or questions, let me know!