Orchestral Arranging & Composition Workshop for Young Musicians

and are hosting a free collaborative arranging & composition workshop for young musicians between 15-18 years old.

Come along for a fun session of creative music-making! Bring your own instrument if you have one.

Participants will take part in a collaborative arranging and composition workshop using their own orchestral instruments as well as piano and percussion. They will be given a pop song as their starting point, along with printed resources including chord progressions and melodic motif notation from the song. Working as an ensemble, they will then reshape that material into their own instrumental arrangement, exploring structure, texture, harmony, contrast and orchestration.
This 1-hour session will be practical and ensemble-led. Pupils will work together to make musical decisions, try ideas out on their instruments, and, if helpful, sketch parts by hand using manuscript paper. If they feel the piece needs a conductor, they will decide themselves who should take on that role. To keep the process moving and encourage creativity, the group will also use a foam dice with a different compositional prompt on each side. Every five minutes, one pupil will roll the die, and the group will respond to the new instruction as they continue developing the piece. At the end of the hour, we will hear whatever their final arrangement has become!
The aim is not to produce one “right” answer, but to give the students a creative, collaborative musical experience, while showing them composition, arrangement, and ensemble decision-making work in practice.

Founded in 1948, Westminster Music Library holds one of the largest public collections of sheet music and music books in the UK. We are part of the Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea BiBorough Library Service, and our materials are free to use and borrow.

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We regret that there is no step-free access to the Music Library. Further accessibility information is available on our website.

Please contact us on 0207 641 6200 or [email protected] to further discuss accessibility at our library.

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