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Making Tunes with Intention (MTI)

Resources for current MTI course participants are HERE

UPDATES

  • Next course dates: TBA.

  • Please email me if you want to be notified of future course offerings.

ABOUT THE COURSE

Making Tunes with Intention (MTI) is a 3-week course exploring the composition and arrangement of trad-style tunes. The underlying musical concepts will be somewhat based on Celtic, Baroque, and Classical music, but many of the concepts aren’t genre-specific. In addition to discussing and analyzing approaches to composition and arrangement, we will spend time in each workshop actually making and arranging tunes, trying out techniques such as:

  • Patterns that work well for the beginning, middle, and ending of tunes.

  • Structure or style points that make a tune or arrangement sound like it belongs to one tradition or another — including phrase length, harmonic vocabulary, and choices of pitch & rhythm.

  • Intervals, motifs, and techniques that create a specific emotional effect.

  • Personalizing your approach, based on what comes naturally to your instrument and your playing style.

MTI is open to all instruments! Some aspects are geared specifically towards fiddle, but most ideas are applicable to any instrument. For anyone wanting to understand music more deeply, composing tunes is a way to know music from the inside out. And by understanding how a tune is made, we add to our enjoyment of tunes, whether we're making them, playing them, or listening to them.

AUDITING OPTION

There is an auditing option available, which doesn’t include the private lessons. All participants including auditors will have access to the edited workshop videos and all the resources for at least two months after the end of the course.

This option is for:

  • Musicians who are busy during the course dates but want access to all the resources to dive into later. You are still welcome to attend the live workshops if you can.

  • Non-musicians who are curious about the inner workings of tune composition or arrangement.


COURSE DATES & FEATURES

  • Three 2-hour Zoom* workshops at 11am-1pm Pacific Time on:
    Sunday Feb 26, 2023
    Sunday Mar 5, 2023
    Sunday Mar 12, 2023

  • Two 30-minute private lessons or one 60-minute lesson, scheduled between Mar 1 and Mar 10. (These lessons can be in-person for those local to the Corvallis area.) In the lessons, you are welcome to bring your own compositions or other repertoire to explore how to apply the course techniques, or I can answer your questions and review anything from the workshops.

  • Access to all course resources, including a video recording of each workshop, will be available to participants for at least 2 months after the course ends.

* Workshops and Lessons will take place on the Zoom platform. Please check that your Zoom app is updated. If you’re not familiar with Zoom, you can read about recommended Zoom settings at the Zoom instructions & tips page.


COURSE FEE *

  • $300 USD ($400 CAD) for first-time participants.

  • $250 USD ($330 CAD) for returning participants.

  • $200 USD ($265 CAD) auditing rate (doesn’t include private lessons).

  • Student discounted rates: $200 ($270 CAD) participant, $150 ($200 CAD) auditor.

  • Extra discount for Patreon subscribers: take off double your monthly subscription. (Example: $15 Patreon subscribers get an extra $30 course discount.)

* Sliding scale available upon request.


See Payment page for payment options.

To sign up for the MTI course, or if you have any questions, please email me.