Tampa Composer

Tampa ComposerThis website is a support facility and showcase for young composers as part of the Westchase Music School in Tampa. Tampa Composer offers music composition basics and the use of our workstation and the notation software Finale.

While the great composers like Bach, Mozart and Beethoven may still reign supreme in classical circles, a generation of new young composers are challenging its traditional boundaries.

Many great composers didn’t start really making business until later in life, mostly in their late twenties up to middle age. However, a handful of them  were, in fact, musical prodigies since their young ages. Westchase Music School has talented composers from the age of 9 years and older.

As students, most musicians at least start to explore the idea of writing their own musical compositions, rather than just play other people’s music all the time. These experiments often end just as quickly as they began because students feel that they aren’t any good at it, or they run into obstacles and they give up early. This is where Tampa Composer closes the gap with a systematic curriculum and gradual approach for successful composition.

This spring we are going to launch a Composer Challenge. You write a new composition for either piano, solo-instrument/ voice and piano or a small ensemble. Around Christmas 2020, a panel of judges chooses the top three compositions to be performed and recorded by the Tampa Composer studio. Best 3 performers will win a lucrative price.

Moreover, composing and writing your own songs brings with it all sorts of benefits that you just can’t get from playing music written by traditional composers.  As it turns out, writing your own music has a number of health, emotional, and social benefits. Find out more…

Do you want to be a Tampa Composer? Call us at (813) 925-0102

“Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is.” Malcom Arnold

Prerequisites

To be active as a Composer you need to belong to one of the two categories:

  1. Apprentice Composer: There are no prerequisites for this level but you can only use the Composer Workstation with your lesson teacher in 1:1 presence. This would fall under a regular lesson, not as LAB time. The presence of a LAB teacher does not authorize the apprentice composer to use the workstation.
  2. Solo Composer: A solo composer can use the Workstation at any time (even if no LAB teacher is on duty) but needs to meet the following requirements:
  • Playing an instrument or taking voice lessons (piano, guitar, solo instrument) for at least 1 year.
  • Needs to be enrolled at our school as a student for at least a 30 minutes lesson per week.
  • Minimum age 9.
  • Passing minimum Note Spotter 40 test. For more information see our Notespotter Page.
  • Knowing basic music theory as outlined on our Basic Music Theory page.
  • Passing a Written Test with 68 multiple choice questions about the Basic Music Theory help sheets. The test can be done several times until a passing rate of 100% is reached. If you need help ask your teacher.
  • Having attended a free seminar on how to use the composer workstation and to handle the Finale software.