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Back to Write Like Mozart: An Introduction to Classical Music Composition

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Write Like Mozart: An Introduction to Classical Music Composition by National University of Singapore

4.9
stars
416 ratings

About the Course

This course introduces students to strategies for style writing of common practice European art music. The issues of harmonic progression, voice leading, and texture are addressed in addition to relevant compositional concepts like repetition, variation, and elaboration. The course aims to offer a creative space even within the restrictions of stylistic emulation....

Top reviews

CW

Jun 14, 2020

Excellent course! Very well designed and systematically organised with useful materials. I have learnt a lot and gained confidence to continue my music path, Thank you Professor Edwards!

RS

May 28, 2023

Really clear and useful introduction (or refresher) for basic harmony. The only thing I feel is missing is something on modulation as without this you're kind of 'stuck in first gear'.

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1 - 25 of 132 Reviews for Write Like Mozart: An Introduction to Classical Music Composition

By Sam T

Jul 19, 2016

This is an excellent course and it really pushes you hard to learn Classical Composition. There are a few problems, however.

Minor quibbles:

1) The instructor does not really explain Parallel Perfect Fifths or Octaves; I had to look them up on my own. They deserve a whole lecture.

2) One of the assignment solutions has a Parallel Octave by contrary motion, which is not supposed to be allowed.

3) He also neglected to explain the Harmonic Minor Key being used for minor chords in his Lecture 0 of Week 2. Just a very short explanation would have saved me 40 minutes of stressful researching, confusion, and doubts about my own sanity ;)

The biggest problem:

This course should really be an 8- or 12-week course. The weeks are very densely packed. In Week 2, I worked 3-4 hours every day, and then was greeted by 11 classes due in 7 days when I opened Week 3. The assignments are rated 10 or 20 minutes but actually take about 2 hours. It would often take me thirty minutes to an hour to get through one 5-15 minute video. (I do take detailed notes and do recall and mnemonic drills along the way, however). If you are already solidly grounded in music theory and have much of voice leading on autopilot, this class is faster.

That said, I would not want him to cut out anything. Every class so far has been necessary. It has taken me from almost 0 musical theory understanding to feeling very comfortable with advanced concepts, all in an extremely short time.

If you try to complete all of his video examples just before he does them, they work like a charm. I came here to get solid skills, and Just three weeks in I feel like I have made a years' worth of progress.

I highly recommend this course, but know the kind of work you are getting into.

By William S

Jan 30, 2018

Great course. Excellent teacher. The course is well thought out, concise, understandable and efficiently covers a lot of material.

By Chi W J

Nov 7, 2017

Very comprehensive details course. Suitable for students who need to refresh their Harmony knowledge and composition skill.

By Jonathan G

Feb 26, 2018

I understand that this course was about musical composition and I learned a lot. However, I have no way of writing a musical piece as I have no composition software or wouldn't know where to access it. This course was pointless in that endeavor. Might I suggest having your students purchase composition software beforehand?

By Morganne A

Apr 1, 2019

Very helpful review. I have graduate entrance exams coming up, and I don't want to be placed in a graduate harmony review class. This course is a good refresher, and the professor is clear and articulate.

I would not recommend this to someone who does not already have at least a bit of music theory background. At the very least students should already read treble and bass clefs, know intervals, diatonic chords, the major scale, and various forms of minor. The professor lets students know what knowledge he already expects in the opening lecture.

If you are struggling with voice leading in an undergraduate theory class, this course would be a great supplement.

By Gordon F B J

Jan 21, 2018

As a conductor, performer, writer, theorist, educator, I'm finding this course to be accurate as well as diverting from my everyday life. It's a great general review of the "basics". Even though I'm an experienced jazz and classical musician, I find that strong "fundamentals" are important to learn and relearn. And, considering my focus has, for so long a time, been on 20th and 21st century practices, I'm loving this opportunity to get back into earlier centuries of thinking. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven are totally worth understanding, even for those concentrated on so called "modern" ways of thinking and writing.

By Ananth K D

Mar 24, 2020

I think enough people have said it already, but once again, congratulations on making this amazing course. This has helped me so much over the years. I did not realize that learning functional harmony would be so useful in analyzing virtually all kinds of music. As I've gradually learned to apply this understanding of functional harmony, I'm mostly able to analyze classical pieces including those by Chopin and Liszt, which I have been playing recently. Thank you so much.

By Jeremy

Jul 22, 2017

The course was a genuinely excellent introduction into Common Practice era compositional techniques. As a practicing musician with no compositional experience, I found the course excellently paced - demanding, but achievable and the course leads up to composition of a non-trivial piece in the style of Mozart et al. Thoroughly recommended for those who are interested in learning the fundamental principles of Common Practice (classical) era composition.

By Panagiotis S

Jun 14, 2016

I had no time to actually do the course material properly (due to real-life work) but I loved following what I could and eventually will take the course properly (next year). There is a lot of material covered and can be challenging for someone with little knowledge of music theory, but with some extra baxkground reading (and some wikipedia articles) one can catch up quickly. Highly recommended.

By Pablo D C

Aug 17, 2020

If you are a musician and you want to improve your composition skills, this course is a great way to achieve that goal. I have to say that you need some music theory background. The teacher is nice and the assignments and guided practice are very useful to learn every part of the course.

By yue k l

Dec 8, 2016

good course for beginners can learn the basics behind composing.

You will learn key techniques like inversion of chords, insertions & substitutions & progressions which i believe can help any aspiring beginner composer regardless of style.

You will also learn to analyze music pieces.

By suresh s

Jun 18, 2016

An excellent lecture by Peter Edwards but couldn't attend it due to academic pressure.Hope will get similar courses in the near future.Thank you

By Yeshi N

Dec 16, 2020

Excellent! I was really helpful for me to learn how to write classical music, how to think about more instruments playing at the same time.

By Emma R ( P

Jan 19, 2018

very helpful

By Daniel H

Aug 20, 2017

Extremely methodical, organized introduction to classical music writing. I was familiar with most of the material before taking the course, but I now feel like my knowledge is much more structured with a clear idea of how each concept builds off of the others. Professor Edwards has done a great job presenting this material in a way that is clear and easy to follow. Highly recommended for someone interested in getting into classical composing!

By Ian C

Jul 22, 2020

Excellent course. The material was presented in a logical manner which made the increasing complexity easy to understand and deal with. The course was presented in such a way that the theoretical concepts could and, indeed, must be used in a practical way allowing the participant to train her skills in a guided, sensible manner resulting in a feeling of success and achievement. Thank you for this excellent course!

By cathy l

May 27, 2022

This course gave a very thorough explanation of music theory, and introduced me to a process for composition that mad it seem much less daunting. If I had been a beginner to music theory, I think I might have appreciated more practice in identifying and constructing chords and chord sequences. The analysis examples were very helpful. Thank you for your patient explanations. A wonderful course.

By Alexander M

Aug 30, 2018

This is an excellent course. I learnt so much! I write electronic music and while I knew the basics of music theory I was not sure how actually to come up with a cord progression or harmonize the melody.

The course really make a huge difference for me. I can now read music from staff and compose chord progressions easily.

I like especially guided practices and home assignments.

By Matthew D

Aug 2, 2020

This course is an excellent introduction for composing in the Classical Style.

The content was exceptionally well delivered and the topics were introduced at a manageable pace. I enjoyed the course very much and would recommend it to anybody who wants to gain a better understanding of the stylistic techniques and procedures that should be considered for writing like Mozart.

By Robert D

Aug 14, 2016

This is an excellent course. I cannot imagine better coverage in six weeks. Peter Edwards is a first class teacher and I hope he will do some other MOOC on a musical topic - I would certainly join it. The course has been an introduction that has already helped deepen my understanding of this period of music, and it has given me the desire to study these matters more fully.

By Bart d V

Feb 17, 2023

Very interesting course in music composition. Although i was a novice in this field, the training lays a good base and especially the guided practices are very helpful in the process of understanding and doing it yourself.

I you are new in this field (like me) expect to put in double the amount of time as stated here to fully understand the matter.

By Tobias L

Jul 29, 2017

This course is a very good introduction into classical harmony and composition. Everybody, who is interested in writing music (not only classic), is able to learn a lot in this course. I would very like to see an additional course with this professor for more explained examples and topics like "how to modulate into different keys".

By Cengizhan Ş

Aug 1, 2022

I am a research assistant on music education. And that course really improved me. The flow of information is really systematic, I learned so many new things. I want to study on composition in my doctoral thesis. That course gave me some ideas to shape information.

Big thanks to Dr. Peter Edwards for this course.

By Lucas d C F

Aug 10, 2020

Curso fantástico. Aulas excelentes, o professor é maravilhoso, todas as explicações foram muito claras e os recursos empregados tornaram a experiência do curso algo simplesmente incrível e extraordinariamente enriquecedor. Parabéns ao professor e aos desenvolvedores, e agradeço a honra de ter feito este curso.

By Оля Н

Nov 23, 2022

I want to thank you for this course. In fact, it was very important for me at such a difficult time. Separately, I want to thank the teacher Peter Edwards, who made this course in the best possible way, who presented the educational material in a very clear and interesting way. Thank you very much!!!