Name: Music Composition Arrangement Skills Training
Price: 28200.0 ZAR
Availability: InStock

Description

This course equips learners with the skills to compose and arrange music for various contexts, including live performance and recorded media. Participants will develop creative and technical abilities to produce original musical works and adapt existing pieces for different ensembles or genres. The course emphasizes practical application and theoretical understanding to foster well-rounded musical proficiency.

Learning Outcomes

Apply principles of melody, harmony, and rhythm to compose original music.
Arrange existing musical pieces for different instrumental or vocal combinations.
Analyze musical structures and styles to inform compositional decisions.
Evaluate the effectiveness of compositional techniques in achieving intended emotional or aesthetic effects.
Design musical scores using appropriate notation software or manual methods.
Demonstrate proficiency in using music theory concepts to solve compositional challenges.

Target Audience

This course is ideal for aspiring composers, arrangers, songwriters, music educators, and performers seeking to enhance their creative and technical skills in music composition and arrangement.

Prerequisites

None — open enrollment.

Course Outline

Day 1: Fundamentals of Music Theory

Objectives:
• Understand the basic elements of music: pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and timbre
• Identify and construct major and minor scales
• Recognise intervals and their qualities
• Apply time signatures and note durations

Topics:
• Introduction to music notation
• Scales: major and natural minor
• Intervals: perfect, major, minor, augmented, diminished
• Rhythm: note values, rests, time signatures
• Dynamics and articulation markings

Day 2: Harmony and Chord Progressions

Objectives:
• Build triads and seventh chords
• Understand diatonic harmony and chord functions
• Create basic chord progressions (I-IV-V-I, ii-V-I)
• Apply voice leading principles

Topics:
• Triads: major, minor, diminished, augmented
• Seventh chords: major, minor, dominant, half-diminished
• Diatonic chords in major and minor keys
• Chord functions: tonic, dominant, subdominant
• Voice leading rules and common progressions

Day 3: Melodic Development and Motif Manipulation

Objectives:
• Construct memorable melodies using motifs
• Apply sequence, inversion, retrograde, and augmentation
• Understand phrase structure (antecedent/consequent)
• Develop melodic variation techniques

Topics:
• Motif definition and development
• Sequence, inversion, retrograde, augmentation, diminution
• Phrasing: antecedent and consequent
• Melodic contour and shape
• Non-chord tones: passing, neighbour, appoggiatura

Day 4: Instrumentation and Orchestration Basics

Objectives:
• Identify instrument families and their ranges
• Understand timbral characteristics of common instruments
• Apply transposition for B-flat, E-flat, and F instruments
• Write idiomatic parts for strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion

Topics:
• Instrument families: strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, keyboards
• Instrument ranges and transposition
• Timbral blending and contrast
• Writing for string quartet and small ensemble
• Percussion notation and common instruments

Day 5: Arrangement Techniques for Ensembles

Objectives:
• Structure an arrangement: intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro
• Apply texture variation: monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic
• Use counterpoint to create interest
• Arrange for small ensemble (e.g., jazz combo, pop band)

Topics:
• Song structure and form
• Textural layers: melody, harmony, rhythm, bass
• Introduction to counterpoint: first species
• Voicing chords for multiple instruments
• Arranging for rhythm section (piano, guitar, bass, drums)

Day 6: Advanced Harmonic Concepts and Modulation

Objectives:
• Use secondary dominants and borrowed chords
• Apply modulation to closely and distantly related keys
• Understand modal interchange and chromatic harmony
• Analyse harmonic progressions in existing works

Topics:
• Secondary dominants and leading-tone chords
• Borrowed chords from parallel minor/major
• Modulation: pivot chord, direct, chromatic
• Modal interchange: dorian, mixolydian, etc.
• Chromatic harmony: augmented sixth chords, Neapolitan

Day 7: Composition Project and Peer Review

Objectives:
• Compose a short original piece integrating all concepts
• Apply arrangement techniques for a chosen ensemble
• Present work and provide constructive feedback
• Reflect on the creative process and areas for growth

Topics:
• Project brief: compose a 2-3 minute piece for small ensemble
• Drafting and revising the score
• Peer review session: giving and receiving feedback
• Final presentation and discussion
• Career pathways in music composition and arrangement

Practicals

24 hours of practicals To be conducted online or on-campus or in-house

Overview

Practical sessions allow learners to apply theoretical concepts through hands-on composition and arrangement exercises. Learners will work on notation software, play instruments, and collaborate in small groups to create and refine musical pieces, reinforcing skills in melody, harmony, orchestration, and arrangement.

Practical Activities

Notation Software Lab — Learners input scales, intervals, and chord progressions into notation software (e.g., MuseScore, Sibelius) to reinforce music theory concepts. (6h)
Chord Progression and Voice Leading Exercise — Learners write and play chord progressions on piano/keyboard, applying voice leading rules and identifying errors. (4h)
Melodic Development Workshop — Learners create a short motif and develop it using sequence, inversion, and augmentation, then perform or sequence it. (4h)
Orchestration and Arrangement Project — In small groups, learners arrange a simple melody for a small ensemble (e.g., string quartet or jazz combo), then present and discuss their choices. (6h)
Final Composition Project — Learners compose a short original piece incorporating harmony, melody, and arrangement techniques, culminating in a peer review session. (4h)

Summatives

Each delegate is assessed continuously throughout the course via daily exercises, scored practical assignments, and a final summative test at the end.

Practical Assignments — 30%

Practical assignments are observed and scored against a rubric during the practical sessions. Each delegate's practical mark is averaged into a single 100% score and contributes 30% to the final total.

Daily Exercises — 20%

Every training day ends with a multiple-choice exercise scored out of 100%. The scores from each daily exercise are averaged across the duration of the course to produce a Daily Average mark, which contributes 20% to the final total.

Final Test — 50%

On the last day a final summative test is written. It is a multiple-choice paper with multiple-answer questions: each question may have more than one correct option, and a single wrong selection on a question marks the entire question wrong — no partial credit. The final test is scored out of 100% and contributes 50% to the overall mark.

Final Total

Component	Out of	Weight
Practical Assignments (rubric-scored)	100%	30%
Daily Average (multiple choice)	100%	20%
Final Test (multi-answer multiple choice)	100%	50%
Final Total	—	100%

All marks are recorded on the AATICD LMS and visible to each learner under their account.

Certificate

Certificate of Completion

Awarded to delegates who achieve an overall mark of 50% or higher on the Final Total (Practicals 30% + Daily Average 20% + Final Test 50%).

How it works

Certificates are auto-generated on the AATICD LMS as soon as the marks pass the 50% threshold.
Each certificate is a branded PDF with the delegate's name, the course title, the unit standard ID, NQF level, credits, and the date of issue.
You can download or print your certificate from your LMS dashboard at any time after issue — there's no reissue fee and no expiry date.
If you scored under 50% you can sit the final test again at the next scheduled session at no extra cost.

Where to find it

Sign in to the LMS, open your dashboard, and your certificates appear under My Certificates. Each entry has a View / Download button and a print option.

Training Discounts

Group discounts apply automatically — the more delegates you enrol, the greater the saving. Discounts are calculated at 3% per 5 delegates, scaling up to 40% off for 100+ delegates.