As the Pianist 2025 Composing Competition kicks off, judge Matt Ash offers up some sound advice for those on the verge of putting pen to manuscript paper: You could be the lucky winner of this Kawai piano, pictured below!

 

 

 

I have had the pleasure of sitting on the judging panel for several years now, and it’s always a highlight in my calendar. I’ve seen compositions that have clearly had huge amounts of effort put into them, often with potential for further development, and some that were full of interesting ideas that would have benefitted from being structured a little more coherently. One shouldn’t feel the need to impress with torrents of fast notes written for the sake of it. In fact, the jury would far prefer to enjoy a simple, well-structured piece which has something clear to say. So whether you’re entering for the first time, or we’ve enjoyed your work before, here are a few valuable things for you to consider.

 

Remember who you are writing for. Many of the great composers were commissioned to write for specific occasions, and they carefully crafted their music accordingly. The winning piece in this competition is printed for Pianist magazine readers to learn, so keep this in mind as you are developing your ideas.

 

Decide from the outset what type of music you are writing. Is it programme music which reflects a particular scene or story? Or absolute music which is left more open to the interpretation of the player or listener?

 

Start by creating a simple theme. It can be a short melody or a rhythmic pattern. This will become the heart of your composition, and you can develop the rest from there. You can experiment with different ways to elaborate on your idea, with different textures, keys and rhythms, initially keeping sketches of these ideas so you can bring them together into a structure later on.

 

It’s tempting to improvise something and to play it into notation software such as Sibelius. However, this can lead to music which is difficult to read and even unpianistic to learn. Thinking about your audience, you need to consider how your music fits into hand shapes, finding a balance between offering some type of challenge to the player without feeling too daunting. Improvisation can be a great starting point, but in this context, it is best used to create ideas which you then develop into a composition.

 

Consider structuring your piece using a well-known form such as binary, ternary or rondo. This will help you to bring shape to the music. We do love to see creativity beyond these forms, but if you are brave enough to be more experimental, make sure that your finished composition has some sense of structure.

 

Suitable tempo, dynamic and articulation markings are essential in order to strengthen your ideas. I have often come across entries that would have ended up being so much better if attention had been paid to these things.

 

Give ample thought to your chosen key signature. Could you choose a different one to avoid all those accidentals that you’ve written?

 

Time signatures play a central role in the feel of your music, and changes in the time signature can be an effective way of adding interest. But do think about how any changes benefit your idea rather than using them simply for the sake of it.

 

Lay your music out with care, so that it is legible. It doesn’t matter whether you write your score by hand or you use software. We encounter many entries that are frustratingly hard to read. So remember, we need to be able to decipher your entry in order to understand its creative intentions!

 

 

Enter the Pianist 2025 Composing Competition NOW!