Dare to Doodle

Raise your hand if you ever ‘doodle’ with pen and paper, perhaps in class, or while waiting on hold on the phone? I, for one, am guilty for sure! Along that same train of thought, how often do we as musicians ‘doodle’ on our instruments and, to take this a step further, how often do we encourage our students to do so?

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Why bring up doodling in this space on creativity?

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Well, have you noticed that when we doodle on paper, we do not expect ourselves to be the next Michelangelo? In fact, I would venture to say that we do not expect anything of ourselves – no evaluation, judgment, or criticism. No expectation of a perfect, finished product. We are merely present in that moment, experimenting and just ‘playing around.’ We don’t even expect ourselves to “be creative”!  At least, I don’t. Food for thought: For some, it can be a lot of pressure to be expected to be creative.

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This is how I approach creative moments with my students (and with myself). We experiment with a curious “What if I try…?” mindset rather than focusing on “what to do” for an assignment.

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So, let’s adopt this exploratory attitude and experiment with some “What if” ideas using my piece, “Pirate Story,” from A Child’s Garden of Verses. I hope this will encourage you to have little adventures of your own with your music.

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Where shall we adventure, to-day that we’re afloat,
Wary of the weather and steering by a star?
Shall it be to Africa, a-steering of the boat,
To Providence, or Babylon, or off to Malabar?
- Robert Louis Stevenson

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I composed “Pirate Story” for adventurous boys and girls. Listen to “Pirate Story” and notice what feelings and imagery come to your heart and mind.

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The musical patterns and elements composers choose to use in their music are connected to the emotion and story they wish to convey. As a composer, I chose the following musical elements to communicate the happy-go-lucky feeling of the singing pirates and their nefarious escapades:

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• Dorian mode
• Hand over hand crossings
• “Swinging” 6/8 meter
• Knuckle or fist roll

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To me, the Dorian tonality (all white keys from D to D) conveys the quirky, open-ended feeling of adventure. In addition, using the hand-over-hand crossings allow us to access a wide span of the keyboard for the exciting feeling of getting out of our safe ‘zone.’ In the "Composer Insights" section for the new piano edition of a A Child’s Garden of Verses, I share the following thoughts:

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I love a good pirate story, and one of my favorites growing up was Peter Pan. My favorite characters were Captain Hook and the crocodile with the ticking clock in its belly. I created the left hand of “Pirate Story” to sound like heavy boots stomping on the deck as the pirates lug their loot onto the ship. In m. 1 - 8, the use of 6/8 meter and the opening four-measure melodies depict the rollicking feel of the pirates singing as they work.

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Here are some ideas for doodling with different parts of the musical story, borrowing from what is already there. As a rule of thumb, I ask my students to keep everything the same and change just ONE thing in the music when experimenting; this allows for accessibility and a guarantee of success.

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Doodle Dare No. 1 – Feel the Upbeat

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Borrow the ideas from measures 9 - 16 and create your own feeling of ocean waves. Start by keeping the same rhythm patterns and still use the pedal.

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Pirate Story begins with an upbeat, which is an important artistic concept. Try playing this without the upbeat. What is the difference in the feel? The use of the upbeat is essential to the jaunty feeling of the pirate song. One way to notice the “Why?” of the upbeat is to omit it and explore how it feels to start right on the downbeat. Try this both ways until you can comfortably notice the difference in the feeling with and without an upbeat.

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Upbeat “driving” tip: Pretend you are driving a car and trying to merge onto the freeway. To do this successfully, you will need to pace yourself into the traffic to avoid surprising the other drivers or yourself! To communicate the upbeat successfully, first decide the tempo for your pulse, then sing the counts for two measures before coming in.

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Doodle Dare No. 2 – Experiment with the RH

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Have someone else play the left-hand blocked accompaniment while you create your own pirate song with the right hand. Use just one or two notes from the melody line to start. Remember, less is more! As you begin to get comfortable using two notes (and perhaps a little bored!), your ear will begin to give you new ideas. Doodle Tip: Don’t worry too much which notes to play. You can even try light and playful “fist clusters” up and down the piano! How does that feel?

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In m. 9 - 16, I imagined the turbulent waves in the ocean rocking the ship, splashing water onto everyone on deck.

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Doodle Dare No. 3 – Create your own waves

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Doodle with these different suggestions, or make up your own:

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• Change the direction of the waves by reversing which hand starts.
• Create different waves. Change the hand-to-hand blocked intervals to broken style for the quarter + eighth-note rhythms.
• Try different octave placements.
• Mix up the order of these pairs of measures: m. 9 -10, m. 11 – 12, m. 13 – 14, m. 15 – 16
• What would happen if you used “fist clusters” instead?

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Summary

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I’m a big fan of creating opportunities for a “magical moment” in every piano lesson. What are “magical moments”? They are those instances when our hearts connect to the sound we are making, or when we connect to each other through a joyful experience. After all, it’s the exhilaration of having moments of magic in my own interactions with music making that keeps me doing what I do. Encouraging students to doodle with concepts in a piece of music is one way of nurturing curiosity about the sound and emotional possibilities under their fingers and giving them the gift of ownership. Remember, there is no “right” way to do this!

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