I'm Andrew Maxfield

An Award-Winning Composer and Your Instructor For This Course!

I’ve loved composing choral music since I was singing in my high school choirs, but let's just say I’ve learned a lot about my craft in the 20 years since then!

Writing choral music isn’t just for “composers with a capital C.” If you sing in a choir at church, school, in the community, or even professionally, chances are you’ve wanted to write or arrange something for the choir. Well, the difference between writing something that "kind of works" and something really elegant rests on your developing some core skills and learning a good compositional process.

In this course I’ll teach you my process using three pieces as in-depth examples: one piece was a recent Special Commendation in the King’s Singers New Music Prize, another was a private commission, and another was featured at the NCCO National Convention. We'll work from the earliest stages of choosing a text, through the maze and matrix of composing, through to a finished, polished piece. This creative process is my favorite kind of journey, and I hope you'll join me!
Watch Intro Video

Watch The Course Teaser

What You'll Learn In This Course

Everything you need to take a text and turn it into a finished composition.

  • Choosing a text for your composition

  • A framework for turning that text into a composition

  • How to publish your finished work

Course Curriculum

What The Course Covers

    1. Welcome & Introduction

    2. How To Use This Course

    3. Download Your Course Materials

    1. Text First Composing

    2. Voice, Color, and White Space

    3. Assessing The Text, Asking for Permission, and Singing Things

    1. Analyzing The Text Of "The Door"

    2. Analyzing The Text Of "The Singing Bowl"

    3. Activity 1

    1. Form - Content & Containers

    2. Creating A Narrative Map

    3. Activity 2

    1. Audience, Purpose, and Resources

    2. Activity 3

    1. Internalizing The Text

    2. Activity 4

About this course

  • $79.00
  • 24 lessons
  • 4 hours of video content

Some praise for the course...

5 star rating

BLOWN away

Bari Brumfield

I am SO impressed with this course. It is EXACTLY what I needed, although I did not know it. I am a life-long musician who has only piddled with composition. Enough to get through school and a bit more... I usually do not review things until I fin...

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I am SO impressed with this course. It is EXACTLY what I needed, although I did not know it. I am a life-long musician who has only piddled with composition. Enough to get through school and a bit more... I usually do not review things until I finish them, but I have learned so much already, it was worthy of an early "two-thumbs up!"

Read Less
5 star rating

It is concise.

Nancy Morrissey

I took the course to learn a little bit more about music. I sing in my church choir and with a community chorus, and since retirement I have been wanting to learn more, and this became a wonderful opportunity to do that.

I took the course to learn a little bit more about music. I sing in my church choir and with a community chorus, and since retirement I have been wanting to learn more, and this became a wonderful opportunity to do that.

Read Less

Enroll In The Course

Get instant access to all lessons and start your journey to composing a finished choral piece.