Two hot tips

An opportunity for young composers, and a big sale on a favourite resource

Firstly, a quick note to everyone who has subscribed since I featured on Tim Topham’s TopCast earlier this week: thanks for joining us, it’s really great to have you here!

This is a slightly unusual post: it’s just a quick note to draw your attention to two excellent opportunities; one for your students, and one for your studio.

Hot Tip #1: The Harold Smart Memorial Composition Competition 2024

This is an excellent opportunity for young composers to gain experience, and potentially win a nice cash prize!

Find out more here.

Thanks to Frances Wilson at the Cross-Eyed Pianist for drawing this to my attention.

Hot Tip #2: Smart Scales is on sale

I’m a massive fan of Diane Hidy’s Smart Scales. They’re such a lovely way to get students to experience scales in a more musical way, a great opportunity for sight-reading, and a nice source of inspiration for creativity.

Book 3 of the series, “White Key Minors”, was published last week and the whole series is on sale until Friday 30th.

Available as a studio license from ComposeCreate.com, I think these are a really great investment. I use them really frequently in my studio with both adults and children, and they’re a big hit.

I wrote about how I use these excellent books in my article Scales: the Creative Foundation back in May this year.

That’s it! Have a great day. I’ll be back in touch early next week with the first of a series of articles answering the question I am most frequently asked: how do you make time for creativity in lessons?