Student composers arrange music for cheer band – Scot Scoop News

Carlmont student composers demonstrate their creativity by helping to arrange music both for the cheering group and for their enjoyment.

Home football games are popular among Carlmont students as they provide a great opportunity for students to show their support for their school. The Carlmont Cheer Group also attends the games to play music and raise school spirit. Of the many songs they play, a handful are composed or arranged by students from the school.

Carlmont musicians compose and arrange music, so it’s important to know the differences between the two. When composing, an original piece of music is created that is not based on any existing music. On the other hand, arranging involves listening to an already composed piece of music and converting it into notes that can be played.

“This year, two arrangements were written by Carlmont students and played during football games,” said senior Ethan Htun, who arranged one of the two songs.

These two provisions were “Victory Marching Band” and “Undertale mix.”

Composing and arranging music is difficult, especially when you start from scratch. However, the sense of accomplishment when an arrangement or composition is completed is what motivates student composers to pursue their craft.

“Maybe just creating something new from scratch and original is the most interesting part,” Htun said. “Because composing isn’t the easiest process and there are often a lot of things that go wrong, every time you create something, it’s pretty special.”

The process of creating a piece of music also involves a lot of research. For Htun, his passion for composing music grew out of watching music theory videos on YouTube.

“I went down a rabbit hole and started watching music theory videos. I thought it would be pretty cool if I could take something from what I learned about chords and music. said Htun.

For Alexander Makeev, junior at Carlmont, the inspiration to create music comes from the people who will listen to it. Makeev does not compose music for the cheering band, but nevertheless, he still creates music in his spare time.

“I feel like music means a lot to a lot of people, and it also means a lot to those who make it. It’s nice to be part of that process,” Makeev said.

There is no set process for writing music, according to Makeev. For him, it’s more of a random idea that comes from playing the piano since all the notes are arranged.

Similarly, Htun begins his compositions with a simple yet catchy pattern on the piano as well.

Sophomore Arthur Gu, like Htun, is also a student composer who arranged for the pep band. His arrangement, “Victory Fanfare”, has been played several times at football games. However, he still has other compositions that are not played by the Carlmont band.

Similar to Htun, Gu said he enjoys composing music because it helps to do something out of nothing.

Lindsay Wong, a sophomore clarinetist in the pep band, enjoys playing student-created compositions.

“I think it’s very cool to play songs composed by students because students can show their skills and compose songs that we really like to listen to. » Wang said.

With the class voting process for a song they want to play, the cheer group may well enjoy playing more modern songs on their instruments.

There are different reasons why Wong likes pieces composed by professionals and students, but one of the reasons why she enjoys the latter is that student pieces are much shorter and less practice is required to complete. play them well.

“Not everyone can play difficult music, so playing student-composed cheering band songs is definitely a lot easier.r than some of the pro parts we play,” Wong said.

With this in mind, student composers continue to arrange and compose songs, whether for the group or for pleasure.

“It’s quite rewarding to see everyone come together and play something you wrote,” Htun said.