One of my favorite ways to write new music is to take ideas that pop up in music lessons and turn them into something fun. One common counting issue that turns up without almost every student is the tendency to rush a sequence of quarter notes when they come right after a sequence of eighth notes.

Something like that happened with one of my students, the titular “Will” of today’s piece. There’s a piece called “Waltz Time” that features a sequence of descending quarter notes in 3/4 time. For whatever reason, students tend to rush those quarter notes, even though they’re not preceded by a sequence of eighth notes. Good old Will was doing it consistently enough that I pointed out he was essentially turning every other measure into 3/8 time and/or a set of eighth-note triplets.

That got us talking about music theory and multimeter pieces, and we started to play the piece wrong on purpose to see what we could come up with (then I insisted he play the piece as written so he doesn’t program his fingers to rush those quarter notes). I floated the idea of writing a piece that intentionally switches between 3/4 and 3/8, and Will seemed very excited about that idea.

So it is that I sat down this morning and put together this little piece, which Will and I will explore during his lesson later this week. It’s a piece that I can use with my other students, too.

As far as the mixing and such, I just added a “Large Room” reverb effect—my go-to reverb effect—in Audacity, then a “Bakelite” preset that I turned down a bit. It gives it that kind of retro, phonograph sound.

“Will’s Waltz” is a simple waltz in middle C position, with a twist—it alternates 3/4 and 3/8 time. The inspiration for the piece came from a piano student’s (the titular “Will’s”) tendency to rush the quarter notes in the Alfred Piano Basics Library’s “Waltz Time” (p. 73 in this book: https://amzn.to/3UFwogs; that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you) playing them almost as eighth-note triplets instead. This piece takes that very common mistake (and certainly not unique to Will!) and turns it into a lively, accessible piece of music for beginners that introduces a fun bit of multimeter playfulness.

This piece also stresses playing with dynamic contrast and precise articulation; counting in different meters; playing dotted quarter notes; and maintaining a comfortable “middle C” position throughout.

The full interactive score is available for free on Noteflight and here:

And here’s a PDF of the score:

Unlike many pieces, I did not write this one by hand first. Instead, I composed it directly in Noteflight. I based it heavily on the piece from the Alfred book, but with enough variation and changes that it’s definitely an original work, albeit a somewhat derivative one. It’s meant for beginner-ish level pianists, so it’s supposed to be a little bland.

What did you think of “Will’s Waltz”? Will this young man get a kick out of seeing his mistakes turned into intentional music? Do you like the piece, dear readers?

Happy Listening—and happy Tuesday!

—TPP