Spring 2010, Issue 2
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Chapman student composes for all
By Caroline Stegner
Junior music in composition major, Scott Kawai
His passion and success in music hit its peak in high school and college.
Kawai, a junior, was able to expand his musical knowledge through learning how to play various instruments, including the piano, cello and percussion instruments, such as the marimba, bongos and bass drums.
"On each instrument there's different stuff to play. It's like comparing apples to oranges. Each instrument has its own fun aspect to it," said Kawai.
From the eighth grade until his senior year of high school, Kawai spent his time composing a symphonic orchestra piece titled "American Heroes" in honor of his father, Christopher Kawai, the battalion chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, who was sent to New York on Sept. 11. Kawai's piece was shown at the Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial on the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11. It was also showcased at Tesoro High School's national orchestra convention in March 2006 in Sacramento where Kawai attended high school. In each performance, the composition piece played in sync with a slideshow of pictures from the historic tragedy.
At Newhart Middle School, Mission Viejo, Calif., Kawai was a member of the orchestra. He began writing "American Heroes" in eighth grade, which was originally composed just for strings, because that was all his middle school offered. Once in high school, Kawai was able to re-write the composition to include wind and brass instruments. According to Kawai, that was why it took so long to complete the piece.
During all four years of high school, Kawai was a member of the marching band, for which he played the snare drums. He was selected as the drum major of the marching band his senior year. Kawai's job was to conduct the show and lead over 100 students in the band.
He spent his last year on the marching band with his sister, Ann-Marie Kawai, who was a freshman at the time. Once Kawai graduated, his sister followed in his footsteps, playing in the marching band all four years of high school and being selected as the drum major her senior year.
"I think it's really cool because a lot of siblings can't do anything together," said Ann-Marie Kawai.
In 2006, Kawai received The National Orchestra Award at Tesoro High School. For this award, each school nominates one orchestra player and the winner's name is put on a plaque that will hang in the school's music room, according to Kawai.
Since his freshman year at Chapman, Scott Kawai has written six compositions. Shaun Naidoo, associate professor of music, theory and composition, currently has Scott Kawai as his composition student. Once a week, Kawai meets one-on-one with Naidoo to discuss and critique his composition writing.
"I find that with a student like Scott, the sessions are very enjoyable," said Naidoo. "When you have a talent, I find that I learn more from him and I hope he learns from me."
Naidoo has been teaching at Chapman for nine years and ranks Kawai in the top five percent of all his students, he said. According to Naidoo, Kawai is almost guaranteed to have a successful career as a musician and composer. It's a combination of his intelligence, dedication, musicianship and above all, his talent, he said.
Kawai also received The Rhodes Scholarship from Chapman and a Theory Award for music theory, which refers to how music is constructed. According to Kawai, it could be thought of as a math class for music.
For a composition seminar Kawai took in spring 2008 from Jeffrey Holmes, assistant professor of music and director of music theory and composition, he was required to compose a percussion quartet. The purpose of the assignment was for students to be able to submit their pieces for a competition at the end of the semester, according to Holmes. Kawai's piece was selected as the winner out of the five to six students in the competition. He was awarded a performance of his piece.
"[Kawai] is self-motivated in writing a lot of music," said Holmes. "He is very interested in modern music, which is very important. It shows a good promise to composition students."
Kawai has been featured on the Internet Movie Database Web site for writing the entire score, or music, for independent films such as "Orders" and "Catharsis." Aside from these successes, he has won awards and found additional ways to express and practice his talent.
Senior digital arts major, Brett Blake, appreciates Kawai's talent. He has known Kawai for seven years. Blake met Kawai his sophomore year of high school when they were both in the jazz band and co-drummers in the marching band.
Everything Kawai bases himself on is music and the enjoyment of writing and playing it, according to Blake.
"He will be standing around and start drumming on the couch or table," said Blake. "You know that's who he is."
Blake has lived with Kawai for two years and considers him a very respectful roommate. Like any college kid, he is decently clean, according to Blake.
After graduating from Chapman, Kawai hopes to get his doctorate in music composition, he said. In addition, he wants to teach music composition at the university level.
"When I was applying to college, I was split between computer science and music," said Kawai. "I think I went with the major where I'm going to be poor for the rest of my life, but that's OK."
10 facts about Scott Kawai's three favorite instruments
By Caroline Stegner
There are 230 strings inside a typical piano.
1. Full name is violoncello.
2. It is a bowed string instrument.
3. Used as a solo instrument in chamber music.
4. Played as a member of the string section in an orchestra.
5. It is the lowest-pitched instrument in the viol family.
6. Most closely associated with European classical music, and has been described as the closest sounding instrument to the human voice.
7. Typically made from wood, but other materials like carbon fiber or aluminum can be used.
8. A traditional cello has a spruce top, with maple for the back, sides, and neck.
9. Cellos are constructed and repaired using hide glue, which is strong but reversible, allowing for disassembly when needed.
10. Cellos are sometimes featured in pop and hip-hop songs, such as some songs of Rihanna and Ne-Yo.
Piano:
1. Invented in 1698 by an Italian, Bartolomeo Cristofori.
2. The name "piano" is an abbreviation of Cristofori's original name for the instrument: "piano et forte," meaning soft and loud.
3. Played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with felt covered hammers.
4. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment.
5. Sometimes classified as both a percussion and stringed instrument.
6. There are over 12,000 parts in a piano, 10,000 of which are moving.
7. There is approximately 18 tons of pressure being exerted by the stretched steel piano strings. The average string has about 160 pounds of tension.
8. There are 230 strings inside a typical piano.
9. There are over 10 million pianos in American homes, businesses, and institutions.
10. The world's largest piano is a Challen Concert Grand. This piano is 11 feet long, has a total string tension of over 30 tons and weighs more than a ton.
Percussion Instruments:
1. Object that produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration.
2. Usually applies to an object used in a rhythmic context or with musical intent.
3. Play not only rhythm, but also melody and harmony.
4. Commonly referred to as "the backbone" or "the heartbeat" of a musical ensemble, often working in close collaboration with bass instrument.
5. Include instruments such as the snare drum, xylophone, bass drum, maracas, tambourine and the triangle.
6. Classified by various criteria sometimes depending on their construction, ethnic origin, function within musical theory and orchestration, or their relative prevalence in common knowledge.
7. By determining how an instrument produces sound, it can be assigned to one of five categories, including idiophone, membranophone, chordophone, aerophone and electrophone.
8. When classifying instruments by function, it is useful to note if a percussion instrument makes a definite pitch or indefinite pitch.
9. Because of the diversity of percussive instruments, it is not uncommon to find large musical ensembles composed entirely of percussion.
10. In popular music culture, it is almost impossible to name hip-hop, rap or funk songs that do not have some sort of percussive beat keeping the tune in time.
Information provided by:
www.wikipedia.com
http://www.perfectpitchpianoservicing.com
http://www.pianos.co.uk/p/piano-facts.php
www.encoremusiclessons.com
For more information about Chapman's Department of Music, contact the following professors:
By Caroline Stegner
Sean Heim
1. Shaun Naidoo, D.M.A.
Associate Professor of Music, Theory/Composition
Phone: (714) 744-7648
E-mail: naidoo@chapman.edu
2. Jeffrey Holmes, D.M.A.
Assistant Professor of Music
Director of Music Theory/Composition
Phone: (714) 744-2159
E-mail: jholmes@chapman.edu
3. Sean Heim, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Music, Theory/Composition
Phone: (714) 744-7829
E-mail: heim@chapman.edu
Steps on how to become a musical composer
By Caroline Stegner
Preparing to Compose:
Step 1:
Have a tape recorder or other recording device alongside you as you work so that if you're interrupted, you can go back later and pick up your train of thought. If you're writing with a computer, you won't need a separate recording device, but you will need to save your file periodically.
Step 2:
Decide what your song is about, the emotion or image you want to conjure in your listeners' minds. Keep this message in mind as you compose, as it will influence the direction of your song.
Step 3:
Determine the tempo of your piece-that is, how fast it should be played. This will help you determine the time signature.
The Composing Process:
Step 1:
Craft a melodic phrase that will serve as the basis for your composition. Improvising on this phrase should lead to the "hook" or chorus on which you can hang the rest of the song.
Step 2:
Adopt a simple melodic structure. Bigger and longer is not necessarily better, as experienced composers know and beginning composers need to learn. Your song's structure should not have more than 8 to 10 definable components.
Step 3:
Get to your melodic point quickly by keeping your introduction short. If your song is designed strictly to conjure up a mood, keep it short as well, as listeners will tire of mood pieces fairly quickly.
Step 4:
Follow your creative spark where it leads you. You may find the melody you started with leads you into an entirely new melody, which may deserve to become a song in its own right. You also can change the key signature or time signature during the course of the piece.
Step 5:
Devise ways to embellish your melody and chorus as you repeat them. Don't always play them the same way, but experiment with the rhythm, pitch and harmony to add variety. This sort of improvisation is especially important for jazz pieces. You also may want to include a weaker, secondary melody along with your primary melody.
Step 6:
Arrange the flow of your song so that it builds in an orderly fashion from beginning to conclusion. You need not build to a smashing climax, but to a satisfying ending. (Even Barry Manilow has moved away from smashing climaxes.)
Step 7:
Make all the mistakes you want, so long as you learn from them. You might even incorporate them into the composition as you go.
Things You'll Need:
Musical instrument or computer and/or MIDI keyboard
Music score sheets (not necessary when composing on computer)
Information provided by: www.ehow.com
10 facts about Scott Kawai's three favorite instruments
By Caroline Stegner
Cello, piano and percussion.
For more information about Chapman's Department of Music, contact the following professors:
By Caroline Stegner
For more information about Chapman's Department of Music, contact the following professors:
Steps on how to become a musical composer
By Caroline Stegner
Have a tape recorder or other recording device alongside you as you work so that if you're interrupted, you can go back later and pick up your train of thought.
© Copyright 2010 Prowl: Chapman's Online Student Magazine