Joseph Natoli will present two unique workshops at the NAA in Dallas, March 10-14.The first workshop called “Workshop #1- Compose Yourself” is a workshop for those who either like to dabble in composition or who are serious about it. This first Composition 101 workshop will teach you a quick but thorough perspective on how to get started — where to find software tools, internet links, notation software, and even composition lessons all available online. Some examples of compositional approaches will be reviewed, and you will all get a free piece of music to analyze as part of learning compositional technique. Some focus on how to use the Roland V-Accordion will be reviewed in relation to satisfying that creative compositional “itch” that so many of us have. Building on what is learned in this workshop, for those who want to participate and who plan on attending the next composition workshop, they will be encouraged to come up with a little musical phrase or cell that can be incorporated into the selection that will be composed interactively with the group.

The second workshop is “Learning to Compose – Virtually” which will focus more on the actual creation of a composition, especially with the tools available on the Roland V-Accordion. Hopefully we can encourage those who are interested, to participate with some compositional phrases or little motifs that we can construct into a final composition in this session. The style of the selection will be democratically chosen from input within the group, but will have to be something tangible enough for composition output within 50 minutes. With any luck we will have something enjoyable that can be committed to music notation software by the end of the session. However, if there is not enough time to accomplish this in its entirety, Joe will take what was developed by the end of the workshop and craft it into a composition that will be sent to all participants who request it. The output will be sent via PDF to anyone who wants to leave their e-mail address to receive the results.

Joseph Natoli, 1972 AAA US Virtuoso champion, 1972 Coupe Mondiale 1st Runner Up, 2008 Roland US Digital Accordion champion, and active Roland clinician has found a way to teach students anywhere in the world who want to study with him, using this available technology. Since current laptop and desktop computers typically come equipped with a web cam and microphone, and since most people currently have high-speed internet access, Joe has been successfully using a free online video conferencing tool to teach students anywhere on the planet via web cam.

For further information: jnatoli_yh@yahoo.com