Matthew Quayle

I really loved this class. The small class size was perfect, as it really gave everyone time to hear thorough feedback on their pieces. Every piece we wrote in this class was very fun, particularly our string quartets. Getting to see a real string quartet play them was an amazing experience. Professor Quayle is a wonderful composer, pianist, professor, and person. He is as knowledgeable as he is kind — extremely. Having already taken Composition I from Professor Quayle in the fall, I so enjoyed seeing myself progress as a composer. This class was one of the highlights of my year.

I really loved this class. The small class size was perfect, as it really gave everyone time to hear thorough feedback on their pieces. Every piece we wrote in this class was very fun, particularly our string quartets. Getting to see a real string quartet play them was an amazing experience. Professor Quayle is a wonderful composer, …Read more

This class is basically "Write a song every two weeks and spend class time just chatting about songs". The instructor did not really teach us any concepts that would have been helpful, and instead used class time every day as discussion time. While this class did not ask for a lot of work from me, I felt like I could have gotten a lot more out of this class. There were a lot of things I wanted to learn and practice that I did not get to. For example, methods of how to write lyrics were never really discussed, and when I went to him for more help on that, he did not give me any good feedback. Also, the production side of this class was basically nonexistent. I was hoping to gain more time with DAW's as it says in the course description but we only were asked to do one or two produced songs near the end of the semester, and the production itself was never taught or touched on. While it was nice that I came out of this semester having written a few new songs, I felt that this class could have been vastly improved. It to me felt like if I was in a songwriting club with the people in the class, meeting once or twice a week, I would have gotten the same amount out of those meetings as I did this class, due to the lack of instruction from the teacher. If an easy discussion-based workshoppy class is what you're looking for, this class could be good for you, but as someone who was really looking to improve my songwriting skills, I left this class dissapointed at my lack of growth.

This class is basically "Write a song every two weeks and spend class time just chatting about songs". The instructor did not really teach us any concepts that would have been helpful, and instead used class time every day as discussion time. While this class did not ask for a lot of work from me, I felt like I could have gotten a lo …Read more

Really chill class, it's one of those classes where if you're not interested in the topic you won't enjoy it and will find it boring, but if you are interested and do a lot of music stuff outside the classroom you will love it, as I did. Highly recommend if songwriting is a strong interest for you.