It doesn’t need to be my voice. But practice hearing my questions in your head.
That’s what I said to my composition student recently. As I have frequently reiterated, my goal isn’t to make composition students sound more like me; it’s to make them sound more like themselves.
What we practice in lessons is listening to the new bars, and then me asking a lot of questions. What do you think about this? What is strong. What isn’t working yet? Have you thought about [points to one moment] this? How can it sound the same and be notated more simply? What do I want my audience to feel? Who is it for? What does it need? Where does it go next? What is the harmonic palette?
These and 1,000 more questions, over the course of months together, can help shape a creator. Help them to empower their creativity and find better solutions to their own compositional challenges.
Forever, hear my questions when you are assessing your work. Just as I hear, still, the questions of my mentors. That’s how it gets passed down.