THE ULTIMATE METHOD
Democratising Composition to Transform Music, Education, and Wellbeing
Discover more in this video!
A revolutionary method that adapts to everyone
Since its launch in 2011, Brainarm™ has enabled individuals with little or no musical background (including those with disabilities) to compose music of exceptional quality from the outset, circumventing traditional bottom-up pedagogical approaches.
Known as Full Compositional Coaching, this innovative method for musical creation has the potential to cultivate a new generation of concertgoers through unique, personally expressive works they would otherwise remain unable to produce.
Rather than pursuing the conventional, lengthy trajectory of music education, individuals may now collaborate directly with expert composer-coaches, drawing upon professional guidance to create original, substantial music immediately and intuitively—entirely free from the coach’s artistic influence.
Discover compositions created by those often described as “non-musical”
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During her first Brainarm™ session, a six-year-old pupil developed Nighttime, an impressionistic composition informed by the aesthetics of Debussy and Cage. A 23-year-old novice pianist employed as a bartender authored Lemon Peel, a modernist acid-jazz work employing Ligeti-inspired harmonic structures. A devoted woman in her forties, who had recently resumed piano studies at foundational level, crafted Psalm 133:1—a work drawing from pastoral traditions, folk idioms, and early Renaissance musical language. A yoga practitioner of intermediate pianistic ability, self-educated in composition through personal endeavour, manifested his expanded artistic capabilities through Hommage to Scriabin, a technically demanding composition. These instances are not exceptional outliers; rather, they exemplify the pedagogical approach’s demonstrated capacity to facilitate substantive compositional creation amongst individuals entirely lacking professional musical credentials.
Guido Mallardi: Developer of Full Compositional Coaching and the Brainarm™ Project
Gianni Marini composing through Guido Mallardi during a public demonstration in Fermo, Italy, 2012.
Why it works for Every Musician or Non-Musician
Benefits
The image shows participants after premiering their works at Accademia Professionale di Musica (Fermo, Italy) in 2012.
Partnerships
Building New Audiences Whilst Creating Professional Opportunities for Composers
Can it reverse audience decline by awakening innate musicality?
How may it serve composers?
Discover more about the method
Understanding Full Compositional Coaching
- Introduction to Brainarm™ Full Compositional Coaching (by its developer) – Best Concept in the Music Industry 2021-2022
- Foundational Principles: Why the Method Works
- Applications, Benefits, and Implications
- Audience education & new composer opportunities
- Brainarm™ and Disability
- A Deeper Exploration of FCC and Its Implications
- Brainarm™ and Mindfulness
- Testimonials
- The Brainarm Artistic Movement
Compositions by those without formal training
Applications, Benefits, and Implications
For Concert Societies, Schools, and Music Education
BENEFITS (READ MORE)
- Audience development: Brainarm cultivates musical understanding and prepares the next generation of discerning listeners for classical music performances.
- Industry-wide impact: Long-term popularisation of music composition through Brainarm may generate cascading effects throughout the music industry, including increased demand for music education.
- Access to sophisticated composition: Brainarm enables high-level composition without formal lessons, making it ideal for those with limited time, inconsistent practice habits, or no prior instrumental training.
- Musical development: For non-professional and amateur composers, the method refines personal style and expands musical language.
- Musical understanding: Participants naturally absorb musical experience through Brainarm, which creates an organic context for introducing advanced theoretical concepts during lessons (piano, harmony, composition, or counterpoint).
- Individual realisation: Completed works are published and distributed digitally for global audiences. Selected compositions may also be performed publicly by an international network of pianists.
- Personal growth: By revealing inherent musical potential, Full Compositional Coaching strengthens self-esteem, deepens self-knowledge, promotes mindfulness, and supports emotional balance. The process may surface memories valuable to those engaged in psychotherapy.
- Industry-wide impact: Long-term popularisation of music composition through Full Compositional Coaching may generate cascading effects throughout the music industry, including increased demand for music education.
For Clinical Settings, Rehabilitation Centres, and Care Facilities
Therapeutic Applications: Full Compositional Coaching for Wellbeing and Recovery.
BENEFITS (READ MORE)
- Cognitive and emotional benefits: The process of high-level music composition can enhance mood, strengthen stress resistance, and develop mental acuity.
- Therapeutic applications: Individuals with brain injury, cognitive disabilities, or psychological conditions may benefit significantly from FCC. Research demonstrates that music-making and creative expression improve cognitive functioning (including concentration and memory), communication abilities, and social skills. Composition plays a considerable role in recovery and rehabilitation, particularly when music emerges from one's inner self. The unique collaborative relationship between participant and coach—where the participant provides the creative vision whilst the coach provides technical execution—can facilitate interpersonal development. Personal growth – By revealing inherent musical potential, FCC can strengthen self-esteem, deepen self-knowledge, and support emotional balance. The process may surface memories valuable to those engaged in psychotherapy.
- Cognitive maintenance: For elderly individuals, FCC stimulates neural activity and helps maintain cognitive function.
- Personal growth: By revealing inherent musical potential, Full Compositional Coaching strengthens self-esteem, deepens self-knowledge, promotes mindfulness, and supports emotional balance. The process may surface memories valuable to those engaged in psychotherapy.
- Public health benefits: Applied at scale over time, the Brainarm Programme has the potential to improve general wellbeing across populations (including those with disabilities), which may yield positive financial impacts on national health institutions whilst enhancing productivity.
For Composers
Establishing a New Professional Practice and a Sustainable Career Pathway as Full Compositional Coaches.
BENEFITS (READ MORE)
- Economic Opportunities I —Educational Settings: In partnership with concert societies and allied organisations, Brainarm establishes a sustainable, AI-resilient career pathway for composers as compositional coaches, whilst offering distinctive visibility to pianists, music copyists, arrangers, ensembles, and orchestral conductors engaged in the promotion of Brainarm repertoire. Composers may also receive economic support from concert societies to educate and engage audiences through Full Compositional Coaching sessions delivered in primary and secondary schools and other educational settings.
- Economic Opportunities II —Clinical and Therapeutic Settings: Composers can provide Full Compositional Coaching in clinical environments, including facilities for disabilities and rehabilitation centres, to support patients' recovery through emotional expression and the stimulation of neuroplasticity.
- Economic Opportunities III —Enhanced teaching practice: Piano teachers can increase student retention (approximately one in five students, depending on country). Furthermore, incorporating Full Compositional Coaching into lessons can extend session duration and create additional revenue streams.
- Access to sophisticated composition: Brainarm enables high-level composition without formal lessons, making it ideal for students with limited time, inconsistent practice habits, or no prior instrumental training.
- Musical understanding: Participants naturally absorb musical experience through Brainarm, which creates an organic context for introducing advanced theoretical concepts during lessons (piano, harmony, composition, or counterpoint).
- Musical development: For non-professional and amateur composers, the method refines personal style and expands musical language.
- Personal growth: By revealing inherent musical potential, Full Compositional Coaching strengthens self-esteem, deepens self-knowledge, promotes mindfulness, and supports emotional balance for the amateur. The process may surface memories valuable to those engaged in psychotherapy.
- Industry-wide impact: Long-term popularisation of music composition through Full Compositional Coaching may generate cascading effects throughout the music industry, including increased demand for music education.
THE INTRODUCTORY VIDEO — recommended viewing if not already watched—explores all those benefits in greater detail, whilst
THIS COMPANION RESOURCE highlights the music-therapeutic dimension.
Introduction to Brainarm™ Full Compositional Coaching (by its developer) – Best Concept in the Music Industry 2021-2022
The video features the music Simone drafted during his first session with Brainarm™, followed by his testimonial.
Further demonstrating that disability poses no limit to musical creation and expression, a blind teenager and a man with tetraplegia (locked-in syndrome) have both initiated compositions through the process. Additional testimonials are available in the Expert Testimonials section of this page and on the Participant & Expert Testimonials page accessible from the menu.
Brainarm™ & Mindfulness
Presence and Flow: The compositional process through Brainarm requires participants to remain attentive to their immediate musical impulses rather than dwelling on perceived limitations. This sustained attention to the present moment—characteristic of mindfulness—creates conditions for what psychologists term the "flow state," where self-focus diminishes and creative expression flows naturally. Traditional music education often involves critical evaluation at every stage, which can inhibit spontaneous creativity. Full Compositional Coaching invites participants to observe their musical ideas without immediate judgement, mirroring mindfulness practice.
Trust in Innate Capacity: Mindfulness practices cultivate trust in the body's inherent wisdom and natural rhythms. Similarly, Brainarm reveals that musical capacity—absorbed unconsciously throughout life—resides within everyone. Both approaches suggest that profound abilities emerge not through forced effort but through relaxed attention and trust in processes operating beneath conscious awareness.
This short video features Daniel Nicholson (Cadenza Music) shedding further light on the music-therapeutic aspect.
The Brainarm™ system is effective regardless of perceived musical talent, pitch recognition ability, or physical disability.
- NO MUSIC KNOWLEDGE or BACKGROUND
- NO LESSONS
- NO SPECIAL TALENT
- NO AWARENESS OF MUSICAL IDEAS
- NO INFLUENCE FROM THE COACH
- FREE CHOICES & ABSOLUTE STYLISTIC FREEDOM
- HIGH-QUALITY OUTCOME
Sessions can be conducted in person or remotely
Professional Perspectives on the Democratisation of Composition
Marc Parella, Composer, United States; former researcher at the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, University of Southern California (2018)
"...And the League of American Orchestras was about to kick me out for saying this was the future of music! And it is. As a composer I am more interested in the creative process and what technology can do to help connect people with music than I am in figuring out the politics of who gets heard and who doesn't on a symphony orchestra programme."
Fabrizio De Rossi Re, Composer and composition teacher, Italy; member of Nuova Consonanza, formerly in partnership with Luciano Berio, Sylvano Bussotti and Salvatore Sciarrino (2022)
"Brainarm strongly contributes to spreading creative music practice even among people with no specific musical studies. This system brings human beings much closer to personal creativity, building far more self-confidence than any technical and musical acquisitions can do. That's why it is particularly beneficial on a human level. Brainarm can promote better relationships among people, leading to a more peaceful and creative world for all."
(Original picture modified - credits: Circuspolka CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Dickran Atamian (Jack Price), Pianist; Price Attractions Director; Artist Manager of Lalo Schifrin ('Mission Impossible' soundtrack) (2020)
In his VIDEO TESTIMONIAL he reviews Brainarm and reflects upon its huge implications, such as classical concert audience education, and increased student retention for music teachers.
Fausto Bongelli, Pianist, Italy (2018)
"Recently I attended a Brainarm session of one of my own friends, a bank manager who was totally new to music. I appreciated the evolutionary path of the process which started from improvisation, and then came to a definition of the materials at stake, which got filtered by the sensitivity and taste of the 'neophyte'. I wish Guido Mallardi and the system he has developed a wide popularisation, that can contribute actively to the practice of music as a creative approach for everyone, especially on the expressive and emotional level."
Audience Education & Brainarm: The Vision of Dickran Atamian, Pianist and Artist Manager
He highlights the programme's far-reaching implications, including its potential to educate classical concert audiences and improve student retention for music educators
Further reviews from music professionals, journalists, and participants appear on the PARTICIPANT & EXPERT TESTIMONIAL page.
External reviews of individuals who composed through Brainarm are also available on Yell and Google Maps.
The Brainarm Artistic Movement
