Ever since I started writing my song, I realized that it was a lot more difficult that I thought. There is so much freedom in what the song could be so I am having trouble figuring out what I want to create. There is an unlimited number of things that my song can have and what it can sound like. Throughout my writing process, I am just trying to remember that it does not have to be overly complicated in order to be a good song. Even with all of these struggles, I am really happy that I chose to compose a song for my senior project. It is giving me a chance to do something that I have never done before, but have always wanted to. I appreciate music a lot and when I play a song, it usually corresponds with the mood that I am in, but it was someone else's idea first. It is going to be nice to be able to express myself through my own music.
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Yesterday I met with Mr. Reed again to start my final product. The first thing I did was show Mr. Reed some examples of the type of song I want to make. I want my song to have a romantic element and be inspirational. Also, I decided on the key of F for the key signature to write my song in. Mr. Reed also helped me decide on the form I want for my song. I chose to start with a verse, then go to a chorus, next to another verse, a bridge, and then to the final verse and chorus. I never realized before how much freedom in creativity there is to writing a song.
There are many elements that can be changed or altered, and I think that is one of the hardest parts of composing this song. In fact, during this meeting, I was having trouble coming up with a melody, but Mr. Reed had an exercise that I did to help me stop overthinking things. He gave me the choice of four chords to put in eight measures. Once I had the chords figured out, I had to find a melody that went along with the chords. The tricky part was that I only had ten minutes to do all of this. This exercise made me realize that my song can be anything I want it to be and if I come up with something now, it can always be changed or improved for my final song. This week I was able to meet with my Senior Project mentor for the first time. Meeting with Mr. Reed got me excited to start working and creating my music composition. I started thinking about what I wanted my composition to sound like. At this first meeting, I also had Mr. Reed sign some forms that were needed before starting my Senior Project product. I think it is going to be fun learning from Mr. Reed and creating music of my own. I have played multitudes of other people's music, but I am eager to play a composition that came from my own ideas, moods, and feelings.
Last week, our class turned in the final drafts of our Senior Research Paper. It was a relief when I handed my note cards, source, cards, and research paper to Mrs. Stekly. Writing the research paper took a lot of time and hard work. After working on our papers for so long, I was ready to get rid of it and everything having to do with it. Now that the final drafts are handed in, it is time for the Senior class to start working on our Senior Project product and meeting with our mentors.
Two weeks ago, I met with Mrs. Stekly twice to discuss changes that needed to be made to my research paper. She pointed out errors that I could change before I handed in my final draft. Luckily, there were not as many errors as I was expecting. However, the revisions to my research paper made it a little shorter than it needed to be. Since it was short, I had to add a few sentences to my paper before I handed it in for the final time. Just adding a few sentences was hard because I had no idea where to add those sentences in my paper. I was able to include a few into both my introduction and conclusion. Fortunately, that was enough to meet the length requirements for my research paper.
Writing the draft for my research paper has been the most difficult part of the whole Senior Project so far. Our class had to write a lot of note cards, like I posted about earlier. Then, we had to summarize, paraphrase, and write our paper with all of our different sources. Trying to find the correct thing to write and connect all of the different points together took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Now that our drafts are written, we have to start revising them. Luckily, Mrs. Stekly looks them over with us and helps us make our corrections. I feel a lot more confident in her writing skills than in mine.
Last week we had to turn in our Senior Project Proposal and Letter of Intent. Neither of them were difficult to complete and they weren't too time consuming. The Letter of Intent and Senior Project Proposal were similar in their contents because they both described what our Senior Project was and what we planned to do for it. I did like writing the Letter of Intent a little more because it was more of a free writing exercise rather than a fill in the box, like the Proposal was. Writing these two documents also made me think more in depth about what it was going to be like to make my final project, and it made me sort through some of the decisions that had to be made in order to complete my Senior Project. I am happy to say that both of these papers are already in my binder!
Yesterday in Mrs. Stekly's class, my class started writing our note cards for our research papers. We have to have a total of 40-50 and right now I do not see how I'm going to be able to get all of them done. Hopefully it won't be as bad as I'm thinking. Trying to find the information to put on each note card is the hard part for me because I don't know exactly what I want to put into my paper from each source. I'm expecting some difficulties and obstacles along the way, but it will all work out in the end. It's good to stay positive, right?
Last week my class and I had to find sources for our research paper, which is related to our Senior Project. Finding sources was somewhat of a stressful experience. We had to have at least five print sources and another five sources that did not have to be. The website we used to find our sources was for the South Dakota State Library so we could borrow books to use for our papers. However, the website did not always give a description of the book, except for the title, so I was making decisions on the books I wanted without any real context for what was actually in the book. Even with this obstacle I was able to find the sources I needed and that I think will provide very helpful information. I even managed to write the source cards for each of my sources. This process was a lot easier than I expected so that was relieving, The only real trouble was when the source I had did not provide all the information I needed for my source card, but Mrs. Stekly helped me figure out how to write those cards. Next up on the Senior Project journey is taking notes of the information I need from each of my sources. Wish me luck!
The beginning of my senior project experience started yesterday in class where we created our own personal Weebly to write and document our Senior Projects. My idea for my Senior Project is to create a musical composition on the piano and learn more about musical theory. I really enjoy playing piano, but I have never written a song of my own. I am hoping that choosing this for my Senior Project will make it a more enjoyable journey to the end of the year. The senior class and I also talked with Mrs. Stekly about the topics of our research papers and what we all had to do for those. I am feeling a little overwhelmed by all the deadlines and all of the tasks we have to do, especially when seeing them all at once on the first few days of school. I am not entirely sure what the topic of my paper will be about so that makes me more nervous, but hopefully I can make that decision ASAP.
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AuthorThis is my journal about my experience with my Senior Project 2019-2020. Archives
May 2020
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