The Innovator Project has been the most fun and exciting project that I have worked on throughout my high school career. I think what made this project so great was that we were able to choose what we wanted to research and create but also set our own goals for the project. Music has been a huge part of my life but especially over the last four to five years when I began to really learn and analyze music instead of just listening to it. I began music production at the start of high school so when I learned about this project and how we would be able to choose our own ideas, my mind was set on producing a music album. I really wanted to do this to show my friends and family but especially myself how I have progressed as a music producer over the last four years. When I started, I could only make 30 second drum patterns and after a year I was making 60 second drum patterns with synthesizers layered on top. Now, after four years and countless music production projects, the song I am most proud of utilizes over 60 track layers and 30 mixer channels. Needless to say, I have come a long way in terms of production.
The research process taught me a lot about how music really affects people on a deeper level and the effects that it can have on people without them even realizing. Music is both a healthy and effective way to deal with stress and anxiety. The research I did made me realize how much music production actually affects me in that it makes me happier and can make any problems that I am having in my life begin to fade. I think it gave the project more meaning because not only was I improving my own life through the process of creating music but the music that I was making could improve the lives of others as well. My research topic is related to the product of my innovator project because in my paper I talked about how playing and listening to music can improve a person’s mental and physical health and for my product, I actually created the music that would help said person improve their health.
The learning experience that I gained through this project that I think will be the most useful is being able to collaborate. Throughout the last four years, I have collaborated on music production once or twice and they haven’t really worked out because we would struggle with organization on the project as well as artistic differences. Through collaborating on this project, I learned how to communicate with Nolan and compromise so that we would both be happy with the product. It was also nice to split the workload and have someone else’s opinions on a project you’re working on because when you are working alone, you can start to lose quality and not realize it. Overall, I thought the collaboration process was successful because we were able to work together to create genres of music that were new to us and personally, I think we’ve created our best work to date.
I feel that I have innovated my education during this semester by doing something that I would not be able or allowed to do anywhere else, especially not in a school environment. A project like this would never be possible at Mountain View High School or any other traditional high school around the world. Through this project, I have pushed my limits in terms of music production, by creating some of my best work and learning a lot about music, production, and myself in the process. Nolan and I were talking a few days ago after we had finished the last song for our project and we agreed that we had both created our best songs we have ever made for this project. His being the classical track and mine being the downtempo track. This project really allowed me to experiment and go outside of my comfort zone and what I found was that I could create something unique and amazing.
If I could do this project all over again, I would make the range of products that I would create wider, and cut back on the number of tracks made. Instead of creating 5 three minute tracks, I would create maybe 1 or 2 full tracks and make 2 to 3 mini tracks and try to create a music video or animation for the full tracks.
As I said before, this project is by the far the most fun and exciting project that I have worked on throughout high school and will definitely remember for the years to come. I value this project so highly due to the fact that it couldn’t have been accomplished anywhere else except for Freestyle Academy and I respect what all the teachers had to do in order to make this possible. Overall, I am really proud of what I was able to do for this project and what came out of it.