Exploring Composition

Intro and Reflection

The exporations project served as an opportunity for students to branch out into unknown fields of media or further into one in particular. The one caveat of the project was that whatever we chose to pursue had to be categorized into one of Freestyle’s many 21st Century Skills. We were able to choose from visual literacy, technological literacy, creativity, self direction, high productivity, collaboration, social and civic responsibility, or risk taking. For my project, I chose to dive into the world of composing, working in Freestyle’s studio to create my own piece of music. I would classify this as risk taking, because while I have a large background in music, my music theory is on the weaker side. Forcing myself to hand write a piece with limited time was a way to challenge myself. The physical act of writing music made me pay careful attention to each note in order to not break any rules of music theory. While I don’t think I could ever be fully satisfied and consider my piece perfect, I am extremely proud of what I was able to accomplish, especially since this project was my first true attempt at hand written composition. I think my outcome is a good reflection of the type of music that makes me feel at peace and connected with the world around me, which only makes the project more special to me.

Process

These are photos of how I created my piece.

The process of creating my project was a lot harder than I had expected it to be. I went through several drafts of music before deciding on one idea that I truly connected with and felt confident in extending. It was frustrating to have to throw away some of what I had created because of the feeling that it just wasn’t right. I wanted to have a personal connection with my piece, so not all of what I thought of worked. Even when I had settled on one idea, I had to try several different combinations of notes before deciding on one that I liked enough to actually write into the music. On the left I’ve featured three pictures that I think best capture my process. It all began with a blank sheet music which was incredibly frustrating to stare at. Even when I started to fill them up with notes I didn’t like all of my ideas, but finally I settled on a sound that really spoke to me and wrote it all out. Below is a recording of my piece that I made on ProTools. I don't think it sounds as great as the real live piano version, but I wanted to have some recording of what I made.



This is a photo of a piano.

Infographic

This is an infogaphic of Gender Diversity in the Music Industry.

In addition to exploring deeper into our passions, we were required to research a topic that connected to our project and present the information as an infographic. As a woman who was beginning to compose and a feminist, I wanted to see how gender is represented in the music industry. My research shows several examples how women in music have less opportunities than men in all parts of the career, from student to big time artists.