Intro and Reflection

During the last few weeks of school, juniors at Freestyle Academy were given the Explorations Project. The possibilities of this project are endless, since it is the junior class's first free choice project. I have always had an interest in music, so I decided to try my hand at making my own beat using Reason 9. Through this project, I learned the tiniest bit of music theory as well as more about Reason and what it has to offer. I hope to be able to create more music in the future.

Process

Through this project, I wanted to develop my skill and understanding of Reason 9, a digital audio workstation. I made two sample songs. The first one I scrapped, because it was just not my taste but it was easy to make. It's mostly uncompleted, but you can listen to what I have on the soundcloud link below. The second one took more time. I started with a beat and then added on instruments from there. While I used the main MIDI instruments such as the Dr.Octo Rex, ID8 Instrument Device, and the Kong Drum Design kit, I also used effect plug ins such as the Chip it arpeggiator. I used it over the guitar, to add more complexity to the chords. From this project I learned that making music is difficult because it is hard to keep a "creative flow" going. Multiple times during my process, I would have to take a break from my music and do something else, because I was simply out of creative juices. I also got many of my classmates' advice on my music throughout the process.

Infographic

In InDesign we created an Infographic on a topic of our choice that is related to our explorations project. I chose to explore the benefits of music on our education. I learned that in general, music has shown to increase students' understanding of math and english, as shown through various studies and previous SAT scores. I found two specific statistics about education and music, and used those for my infographic. The reason I used those is because the statistics have been cited and used in multiple articles and non-profit music education programs, whereas other statistics are older or not researched enough.

Here are the links to my research:                                                    http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/factsandstatistics/   The Children’s Music Workshop is a Los Angeles based music education program. Their goal is to provide instruments as well as musical instructions to underfunded schools in LA.                                                 http://illflyawayfoundation.org/stats/ This foundation helps students in elementary school with their education by providing them instruction on how to write their own songs. Donations go towards funding a child's music education through their program. Their most recent project was in a school in McDonald County, Missouri. By the end of their program, the standardized test scores in math, science, and english had been raised to become higher than McDonald County’s average.                                                                                 https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/876019-66-med-school-acceptance.html