Dominic DiGesu 

4/22/20

Critical Reflection #2: Write about a single experience or moment, and ask: how does this moment, experience, or encounter relate to my essential question?

My senior project is about making music. My essential question is how can I tell a compelling narrative/tell a story through music in a time of quarantine. In the early phases of the project I was on the phone with Gus trying to figure out how we were going to get this done. It was less about the creative process and more about the logistics. I have limited equipment in my house, and Gus has access to high quality equipment in his. We discussed many process iterations. Could I move in with Gus in the middle of a pandemic without freaking our parents out? Could the equipment be moved between houses, employing curbside pick up and drop off? Could we record and produce over face time across the East River? Like most solutions, we came up with an amalgam of the options. We worked independently, coming together playing, listening and exchanging ideas while sitting together on our computer screens.

The problem was the center of our essential question. At first, developing music from different locations felt very unnatural. I wasn’t sure it would work, but I knew we had to try. Grit was the trial and error of the project. I would try different locations in my apartment, equipment, cords and computers until I was comfortable with what we were creating. Like every project, you need to take what you have and make it work for you. You will not always have access to the best tools and a person sitting next to you, so improvisation is required to produce quality results. Like most professional musicians releasing music during the quarantine, we figured it out and did our best under the circumstances we had to live by.