Project Title: Finding My Voice Through Song
Essential Question(s):
How can I tell my story through creating music?
How can I grow as a musician by better understanding music composition?
How can I develop my own voice by listening to and covering songs of artists that I admire?
For my Senior Project, I will create three meaningful songs that are written (music and lyric) by me. I will learn how to express my voice and story along the way and show my progress through these songs.
Overview: Describe your topic and project to the committee.
I have been playing guitar and singing with my dad since I was a little kid, so music has always been an important part of my life. I knew that I wanted to focus on these skills for my senior project because I would have the time and resources to grow and learn in the ways I wanted to. I believe through the online classes on music theory and songwriting, and through 1 on 1 guitar lessons I will be able to begin to find my own voice. I will also be writing daily and focusing on my skills as a writer and how I can best convey my own emotion and experience through writing. And I will be challenged on many levels because this is already a project that is out of my comfort zone and something I really have had to push myself to do. Sharing my work and talking with others about it is something I haven’t done before so it will be a very new and exciting experience. I will also have to learn from scratch how to write a song, meaning the lyrics and music which will be a challenge but one that I am very ready to tackle. While I will be challenged there is also prior knowledge I have to lean on for comfort, I have been playing guitar for years and have written a lot of poetry which can help with songwriting. This project also touches on the 4C’s of LREI education in many ways, courage being the first because I am stepping out of my comfort zone and sharing my process with the community. Second I think it really speaks to the critical thinking and creative components of the 4C’s because I will be creating something completely new, inventing a song from my own writing and work. And within this process I will have to be doing a lot of critical thinking when it comes to learning from other artists and the learning in general that I will have to do to grow my guitar and writing skills.
How will you measure your success?
Overall I think comparing the first song I write to the last will be the measure of my success because from that comparison I can see if I grew as a writer and specifically if the final song shows truth and my emotion in a new way that I wasn’t previously able to convey. So overtime I will see if it gets easier and feels more natural to tell my story through song, and if that becomes the case then I will know I succeeded. If I start to feel like I can write lyrics and chords that come together to tell my story this will also be a sign of progress and success. Also if I can play more lead guitar parts and advanced chords I will know that I have progressed.
Learning Goals:
- Learning how to write the music and lyrics for a song.
- Learning some music theory along with music composition so I can better write songs.
- Listening and learning from other artists/bands and being able to create music from that inspiration
- Producing and editing a final song.
Resource List
Main book: Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattinson
NY TImes series on famous and upcoming songwriters and there writing process: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/arts/music/phoebe-bridgers-kyoto.html?smid=em-share
MasterClass courses:
https://www.masterclass.com/classes/st-vincent-teaches-creativity-and-songwriting
https://www.masterclass.com/classes/jake-shimabukuro-teaches-ukulele
Songwriting tips: https://songwritergirl.com/?fbclid=IwAR0Ylsh9IXYPfeSrLHCGn6kYYvV5HUSelIrB1fPYTYVePWcnFyB-qCiTm8s
https://blog.landr.com/write-song/
Daily Plan & Schedule
(throughout every week I will be writing multiple blog posts documenting my progress)
Every week I will:
- Start my days with a free write
- Take guitar/uke lesson 1-2 times
- Take a music comp or theory class 2 times
- Listen to group of artists from that week
- Begin forming a song or pieces of songs
- Finalize artists/musicians that I can talk with about there song writing process
- meet with a musician to discuss there process
- And by the end of every two weeks I will have a full song.
- The final week I will get final song recorded in the studio, and then edit/produce song
Documentation Plan
I plan on working on a blog (the Senior Project blog) to document my process and experience throughout the weeks of the project. This blog would include mixed media such as images, recording, videos and writings so I can cover all aspects of my project. I will be reflecting weekly and will have a lot of content to provide from the classes I am taking and around how my music writing process is progressing.
Material Needs
I will need a studio space to record the final product
A Mic
Space to play
Backup Plan
I will not likely need a backup but in the case that I find I am not answering my essential question I will meet with either Nick, Mr. D, Susan, one of my outside class teachers or my father to consult on how I can redirect myself.