Assignment: As Confucius said “True wisdom is knowing what you don’t know” and Socrates said “Wisdom is knowing what you don’t know.” This assignment is asking for the story of your personal search for information, as well as what you are learning about the topic in terms of what do you know vs what don’t you know.

1. 1. What do you know?
      • Explain what you already know about your essential question. Explain why the topic is important to you, and what is motivating your inquiry.
      • What understandings and experiences are you bringing with you as you start this research process?
      • How have any outside sources informed your understanding of your essential question?
   2. What don’t you know?
      • Why is it important for you to find out more about this question. Tell what you want to know about your essential question?
      • What are the areas of inquiry that you think need to be explored?
      • What are the other questions that are lurking just beneath the surface of your guiding essential question?

I decided to rework the order of my project’s schedule, now starting my project with continuing a song that I started over a year ago but never completed. I looked at a few hours’ worth of online lessons about production techniques to make my unfinished song more polished. Now, I can create more than just one song. This way, I will be able to warm up my production techniques for this first song, and dedicate the time while making my second song to gain a more in-depth understanding about songwriting from the ground up. As I am approaching finishing my song from last year, I can confidently say that I have been able to experience creating a song from start to finish, and that I will be able to create another song (or more) in the time I have left.

I also met with musician Talor Steinberg to discuss music distribution, publishing, royalties, and also his own process for writing music in his band with his brother called The Moon City Masters. Talor suggested I should use a platform called TuneCore to distribute my work. My original plan was to use the platform DistroKid, so I will have to evaluate my options and decide at some point which platform is best for me. Talor also taught me that, in his personal experience, it is easier to promote and share your music when released in singles rather than EPs or albums. This will be especially helpful when I create more music to release, now knowing to release them one by one over time rather than all at once. Talor also told me about ASCAP and how I can use it to better monetize my music if it were to be played anywhere else.

I also asked Talor about his process of creating music, specifically if he creates his instrumental or lyrics first. Talor said that this process is different for everyone and that everyone should do what feels most natural to them—there’s no right or wrong way to approach it. Talor, however, personally writes his instrumentals first and typically writes his lyrics last minute.

As for what I do not know yet, I still need the experience of finishing a song and knowing what distributing it myself is like. I also need to figure out which distribution service I should choose out of the two.