Our Senior Project experience, in many ways, challenged our expectations and our preconceived notions. While our process is still ongoing, we did not end up reaching our goals in terms of production in the time assigned to us. As the weeks went along, our expectations adapted as we faced new challenges with each step along the way. In many ways, we underestimated the difficulties of creating a meaningful body of work in just this short amount of time. The ideation process started off quickly before we began to slow down, and then molding our ideas into concrete songs with concrete forms took much longer than we had initially anticipated. We weren’t able to begin recording until midway through the 5th week, which was much later than we had hoped. In addition, the recording process took longer than expected, especially due to struggles with recording space/equipment. While the keyboards in the music room at LREI are fantastic for practicing (and incredibly high quality), they didn’t produce the authentic piano sound and tone that we were really looking for. Because of this, we had to re-track the piano elsewhere. This was challenging because it meant we didn’t have the type of communication that we would have if we were recording together in person. Subtle changes in tempo, intros, and transitions, proved to be issues. Even despite all of this, we seemed to be on track to finish the album in time, until we ran into some larger problems. While the two of us luckily managed to remain COVID free for the entirety of our project, many who were featured on the album either caught COVID themselves, or were forced to quarantine due to exposures. Especially towards the tail end of our project, right in the most important phase of recording, there were (and still are) days where we’re unable to make progress because of the impacts of COVID. Hopefully in the coming days and weeks we will be able to get everyone back into the music room and tie up all of the loose ends of the album that need to be finished.

However, despite the challenges of our project, it has been a significant experience for us. A few of the tunes have been fully completed, written, practiced, recorded, and mixed. Listening to these completed tunes was astonishing, and hearing all of our work over the last seven weeks come to fruition was incredibly meaningful. Because we knew the song through every step of the process, being able to hear it develop and improve at each stage was remarkable. In the end we absolutely answered our essential question. Our original question was “How can we challenge our musical boundaries through the process of making an album together?” and we without a doubt pushed our musical boundaries as well as shifted our expectations for what it was feasible to accomplish in six weeks. We took some pretty major risks in writing, recording, and mixing the whole album without any professional support. We also have struggled with covid absences that were definitely a risk that we took on in doing a project with so many people. We think that through the daily practice and playing that have been at the core of our project we have definitely grown as musicians in terms of both our technical faculty and our ears and the way we hear each other. Our communication, musically and not, has definitely improved throughout the project. We think that our project has definitely raised some questions about how we would do this kind of project in the future (as self funded DIY records like this one are definitely going to be in our future). The hardest parts of this project have undoubtedly been staying motivated and energized in the face of adversity. When people have COVID and you have to take time off, it kills motivations and builds apathy, but in turn, what has been quite possibly the most exciting and rewarding part of this process is definitely the hard-fought battle for these recordings. Each song feels like it was a logistical improbability and for that reason all the more worth celebrating! Another challenge we have faced is definitely the monotoney of daily recording and mixing for weeks we would come in and practice our list of songs (Wayne Shorter’s and Esperanza Spalding’s Ponta De Areia, John Coltrane’s Favorite Things, and Jim Hall’s and Bill Evans’ Skating in Central Park, our mashup of the jazz standard Blue skies and the Thelonious Monk song In Walked Bud) with very little deviation which got to be remarkably draining. We want the audience to understand from our performance that we have not only made an album but grown as musicians and collaborators. While the process of practicing the same tunes each week was draining and monotonous, listening to tapes of the songs across the weeks proves our growth and perseverance through the difficulty.