I have spent the past week songwriting and building my repertoire of songs for my album. At the beginning of the week hit my green light. I sat in bed and wrote an entire song in under 10 minutes. Everything flowed. The words and melodies came out of my mouth faster than ever before. I became overwhelmed with pride. I recorded a rough demo on my phone and felt the emotions through the screen. That moment reminded me of why I love doing this. That breakthrough moment felt like a burst of color in the sometimes dull world of songwriting. My red light came when I hit a wall with songwriting. Writer’s block filled my mind and kept me tongue-tied. This writer’s block stuck with me for a few days, preventing me from writing even a sentence. I spiraled into self-doubt and creative loathing. I was questioning everything. It was just writer’s block, it felt more personal. It felt as if the Universe was trying to tell me something. I took to journaling to write, even if it wasn’t song lyrics, it still gave me hope. My yellow light moment took place at the studio. I came in to work on a new song I wrote that day. The song didn’t feel right, maybe it was too personal to share, or too broad to be personal. When I sang the song for my producer, he loved it. We decided the chorus didn’t fit, however, so we took to the drawing board to draft a new one. I had never co-written before and hated the idea of someone else writing my songs. We spent around an hour writing a chorus for this song. Listening back to the song, it feels like it’s impersonating me. It’s not my emotions nor my raw words, but it was a collaboration and that, I loved.

My essential question is: How can I challenge my limiting beliefs in the creative process? I will answer that question by releasing music that I have been working on for months. I will write songs alone and bring them to the studio, where I work with a producer to co-produce my songs. I will spend around a week writing 6 songs and the remaining 5 weeks producing the songs using Logic, a software program. I will then do the final vocals on the songs in the studio. Once the songs are produced, I will have musicians play the instrumentals live on the tracks in replacement of computerized instruments. Once the songs are fully finished, I will have them mixed and mastered by a professional. While this is all being done, I will be working on an album title and cover art. Towards the end of the senior project, I will release the album through software. Music is my passion and always has been. I have been singing and writing songs since I was 5, performing private concerts for my family and friends in the comfort of my home. Music is the driving force behind everything I do. I find music in all the frequencies of life, in every road I walk. The project will challenge me to put out music that I have had for years now. I’ve been making original music for 5 years and this project will challenge me to get over my perfectionism and fears. This project will require me to work at the studio every day instead of weekly. Success is feeling free after releasing my music, rather than stress. Success is releasing my original music that I have been afraid of people hearing for years.