Project by: Annabelle Hatsav (10th Grade)
Project Advisor: Nick Wight
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Preethi Thomas-McKnight
Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?
I had jazz and blues class with Nick and I really enjoyed it. I hope to learn more about writing my own music and continue to explore my passion for jazz music with my flute.
Critical thinking, creativity, citizenship, and courage are essential LREI learning values. Explain how you’ll draw on at least one of these values to complete your proposed project?
I will draw on creativity because I will be writing my own song using my knowledge and inspiration from famous jazz artists. I am also drawing on courage because it takes confidence to use my knowledge of jazz to create something new.
What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project? How do you plan to share your learnings with the larger LREI community (e.g., an exhibit of work, poster of learnings, performance, etc.)?
I will record the song and put a link up on a poster as well as the sheet music and synopsis of my process of creating the song in the school so people can access it if they want to.
Please provide a general outline that indicates your work plan for the trimester? What are some of the key project benchmarks (i.e., goals that will help to ensure that you finish the project)?
The first step is to create a playlist of inspiration and share that with my mentor. Then I will pick a song to write a melody over the chords to. Then I would pull out the notes that sound best in the scales for each chord and write my first draft of a melody. Next would be to create melodic variations and see which sounds the best. Create an outline for the song and make harmonic accompaniment. Then record the song with flute and some piano with the chords already recorded with Garage band. It will be no more than 5 minutes long. I will leave a couple weeks towards the end for practicing and recording my song on my flute.
When do you plan on meeting?
At least once a week maybe more during lunch. Every Monday and possibly Tuesdays or Thursdays as well.
Approved. Annabelle and I discussed revising/expanding more on:
Proposed Outcome – possibly including sheet music and/or brief synopsis about the composing process, in addition to her song link.
General Outline – expanding on the steps necessary to arrive at a recorded original song. For example, sharing a playlist of major inspirations for the song, writing a melody, writing supporting harmony, song form, instrumentation, etc.
approved.
Can’t wait to see (hear) what you create!
I finished the sheet music, recording, and poster. I learned a lot about how to properly write a jazz melody over a backtrack of chords that were pre-made. It was a very helpful experience for me for my musical future and I will take the knowledge I learned from Nick and apply it to when I play my flute, and music in general in the future. I’m very proud of my song and what I’ve created. It was a very lengthy and difficult process because I made countless drafts of the melody as well as mistakes along the way. But I learned from every struggle and it improved my composition skills a lot. I’m very grateful that I was able to do this project.