• Role – Songwriter / Composer
• SMART Goal –By April 17th, as part of my solo project, I will have developed verses to sing along with my song. I’m also trying to focus on practicing a lot more with all of you free time now.
• Why – I want to make my own original piece of music with lyrics.
• How – I will focus on my writing, I like to play my guitar parts and try and come up with a good melody to that guitar part, from there I’ll write lyrics that fit and rhyme with each other.
• When – I play my guitar around an hour to two hours a day some days, I’m always practicing and trying to get better.
• Resources – I take a lot of online courses to try and improve my skill set.
• Milestones – Every section of my song I write is like a small celebration, I’m not very good at writing lyrics.
• Heroines / Heroes
  • Jimi Hendrix
    • Wikipedia link
  • Eric Clapton
    • Wikipedia link
  • Kurt Cobain
    • Wikipedia link

Summary

Role

Harmony ~ Guitar

Intention (SMART Goal)

My goal is to write a song and play guitar while singing.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Eddie Van Halen is an excellent guitarist, who has inspired millions of people all across the world. CNN interviewed Van Halen on his involvement in Beat It. In the rock scene, the way Eddie plays guitar blew peoples minds away. It had people wondering “How did he do that?” and so on. The famous Beat It solo’s were apparently just improvised by Van Halen in around 10 minutes! Van Halen had so much influence on music as a whole and influenced an entire generation of music in the 80’s.

Training Source(s)

• Automation is the key , you can only think about 1 thing at a time. 1:00
• If you have to think about your chords or strumming,  you need more practice. 1:20
• Listen to the song, a lot, you have to know the song inside and out. 2:27
• After you learn the guitar part try having a conversation while playing it. 3:45
• Really focus on how the singer sings, where they take their breaths and anything else you would need to know. 5:00
• Write out the lyrics with a pen or a pencil to engrave them into your brain. 5:40
• Sing a long with the original recording 6:20
• Figure out what syllables the chords change on, if you’re singing a song you need to know when you have to change chords and how. 7:30
• Play along with the song with muted strums. 9:00
• Add in the chords but only play a simple down strum pattern 10:40

Project Timeline

1. Develop ideas / Brainstorm
2. Tune guitar
3. Play around with finding a good feeling to my song with chords
4. Establish a singing melody
5.  Write lyrics where syllables match chord changes
6. Practice chord changes
7. Establish steady tempo and strumming pattern
8. Practice singing using a piano/keyboard
9. Ask for feedback from peers
10. Revise and edit song according to feed back
11. Practice
12. Practice more
13. hopefully finish 🙂

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Skills Commentary

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

Reactions to the Final Version

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

Grammar and Spelling

Editor

Summary

In this project me and my group made a little song, most of our time making the song was really learning how to play the instruments.

21st Century Skills

I had to really be a leader in the scenario, I had to teach a few people how to play instruments and come up with a song in about 3 weeks. It’s hard to convince someone to play an instrument when they just want to give up. Eventually later in life the leadership skills that I learned can prove to be helpful later in life.

Reactions to Final Version

The judges were very impressed with the fact that no one in our group knew how to really play their instruments. Most of the feedback was on needing more practice or something different and new that stands out above the rest. Our song wasn’t deemed the most interesting but definitely impressively put together.

Evaluation of Final Version

Our final song for being put together was actually really good. I got my band to practically stay in time the entire time which is a really difficult feat to do when you pick up an instrument for the first time. Our song was lacking much variation in the separate parts, there is no real indication of different parts or any dynamic changes.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned how to lead a group, I had problems getting the band interested in what they were performing and practicing. I had learn that you can’t just hand everyone the tools to get better and expect them to do it, sometimes people need to find their own motivation to do things and you can force someone to do something they don’t want to do.

 

RadioLab-

RadioLab.org – Your Future in a Marshmallow 

• One marshmallow now or two later with kids under 4
• No distraction in the room, isolation chamber
• Fist girl ate it after a few minutes, gave into her impulses
• Boy kicks table and freaks out the entire time, he still made it through the 20 minutes
• Boy is licking it and puts it back on the tray, some kids will try and cheat or get around it
• Once kids reach the age of age of 4 they get signifigantly 
• Kids lasted 7-8 mins on average
• Seemed to be a pattern, checked SAT scores and marshmallows and there was a correlation
• 210 SAT score difference between someone who waited 1 minute vs 20 minutes
• Kids who waited ended up as nice kids, respectful, successful kids
• Kids who didn’t ended up as trouble kids

This American Life-

Back to School 

• Cognitive development, is what schools emphasize now. That’s the current understanding
• Now it’s not just cognitive skills like math and IQ. Nobel prize winning james heckman puts together these groups together full of psychologists and economists
• He made a study, GED vs High School dropouts but highschool graduates are doing the best
• What skills did GED students not have and graduates did?
• Schools based everything off of skills you can get quantitative data for like math or english instead of basic things.
• Marshmallow test, took 4 year olds into room, if you want one you ring a bell, if you wait you get two. Huge correlation between success and how long they waited.
• Stress stops kids from non cognitive abilities. Poor communities don’t do worse because of money but of the stress they have.
• Kids who are better off don’t have the same stress as a poor kid.
• If you had a rough childhood you are 12 times more likely to commit suicide and 3 times more likely to get a heart disease. 
• When faced with fear your cognitive function shuts off and you get a fight or flight, emergency response. When said fear is constant it creates constant pathways in a kids brain, the stress will stay.
• If you’re in this fight or flight mode, you literally can’t learn. Your brain just shuts off and you go into a more primative state of mind.
• If you had 4 tragic events as a kid that would stress you out, you are 32 times more likely to have behavior problems in school.
• If mama rats lick baby rats for their fisrt weeks of life if they never see them again, that reduction of nervousness will help them for the rest of their lives.
• The United States has the highest dropout rate in the world

How to stay safe on the internet:

https://www.missingkids.org/netsmartz/videos#middleandhighschool

Notes:

• Think about your online footprint, who will see it, what will they think?
• Don’t post things you’ll regret in the future
• Online choices can have offline implications
• Be careful about what you share online, it could end up anywhere
• It doesn’t take very long for a text message or online content to travel. Something that you regret saying now could be all over your school in a matter of minutes.
• Respect others online
• Never share your password
• Think before you post something, it could be used against you.
• Don”t give anyone online your personal info!

Can you hear this?

• • • Hearing Test: noiseaddicts.com
    • -8,000 Hz should be easily heard by everyone with normal hearing
      -12,000 Hz is hard for anyone over 50 years of age to hear
    • Sound Levels: makeitlouder.com

Listen Smart – Safely Handling the Power of Sound –

• • • Goal: Listen to music in a way that does not harm you but enriches you
    • Sound is measured is decibels
    • You shouldn’t be in 125 decibels or higher , called the threshold of pain
    • Rock concerts can get up to 150 decibels
    • You don’t have to be old to get hearing loss
    • 10%-20% of highschoolers have hearing damage
    • A third of hearing loss is related to noise
    • You have hair cells deep in your ear that you’re born with and never grow back, if you listen to loud music and sounds then it can kill these hair cells and you’ll lose your hearing
    • There’s no cure to hearing loss
    • Earplugs don’t change the quality of sounds, only the volume

Audio Career Tips –

soundadvice.info

• • • You need to be responsible of your own hearing in the workplace, you need to know your limits.
    • Everyone involved in music and entertainment has a responsibility to help with noise management.
    • If you play in an orchestra you are exposed to loud noises even if you’re in the pit or on or off stage
    • Lost of people in the live music industry struggle with permanent
    • If you work in or around a sound studio you have to be careful and perform a noise risk assessment, musicians and technicians are exposed to high levels of noise.
    • If are a teacher for music at a school or college establish whether your employees are at risk, perform a noise risk assessment
    • If you work at a pub or bar with loud music playing being played establish if you or your coworkers are at risk. This happens because you are exposed to loud levels of sound for a very long exposure of time
    • If you’re a member of a marching band you get exposed to very high levels of noise. If you are you can get permanent hearing damage.