My Technology project for this placement is far more than what I am able to post as of now. For my technology project I worked with Mrs. Hall to select repertoire for each band, seniors, and a combined piece.  We selected Extreme -Rob Grice, Hidden Wonders- O'Laughlin, Byzantine Dances- Brittin Chambers, Stars and Stripes- Sousa, Music from the Royal Fireworks- Canadian Brass, and Let's Go Band!- Balent. I set up multiple online folders, created instructions and checklists, created recording tracks, and am in the process of putting everything together. I am animating all of the videos and mixing all of the audios. This is a HUGE undertaking but I am happy about how well it is turning out. Please enjoy the 2021 Senior's Piece: Music from the Royal Fireworks. 

​At my River Bend placement, technology is used a TON during classes. One specific technology we began working with was flat.io 

Flat.io is a great simple music notation program which allows you to compose for multiple instruments with ease. You can also share your scores with friends, teachers, and even other collaborators.  For my technology project at River Bend Middle School, we used flat.io to allow students to create bass line compositions.

We assigned a bass line project for our students. One piece we had learned was "When the Saints Go Marching In". The students had this piece memorized and had the bass line memorized. We gave two assignments to the students. The first assignment was to write out the bass line for their instrument and submit it. The second project was for students to compose their own bass line rhythm with the same notes.  One disconnect we had was that students could not separate the words rhythm from notes.  So instead of changing the rhythm they began changing the notes. Once we submitted feedback, students were able to correct their compositions and receive full credit.  Another issue with this project was that students only knew rhythms with half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes. This severely limited the rhythms that students were able to confidently compose. Our way of assessment was by comparing the two assignments AND by comparing the first submission to the submission after feedback.  Most students >80% showed improvement and general understanding of the topic.  If time allowed, I would have liked to have students play the melody on their own while we played the different bass lines that they composed, OR have myself and my cooperating teacher model both parts simultaneously. 

In this assignment I was tasked with using a DAW to produce a Hip-Hop track of 32 measures that represents a picture.  I chose a picture of various football players kneeling during the national anthem.  Some of the boundaries included using a midi file and a prerecorded loop. A DAW is a Digital Audio Workstation in which you can edit and create audio.  A midi is a Music Instrument Digital Interface.  A midi is a computer generated audio playback file which reads notes in some form and plays them through different sounds.  

The image above of the San Francisco 49ers kneeling during the national anthem represents more than just disapproval of the current state of our nation.  It is a movement.  This movement represents the distaste for police brutality and unfair treatment of Black Americans.  It coincides with the Black Lives Matter movement.  This inspired me to use quotes from our current president on his view on this movement.  I also used audio from a Black Lives Matter protest.  

When I created this piece I took into account many specific musical elements.  Some of the elements I considered were silence, building intensity, and a powerful ending.  When implementing silence I thought it would be good to isolate the words that are most remembered when hearing Donald Trump's speech.  I also used it to emphasize specific words in a news report which make the incident part of the movement.  To build intensity I added more instruments and different drum set beats.  Some of the sounds I chose included, hip hop drums, a synthesized brass sound, and an electric bass.  I chose these instruments because they resemble a loud energetic crowd.  I also worked in different sound effects such as vintage record background noise, a national anthem announcement, and different bass drops.  These effects helped the piece move to a new section smoothly.  I also used fade in and fade out on some of the tracks to smooth the edges and starts of the track.  I actually didn't really encounter any issues as the program I used, Soundtrap, was very user friendly and easy to navigate.  Soundtrap let me physically see how the beats of the track lined up and how the sounds line up with each other.

In this portion of my DAW I created a section "B" to my Kneel on the Seal project.  I used a midi keyboard to create a motive that is passed around the different synthesizers.  The different tracks I used were, a voice over of someone singing This Land is Your Land.  I upped the reverb, flipped the track, and edited the range in which the track is played at.  I also used the announcer saying "please stand for the national anthem".  I distorted the sound by changing the pitch and speed of the track.  The last track is a sound of a record player on loop.  This is supposed to give the song a more creepy, old-timing sound.  I used the EQ and Reverb to change the qualities of sound for each track.  I created the form by doing simply an ABAB pattern, I took out the beginning vocals for the second time the a section was played. 

In revising this work there were many aspects and processes to creating and editing the final track.  I decided that using the format ABA'B'  layout would best fit the merging of the two audio clips from Donald Trump and the news-caster.  I decided that merging the two sound files in the A' section would bring a whole different idea to the song.  I merged the news-caster saying "the unarmed" and Donald Trump saying "son of a bitch" back to back.  I did this because I believe that that is the way that some our high-up officials view the black community.  I used various material from this land is your land and reversed the sound file.  I also slowed it down a ton.  At the end of the song I brought back all elements of the A and B section, I also Isolated the word "my" in This Land is Your Land.  I think that it speaks on behalf of how many African Americans feel.  They feel as if this land was made for the white man. The technology helped shape my work with the limited amount and types of effects I could put on the audio clips.  My final project is very representative of how people respond to assaults on the black community.  There is outburst, silence, then outburst again.  This is unfortunate because without the constant assessment and ridicule of the unfairness and prejudice toward the black community specifically in police brutality cases.  

One of my assignments in Music Technology was to explore a software.  I chose to explore Finale as opposed to Sibelius.  I was tasked with creating a melody (or copy and existing one) adding a countermelody and a percussion part.  The piece I wrote was for Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, and Drumset.  Its orchestrated in melody, ornamentations of rhythmic motives, bass line, and a half time feel beat.  I titled it Intensity.  The reason I call it intensity is because at the beginning of the semester I feel very hands on and intense about staying on top of things.  

This software was very user-friendly and pretty simple to navigate.  My only issue was figuring out how to add crescendos and how to change tempo. The other issue I had was with playback sounds.  I had to adjust the dynamics to extremes just so the balance wasn't off. I still could figure out how to change the tempo until I looked it up.  I really enjoyed exploring musescore as well.  My biggest issue with musescore is that I couldn't figure a way to edit the instrumentation other that the preset groups. 

This semester I've been assigned to either create a song or create a cover of a song on the Ukulele.  I've decided to cover the song Lean on Me by Bill Withers.  I will have two posts which will show my progress in learning the song.  In addition to these two posts I will have a final product of a multitrack video.  I picked this song because I had an experience making music with a complete stranger on this song that really changed the way I viewed music.  This person and myself sang like no one was listening and talked about how music is about being yourself and not being afraid to do what your heart says.  Some of the biggest challenges I assume I'll be facing include; switching chords fast enough, getting all of the correct pitches consistently, and lastly syncing all the videos up together for a tight recording.   Some of the chords used in this song are C, D, Em, F, G.  I will aim to incorporate percussion techniques and other elements scubas a bass line in my arrangement.  

Originally I thought this experience was pretty silly and wouldn't teach me much of anything.  Through the process of check ins, and really just learning the instrument I realized what this project means to me.  So often as music majors in college, we tend to perform at such a level where we forget what it is like to learn.  We preform all of the hardest and most popular repertoire and not the grade 1 repertoire which is just as important.  We forget what its like to learn, and how to learn.  Learning the ukulele put us right back in kindergarten.  I felt as if I knew nothing about the instrument and wouldn't progress without a ridiculous amount of time and private lessons.  Through this process I developed a sense of individual want to succeed.  I began to be feel accomplished.  As I accomplished more I wanted to continue expanding my knowledge.  I ended up learning more chords than I needed on ukulele and guitar.  Learning a new instrument is very difficult and time consuming but the pay off is indescribable.  That feeling of accomplishment and self pride is what we need to strive to get our students to feel.  We can achieve this by teaching multiple methods and searching for ways to implement more individualized learning.  The ukulele project also allowed m to work with technology and tested my mastery of it.  Recording the ukulele project took many attempts either for tuning or synchronization.  I enjoyed using Bandhub as it is an easy program to navigate around.  The only limit is that you have to wear headphones so that is cancels out the other sounds.  Lastly, this experience is one of the few projects that I've taken on in college where I truly feel that I have retained past the flashcards (terms). 

This last part of the semester I worked with Theresa and Mikayla to create a cover of P!nk's song  What About Us.  
Links to their blog posts are below
Mikayla's Post
Theresa's Post

https://bandhub.com/s/5a25c5b7e3472923f142e072​ 

When we started this project we had to choose a song from the Billboard top 100.  In searching the songs we wanted to look for songs about inclusion, moving on and upwards, and self empowerment.  We found P!nks What About us to fulfill almost every guideline we had laid out.  Next became our instrumentation.  We all told each other our strengths and weaknesses and decided that we would use vocal, keyboard, and percussion.  We decided on some times to meet but they never ended up working out.  We were very successful in getting our guidelines set and strengths put together.  One major issue we ran into was me having a tendonitis episode with my wrists.  I was unable to play percussion for more than a week.  This put a damper on our project.  At the same time of me recovering with my wrists I became very ill.  I didn't leave my bed for 4 days.  These two issues definitely show in the project.  Some other issues we had were with recording and posting technology.  When we each individually recorded our tracks they ended up not lining up with each other.  This makes the project hard to listen to and enjoy.   If we could redo this project I would've had us record together at the same time and hopefully without wrist braces on haha.  I would've also tried to schedule meeting times in advance so we would've had the project done at an earlier time so we could have more time for the editing process.  This project helped me learn as an educator how technology can be helpful or harmful.  In this case since we had too many technical issues it was more frustrating than helpful.  I've also grown and believe others would grow from this experience simply because of the opportunity to work with other musicians.  I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and I hope I get the chance to do this again.   

As a college level musician I feel very independent and eager to learn from other musicians.  Collaboration is a huge part of my daily routine as a musician.  Playing in small ensembles, duets, and large ensembles shape me in my connections with other people.  When I play in smaller ensembles, I continue to learn how to work with people.  I have also learned different skills of teaching and practicing while playing and rehearsing in these groups.  As a musician I am a director.  This past summer I put together a benefit concert and raised over $5,700 for the Herndon United Methodist Church's Capital Campaign.  Through this experience, I worked with over 60 musicians, and learned that it's not always about how in tune and lining up exactly.  The more important thing in my opinion is making music with others and conveying emotion and connection.  Here are two videos of my ensembles I've conducted over the summer.  

                                                                                                                                                                              Chance the Rapper
Chance is a 23 year old african american rapper.  Chance grew up in a middle class family in south Chicago.  He was laughed at be teacher for wanting to become a musician.  Chance released his first rap mixtape in 2011.    He began 2012 with being recognized in the 10 new and upcoming hip hop artists.  He is currently not under any contracts.                         


All We Got-                                                                      
https://soundcloud.com/chancetherapper/sets/coloring-book

No Problem-
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVkkYlQNmbc

How Great- 
https://soundcloud.com/chancetherapper/sets/coloring-book

Juke Jam-
https://soundcloud.com/chancetherapper/sets/coloring-book

NaNa-
https://soundcloud.com/chancetherapper/sets/chance-the-rapper-acid-rap

3. Based on the five songs, Chance's style is to starts off simple with a basic melody and little accompaniment and slowly add small ostinato patterns then add a huge bass drop.  This intrigues the listener to listen because of the music is simple and easy to listen to. Some of the basic 6     characteristics of Chance include
dynamic-varies in dynamic range loud soft                                                                                                          
personal- speaks on public issues 
groovy- the multiple bass drops 
deep- talks about current issues
strong- holds a strong stance on things
and insightful- his music is made for evoking people to go and make change happen                                                                                                                                            

Basic lyrical analysis
-lyrics are very personal, talking about situations of cheating and trust
- theres not much melodic content in the lyrics
-rhythm seem to be almost all simple duple, and repetitive patterns.
​
I learned that hip hop music has many different meanings.  I learned that not all rap music is about girls, sex, drugs, and money.  I learned that this artist is very devoted to his music and life.  I also learned that you can become famous without having a studio contract.