Reflection

My mission project said that I needed to make one to two songs that had to last two to three minutes long. As mentioned before I would learn different abilities like music, history, and math that are the most essential topics that music can teach you. It connects to my school Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s missions that states, "Our mission is to empower our students to pursue their passion for learning, lead lives of integrity, and create socially responsible solutions." My project connects to do this mission. I can say this because I am pursuing my passion for learning of music not only that I am learning new things like composing pieces. And I will create the pieces of music by myself, which mean that I will not copy from another artist and it is an original, and that is living a life of integrity and socially responsible solutions.

I made my songs, only instrumental, which means that there are no lyrics in the songs. Because it was my first time doing this, I have made a lot of repetitions. First of all, I needed to understand the world of music so I can create one. So I research about the theory of music. In the music theory, there is a chromatic scale, which means that the notes go in a scale. We have sharps and flats, and they can have the same sounds like C# can also be written as Db. This alphabet C, D, E, F, G, A, B will continue to infinity. We can chose it in an octave, which means the place where this “alphabet” repeats. There are a mayor patter and a minor. I also learn about the intervals, which are the measurements of musical distance. Also, holes notes, white notes, quarter notes, eight notes, and sixteenth notes are things that I have to understand so I can play, but because I already know things about music this part I already understand it better.

With that in mind, I went to find how to get inspired to write a song. I found out that usually, it should be things that have impacted your life. Like opinions, life events, beliefs, hobbies, passions, a painting, a drawing, poetry, a person, a dream, and nature. These are like the biggest inspiration. This taught me that I can make any songs or anything. Now, one of my favourite is the Beatles. Because I will speak about a lot about other song examples, so it is more organized, I will speak of them all over my reflection for examples. I am using them because they became a British band that became the best band of all times. I am going to use them as an example. One of their best song “Yesterday” was a dream Paul McCartney had. He said that they were some chords he can remember from his dreams so he put them in a piano and at that time he couldn't think of any lyrics so he thought of one and called it “Scrambled eggs.” Another big son was “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” Which according to John Lennon he was seeing a drawing of his son, and he said that it was a girl called Lucy that was in the sky with Diamonds.

So I started to think. In things that have inspired my life. And for my first song which is called “Running in the Beach” I based it in my times that I went to the beach. I did this because being on the beach is one of my, happy places I have. Also by this, I also knew that whatever I had to play, I wanted to play it fast, which means that most probably I was going to play in eighth notes or sixteens notes. In the other hand my second song that is called “Roses” Which I based on one time that I was walking my dog in the park, and I saw a lot of roses, and I wanted to portrait those roses noises and how they would sound like if they were alive and singing. Which meant for me that the song needed to be slower than the first one and that it needs to sound in a happier tone. Also because I know a lot how to play two instruments that are guitar and piano I said that both instruments were going to be in this piece.

To do this, I first realized that I have more experience in the guitar and that the guitar it is more portable so every time I had an idea, I would go and get my guitar and when I think in some chords I would start playing until it sounded good. First, I started to practice and remembering different chords. I first started with the E chord which is one finger in thirds string one fret then the other one in the fourth string second fret and the last one in the fifth string second fret. Like this, I also started to practice the A chord, D chord, G chord, C chords, E minor chord, A minor chord, D7 chord, A7 chord, and F chord. I did this because these are the most commons one. And I started to play some sequences; meanwhile, I was thinking in those places.

Apart from that, I started to listen to some instrumentals music. One of the bands that I enjoyed more was the band called Deaf Scene. They were rock songs and some of the psychedelic rock. I wanted to do songs that although we're not like this of a sad tone I wanted them to have a rock feeling into it. So first, I realize that I wanted to have a lead guitar and a rhythm guitar. I learn that Rhythm guitar was basically the one that had to play the chords, the one who lays the rhythm of the song. In the other hand, the lead guitar had to have more of the melody of the song. They also play the songs of the music. Bringing again the Beatles John Lennon played most of the time the rhythm guitar which means that he kept the rhythm and he majorly on played the chords of the song meanwhile George Harrison played the lead guitar and that makes him played different solos and arrangements. For example in the song “A Hard Day's Night” John was playing the chords that are G, C, G then F and coming back to G. Meanwhile George Harrison was playing the solo with the fast notes that make that song one of the most memorable songs of the band.

I knew that I wanted that have a lead guitar and a rhythm guitar so first I started to learn what chords I was going to learn so I have first the rhythm, and then I would start off thinking of how can I integrate the lead guitar. So for “Running in the Beach”, I started to play with the G chord then I moved to the A chords to the C chord and to the D chord. The rhythm sounded good, but it looks that something was missing. So I started to put the B chord or maybe the C# chord and having more chords until I founded the G#. So for the first part of the song. I would play the G chord then the G# chord then the A# chord then the C chord and the D chord. I repeated a couple of times, but then it started to get boring, so for the second part of the song I played the C chord and the D chord, so it sounded different and much better. The only problem was that I couldn’t move them from the G chord to the G# chords fast enough, so I decide to change the first part into power chords which is basically the note in the guitar and the fifth note in the scale. Just that would use a more advance for example in the G chord I would play my first finger on the third fret in the first string than the other one in the fifth fret in the same string and the other one in the fifth fret of the fourth string. This allowed me to play the song in a more comfortable way. Then I realized that it was repetitive, so with my lead guitar, I started to play the notes alone, so it had like chords and notes.

After that, I started to learn the same chords in the piano because I wanted them to also have the piano. This means that I want them to have like a 50’s sounds like Little Richard long tall sally.  Which has a significant piano part in a great rock and roll tune. So like in the guitar I also started to learn some of the piano chords. That where G, G#, A, C, and D chords.

Later I would realize that the piano would have more the melody of the song because it sounded better.  So I decided to have the melody in the piano. In the end, it sounded good, and I was satisfied with the song. Also, I learn how to record in Garageband, and I decided to use drums, and I learn the part of the drums in Garageband, and I used the Toms, the Kicks, and the Snare. Apart from that, I decided to also use as a percussion clapping, that for me it and for my expert, it sounded like those classic rock and roll song like “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” At first, it wasn’t synchronized but my expert Raul  Gutierrez Dávila a guitar teacher that has played more than 25 years and he had also composed some songs of his own.  

For the next song called “Roses” it has and a C#m/G#,  Bm/F# chord I first started with the C# and the F#, and the A chord chords but later my teacher told me that adding those more notes it would sound better and it did. I used that for the rhythm guitar and for the lead guitar I started to use these following notes for the first part G#, C#, and E chord for the next one I used the F#, B, and D, and for third part I used an A chord, but again I used the piano for the melody.

For this song, I have use the Hi-Hat, Kick, and Snake and apart from that, I used a tambourine, so it sounds a more slowly and delicate like the roses and flowers I have based this song. It sounds like a happy slow tune. It is still consider rock because it has guitars, drums, and pianos. And including slow songs are also consider rock song like “Hey Jude,” "Yesterday" and “And I Love Her.”

After composing and listening to my song, I can say that I feel satisfied with them. I have been playing all the instruments except the drums but I have created, and I hadn’t done any copy from any other song. My expert told me to be careful because sometimes we copy song but unconsciously. One great example was “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison. That in 1976 George Harrison went to trial because that song had almost the same melody of “He’s so Fine” by The Chiffons, and after the trial, the judge said that he committed “unconscious plagiarism.” This trial ended when Harrison bought the song by five million dollars and usually a song is copyrighted after the similar of eight measures. So I ask my family, friends, and my expert if they had hear it before, but they said they haven’t heard it which means that is still a piece of original music meaning I haven't plagiarized and everything is original.

In conclusion, I feel satisfied with my done mission project because it has demonstrated that I have done many things to make it, and the final project is good. Although I still have trouble to post the song, it still sounds good, and I called this ‘mini album’ “The Days in My Life” because these songs are based on moments a day in my life. As I said before “Running in the Beach” was about when I go to the beach and the other one “Roses” that is about when I was seeing the flowers when I walked my door in the park. Which in the end they are just another day in my life.

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