I am almost done with the entire project. This week, I thought of ideas that I could use for my short presentation. First, I plan on explaining why I did a concerto. I'll show the process that I had to go through to succeed. For example, I'll talk about where my inspiration came from and what I learned about music along the way. Likewise, I'll show pictures in my presentation that are of real significance. I might show a picture of any minor details that I used as well as a picture of Mozart's concerto to emphasize where part of my inspiration came from. Near the end, I'll show a hazard sign and ask what this makes the audience think of. I'll tell the audience it means contagious, which is part of the name of my song. I'll explain how my song is named The Contagious Melody as well as its significance. At the end, I will play a portion of my song if I have time. Overall, I have been planning out my presentation. For the rest of the week and next week, I will practice my presentation so that I can get through it fluently and quickly.

This week has gone pretty well. Right now I am trying to figure out how to present my project. I have an idea of how to present the progress that I made throughout the project, but I am not exactly sure how to put it all together. For example, I want to talk about how my years of experience on clarinet allowed me to make a song even though it was very difficult to create. I would like to mention how I originally decided to use Finale to present my music to my audience but then decided to play a portion of my music and show the final draft of my music to my audience. Overall, I need to show the progress that I made in my song. I might even compare the rough draft of my song to the final draft to emphasize the edits that I had to make on my song. Additionally, I played my entire song this week to work out any difficult parts and to determine how long it is. I found out that the whole song is about 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Based on this, I will probably play about a 2 minute portion of my song in my presentation. Next week, I need to put my ideas together into a presentation. I am hoping to have all my plans mapped out after the week is over.

This week I feel alright about my project. I was going to play my song for my mentor, but unfortunately my clarinet is getting repaired this week. However, I plan on playing it in the future for my mentor so that I can get his opinion. Likewise, I have thought of an idea of how to present my project. First, I will talk about the complicated process of writing my song, and how long it took just to make something that sounds reasonably good to an audience. I will talk about how important it is to know music theory. I would like to show pictures of my drafting and I will probably show some of the sources that I used that helped me get started on my song.  I will tell my classmates that listening to other popular clarinet concertos gave me an idea of what I could write for my song. Additionally, I still need to figure out how I could record the song. I need to find something high quality that sounds like a live performance. Otherwise, I might play an portion of my piece so that my classmates get an idea of what it sounds like. Either option would work well. Next week, I need to find some time to play my song for my mentor and possibly record it.

This week I have not had much time to work on my project because of the Hamlet Essay and a Economics project. Despite this, I was able to add some minor edits to my project. For example, I finally created a title for my song. I called it "The Contagious Melody" because the main melody can be heard throughout the song. Basically, the melody "spreads" throughout the song. Moreover, the four movements of the song are named after synonyms for contagious. For example, the 2nd movement is called "Allegro Pestilence", the 3rd movement is called "Infectious Rondo" and the last movement is called "Malignant Finale". Overall, my project is going very well. I have finished my song, and now I must figure out how to record and present it. When I get the chance, I need to talk to my mentor about my song and possibly play it for them. Also, I need to figure out the best way to record my song.

This week I have not been able to work much on my 20% Time due to projects in my economics class as well as a blog assignment for Literature. Despite this, I have noticed that I am right on track for my project. I have finished the written final draft of my song. Additionally, I was able to make it longer than five minutes in all. The song as a whole flows and sounds good, but I might have to add a few minor edits in the final weeks of this project. Overall, I did not make changes to my song this week. Although I am done with the written final draft, I have not decided what I should use to record the song. I could use Finale, but it would take a a lot of work and time. On typical weeks, I only get to go to the music tech lab 2 times a week, and I need more time this. I need to research the best way to record my song. Also, I need to show my band directors my song and play it for them. I could learn important details from them that I could use to make my song sound better. If they tell me my song needs major edits, I will create a second written final draft. I have accomplished a lot so far, but I still need to figure out how I am going to present my concerto.

This week has gone very well. Right now I am writing the final draft of my song. I finished writing the final draft and the 1st movement and I am currently writing the final draft to the 2nd movement. Based on what I have written, the 1st and 2nd movements are the best movements of the song. They sound good and their are little to no problematic areas in terms of musical flow. Any final edits that I will do tomorrow, Friday, and next week will be in the 3rd and 4th movement. In these movements, there are areas where I added notes just so the song could continue on. I need to change these areas and think of something that would cause the song to flow better and make more sense. Additionally, I was able to finalize certain parts to add into my song. For example, I added some measures to the 2nd movement to make it end in a more interesting way. I added more music to the 3rd movement as well. Next week I will finish any edits that need to be made. I will play through my song to see its length as well. In the end, I want my song to at least last 5 minutes. Additionally, I will ask my mentor how I should record my song.

This week I feel good about my project, but it is getting tougher to do. Since I am now done with a draft of the concerto, I have been adding crucial edits to the song. For example,  I added some music to the 2nd and 3rd movement that would allow the song to flow better. I tried to add more of the melody into certain areas of the song so that it could be heard more often. Despite this, it is very difficult to go back into a song and change anything that needs to be changed. I often have to play a part of the song to see whether it will fit into the entirety of the song or not. Sometime next week, I will start going back to the music tech lab. In the lab, I will use Finale in order to write any music that I have not yet done. Additionally, I will start writing a final draft of my song on paper. To do this, I need to research what type of paper I should use, and how I can get it. I will talk to my mentor in order to get important tips that I can use to make my song sound better as well. Overall, I have accomplished a lot, but I still have some work to do.

 Ever since I first started writing my concerto, I have made a lot of progress. I have finished a draft of all my music. In particular, I finished a rough draft of my 4th movement this week. This movement is nothing like the other movements that I have created. It starts off slow and legato, and it builds in speed and excitement. The middle of the song has a flowing melody. At the end of the song, the main melody that was introduced in the 1st movement is heard once again. The end builds in sound, and it ends on 16th note runs. Despite everything that I have accomplished, I still have a lot of work to do. Some of the movements are not long enough, and sometimes the melody does not flow as well as I would like. To fix this, I plan on concentrating on editing and revising next week. I want to add more dynamics and focus more on musical flow as well. Additionally, the song in its entirety is too short. Although it sounds good, it only takes about 3 or 4 minutes to get through the entire song. Once next week is over, I plan on having a song that flows and sounds better.

This week I am feeling good about my song. I have not yet added important details to my 1st movement yet because I have been busy drafting my 3rd movement. In fact, I been able to finish a draft of my 3rd movement. Unlike what I said in the first week of my blog, my song will not be three movements. In actuality, it will end up being 4 movements. My 3rd movement ended up being a short, rondo like piece that one can dance to. Abruptly, near the end of the movement, the piece gains a mysterious feel. The end leaves you in suspicion and wants you to keep hearing more music. As a result, I have decided to write a 4th movement. My 4th movement will probably start with a slow melody that is comparable to the main melody heard in the 1st movement. It will most likely gain in speed and excitement. Additionally, I noticed that I will probably need to make edits to some parts of my music. In some places, I could not think of what to write. As a result, I  wrote  a melody that somewhat flowed with the rest of the music. I need to fix these problematic areas so that the music flows better. Next week, I will go through my music and make important edits. I will begin drafting my 4th movement, and I will try to finish my 2nd movement in the music tech lab.

Right now I feel good about my project. I was able to finish the rough draft of my 2nd movement, and now I am starting to put this movement on the music technology in the lab. I was able to add some details to my 1st movement, but some final additions such as dynamics need to be put on my 1st movement. As I have noticed, this will take quite a long time because I have many minor details to add to the 1st movement. Additionally, I have finally decided what my 3rd movement will be like. I decided to make it a rondo. A rondo is a song that someone can dance to. A lot of this movement will be light, bouncy music, and the actual melody will be heard, but in different styles than the 1st 2 movements. The end will probably accelerando(speed up) and end excitingly. I have been able to start the 3rd movement, and I plan having most if not all of a draft of this movement done by next week. I plan on having a good amount of my 2nd movement done in the music tech lab as well. Overall, I am hoping that all the music I have created will end up sounding good once I have to present it in the future.

This week I feel pretty good about my project. I was able to finish putting the 1st movement of the concerto on the music technology in the lab. The only thing left to do for the 1st movement is to add dynamics,  add crescendos and decrescendos, add accidentals, and change the key signature.  I was able to get a large amount of my the draft of my 2nd movement done as well. As I have discovered, the process of writing this movement is taking much longer than it did for the 1st movement. I am doing my best to keep the melody of the 1st movement in place. However, I am adding more excitement to the song by adding more notes and speeding up the tempo in this movement. Furthermore, I noticed that my 2nd movement will probably have a lot more measures than the 1st movement. Despite this, it will not last much longer because it has a much faster tempo than the 1st movement.  I plan on finishing the draft of my 2nd movement soon. Once it is done, I will work on putting its final draft on in the music tech lab. By Friday, I will have the finishing touches to my 1st movement done. Additionally, I will try my best to get most of the 2nd movement drafted in the music tech lab.

As of now, I am feeling very good about my song so far. This week I worked on my 1st movement quite a lot. As a result, I was able to finish a rough draft of my 1st movement, which is a  andante piece(walking speed). Additionally, I was able to start using the music tech lab which I will use to write the final draft of my music. I was able to do some edits on my music and put my music on the program in the music tech lab.  After I did this, I discovered that writing my next movement will be much tougher. As I said in my last blog, my 2nd movement will be a allegro piece(quick paced). This means that I will be writing a lot more 8th and 16th notes in this piece than in my 1st movement. This will be harder to do because I have to keep the melody that I developed in my 1st movement. Despite this, I am up to the challenge. Next week, I plan on drafting my 2nd movement. I will try to finish any edits on my second movement, and I will ask my band director whether I should make any changes to my 1st movement. At the end of next week, I plan on having at least a draft of the 1st and 2nd movement done.

This week I feel pretty good about my music. I have basically finished brushing up on music theory, and now I am beginning to write my music. This week I discovered that writing a melody is much harder than I thought it would be. I have only been able to write about 20 quality measures. Despite this, I have been able to figure out how the song will be set up. My 1st movement will be  a andante piece(walking speed). The next will be something fast that has a lot of 8th and 16th notes. I have not decided the style of the last movement. Next week I will continue writing more music. I will find some time to talk to my band director so that I can edit my music and get some suggestions that will make the music easier to write. I will ask my band director where I should put accent marks, crescendos, and decrescendos in my music, as well as how it should be set up. By the end of next week, I am hoping that a large amount of the rough draft of my 1st movement is done.

I am creating a symphony for band in 3 movements. I chose to do this because I love playing and listening to classical music. Despite this,  I have never gotten the chance to write a song before. I feel pretty good about my 20% Time so far. It will definitely be a challenge to create a song from scratch, but I know I can handle it. I have accomplished only a few things so far. First, I have found some sources that teach basic music theory. I have listened to music, such as ballads and popular classical symphonies that have noticeable clarinet parts. Next week, I plan on learning more music theory. I will buy sheet music and try to start writing a melody. I will get suggestions from my mentor, who will either be my band director or my  mentor at the New School of Music.