Final Recap of the Passion Project-

Intro-  Alright so my passion project, if you have been following along, was song or lyric writing. I chose songwriting because it's my safe place and its something that's totally mine. Mine to mess up, mine to change, 100% mine. But just because it's mine doesn't mean I won't share, I want my songs to have an effect on people and hopefully have people relate to the songs and for it to help them get through something in their lives. Another part of the Passion Project was researching and covering what benefits come from it. 

Research- I mainly researched neuromusicology, which is the study of how music affects the brain. Music interacts with the entire brain activating different areas depending on what genre and how the music makes the listener feel. Specifically, it sets off dopamine which is the feel-good chemical the brain produces. if you listen to a mixed playlist it can even increase the amount of dopamine produced. One effect of music is that it can make you more productive and creative while studying and working. 

Process- The process I took was varied and kind of all over the place. I started off wanting to write a song every week. This turned into a piece of a song like a chorus or verse and that kind of spired out of control and I fell behind in my weekly post. I eventually began to only write songs when I felt like they were good enough to post. Whenever I tried to force myself to write my songs came out fake and they didn't reflect how I wanted my music to be. Some of the songs I posted were "The Melody","Armor on a Rainy Day", and "Don't Give Me a Second Chance". If I was not writing drafts for my songs I was making recording or researching. I only have a few recordings because I dislike the way I sound on my phone but that's one of the things I've gotten more used to as the project unfolded.  

Successes/ Failures- I definitely feel that the project had a lot of ups but just as many downs.  I struggled with continuing to post songs along with just finding things to write about. This also played into my struggle to keep up with a blog post every week because I didn't have things to write about. I think I failed in answering my overall question because I wanted to learn about how my music affected people and if they understood where I was coming from or if they could relate to it and I didn't get that feedback. My successes were in my own personal growth. I became more confident in my vocals the sound of my voice and myself. I learned a lot about who I am and what I want to write and then what the best way to write my songs was.

RANT- I ranted in my presentation because it became so hard to continue writing because no one commented on the post and I had no feedback to develop my music more and to answer the questions I had. I the rant covered how I felt that the class was not being supportive of the project I worked so hard on and also everyone else's projects because no one got the support they deserved. I did state however that I was not an exception because I too failed to read everyone's post and comment. I regret that but there is no changing it now. 

Conclusion- I closed the presentation by singing one of my songs. The song was "Armor on a Rainy Day" and I'll just post the recording below so you can hear it. One other thing I'd like to say is that this passion project is not over, I will continue to write songs even if they don't get posted. I will make a point to post some throughout the summer so you can see that I'm being true to my word. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the songs I've written so far.

https://youtu.be/b3zz3fwbsQo

Learning This Week: Week 9-10

Alright, one new song, only a small bit and after that a little bit of a recap of my progress for this passion project.

Song Title- Don't Give me a Second Chance.

Don't don't don't give me a second chance
Don't don't don't give me a second chance
because if you do I'll just disappoint you again and end up hating all your friends so-oh-oh
Don't give me a second chance

I know you are lonely and looking for love but if you come back for me I'll just fail you again
And I know that you miss the thing that we had but it was just like a fire and now it is dead

So don't don't don't give me a second chance
Don't don't don't give me a second chance
Because if you do I'll just disappoint you again and hurt you like before when we were friends
Don't give me a second chance

I know that its painful being alone that's why it's so hard for me to tell you no
But I know if we try this you'll be hurt and that's not something my heart can take
I don't want crush your dreams a second time so that why you and I can't have a second chance

that's why you can't give me a second chance

so-oh-oh don't give me a second chance tonight.


Okay, that's only part of it and the rest is still iffy so deal with the short song.


Anyway on to the progress report.
Since starting this project I've learned about how music affects us or well how it could affect mentally and physically. That was early on and what I learned basically was that music can make us more efficient, happy, relaxed, and even make it easier to make friends. It's for these last three reason that I want to write songs. I want people to hear them and be able to relate and for that to somehow help them get through what they're dealing with. Mostly the project has been me just posting my songs. Songs that reflect problems I've faced or sometimes just songs that I come up with randomly in the shower and decide sound kinda cool. (no joke I come up with 90% of my songs in the shower). But I've found it hard to keep going with my songs because I'm not getting any feedback from you guys, the people that read this blog. For my passion project to be successful, I need people to ask questions and to tell me if I'm being repetitive or if all my songs just repeat the same stories. I want people to tell me if they understand what I'm trying to say and if they relate and I know it's selfish but just because it'll give me more motivation because it's been lacking. I have quite a few songs on the blog now and since the final project is coming up for this assignment, a live performance at my school in front of my peers, I need to pick a song. The song won't have music, as much as I'd like it too, because I have no talent with instruments so I can't make my own music. If you like one of the songs I've posted and want me to sing it comment on this post. Along with that comment please let me know if you think it should be fast or slow, I will have the final say and I can't guaranty I'll do what you asked but I would really appreciate the feedback. Thanks for reading.

Learning This Week: Weeks 6, 7, and 8

Okay so yeah I haven't posted a passion project post in a few weeks so this will be an update on the last 2 weeks and this week. 

Week 6-
I  mainly revised older songs and wrote a song called The Melody. Heres the chores:

I know you can hear it, and that it’s hurting you.

I have been watching and listening through

I’ve seen the tears run down your face, I’ve heard the cries trying to escape

And now I know what’s tearing you apart.

I hear the melody, melody of sadness playing inside of you because it’s playing inside of me too.

This pain we feel, pain we feel, won’t ever go away as long as we are lonely.

Somehow I’ll help you and maybe you’ll help me, will finally be where we're supposed to be.

Week 7-

So this was Spring Break week and I wrote a song for my AP U.S History class as a school creation project. I chose to write a song for the project because it also related to my passion and since I have to perform it I'll get some practice performing my own piece of music. The song focuses on the 1920's and talks about important events and topics of the time. The song is a rap which I don't normally do but I thought it'd be cool for the project.

Harding was considered unfit to be president while Coolidge came up as his temperamental opposite.

Now Harding was a corrupt and troubled man and his right-hand corporation was just as bad. Coolidge believed in as little government as possible but he helped reduce and lower tax American’s thought he was unstoppable.

Coolidge didn’t have it easy trying to stabilize the German economy.

He wanted America’s debts to be paid so with the help of the Dawes plan a lot of money was made.

But back on the homefront tensions were rising as African Americans started singing and writing

A Harlem Renaissance had begun and Langston Hughes was a poet who won.

Americans were dancing but dying because prosperity wasn’t for everyone who was trying to live the Hollywood life which seemed so bright with all its stage lights.

Think about all the Mexican Immigrants who gained nothing from listening to all the radios indifference

Man and think about the years to come almost like the Roaring Twenties were the start of a long slump.

I also found a track on Youtube to go with it but I stop at a 1:45 rather than use the whole 3-minute track. Click HERE for the link.

Week 8-

So this week I realized that I lost my inspiration for my songs. So I've been looking for new inspiration this week and I know what it is now. My inspiration is random and always changing. It could be something I hear or read and I just run with it. The base for this inspiration lies in the music itself because that is what really inspires me to write. So with my new inspiration identified I am ready to start writing more music and I'm ready to start picking and practicing a song to perform for the class. So yeah that's pretty much what I learned this week and it's a really important step.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid" Assignment: Reaction.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?" was published in 2008 by Nicholas Carr and claims that using the internet thought a great source of information and entertainment comes at the cost of a decreased ability to process and understand the deeper meanings in writings and it dulls your sense of reliability and memory. But the article is very neutral but Carr does believe what he says and is passionate about the topic. His purpose was to inform people, mostly teenagers and tech-savvy adults of the possible danger of the internet, so they can use the internet and benefit while resisting some of the changes extended internet use has on your brain.
        This post is a reaction not a reflection so I'm going to talk a lot about my own feelings on the topic and address things I liked and things I disliked. Okay, so in the second and third paragraph, Carr talks about feeling his mind changing, the way he thinks changing and says that "I can feel it most strongly when I'm reading"(Carr paragraph 2). He is referring to books and I looked at this and was confused because I spend lots of time online either working on school assignments (like this), playing video games or watching videos. Not once have I ever felt that I couldn't focus on a book because of my use of the internet rewiring my brain. Carr believes the internet reprograms our brains to be more efficient and streamline, the metaphor he used was "I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski"(Carr 4). I love how accurate that metaphor is because I agree with what Carr is saying in that people have transitioned from deep focused reading to a, get the gist and move on, form of reading. This is one of the over-arching themes in the article so I want to dive into it a little more and give tell you that though I agree with what Carr says I think this can be prevented if not, definitely decreased. The fact that the internet makes you brain take on this fast-paced search and move attitude is true but just like with other functions of the brain it's just a switch of a switch. What I mean by this is that if you have both a deep readers mindset, which can be developed or redeveloped through more book reading and less time on the net, and a search and go mindset then you should be able to switch back and forth between the two while performing a specific task. If someone is able to switch between these two mindsets then the negative effects of the net should diminish if not disappear because you can still focus on obtaining the deeper meaning in books and articles while at other times you can simply find the little bits of information you need; this would also mean you can still enjoy a nice book without your brain trying to jump around on you. This post is already over 500 words so I guess I'm being a little wordy but that was the main point I wanted to talk about but another smaller detail I want to address lies in a quote from Maryanne Wolf, "We are not only what we read. We are how we read" going on to say that the net makes us "mere decoders of information"(Wolf 8). The quote is followed up with a statement that suggests we lose our ability to both "interpret text" and  make "rich mental connections" because of the net changing our thinking process. For me when I read a book I try to make connections and interpret the text but I also fill like I'm a decoder of information because I try and draw connections from events at the beginning of a book to what happens toward the end. So, I guess the point I want to make is that learning to decode information is an important tool for life and it is being developed from the use of internet and reflecting over into the reading of long books is a positive side effect of internet use.  Now I have other things I could talk about but I don't want an 800-word post so I'm logging off here. Hope you enjoyed the post. BYE.

Learning This Week: Week 5

Okay, this week's post will be covering some more song drafts that I've started this week and last week. Hope you enjoy and please comment your thoughts on the song drafts. But before any of that I recently was roasted by a friend of mine and in the sport of good fun, I think I'll try my hand at a return roast but it's not my forte so if it's subpar please forgive me.

Okay my friend I hope you enjoyed roasting me I read and laughed but not because it was funny

You call me out saying that I'm the biggest man around and that I need to sit my A$$ down but coming

from you, I'm only gonna stand cause I won't take that hypocritical bull $hit

You walk over people and don't look down because to you their apart of your stomping grounds.

Acting like everyone else is beneath you someday that attitude gonna defeat you

And for a boy who thinks he's got life all figured out, you sure seem stuck in the past all ways talking

about Cross Country and how you were picked on and called out.

Talk about pain and my injury but I find it hard to believe that you'd know about either since the only

thing you see is your own inflated ego.

You bring up my brother and say that a roast would kill him but I think you overestimate your subpar

ability. I know him and he's not that weak, the ridicule that people give him but he still doesn't accept

defeat.

I know my roast was long and you probably didn't read because you're scared I'd beat you at your own

game but this was all good and fun and I hope a roast heads my way because there ain't no way you're

killing me.
*Mic Drop*
That was fun and please comment on who's roast was better!!! Link for the first roast HERE.

Now here's one of the songs I wrote called Left Me. 

It’s all over now I fell apart oh how did I miss you sneaking around on me

Oh god, I’ve lost my way chasing you everyday

I’m trying to believe what you’ve done to me and now your leaving

I’ve lost it all

You left me in the dark

Broke my feeble heart

Now I’m fading away without baby

Lost inside the sound

I’m only running now

Now I’m fading away without you baby

You left me you left me, broken

You left me you left me, bleeding

You left me you left me, dying

And I still can’t believe what you’ve done to me

I only wanted love, never got enough from someone like you.

How come I lost everything chasing dreams away

I’m still trying to believe what you’ve done to me and now you’re screaming.

I’ve lost it all

You left me in the dark

Broke my feeble heart

Now I’m fading away without baby

Lost inside the sound

I’m only running now

Now I’m fading away without you baby

You left me you left me, broken

You left me you left me, bleeding

You left me you left me, dying

And I still can’t believe what you’ve done to me

"How SmartPhones Hijack Our Minds" Response Assignment:

"How SmartPhones Hijack Our Minds" by Nicholas Carr in 2017 covering different studies about how increased smartphone use decreases a person intellect. The article opens up with a statement about smartphones being the equivalent of a person but I think the phone has become more than just a person; it's become your best friend. And like any best friend our phones are a distraction, influence our behavior and also provide us with a seemingly unlimited supply of anxiety. As the dependency on our phone increase, we start to lose their intellectual ability and the phones will affect you even when you don't use it. A study from 2015 Journal of Experimental Psychology found that "when people's phones beep or buzz while they're in the middle of a challenging task, their focus wavers and their work gets sloppier." This happens whether the phone is picked up or not. This may seem very self-explanatory like, "duh they'd get distracted" and it is, but the implications of the distraction are what really matters. Implications for testing, for example, you fail the test. Lets now think about your phone keeping you from reacting to a situation.The situation could be someone simply asking for directions or it could be more serious. Reduced reaction times could affect a lot more than a grade on a test or if someone gets directions, it may put you in a situation of harm or danger but this is an extreme case. I've also noticed that my generation seems to get blamed a lot for how much phones are used; personally I just laugh at this because our parents are as involved if not more involved with their phones and other screened devices as we are. The fact that we as teens are told to get off our phones is extremely annoying when the ones who tell us this then grab their phone for one task or another. Phones also reduce your social skills and make your everyday life less satisfying or so says one study. First off I can see the truth in the statement in that phones take away from face to face communication, and that they may be used as a means of avoiding social interaction but it completely ignores the positive effects of using your phone like connecting with other people on social media or even games that allow you to connect to people all over the world. This onesided argument that only highlights the negatives of using our phones, in my opinion, is extremely biased. I prefer to see both sides of an argument to form an opinion for myself, in this case, I come to a conclusion that people are to distracted on phones and that we spend to much time on them but I feel that the benefits that come from using our phones

"Why Don't We Complain" Response Assignment

"Why Don't We Complain" is an article written by William F. Buckley JR. in 1960 and addresses why American people don't complain about injustices they experience and expresses the consequences of this in action. In this blog post, I'm going to talk about my personal feelings on why it's important that we complain in our society.
First off we need to address what it means to complain. A complaint is a call for change, and you the complainer are willing to do something to bring about this change. Complaining becomes whining when people know they have no intention of making a change. In the article, it is stressed that Americans, in general, refuse to complain and just accept whatever inconvenience or unjust thing that is occurring. I think that the article, though out of date, actually represents how people feel about complaining or complaining in the true sense of the word pretty accurately. As a high school student I see people get annoyed, bothered, and even bullied and not themselves or anyone else for that matter makes a complaint. There are lots of reasons for this and as Buckley states "we are all increasingly anxious in America to be unobtrusive, we are reluctant to make our voices heard, hesitant about claiming our rights; we are afraid that our cause is unjust, or that if it is not unjust, that it is ambiguous; or if not even that, that it is too trivial to justify the horrors of confrontation with Authority" (Paragraph 8). I believe what is stated directly above is true to a certain extent, I must, however, point out in our society today more people are willing to complain to stand up for their rights and to fight authority; though it is still less common than it should be. Another event that transpires in the article is the story about a plane ride and a lunch tray that could have been taken but was not. I look at this example and yes I understand the annoyance of the refusal to simply take the tray as the flight attendant walked by as she was headed to the kitchen anyway but it is at this point I contemplate how necessary it is to complain. Does complaining about the actions of the flight attendant change anything? In this specific case are you or anyone else being mistreated or receiving unjust retreatment? In my opinion, it's not worth making a commotion over the tray when it is only a very slight inconvenience. The Article doesn't frame the situation in the same light but in the end, Buckley does not make a complaint which makes me believe that the situation was different than let's say the movie theater example he provides toward the beginning of the article; though it must be said that the complaints he made were directed to his wife and therefore could be labeled as whining as no action was taken to fix the projection of the movie which apparently was slightly out of focus. The difference between the movie theater example and the plane example is that one involves a whole theater of people and the other just one person. The level of annoyance was close to the same a slight irritation in both cases but one irritation could have affected a majority of people and possibly people that went to the same movie at a later time while the other incident only affected Buckley so to suffer through a few minutes of unpleasantry was not a reason to complain unless a number of other passengers had the same problem. Complaining about a change is necessary because if no one complains then the problem will either not be noticed by an authority or the problem will be ignored by that authority. It is important to note that the authority in this sense is not an officer of the law but anyone who has the power to directly change a situation.  Rapping up this discussion on complaining I will say that I whine a lot and complain little. But I do complain. Example, I receive an undercooked steak that I'm already paying to much for, I ask the waitress if she would please take the steak back and have it cooked a little longer. She with a polite smile says "sure" and takes the bloody piece of meat back and it is cooked thoroughly and places it in front of me saying "here you go, and let me know if you need anything else." In this case, my complaint is heard and I receive a positive solution to my problem. this solution is why we need to complain. If a complaint is just then some sort of solution should be provided. The scale of problem and solution changes with the situation but nonetheless a proper complaint should get a solution. This concluded what I have to say regarding complaints and complaining. (I am aware it's a sloppy finish, I'm tired.)