Category: EDCI 306
Blog Post 1
For my music project I will be composing a song. I have a musical background and am able to play a handful of different musical instruments. My strongest instrument is the piano. I love learning and playing classical piano songs. I am a solid pianist; however, I struggle with performing the songs I learn. No matter how often I practice, I still manage to get very nervous before playing in front of somebody. The funny this is, it doesn’t matter who I am performing in front of. I could be playing a song for my parents and I still manage to get extremely nervous. My hands shake and become very clammy. I’m not exactly sure why I get so nervous, but it is something that I have always needed to work on.
I will be composing a song for piano and guitar and writing the sheet music for it as well. The piano section will be completed by midterm on October the 30th. I feel as though this project will help bring me out of my shell. Recording myself playing a song that I will have composed will be a huge step for me and will bring me more confidence in my piano and guitar skills. I have a few ideas of what I am going to do, but I am really looking forward to getting started!
Blog Post 2
I have started composing my song on the piano. I am really enjoying practicing each day. I used to play piano all the time before I became a university student. It was a relaxing activity for me, but now that I am so busy working towards my Bachelor of Education at UVic, I don’t have as much time to play when I would like to. I am so grateful for this project because I can challenge myself by composing this piece, but I can also do what I love and practice piano again! It is very therapeutic for me.
Now that I have an idea of what I want my song to sound like, I need to start thinking about how I am going to write my sheet music. I have never written my own sheet music before, so I do not know what to expect. I know it is going to be very time consuming if I try to do it all by pencil, especially with all of the articulations and dynamics. That is why I am going to try to find a program that allows me to digitally write the sheet music. We will see what I find! Either way, it is going to be so cool to have sheet music for a song that I wrote!
Blog Post 3
I have completed the piano section of my song and I absolutely love it! I have included everything that I put in my criteria and feel very fulfilled. I used a free program called MuseScore to write the sheet music. I would recommend this program to anybody who is interested in composing music. It was super user friendly, and I had so much fun doing it. I have also recorded myself playing the song which took forever! I think it took me at least 20 tries, and that is not an exaggeration. I kept getting nervous, overthinking it, and making slight mistakes. I also have the tendency to gradually speed up as I play and recording myself really showed me how often I do that. I eventually had to put on my headphones and have a metronome sound in my ear, otherwise the song would finish with a completely different tempo than when it started. Recording myself really helped me shake off some bad habits. I will likely still speed up slightly when I play, but now it is something that I will be hyperaware of and work on. I am so happy that I chose to compose my own song. I am thrilled with how the piano section turned out, and now I can focus on the guitar! Scroll down to check out my midterm video and sheet music!
Click this link for my sheet music! —> My Song