mushroom emoji

Yo

Let me know if you see this

And I will start posting moosic that I made that isn't trash like the thing I made here two years ago oh my goodness I am so old and sad and depressed now

Blog #5, 5/5

Hello World,

Welcome to my final blog post!  I am probably never ever going to post in here ever again, which is kind of sad.  Oh well.  I can't say I'm not glad it's finally over though.  Thank goodness it's over, I don't have to worry about it anymore.  Anyways, attached below are my script outline, my script, and my finally completed composition.  (Yes it's not 100% perfect but it's a lot better).

Before getting my grade back

Ok so here I want to reflect on my final project.  Overall I did much better than I thought I would (that seems to be a recurring theme with me, doing better than I think I will).  I asked for criticisms from people after the project and the common answer was just that I talked way too fast.  Which is probably true, I do talk very fast.  It may even have been a bit faster than when I was practicing because like nerves and stuff.  But they said that other than that it was fine overall.  I still don't know how to connect the sound; thank goodness I still made it work.  Maybe I'm just an idiot but whatever.  It definitely turned out a lot better than I was expecting, I memorized my script well, and everything really fell into place at the last second.  Well maybe not the last second considering I had my entire script memorized by Sunday and was quoting it at my 7-year-old sister's birthday party at Legoland.  

Self-Evaluation: Yeah so it seems like I'm supposed to do a self-evaluation or something now?  I'm not sure but that's what I will do.  If I were to guess, there are three sections to the grading: there's Content, Speaking, and Visuals.  I'd assume that Content would be the most out of the 30 points, then Speaking, then Visuals, so my pseudo-rubric will have 15 Content points, 10 Speaking points and 5 Visuals points.  Content: I think I checked all the Content boxes; I showed my progress, my motivation, my upsides and downsides, and I concluded with a lesson.  However, my lesson was kind of weak and just made-up on the spot.  Like, even if I presented even more evidence for you to start composing yourself it just wouldn't work very well.  Overall I think my content was good; despite having a shaky application, it is much better than my application for the brain project.  I would say 13/15 for Content. Speaking: So this was probably my biggest issue.  Some parts of my speaking were good; I think I talked loudly enough (at least at the beginning), and I think my diction was fine, someone laughed once so I think my talking was interesting.  But I talked way too fast, and probably made things slurred or muddled, which would definitely land a big blow on my score.  If I didn't have my talking-too-fast issue I would give myself an 8/10, but my final score is probably a 6/10. Visuals: I don't think there was anything wrong with my slides, but there was probably something that I did bad on so I'll give myself a 4/5 for that.  That ends me up with a total of 23/30 which is a 77% and is really bad.  I do grade myself kind of harshly though, so hopefully my real grade ends up being much higher than that.

TED Commandments: Ok, after looking at some of the blogs that other people did in the psat from the Genius Project document, it turns out some people did a reflection on how well they did on the TED commandments.  Ones I did well: The one I probably did the best on was probably "Don't read your talk." as I had the entire script memorized and had no need to read from my notes at all.  I don't think I really flaunted my ego or anything like that, nor did I make any ideas super complicated. Ones I have to improve on: My worst were probably "Dream big.", "Show us the real you.", and "Connect with people's emotions."  I didn't really reveal any super astounding ideas or anything and I didn't really do anything that would make people believe me that they should start composing.  I also didn't really say anything about myself or my inner insecurities; I just laid out what I did and the facts.  And I didn't really make anyone have any emotions.  Evan Bananis laughed once but I think he might have just been doing that to make me feel better.

After getting my grade back

Ok, my final grade was an 83.333333, that is, a 25 out of 30.  It's definitely better than the 77 I predicted  but I definitely wish I did a lot better.  So it seems like the things I did the worse were my talking speed and how my ideas flowed.  They also said that I kind of crammed everything in, too much in too little time.  My application was also kind of bad.  They also said my final clincher quote was off-topic, and I also forgot to unmute myself, which led to some difficulties.  I think those are all valid criticisms and I can definitely do a lot better next time.  Hopefully.  There seems to be a recurring theme here about my applications; I definitely need to work on them a lot more next year.

Ok I guess that's it, this project is OVER and I will never get the opportunity to do it ever again.  Bye.  (random stuff below)

Commented on: Christopher Rowan, Mia Kamppari, Raymond (rayford) Pelletier

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Original Script Outline:

Script Outline

1. Introduction

1. Hook - interesting fact

1. Seikilos Epitaph: Oldest surviving musical composition, from around 100 AD, Greek song with lyrics found on a tombstone by a man named Seikilos

2. Background information

1. Brief overview of motivations for wanting to be able to compose

3. Thesis

1. Composing has a variety of benefits, not just music related

2. Project description

1. Motivations (touched on in background information, explain further)

1. Enjoyment: I like composing music and want to get better in order to enjoy it more

2. Improvement: Similar to #1, I want to improve in order to enjoy it more and also be 

3. Daniel: I used to compose a little with my friend Daniel; similar to #2, I want to get better at composing in order to make better things with Daniel, 

2. Research

1. Some research was helpful but the grand majority of things were basically useless, I learned that I could not be lazy with composing music

3. Progress

1. Video

2. Reflection on video (both positives and negatives)

1. This was my first time actually composing an entire piece by myself and is a good starting point for hopefully later compositions

2. What I did was not very impressive considering my 10-year piano background and long period of time to compose

4. Reflection

1. If I had a chance for a re-do I would waste less time and also do less research and more playing piano, overall I am proud of my final project and all of the things I have learned

3. Case/Defense

1. My own experience (above)

1. Learned music skills (composing music)

2. Being less lazy

3. Persistence/perseverance (keep going through “writer’s” block)

4. Patience (with Daniel for being bad and annoying)

2. Research

1. Music improves your mood, memory, intelligence, and even prevent dementia

2. Creation (composing = creating music) can also help the brain as completing a creation releases dopamine

3. General experiences

1. Composing will require you, whoever you are, to have more of an open mind, be more creative and have more persistence

4. Conclusion

1. 
   

1. I have now described my attempt at getting better at composing, how I succeeded and how I failed too, what I learned, and why you should compose too

2. Jason learned guitar so you can also get into music

3. Quote by Victor Hugo: “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent”

Script:

Has anyone here heard of the Seikilos Epitaph?  Anybody?  Well of course not.  It’s the oldest surviving complete music composition found engraved in a tombstone in a Hellenistic Greek town.  While engraving ancient Greek songs into tombstones isn’t really my thing, I have always been interested in going deeper into music composition, having dabbled in it a bit here and there.  So when I heard that we had this opportunity to work on whatever we wanted for two months, I immediately jumped to music composition.  And it turns out the composition comes with a ton of benefits, which I learned, and that you can learn too when you start your composing journey.  So why music composition?  First of all, I simply enjoyed it.  Another reason I wanted to get better was because of my friend, Daniel.  We used to always compose random stuff together, since I moved it has become harder; I guess I just have to make up for it with better composing.  It has also in a way brought out friendship closer together.  In order to do that I first did some research.  My research was really just random youtube videos and websites that I thought would be helpful to my overall cause.  Don’t get me wrong, some of it definitely was, but the grand majority of it was useless.  This was in part because of my lazy motives, trying to find some sort of a shortcut.  If there is anything I learned from my research, it’s that you can’t be lazy, even in music composition, and have to put in the full effort.  Here are some of the fruits of that research: [clip] So yeah that’s cool.  Technically it’s the first composition I have finished by myself, and I think it’s a good starting point.  I can say I’m satisfied with it, but it’s important to know that the project as a whole is far more than the final product but also the entire experience and everything learned along the way, over which I definitely learned enough, not just about music.  I told you about how I learned about laziness; however, persistence and perseverance were also a recurring theme.  The only reason I didn’t quit halfway through this composition like all my other ones was because it was a school project.  One does not simply quit halfway through a school project.  Because of that, I was forced to develop the perseverance and persistence needed to complete a composition.  I also learned to be fine with what I have; my original goal was to make two compositions, not one, so I technically didn’t meet it.  And guess what, I’m not dead.  I have also learned many things through working with Daniel, such as teamwork and cooperation, and you’d understand if you knew Daniel, but working with him requires a lot of patience.  Now these experiences are mine only; they cannot be applied to all of you.  Never fear; there are some universal benefits of composing.  Listening to and playing music at all can improve your mood, memory, intelligence and can even stop the spread of dementia.  Completing a composition can also increase brain function.  And composition will always require you, whoever you are, to have more of an open mind, be more persistent and to be more creative, all of which are good skills to have in life.  Ok, so this is why you should start composing too!  Don’t give me the “I don’t play an instrument” excuse, just look at Jason.  Before these two months he knew very little about music, and now, two months later, he knows all the ins and outs of the guitar.  If he can do it, I’m sure the rest of you can too.  Then you can start composing.  As Victor Hugo said, "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent."

Here is my completed composition: https://bit.ly/icancounttothree

Vlog, 4/18

As I promised here are the two audio clips:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ms1pUgwHVCnTHSoPTiyDcQFVgc8DyUy9/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OFVt8YDDpEn-3snAHzhY_oy4KqqqzQ71/view

(No it's not completely cleaned up and it's still really bad, again, I will put out another post when/if it is completely done.)

Blog #4, 4/14

Hello World,

Back to my standard Helvetica font!  Yayyyyy!!!!!!

Besides that, this week I will begin to work on my video vlog (which I'm pretty sure is like one of these blogs except it's recorded and has specitic things that are supposed to be covered), as well as do more research and do more work on the thing I am making.  Hopefully I can finish the outline of it by the end of the cycle so that I can work on other stuff later.

Oh yeah and earlier I said that I would be making two pieces but that obviously isn't going to work.

Research

(Terraforming Mars is a fun game yet I don't even play the real version but the card game instead)

I have all of spring break of doing nothing to do stuff.  Yay!  Now here I am on the Monday after a definitely very productive spring break. -_-

1. https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2012/01/25/stuck-on-a-song-how-to-finish-that-composition/

Ok this article says "stuck on a song" (which, again, is inaccurate).  Despite the vocabularic inaccuracy, it is exactly where I am right now.  I am stuck at around 2/3 or 3/4 of my piece and I need some ideas to finish it up with.

*reads article*

Ok I have now read the article.  It has some ambiguous and general hints, which I can definitely use, but may not be too helpful.  Maybe I'm just lazy, I'm not sure.  I'll do that later though.

2. https://www.quora.com/How-often-do-you-get-stuck-after-composing-a-few-bars-of-a-new-piece

Ok ok fine I know this isn't a reliable source but I read Quora a lot and I guess it's good to get input from random people on the internet sometimes.  There are some insightful stuff in there, but overall, it does not have much good information; the norm for Quora.

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2k7pZlf_vE

Finally I have a video!  Yayayay

So the guy is using a real classical piece to get his point.  I'm not sure exactly what it is; is it to end quietly, or just to end in the same way as the rest of the piece?  He's saying a lot of things about the pedal, but I feel like it is specific to this piece only, as not all pieces are the same as the one he is using.

4. https://yousician.com/blog/outro-the-ending-of-a-song

Here's another webpage but it seems like it won't work for me as I am not songwriting.  Bleh.  I'm getting a lot of bad sites today.  (Not bad sites but just bad for me)

5. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-melody

Wow I only have one video so far, that's really cool, all my other blogs have had tons upon tons of videos.  It's by Masterclass too, which could be really cool (as people who run masterclasses have coolness) or bad (as the super good people often act like you know what I mean I don't know how to explain it right now my mom is telling me to go upstairs and sleep aaaaahhhh).  Anyways, it's not another outro thing but more on just the melody.  I guess I technically don't need it anymore because I have enough melodies but it could help with coming up with something to finish up with.  And a lot of the stuff actually in there is mostly stuff related to things I have already read, but it could be helpful.

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjQeT16H9LQ

So here's a nice short video about writing harmonies.  There's an interesting part about using high and low notes, which I guess would be helpful except that I don't really have the time nor commitment to work all that into my piece.  It also says that it is more important to focus on where the piece is going than where it is coming from, which is kind of ambiguous but is kind of helpful.  And other than that it's mostly just really basic stuff, but it's for concert band, which has like a million instruments, so it doesn't really apply to what I'm doing on piano.

  vs.   

(I just looked up random pictures but you get the idea, concert band music =/= piano music)

Ok, I'm thinking too much about Terraforming Mars now, let me go get distracted and look up Terraforming Mars for the next half hour.

Also here is a picture of me playing at a piano recital from a year ago or something. Hahahahahahahahahahaha

Real Doing Stuff

Look I have videos! Yayyy!

...actually I was going to use the videos for more of a visual component in the blog post but they are too big, and there's no way I can go re-record again.  So sadly I will just have to give you another bitly link even though I put in all that work to record myself using video...

https://bit.ly/40g0vs4

https://bit.ly/41uQjNl

(two takes I don't remember which is which)

(And yes I am wearing a bible quizzing shirt.  Yes it is cold in the basement and I am too lazy to go get a long sleeved shirt)

(As you can see it's not really that polished yet; I blank at random places, hit wrong notes often, and have extremely inconsistent tempo, but I'll keep working on it, and when I am set with it maybe I will put another post with the completed piece on here but I probably won't)

Anyhow the lack of work this week just means better procrastination.  Or I can just say "I was busy".

Thanks for reading this goodbye see you never probably

Commented on Chace Kim, Shaurya Sinha, Christopher Rowan

Blog #3, 3/28

Hello World,

Ok so I kind of forgot about this blog until today (Saturday), so I will have to do some catching up.  Just like last week I will do some "research" and also some actual composing stuff.  I think I have somewhat of a solid melody down so I will try to come up with some variations of the melody.  But of course I will start with the "research" part.  Also this is a cool new font but I don't like it that much, I'll try to stay consistent with it for the entire blog post though.  Oooh look it's a random image because I want to include a picture.  Gneiss

Research

1. https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/understanding-music/theme-and-variations/

Oh this is interesting, I thought it was only about making variations of a central melody but it is about a whole style of music.  I'm too lazy to go back and start over so I won't follow this exact same style but I can use elements of it to make variations of my melody.

This says that variations are made in four main ways: Melody, Rhythm, Harmony, and Time Signature.  Concerning the first one, melody, well, it kind of says that "you just do stuff", which is true.  It doesn't really tell me how but like can it?  I don't know.  Rhythm and Harmony are both helpful, but Key Signature?  I mean, it would still sound more or less the same with a different key signature.

Rating: 9/10

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3sugzHktc8

I agree with his first statement: It is hard enough for me to make an initial melody but then I just repeat it a lot and it gets boring.  A lot of it is DAW talk; I actually had a yearly subscription to Presonus Sphere but I didn't really know how to do it.  I should learn how to use it better sometime.  Ok so the video mostly talked about moving stuff around which I thought was cool but it was more oriented toward music production and stuff.

Rating: 6/10 (Good but not really good for what I am doing)

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KkDbc7XMa8

So this isn't an instructional video, I'm just watching how these people do variations on Paganini's 24th Caprice.  The first one is the original.  The second one keeps the same chord progression, moves the melody to a lower instrument and changes the meter.  The third one changes the meter again; the chord progression is still the same but it sounds different.  There's also an interesting change to the melody.  I don't know what to call it though.  The fourth one is really slow and doesn't really sound that much like the original.  I got too bored so I stopped paying attention to it so I'm not sure if it has the same chord progression or not.  The fifth one sounds really different from the original, albeit more than the fourth one.  There is like no chord progression.  The sixth one is weird, at this point they all sound nothing like the original.  Wait, the seventh one finally has the same melody and chord progression, it's warped really strangely though, I like this one.  Yeah sorry I don't feel like listening to it anymore.  I also watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcL0IsklM3M on the same thing and it was honestly easier to hear the melody in this one, but in the end it's really just the same thing. It is helpful but I'm not really looking to make something like this.

Rating: 6/10 (I mean the music was good but not that helpful for my purpose)

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gghl3GGsIo

Ok, that's it with variation things now, back just to looking at melodies.  This video seems kind of weird but I'll go ahead and watch it.  Ok it says that using octaves in the left hand is good because of some weird minimalistic thing.  And that's a really long chord progression (or maybe I'm just bad).  Ah now it's talking about melodies, that's good.  Something about using motifs and transposing them, and also with arpeggios and a lot of weird stuff.  I feel like this is more for advanced people.  Yeah I closed the video at the advertisement I don't want advertisements,

Rating: 6/10

As you can see I only have four sources this time... sadly.  Only 830 words too.  So sad.

Real Doing Stuff

This week I didn't actually do that much composing stuff but I did get a little bit in.  I still played it kind of bad but next week is spring break, which means more time to work!  Or more time to procrastinate, I guess.  We'll see what happens.

I couldn't figure how to embed my audio file (there's image and video but no audio), so here's a link: https://bit.ly/lukebraisted1

(If anyone knows how to embed audio please let me know that would be helpful)

And again, any and all suggestions would be super duper helpful.

Why are you down here?  What are you looking at?  Hehehehahaha

Commented on the blogs of: Andrew Nguyen, Kevin Gao, and Brandon Furman

Blog #2, 3/20

Hello World,

In this post I will document my "research" and will also include some ideas I have come up with.

Firstly, I got 2 points off on my timeline and I redid it - I'm not sure if I redid it well enough but here you go:

Research

I am doing a lot of research on melody-producing making. Here are the resources and stuff I used:

1. 

How To Write A Melody On The Piano (For Beginners) - YouTube

I am watching the video as I type.  The person goes through a lot of music theory basics that I know already.  I thought it was really interesting how she played every note of the scale over every single chord.  It definitely would be helpful because you would be able to hear how every note sounds with your chord progression.  However, I don't really know how you just "pick tones that sound good"; I will have to work on that.  I guess I'm not xNxx enough lol

Rating: First step is cool but meh 5/10

2.

How To Write A Song In 5 Minutes On The Piano - YouTube

Obviously this isn't going to be exactly what I am looking for but it will probably give me insights into how a piece is really made.

Too much repetition...

I don't actually like the piece very much.  And like what is it???

Rating: What on earth is this??? 2/10

3.

Another video with a different guy who seems to know what he is doing:

How To Improvise A Beautiful Melody on Piano (PDF Download included) - YouTube

The guy seems to be able to immediately get out a cool melody but I still don't know how he does it.  I haven't reached my goal yet then.  Maybe I have to work on that myself.  And still too repetitive.

Rating: Same as above 2/10

4.

Another video from a different channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj1VC_rfaP4

This seems like a FL Studio tutorial (I do have to learn how to use music production software eventually but not now)

Watching the guy make a melody was cool, I'm not sure if I'm learning anything though.

Rating: It sounded cool and was cool to watch but like didn't do anything sorry 3/10

5.

Another different video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA7gdz56LtY

Seems like what I am looking for.

Use notes from the chords - well duh but only using the notes from the chords won't sound that good, and I don't know how to manipulate notes that well either.

Passing notes - nothing I don't know yet.  Still, I am confused how these people take the notes and put them in the right time and place; I cannot do that.  Also really repetitive.

Yeah I got too lazy to listen to the whole thing

Rating: Interesting 6/10

6.

A website now

https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/composing-music/writing-a-melody/

Darn I have to actually put effort into making up random strings of music???  I thought I could just find the secret rules for thinking better... I am so sad now... 🍄

"Motif writing" seems intelligent.  I did that with the previous piece I made with my friend and am trying to do so now as well.  It also kinda sorta explains how it's done too.

"Writing a melody over a chord progression" also seems intelligent and manageable; I know what chords are and am good at playing around with those.  But then it says to just "improvise a melody".  Again that is my main issue...

Rating: Actually tells me stuff 8/10

7.

The last (for now): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD3VMQpTI48

Ok this seems helpful and also very simple and easy.  However I will not use the exact same chord progression and notes (it does seem kind of restricting).  The repeated chord progression also seems too repetitive.  I'm also not sure if this is the type of thing I should be looking for (improvisation sounds too jazz-y).  It also seems a bit too flexible.  I think it would be easy to mess around like this and sort of make it into a more suitable melody.

Rating: Spends 10+ minutes talking about a single trick 6/10

8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVuZp5gZCgA

Well, I was only going to do seven but I saw this one and it looked interesting enough to record down here.

It seems nice (gneiss) at first glance because I know how to find chords and a chord progression, and it tells you how to just build off of one of those.  It turns out I need a chord progression to make a melody.

Ok it seems super super simple, which has its upsides and downsides.  The simplicity will help with my bad-at-composingness and my laziness, but will also make it harder for me to further develop these simpler ideas.  (And my goodness that is an extremely ugly staff.)

Rating: Too easy?  But doable 7/10

In the end, a lot of these things are just ultra-specific tips and strategies.  They are helpful but there aren't many overall takeaways.

Add to important list: Start with a chord progression, there are no shortcuts (do random things until something sounds good), play around with different chord progressions which will help with improvisation and stuff

Real Stuff

Here is what I have come up with so far.  It is currently really bad and I do have to practice it more but I don't feel like it right now haha.  

https://bit.ly/ooohoogoogoohoogogog0

If you have any sort of suggestion please tell me I don't care how offending or mean it is just tell me so I can make it good

Commented on Evan Bananis, Stefan Preutu, Jack Pickel

Blog #1, 3/7

Post 1: Project pitch, expand on goals for project, begin research on music theory

Hello World,

First of all, this is my first time using any sort of blog thing so I really don't know what I am doing.  I may actually have the capacity to actually put somewhat-bearable content on here, but as I said earlier, I do not know what I am doing and do not know how to use Blogger.  I am sure I will learn about how the website is used more and more though.

Project Pitch

First, here is the required presentation I made for the project pitch: bit.ly/scrobiculatus-gp

I decided to work on my currently nonexistent music composition skills for many reasons:

I enjoy it- "Music composition" is something I enjoy; I have always liked just sitting down at the piano and playing random stuff.  That does not mean I am good at it, simply that it is a hobby.  However, I am sure that I would enjoy it if I could make something and listen to it without continuously cringing at how bad it is.

I have the resources- I believe that I have the resources required to do this.  First of all, I have played the piano since I was 4, took piano lessons for almost 10 years, and currently play the bassoon (look that up if you don't know what it is).  I also have somewhat of an understanding of basic music theory (which is something I would like to expand on in this project).  We also have two pianos and an electric piano at home for some reason.  To actually compose music, most people use some sort of composing software, which I know how to use.

It connects me with one of my friends- I moved from a school near Syracuse, NY.  At that school I actually had friends.  (Wow, a huge shocker.)  One thing I liked to do with one of my friends was compose on the piano.  I am not saying that the stuff we made was good, but it was better than what I can do by myself.  However, it was good enough that we actually kind of liked how it sounded.  It will be harder to compose without my friend doing some of the work too.

I should also have a timeline that maps out what I will do and when I will accomplish it.  However, a lot of my time will be spent on doing some music theory "research" (if you can call it that) and messing around on the piano.  Frankly, I do not really know how long that will take.  I do have somewhat of a timeline in my presentation, but it is very tentative and open-ended.

As for my goal(s), they should be pretty obvious: to make a piano piece that sounds good.  However, that is not all I want to be able to do.  Coming up with one piece that sounds cool is a good thing, but it could easily be the product of dumb luck.  As I stated earlier, I want to learn how to consistently make stuff that sounds good via my (hopefully) increased music theory knowledge over the course of this project.

Research

For my music compositon "research" (if you can really call it research) I read this article: https://www.davidnevue.com/pianoadvice2.htm

DISCLAIMER: This David Nevue guy says "song" instead of "piece" which is wrong because something is only defined as a song if it has words.

1. Start with the Melody- This part is something I really have to apply when I "compose music".  Remember my friend from above?  Well, in the piece we made together, he made the melodies (most of them) and I just added harmony and weird stuff.  I'm actually really bad at making melodies. I guess I have two months to learn.

2. What is your song about?- I don't know, I just press random stuff on the piano.  That may also be related to why I can never name my piece anything.

3. To Intro or Not to Intro?- I feel like I should worry about my intro later

4. The Anti-Melody Song?- These "mood pieces" sound disgusting.  No offense to anyone who may have made one

5. Follow the Muse- I'm not sure this would always lead to better quality material.  Is it worth abandoning all that you have done for one cool idea?  It depends how good it is I guess.

6. Repeat with Style- Yes, this is something I have to work on.  The few number of pieces I have actually made are all super repetitive.

7. Build Slowly, but Build Something- This is one of those weird loopy goopy stuff about "playing more musically" that my piano teacher used to always talk about.  I feel like this can be accomplished with a good harmony part.  I should actually come up with a spine first.

8. Mistakes Count- Well, when I am composing something, it obviously doesn't matter if I make a mistake.  What do you think i am doing, performing for the endless amount of people who just love listening to me play piano???? (I'm working on my sarcasm too.)

9. Change is Good- Similar to #6 about not being too repetitive, except across pieces.  I think it would be better for me to get a good piece first.

10. Keep it Simple- This is a good thing to keep in mind once I already have a song going.  If it has too much "stuff" in it it begins to sound bad.

11. Let Time Have its Way- ...I only have 2 months, OK???? 

12. Get a Digital Recorder- Well, nowadays, no one has to get a digital recorder.  But this is very helpful for me; often times when I come up with something that may actually sound good I forget it. :(

Thank you for helping me out David Nevue, despite saying "song" instead of piece.

Next post I will do some more research about coming up with melodies themselves; that is what I am really bad at.

Also, here is a piece I made with my friend:

https://bit.ly/ibq2022piece1

(If you really care that much, I played the low part and my friend played the high part.  So no, I was not the one who messed up.)

Here is another thing I am currently working on (with the same friend):

bit.ly/yellowboxtailsoup

As you can see this one has barely been worked on.

(Commented on: Evan Bananis, Christopher Rowan, Parth Patel)

Thank you for reading all this. :D