(EPILOGUE) In Which the Author Assesses Her Tale

"ASSESSES" LOOKS LIKE A FAKE WORD. 
There's an excessive amount of s's. But it's fine. It's having a good time.
Speaking of good times, let's talk about that TED talk.

aha

Let's try to stay within a reasonable word count! Well, there was a moment of confusion in the beginning because I have no idea what technology is, huge shoutout to my good aunts/moms Kyla and Allison, and also Kyla clicking the play button on the video because honestly I was prepared to leap off the stage (then maybe Alex would be happy) if that video didn't work. That video was also kind of embarrassing, maybe I should have just shown a clip of the instrumental because that's the part that matters and who cares about the singing....

Alright, let's assess this with the TED Commandments! 

wait i never took the time to read what's actually written on there it's so funny omg

(1) Dream big.

I guess with this one I tried to go with a really Memorable™ talk, and I hope I achieved that goal in a way. I think that went okay, especially when 83 people (okay it was like 6 and half of them were obligated to) told me they really liked..it? Woot.

(2) Show us the real you.

Okay, OOF. That was definitely...like...my entire talk? I basically Exposed myself and kind of told everyone my biggest insecurity so you could even say I never showed the Real Me up until this point. I spoke about those Passions and Dreams and Issues and I think even I would give myself 100 in this category.

(3) Make the complex plain.

Because I'm great at going overtime, I did have to shorten a bunch of paragraphs into about two sentences. I kind of brushed over the whole medical aspect, but that's also because doctors literally have no idea what's going on. When actually talking about my songs, I didn't use insane music theory terms, so I guess that's good? 

(4) Connect with people's emotions.

Thanks for laughing at my humor, dudes. I guess the Tragic Backstory could have been trying to tear at people's heartstrings, but I'm not gonna ask if anyone cried. I don't think there's any reason to.

(5) Don't flaunt your ego.

Difficult to do when you're constantly insulting yourself.

(6) No selling from the stage!

I'M SORRY MCDANIELS

(7) Feel free to comment on other speakers' talks!

Well, that was difficult to do when I missed nearly all the talks so far, so I couldn't talk about them in my talk. Er...if you mean asking questions after people's talks I didn't do much of that either so...

(8) Don't read your talk.

H*CK YEAH GUESS WHO DIDN'T EVEN HAVE NOTECARDS? THIS MAN!! Notecards are personally really bad for me, so that wasn't an issue.

(9) End your talk on time.

I pace around my room at 1:00 am, having recited my talk for like two hours. For the first hour it kept going about six minutes. I'm not sure how I managed to lessen it down by a minute, but fluency is a great thing. So I was very much Fear on whether my talk would go overtime. I'm not sure if it did, but it's actually a distinct possibility. WHOOPS.

(10) Rehearse your talk.

We're gonna ignore the friend part, because I have no friends (NO IT'S BECAUSE FBLA WAS NOT AT A VERY CONVENIENT TIME SO I COULDN'T MEET UP WITH sQUad). But I rehearsed a lot...alone. In my room. In front of the mirror. I had also sometimes mouthed it to myself in the hotel room late at night, and then one time I had an epiphany at 2am and changed something in my script and then dropped my phone and my roommates probably wanted to smite me.

♭ ♮ ♯

Welp, I feel really relieved now! The entire thing is over, and honestly I'm already forgetting parts of how my talk went. I guess my brain is already blocking the memory. That was the....wildest thing I've ever done. I've never even Exposed myself to any of my closest friends except like Two. And here I am practically coming out to the whole block. And I've kept up that ~ruse of normality~ for so long because the last thing I wanted was for others to treat me differently because of this unfortunate situation. But really, when I consider this project, I'm most proud of myself because I was able to surpass this obstacle that is my entire arm. 

Alright, if for some reason you're reading my TED talk reflection without even seeing...the...talk...then I guess I'll just attach the script on here somewhere so you can read it. Maybe later. I gotta do that math homework.

UPDATE: HERE IT IS

♭ ♮ ♯

Wait, but guys, it seems almost as if I have forgotten about that

I wish. 

Some random channel commented "dope!" on my final video, but upon closer inspection it might be spam (I didn't even know YouTube had spam whom is she) so I guess I'm not actually a YouTube star (thanks to all two of my subscribers). But let me examine my three songs. Unfortunately, it seems that I literally peaked at the first song because I had the most time.  And I decided to try and take more risks in my second song. I made the instrumental less repetitive but that made it weird and I was not a fan. And then, as some of you probably know, I had -2 hours to write my third song because the apocalypse was happening in the form of FBLA. 

Here's the conundrum with me writing songs: It's extremely time consuming, but it's also best done in one sitting. Do you see the problem? All three songs were basically finished in one sitting, except maybe the lyrics could be done another day. But it's so annoying to not do it continuously because I might forget something I was going to put in or something like that. And since I'm Not A Fan of transcribing as I go (I'm lazy), I kind of just have to....Remember it. Yeah, it's certainly a time. I'm a professional. 

I think that's the best explanation I can give for my actual decrease in quality. But I think my final product is still like...a Final Product. I really did manage to combine all three melodies and try making them meaningful. I had some fun with chords. Really, you can still see my improvement from the Very Beginning. It looks like this:

would justin j approve of my curves

At first, I was Nothing. Then I peaked in my first song and went steadily downward. But my Final Product was still Something.

Accomplishments!

I think I really did have a Good Time, so now the question is will I continue?

I believe I mentioned Very Briefly before that the whole reason I chose this project was because I currently had a song in progress. I wanted to learn how to write instrumental for that song, which was based on a story I was writing. So there was a whole reason I was writing songs for a story! Obviously, first course of action would be to finish that song. And then I want to write more songs for that story. I mean, okay, maybe I should also finish the story, but that's what NaNoWriMo is for! 

Okay, whoops. "Reasonable wordcount" WHOM?

I should go now, so here's a cool quote:

See you on the other side of the war (shut up I don't care the project is over the grind never stops)~

P.S: FROM THE SOUNDS OF IT NOT MANY PEOPLE ACTUALLY CLICKED ON THE LINKS ON THE SLIDESHOW AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE YOU SHOULD 110% DO THAT I SWEAR I'M NOT RICKROLLING YOU
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Commented on Olivia, Jasmine, Amanda, and Ellie (A)'s blogs

(WEEK VI) In Which the Author is Now Free...ish

MY TED TALK IS TOMORROW and I just finished uploading my third song hah. IN FAIRNESS, I was at FBLA and at least I got to go on the stage (7th place woot).

(1) Disgusting, my voice cracked like every two seconds, apparently I'm a teenage boy
(2) I was so tired
(3) I messed up a bit but I recorded the piano part in one take so
(4) I think the piano part is better than whatever was being sung, pay more attention to that
(5) I say "good luck" at the mashup part, but the three characters have literally been using the same melody the whole time so it shouldn't be that hard to figure out...although I did post the lyrics on the video description
(6) I might have to blast this from a bluetooth speaker during my TED talk because I am very much Fear something will go wrong with PowerPoint
(6.5) I didn't actually do that, Kyla just saved my life
(7) That was actually pretty cool and I want to write more in the future...whoa...

See you on the other side of the war (which is TOMORROW in the AUDION oh my GOD)~

(WEEK V) In Which the Author Finally Finishes the Second Song

I WOULD CONTINUE THE INCOHERENT SCREAMING except my vlog basically covered that. So yeah. Here's some tips before you do anything:

(1) Don't be me.
(2) Listen to my first song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq0qyuIyqzE or in my previous blog post.
(3) Listen to my second song, which I shall reveal soon enough.
(4) Now watch my vlog, if you haven't already.

If you've already gone out of order, then whatever. That's probably my fault, because I posted this so late. It would be ideal for you to at least listen to the two songs, which are the only things that actually matter on this blog. Like, aside from the stuff being graded. I mean, I'm hoping I've intrigued you enough to want to listen to both songs, but I understand if you have much better things to do.

Alright. Without further ado:

(Lyrics are in the YouTube description)

LET'S SEE.

(1) Sorry my voice range is like two and a half notes
(2) The beginning sounded a lot like Fall Out Boy, especially before I finalized the piano
(3) The weird bassline thing sounds like "Seven Nation Army." I mean....welp
(4) I was definitely trying to be a lot more adventurous with the instrumental this time. I think it was less repetitive than "Hans," but I can't really tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing right now
(5) Yeah, occasionally there were verbal talking interjections. I got bored. Those were great quotes and I didn't want to put a tune to them. Also...singing "AUFMACHEN!" (open up)??
(6) I liked the first song better, but that might be a personal stylistic taste choice thing
(7) This song is lowkey trash
(8) Someone's gonna tell me I'm being hard on myself
(9) It's gonna be Olivia
(10) I'm sorry this is so late
(11) I did a thing near the end which I ~kind of~ mashed up Max and Hans's songs! I guess that's a precursor to the Ultimate Mashup which is my final product
(12) I'm not entirely sure either as to what the ending is. What are endings tbh

Cool. Remember to bike, lament, and describe.

See you on the other side of the war~

(VLOG and WEEK IV) In Which the Author Becomes Self Aware

What up, Mein Dudes. Since I have already posted a video and a few audio recordings of my playing, I think that it won't be entirely necessary to base my vlog around actually listening to my songs. Let's have a nice chat instead.

Gotta love that lighting. I mention in the video a currently nonexistent second song being on my blog. It is not on my blog. I have the instrumental I just need to record the vocals. I wonder if I can do that during the workday somehow.....
I mainly talk about my issues, especially the lyrics and instrumental order thing. That was supposed to be the main point of my project in the first place: finding the best method. Except that goal was problematic in itself. Whoops.
I also explain the reasoning behind my procrastination, because a few of you (if at all) might wonder why I wasn't able to upload a song this week. Or last week. It's kind of inexcusable, like most procrastinating, but I do think there's a backstory to it.

ALSO, if you are watching this vlog, please then also take a moment to listen to my first song, on my YouTube channel and on a previous blog post. You might wonder "but what does your second song sound like?" All you need to know is that it's a mess.

See you on the other side of the war~
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Commented on Jasmine, Justin, and Alex's blogs

(INTERVIEW) In Which the Author....Interviewed

YEAH, IN CASE YOU COULDN'T TELL, I conducted my interview. I mean, it's kind of three weeks overdue, but, uh, actually I don't have a good excuse why it's late except

or rather just BEHIND now HAH

I interviewed Mr. Hood, our very own band teacher, and I think I kept putting it off partially because he's literally right there, so I was like "Hey it's okay I could interview him anytime." I'm really good with plans. But hey, I got two of his CDs through that encounter!

The experience was probably around 20 minutes. I didn't take a video, mostly because I hate myself and also because I had anticipated a lot of movement (from the piano to the laptop and such). Since Mr. Hood wasn't a complete stranger to me and because he's really chill, the interview ended up pretty informal and more like a conversation, so I'll refrain from posting a Q&A format because it got a bit confusing when I tried. So I'll organize the conversation by topic:

♭ ♮ ♯

On Inspiration
- From your head. Your brain (triggered) can surprise you sometimes. Just a small tune or bassline can start an entire song. Or you might revisit a "little kernel" you once started but then abandoned.
- From other pieces. He talked about this groove/bassline from another song that he incorporated into his own song. This is not illegal. The police do not need to be called. The song he ended up writing was completely different from his inspiration. (It's really cool!)
- From noodling around. He came up with an entire song that ended up on his CD that started out with playing around on the piano. Sometimes songs write themselves. This also happens on the guitar, finding a cool chord progression and strumming pattern. Except that's irrelevant to me, because I've never played a stringed instrument in my life other than a bit of ukulele while Armageddon was happening at Ellie's house (long story).
- From emotion. One time he was very much wrath, and he came home and immediately started writing a song. It's called "Crash!" and crash(!) it is. I listened to an excerpt, and the chords and rhythm and everything are so aggressive I love it. It's definitely inspiration to me as I write Max's angry song!

On Theory
- When I asked him how much he considers music theory and how much he just goes by ear, he gave a rightfully vague answer because music is confusing. Again, sometimes songs write themselves. However, there are times when you need to think a lot, especially when writing for multiple instruments. It also does help to know chords, because chords are gr8. If you want to hear a song that's written with nothing but theory in mind, check this out:

I KNOW IT'S A MEME BUT IT'S ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD. (Sound warning at the end.)

- About chord progressions, he wrote a song that only used three chords. Other times, his songs are pretty complex. It doesn't make either better than the other. One of them just takes three hours to write and the other takes more than three hours to write. Definitely do consider the style, though.

On Writing
- He does use some online writing platforms, but that may mostly be to hear the other instruments he can't hear right then and there. It's good to get an idea. But most of the composing is just done right at the instrument.
- Since he primarily writes the instrumental, the lyrical examples he showed me were all writing lyrics after the instrumental. Interesting.

♭ ♮ ♯

It probably would have been more helpful for me to have conducted this interview before writing my first song, but too bad I have social anxiety. I did learn a lot and had some of my previous notions confirmed, so that's good! I have to take into consideration the fact that I'm only writing on piano and lyrics are probably a bigger part (considering this is for a book), and this makes my job both easier and harder.

Hopefully I haven't peaked in my first song! Knowing myself, I probably have. Oh dear.

See you on the other side of the war~

(WEEK III) In Which the Author is 24601% Done with Life and Her First Song

*INCOHERENT SCREAMING*
Let me tell you a story.

I ~spiced up~ the instrumental in maybe 1.5 hours. That was Pretty Good, in my opinion (like, speed-wise. The song is still trash.) And then it took me three hours to successfully record it and layer the singing on top of it and I AM GOING TO COMMIT SEPPUKU. 

That was BY FAR the most frustrating thing I've ever done in my life. Oh, and I made a YouTube channel (in other words, I uploaded a video to my preexisting YouTube account) because Blogger is not sufficient. I just made it off of this account, and I don't even care anymore because this Google account can burn next year so I can start anew. Or I'll just take down those videos once the Genius Project is over because honestly why.

Let's see. Okay, this is why I play three instruments instead of joining Chorus. The piano was too loud. Also, dynamics were lowkey just Not There, mostly because I was ready to break something at that point just to successfully record it. There's a weird part where the word "heart" lasts for three years because I had to Traverse Down The Keyboard and it gives me nightmares. Also, I'm a soprano. Well, I like to think I am, but my voice has changed a lot since 6th grade, so honestly who am I. But the point is that I should not be trying to sing a middle aged man's song. If Hans were to actually sing this, let's assume it would maybe be an octave lower because honestly he'd be a baritone. 

The instrumental continues to be pretty repetitive. I definitely need to work on instrumental more for future. Speaking of instrumental, the best part of this entire thing (in my opinion) is probably the countermelodies in the second half. And ;) you'll ;) probably ;) hear ;) that ;) countermelody ;) again ;) in ;) Max's ;) song ;) because ;) it ;) may ;) or ;) may ;) not ;) be ;) his ;) theme (or something similar). I mean, notice that it shows up around the words "He never told me he had a son." Oh yes, I'm a Genius. It was 18% a coincidence and then I realized it was brilliant. 

Also, in case you couldn't tell, I did Not get Jasmine's microphone because the apocalypse happened outside today and I didn't have any other time to use it. And it really wasn't worth her PROFESSIONAL microphone....

It doesn't sound like John Williams, it doesn't sound like 40s music, German music is pretty Diverse I guess, but I honestly don't even care at this point because oh my god I finished writing a song in its entirety this has never happened before. 

What a start.

Also, I'm trying to get my interview with Mr. Hood in tomorrow or anytime this week. That should be the next post. So much for doing the interview before writing my songs. 

See you on the other side of the war~
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Commented on Ellie (A), Bobby, and Joel's blogs

(UPDATE THE SEQUEL) In Which the Author Establishes Chords

YEAH, SORRY THERE'S NO CREATIVE POST TITLE.

I have the chords and everything figured out for the song!

Here's a recording of the chords in a simple waltz rhythm (aka all I've got right now) and the singing part played by my right hand (the notes an octave higher are just the theme and not sung):



Okay, I messed up at least 24601 times in that, but you get the point. The syllables might not match up exactly with the lyrics right now, and at some points I seemed to forget how to play the piano.

I need to make the instrumental a Lot More Interesting, but I'd say this is a start. Yeah, I essentially repeat the same 4~5 chords over and over again, but in my defense......it sounds decent? (I'd say that 40s music is pretty repetitive in chord progression as well, which is true, but my song doesn't really sound like a 40s song. It doesn't sound like a pop song either. It's just. There.) And they're not the really stereotypical Four Chords found in a lot of pop songs, which you should totally check out at this video.

Alright, that was definitely a time, and the Complete Song with Everything shall be up as soon as I finish ~spicing up~ the instrumental and get my hands on Jasmine's microphone...

See you on the other side of the war~

(SLIGHTLY OVERDUE UPDATE) In Which the Author Wrote Lyrics

IN THE TIME THAT I WAS INACTIVE, I have done a great deal. By a great deal, I mean that I have suffered through a symposium, worked on an infographic, and - oh wait, Genius Project is a thing! Actually, I've worked on that this whole week by rereading the scene I chose over and over, and then writing the lyrics!

I was going to just post the complete song with its instrumental when all was said and done, but since a big portion of my project is also experimenting whether writing lyrics or instrumental first is better, I might as well post the lyrics to show that Yes, I wrote the lyrics first because I'm an Honest Man. I came up with that decision seven minutes ago. It's very late, I know.

So, yes. Here:

♭ ♮ ♯

i'm glad someone on the internet made this edit for me

THE ACCORDIONIST (The Secret Life of Hans Hubermann)
[Hans Hubermann? Do you still play the accordion?]
[Of course I do.]

They're strange, those wars
They were eager, but I wasn't too sure
Bullets, resting men
And the best dirty jokes in the world.

Music, always the music
Maybe card games, maybe chess
His eyes were open, his wedding ring was stolen
The accordion breathes, not him anymore.

Life or pride
The intelligence to pick life
He is the only reason I was able to survive
No one likes a coward but no one wants to die
He volunteered me to stay inside
Everyone else went out to fight.

No one came back that night.

I found his wife
I told her he saved my life
I played his song
He never told me he had a son.

Music, always the music
Not perfection, just warmth
I could never join the Party, their victim had once saved me
"Jewish Filth" sprayed on all their doors.

Heart or head
The country or my friend
I would have no worth if not for the accordion
No one could play like me, thanks to him
I was put on the waiting list
They came to search my house for this.

I was allowed to stay.

Would I be Hans Hubermann?
Any chance an accordionist?
Am I a man to keep a promise?

He was Erik Vandenburg
And I am here to save his son

You.

♭ ♮ ♯

Alright, here's some explanation for those with no idea what's going on, likely because they haven't read the book.

So we got Hans Hubermann, who fought in World War I as a young man. He was not a big fan of that. He made a good friend, Erik Vandenburg, and they bonded during the war over not liking the war. Erik was a Jew. That wasn't as much of a big deal back then, but it would be. He taught Hans the accordion.
Sometimes the Sergeant gave chores to people without them knowing, by asking innocent questions like "Who comes from Pasing?" and then making that person clean the toilets. This time, he asked "Who's got neat handwriting?" and that person would be writing letters instead of being out there fighting. No one volunteered themselves, so Erik volunteered his friend Hans to write letters and not go off to battle. Hans ended up being the only one of them to survive.
Erik's accordion became Hans's. Hans found Erik's widow and gave her his name/address if she ever needed his help. That also became important later on.
Now, back at home, Hans refused to join the Nazi Party, because a Jew had saved his life. Unfortunately, it was not really in your best interests at the time to not join the Nazi Party. His business dried up, He had just put his name down when he witnessed Nazis vandalizing one of his Jewish customers' shop. He repainted the door and was then regarded with suspicion. The Gestapo searched his house but found nothing. Hans's only saving grace was his accordion skill.
Remember how he gave Erik's widow his information? Well, that was now useful. Erik had a son who was now grown up, and he needed somewhere to hide. Hans owed their family that much.
Why is this important? Hans is now hiding a Jew in his basement.

THIS BOOK. AH.

That was a lovely attempt. Now off to finish the instrumental.

See you on the other side of the war (suddenly has a MUCH darker connotation oh my GOD)~

(SNEAK PEEK) In Which the Author Reveals a Bit of Her Work in Progress

ALRIGHT, YOU'VE ALL SUFFERED through my two weeks of research, so I think we're long overdue for some Actual Music. Actually, if we're going by my revised schedule, we're not really long overdue. Because I just realized that by counting the Project Pitch Week as Week 1, I technically have seven weeks before the TED talk? So this is, like, Week 2 of 6? And/or Week 3 of 7? I'm not entirely sure. Counting past four is difficult. But no one cares. SO.

This will be Hans' theme. It sounds sad, but there's also some major chords in there (B♭ and D) for maximum effect, and because these are some non-diatonic chords up a third like our good man Ryan Leach suggested. It's short and simple, and will probably be scattered in the other songs whenever I want to remind you of Hans or when either Max or Liesel is thinking of him.

This is more like a melody or an interlude in Hans' song alone. I doubt it will show up in some other song. It's interesting, because I put in some G major chords even though the theme was mostly G minor. It kind of changed the tone a lot, and I added in C minor, which I think will be the key the song will end up in. It's a lower key, which is good, because Hans is a middle-aged man, and I can probably sing down to a low D on a good day, or at least a low E♭ (which would be more prevalent in C minor, anyway).

I plan on literally ending on a high note. This fully establishes the song as to be in C minor, although the theme might have made you think otherwise. Speaking of the theme, this was largely based off the theme (no really), except I changed the B♭ major chord into a.... G♭ augmented triad. (Don't ask me why; I just moved the bottom note down and then "Whoa it sounds good" and here we are now.) And then everything kind of changed from there. I go straight to G major and then just end off with a C. I'll think about that ending more, especially as I come up with the actual melody to be sung.

Alright, now more character analysis. Here's a quote:

To most people, Hans Hubermann [is] barely visible. An un-special person. […] Somehow […] and I'm sure you've met people like this, he was able to appear as merely part of the background […]. He was always just there. Not noticeable." (1.22)

So I'm trying to go for a calm, almost elevator-music-like melody here, which might not sound very believable right now. But, I plan on a Very Aggressive piece for Max, our fist-fighter. That will definitely contrast Hans' song. Hans is quietly rebelling against Hitler, while Max just dreams of punching him in the face. So, yes, Contrast is good.

Also, you will notice that the only left hand accompaniment here is a simple waltz rhythm. It sounds nice for these parts, but there will be casualties if the entire song is just that. Worry not, I will be changing it up. I'll just have to figure out how and when...

As to what scene this song will be pertaining to, these are my ideas, in no particular order:
(1) Teaching Liesel how to read
(2) The fight with Hans Jr.
(3) Flashbacks of him as a young man in the war and how he came to hide Max 

I can think of pros and cons for all of them. We'll see.

See you on the other side of the war ~

(WEEK II) In Which the Author Does More Research

DAY 5 WORKDAY AND THE IDEA OF PRODUCTIVITY 
Deutsch.
I've been listening to German 40s music (that's the link to a "playlist") for an hour.
So Germany didn't really have jazz, but there was definitely a heckin ton of swing.

The music is really good, by the way. It is ideal for studying because you can't understand a word, so you won't get distracted. 

Luckily, not everything is swing. Unfortunately, swing is way too happy for The Book Thief. Also, I would have to learn how to play swing on the piano, and that is not ideal.
There are also a lot of ballads, not necessarily sad, but I can make them sad. I can write sad ballads. Probably. Hopefully. Ideally.
Well, now I guess I have to decide whether I'm leaning more towards actual German music or John Williams or musical-style. The solution will be to  f u s e.
If John Williams wrote Symphonic Suite from Far and Away, and made it sound distinctly Irish, then I can try my very best to make my songs sound somewhat German. Or at least appropriate to the time period. I am having a good time, and not at all crying. I swear.

♭ ♮ ♯

FRIDAY NIGHT FEATURING GOOD INTENTIONS
Interview W H O M
Today I essentially had two hours of band, because I was obligated to go to the IE (I am still a tad shook from the one time I didn't go and got Scolded because I'm a weak man) and then block day band. This means I had time to talk to Mr. Hood (the Hoodmeister @ Ellie Z.) about my project a bit. He's willing to give any help and advice I want, so I guess I'm gonna schedule an interview with him! Then, because we had 30 minutes of Nothing, he showed me some songs and played me a bit of a piece he had written. He showed me this group called the Tin Hat Trio, whose music he described as "Sounds like it belongs in a movie, but there's no movie." And yeah, that's about as accurate as it gets. Their music is really mysterious, and the one song with lyrics I found was...........creepy and terrifying.

i'm

someone save them??

The overall feel I'm getting from their aesthetic and music is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
Then, Mr. Hood showed me how he easily came up with a sort of rhythm and then wrote an entire song based around that. I mean, he made it look really easy. This just also demonstrates the interesting part of writing music. Michael Giacchino, composer for Up, writes his songs by starting with a chord. It's a personal thing. Also, you just have to wait for inspiration to hit you. That's why John Williams writes something every day, because only by writing more can you expect to be hit with more inspiration. It's literally like writing a story or a poem. You just have to let it flow, and overthinking will Not Help. Which is unfortunate, because if there's anything I'm a Genius™️️ at, it's Overthinking. So maybe this project will also help me in that regard.

♭ ♮ ♯

THE ENTIRE WEEKEND WENT REALLY FAST SOMEONE STOP IT
Progressive Chord Progressions
My dudes, this article is such a blessing. The author, Ryan Leach, is a Good Man. He's a composer, arranger, and producer. He did technical assistance on Bee Movie, which led me to wondering what the soundtrack for Bee Movie even sounds like. So, uh, if you're interested, here it is.
But back to my man Ryan Leach. Well, I thought this would be a quick article and some quick reading and some quick conclusions, but then there was a link to a previous article he mentioned, so of course I thought "Hey, better go check that out," except then

I mean, I am willing to bet all of these articles are going to be really interesting, but I Did Not Sign Up For This. Also, should I just read the entire website?? Because there seems to be a lot I should look at.

this is only such a small portion

That's it. Reading (or at least taking notes on) the ENTIRE WEBSITE will be out of the question, because Ryan's not even the only author, and oh my God there is so much. I'll probably read a bunch of these articles just because they all seem so useful, but I think you and I would both rather die than have me write a novel blog post summarizing everything I learn.
Okay, if your project or interests have anything to do with music, take some time of your day to peruse this blog because holy crap it covers nearly everything and I'm so shook.

JUST KIDDING??

Let's revise that statement. If your project has anything to do with anything you should come to this website. Except for whatever isn't listed on there, I guess. That's right, my pastel friend.

Okay, back to the articles. There was a lot of listening and different chord progressions, and there wasn't really any scientific reasoning as to why some chords sound sadder than others. With the correct tweaking, a major chord could sound sadder than a minor chord. Basically, what I learned is that there is a lot of experimenting to be done, and just bringing one note up or down can change the entire tone of the chord.
Apparently, non-diatonic chords a third apart are Ideal. "Diatonic" really just means notes relating to a specific scale. So, C major to E minor would be diatonic chords, because they're all using notes from C major. C major to E major would be NON-diatonic, because G# is not part of the C major scale. Non-diatonic chord progressions tend to sound more powerful and more intense, either intensely sad or intensely uplifting. The example the website gave was C major to E♭ minor, which is really dark and ominous. Apparently, this technique is used in the Lord of the Rings score and the Rebel Fanfare in Star Wars!
(If you want to read about the basics of music theory because I really didn't explain, this article I reference later sums it up pretty well.)

Source:
Leach, Ryan. "Film Score Harmony: Chords by Thirds." Music & Audio Envato Tuts+. Envato Pty Ltd, 18 June 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.

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DAY 6 WORKDAY AND A LOT OF INTERESTING FINDINGS
The Key to Keys
I spent way too much time on that website, and then I came across this gem. 

tag yourself

I mean, I guess C#, E, F#, and Ab just don't exist. 

If you want an easy way to listen to all those keys, just find all fifteen of Bach's Two-Part Inventions (every suffering piano player knows). 

Or, I made this helpful chart of better-known songs (INCLUDING THE MISSING KEYS) you might not even have to go actively find: 

*people can't decide if songs are major or minor, or a half step off, etc.

I don't know what D major did to hurt the writer of that table. HOW were any of the D major songs "cruel and hard, quarrelsome?" Maybe they meant classical music. In fairness, it was 1682. But that was fun research. Also, no one really writes anything in E♭ minor, probably because it has six flats. "Take Five" is just trying to killing you in multiple ways, as it's also written in 5/4. 

The article also mentioned how, if you're writing in a major key, it would do you well to choose a "lower" key to get more of a thought-provoking and "darker" mood. An example of this is "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's (@ jas). I think this is definitely advice I will consider, as I don't plan on ALL the songs being in a minor key. However, they should still be a bit "dark," per se. 

Source:

Bankhead, Dave. "What Key Should My Song Be In?" Music & Audio Envato Tuts+. Envato Pty Ltd, 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

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DAY FIVE WORKDAY AND THE LACK OF PIANOS

if ryan can play piano in a pool then i demand a piano to be permanently placed in the gifted classroom

I've been very aware that I can't exactly wheel a piano into the gifted room during workdays, so I've dedicated those periods to research. Only problem is, a lot of research has me itching to get a piano and try things out. So, I get frustrated. But I found a lot of information, so here goes.

No Hand Left Behind
It's pretty standard (and I don't plan on messing with this) that, when playing piano, melody goes with the right hand and harmony/accompaniment goes with the left hand. The Sort-of-Scientific reason for this is because your brain just has the tendency to hear the higher notes better and clearer, because acoustics or something.
Well, I've established a theme and a bit of a melody for my first song, which is about Hans (that will be up in a post soon!), and I am understandably playing that with my right hand. So I guess the left hand is just ... hanging out? Making shadows?
Pfft.

amazingly enough, i am currently researching left hand accompaniment.

I knew this would be my biggest issue, because I have difficulty going beyond anything than a simple waltz or something the little kids play at piano recitals.
So lo and behold, what does my first source give me?

I sound cocky and annoying, but I know how to do that. To clarify, that is probably the easiest left hand accompaniment save something in 3/4.
Then, another source essentially gave me chord progressions, which I had already toiled through. I mean, maybe I should have specified...?
Worry not, I got myself some Real Information soon enough at this website:

Basically, don't repeat the same thing over and over again (Alberti Bass or Waltz Rhythm etc.) or else your audience might kill themselves.

this, my friends, is Alberti Bass, also known as Too Classical For My Purposes

So to "mix things up," you can
(1) break the pattern up. So, insert a rest or something in between.
(2) only play part of it. The rest is irrelevant in order to preserve sanity.
(3) move it up or down an octave. That can also change the mood and overall atmosphere!
(4) change to a variation. Well, that brings us to variations, which I'm lazy to explain. Basically, change it, but still make it obvious what it is. Or not obvious. There are some crazy variations. Here's the website to a great variation on an entire song, as opposed to a pattern: https://galaxymusicnotes.com/products/twinkle-little-star-variations-advanced.
(5) literally just stop the pattern. Okay.

Other than those tips, there are some more tangible We-Need-A-Piano-In-The-Gifted-Room type of information that I wouldn't be able to explain well, but you'll be able to hear (hopefully soon!). Worry not, I now know a bit more about what I'm doing!

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See you on the other side of the war ~

Source(s):
Day, Holly. "Great Left-Hand Accompaniment Patterns for the Piano or Keyboard."Dummies. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.,   n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2017.

Topham, Tim. "The Ultimate Guide to Left Hand Piano Styles & Patterns." Creative Music Education. Top Music     Education PTY LTD, 21 Feb. 2017. Web. 03 Mar. 2017.

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Commented on Allison, Tucker, Jasmine, Amanda, and Olivia's blogs

(TIME OUT) In Which the Author Does a Complete 180

Yep, that's right. I'm turning myself around. Out of the Gifted Program.

Out of the tar-smelling school. Out of Trump's America. I will fulfill my lifelong dream of cutting my hair and joining the Chinese (propagandic) army to defeat...uh...

whom is she

Trump's America????

OKAY, FINE, I WON'T DO THAT. I need to get into college. (Please forgive me I just had a fun time of accidentally starting a bunch of homework that isn't even due tomorrow and I died a little bit.)

By doing a complete 180, I mean that the end product of my project will be a bit different. By a bit, I literally mean a bit.

So this was a result of the research I've done so far. As you know, my original plan was to write three songs, the first being Liesel, then Max, then Hans.

not him, his face makes me genuinely uncomfortable because he looks 5

Well, after watching that Important Video of Pixar making us all cry, I learned about character themes and relationships. That's right. I'm now an expert on relationships.
So then I thought of how to incorporate that information into my compositions, and I thought about musicals such as Less Miserable (no) and Hamilton. And how they use a lot of the same melody in different songs, and that's because that's a theme representing a character or relationship. This is really easy to see in Hamilton. Alexander starts singing "I am not throwing away my shot" about 83197 times throughout the musical in various songs, and these are all moments where he's about to take a new risk or start a new thing and piss off his family and friends even more. It's like his signature thing. Well, I mean, it is his signature thing. That's the point.

Then, I looked at the three amazing characters I chose. And I thought, who affected the other two the most? Okay, that's difficult, but my mind jumped to Hans. He's definitely the driver of the plot, as he literally teaches Liesel how to read, allowing her to steal books, and then literally lets Max live in his house, allowing him to...live in his house (and strike up a friendship with Liesel). Basically, it's Hans' actions that ALLOW the other characters to be important to each other. And thus, it makes no sense to make his song the last one. He should be the first one, and once I come up with a theme for him, it can be repeated in other songs as his presence and influence urges our characters to do...whatever.

And THEN, I wondered why on Earth I didn't make Liesel the final finale, because she's the namesake of the book and the main character and all around center of everything?? So she should be the most important?? And final????

Glad we had this talk.

Basically, here's my new order:

Song #1: Hans 
Song #2: Max
Song #3: Liesel

AND, while we're pausing, let me just adjust my entire schedule a tad. So the research literally took twice as long as I expected, and I'm hoping the actual songwriting should be a Tad Easier because now I have so much information. Or maybe everything will backfire and I'll have to do my TED talk on failure, but that's not an issue. Actually, that is an issue. Very much an issue.
So now it's looking more like

Week I - Research
Week II - Research, the Sequel
Week III - Song #1
Week IV - Song #2
Week V - Song #3
Week VI - more overflow time because it is evident I can't do things according to plan. Also, if I miraculously have extra time, I will try to combine my three songs (or at least their themes) into a culminating song sort of like "One Day More" from Les Mis. 

I think the songwriting will actually be easier than I thought (or this will come back to bite me very, very hard in a few days) because I've sort of come up with little melodies that may turn into themes. They'll be in some future post, so stay tuned (not like every student basing their project on music has used that pun at least once)!

See you on the other side of the war~

(WEEK I) In Which the Author Learns a Thing or...Seven

Because I am an absolute degenerate piece of trash who can't manage her time wisely, this is going to be some ~live~ updates as I learn Things. Hopefully it will motivate me to try and establish a work ethic.

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AFTER THE SS QUIZ BECAUSE TIME IS A VALUABLE THING
John William's Tips and Tricks for Being John Williams
I have found a cool and froody New York Times interview with John Williams, also known as the composer John Williams, who writes pieces for films under the name of John Williams. (I reference him so much I probably give off the impression that I'm trying to become just as good as John Williams, but that's impossible. Lower your standards a bit right now while I still have time.)
Anyway, the interviewer was asking our man John Williams (take a shot every time I say John Williams) how he gets inspiration, how he works, blah blah blah.

Here's what I learned about his creative process:
(1) Write something musical every day, good or bad. Okay, John. Just. That's cool. I mean. Now I have to attempt that. THANKS, John.
(2) Work in the morning, never at night. Imma have to stop you there, John. Obviously you're not a suffering student. Did I ever tell you about the time we had a snow day and I came downstairs the time school normally ENDS? No, of course not. I've never met you in my life. My bad, John.
(3) There is no such thing as a writer's block in music. That's IT, I have HAD IT with you, JOHN. No such thing??? Writer's block??? Well, eXPLAIN THIS:

100% photo of me, writing

Haha, just kidding. His response with that was actually quite motivational. Here's the whole thing:

So that was uplifting, and wow, time to Go To The Piano (in maybe a few hours).
(4) Uh, DON'T listen to that much music for inspiration. Well, his rationale is that music BETTER than his is not encouraging and music WORSE than his will distract him and force him to pick out the issues. I think this is more of a personal thing, and since I'm a complete amateur, I wouldn't be that offended to hear music better than mine (which is already every song, ever™). I'm also not well-versed enough to criticize any music. So...imma just casually ignore that piece of advice. Or, I'll follow that advice and ignore YOU, John, because you ARE one of my musical inspirations.

BONUS:
So as a sort of tribute to John Williams and being my ~Daily Musical Thing~, here's my mashup of "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter with "Greensleeves", which works really well.

Source:
     McKinley, James C., Jr. "John Williams Lets His Muses Carry Him Along." The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2011. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.

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ON SATURDAY DURING A SPUR OF PRODUCTIVITY

Making Lyrics Lyrical

Ah, lyrics. The one part of writing a song I feel a bit more confident about. The one aspect I don't really suck at - 

Okay, never mind. It turns out I actually can't do anything correctly and I should just stop.

(I'm kidding, I gotta go through with this now.)

Well, that bit of advice just lowkey denounced every pop star on the radio right now. That sure sucks. 

I found a variety of sources, a good deal of them just Common People, by which I mean people who don't have a Ph.D in Songwriting (is that even a thing?). I'm not too concerned about that, even though that would get me a 0 for an Annotated Bibliography (which we're not doing HALLELUJAH), because I feel that music isn't 100% theory or science. A good deal is just audience response, and what's better than the Literal Audience giving feedback on what type of lyrics they like and don't like? These are the people you're trying to appease, anyway. But I did manage to find an interview with Stephen Schwartz, who, y'know, wrote Wicked, no big deal. 

i apologize for this

Basically, it really depends. Everything depends. Nothing is certain. Music is an illusion. 

But for real, it doesn't really matter whether you write the lyrics or the instrumental first, because success has come both ways.

Additionally, writing lyrics is really just writing a poem (omg what). I've had at least 2 people in the past say my poetry doesn't suck, and I genuinely enjoy writing in that style. Frankly, this was the part of the project I looked forward to in the most. The Book Thief in itself is such a poetic book!

Like Mr. Perlman has told us at least once, show, don't tell.

That's the most important tip about writing lyrics. Then, the collection of sources collectively say:

(1) Tell a story.

(2) Buy a....rhyming dictionary (or, welcome to the Internet)

(3) Start with a title.

(4) Establish a time and location to be cool.

(5) Add details.

(6) Establish brand names to be cooler.

(7) Action.

(8) Imagery.

(9) Extended metaphors are beautiful.

(10) Irony is ideal.

(11) Have a point.

(12) Don't forget that grammar is a thing. 

millennials love proper grammar

Now, before I read all these articles, I decided to just see where my abilities lie by writing a song parody to "7 Years" by Lukas Graham. It can be found on the About Me page. I already knew it was 180% trash, but let's just judge it according to the aforementioned guidelines I gathered from my resources.

(1) Tell a story. Check.

(2) Buy a....rhyming dictionary No, I refuse. But I did use the Internet. 

(3) Start with a title. Technically, I did.

(4) Establish a time and location to be cool. Alas. No, I did not. 

(5) Add details. I'm not sure if I had enough, but there was at least one (1).

(6) Establish brand names to be cooler. Whoops. 

(7) Action. Probably not enough. 

(8) Imagery. Okay, definitely not enough.

(9) Extended metaphors are beautiful. My lyrics were not beautiful.

(10) Irony is ideal. My lyrics were not ideal.

(11) Have a point. I mean...I just kind of...it was like...an introduction to myself??

(12) Don't forget that grammar is a thing. Luckily, I did not forget grammar was a thing.

Obviously, there's room for improvement. Welp.

Sources: 

Blume, Jason. "Show—Don’t Tell: 3 Steps to Writing Better Lyrics." BMI.com. Broadcast Music, Inc., 23 Mar. 2015. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.

Schindler, David. "How Anyone Can Write Better Lyrics." The Muse's Muse. The Muse's Muse Songwriting Resource, 1996. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.

"Stephen Schwartz on Writing Music and Lyrics for Musicals." MusicalWriters.com. Scene 1 Arts LLC, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.

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SUNDAY NIGHT AFTER A MOMENT OF PANIC
Being an Emotional Wreck
Hey, so thanks to Pope Gregory XIII's calendar, the first week ends? 
T o d a y ? ? 
(Maybe I'm incorrect and this week ends when the cycle ends, but a little panic never hurt nobody.)
Well, all I can say is THANK GOD I left myself about an entire week of overflow time, just in case something like this would happen.  Because I'm?? Already behind? Wow, I sure am ama-Zhang.

Alright. So, anyway, I focused a bit more on emotions in my research today.

I watched this really great video.

too soon.

Aside from the odd capitalization choices, it was amazing and extremely informative!
I took some quality notes, and now I'll just sum up some main points like I always do.

First, it is time to throw all (okay, some) of the concepts of "minor=sad" and "major=happy" out the window.
(That's right, Christmas Tree Group. I never forget.)
(Please don't hurt me, I love all of you.)
Okay, so it's easy to prove that idea is prevalent in...everything, so what on Earth am I talking about? Well, sure, if you only listen to WESTERN MUSIC. 

The video gave an example of a Zuni lullaby, which doesn't sound anything like Brahms' lullaby or any previous notions we have about a lullaby. So, basically, you can't trust your audience to just understand that major=happy and minor=sad, because it's not actually built into the human condition. Which is why a lot of film music can be minor but be played over a happy scene. Or vice versa, such as in that-super-sad-series-of-montages-in-Up-you-know-what-I'm-talking-about.
The true key to winning over your audience and making them cry is NOT to play sad music over a sad scene, but to have

Play happy music over a sad scene. Or the other way around. And this can be done by developing a

Wow. I bet you haven't heard that before.
A theme in music is basically a really recognizable melody, used by filmwriters to be played at strategic points in the film to induce emotion. Famous ones are Hedwig's Theme and Ellie's Theme, which is the name of that lovely repeated melody in Up. Now, let's look at Monsters Inc.

So, there's this melody being played when Sully first reassures Boo not to be afraid of him. Then, later on when he accidentally scares her, the same theme is played. And this is sad, because the theme is representing Sully and Boo's relationship. Now, Sully has to repair it. The theme is also played when Sully thinks he's never gonna see Boo again. And then it's played at the end when Sully DOES see Boo again. The theme evokes memories of their relationship, and makes us all cry a little bit inside.

Alright, now let's talk about Up, the movie that literally never fails to make me cry. (I'm a weak man; do not hurt me.)

The composer of the soundtrack, one Michael Giacchino, said some really insightful things. To start, he first tries to "sum up all the emotions and feelings into one chord." For Up, that chord was an Fmaj7.

The notes are FACE. Yep. FACE. I didn't even realize until now.
That chord seems to  f u s e  an F major chord and a C major chord into something that has a tinge of sadness. And yet, it's undoubtedly major. (Major=happy WHOM?)
And now that he has his main chord, he just composes around that. The theme is called Ellie's Theme and it represents her sense of adventure.

this movie was beautiful and you can fight me on that

That's why it was so prevalent during the "Married Life" scene(s), and then it kinda disappears when she.......dies.
BuT THEN bUT tHEn it comes back later, once when Carl is about to leave his house but then he finds The Adventure Book, once when he's about to give up because Paradise Falls is not what it seems,

same, Carl, same

and then lastly when he gives Russell his badge. These are all important because they're reminding all of us that Ellie never truly left, and her spirit is pushing Carl forward. The last scene is especially interesting because the badge ceremony is a HAPPY occasion, so why are we all dying a little? Because the theme is being played and we're being reminded of everything else that happened to get to this point. And this is how Pixar toys with our feelings.
The same thing happens in Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo, but I won't bother explaining that.
So, I'm not entirely sure how I'll utilize this new info into my own compositions, especially since I'm not actually writing a soundtrack but ... three (3) songs. And they're all supposed to be pretty different from each other. I'll think about that, but since the three characters are so intertwined with each other, I'll probably have a small melody that's repeated in all three. Like how "Red and Black" from Les Mis has that "on my own" tune (it's three notes) in the middle, and Hamilton is honestly just a mess of repeated melodies. For example, the beginning of "Burn" and the beginning of "Wait For It" have the same chord progression, although "Burn" makes it sharper and minor-er. Thanks, Genius Annotations.

Sources:

Miranda, Lin-Manuel. "Burn." Genius. Genius Media Group, Inc., 25 Sept. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.
Sideways. "How Pixar uses Music to make you Cry." Online video clip. YouTube, 30 July 2016. Web. 19 February 2017. 

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Alright, that was a ride. Well, up until this section, this entire blog post was 2,035 words, so I think I'll just stop here. Obviously my research is not complete, and there's a workday tomorrow, so expect more (in another blog post; you and I are both dying at this point).

See you on the other side of the war~

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commented on Amanda's, Jasmine's, Emma's, Olivia's, and Ellie (Z.)'s blogs.  
they're all cool kids, go love them!