(PROLOGUE) In Which the Author Begins Her Tale

Ah, yes. The Genius Project. The Project for Geniuses. The Genius of Projects. The Pronius Geject. The Gepro Jectnius. Or, more aptly, The Project Where You Learn You Need 10,000 Hours To Master Anything But You Only Have 6 Weeks.

First off, I have never felt more personally attacked in my entire life than when I was asked what my passion was, and my immediate response was

I have at least 17 interests, but none of them are really passions. The three instruments I play at varying degrees of skill are great and all, but like....Passion?? Also, art is a wonderful time, especially pencil sketching and painting. But again... P A S S I O N???

But then I thought about it more, and I realized that my passion doesn't have to be that specific. (Or maybe it technically does, but whatever.) I could easily say my passion is just Music In Its Entirety, or Writing, or Art. So now I've established some areas in which I would like to genius... uh, become a genius.

Since I would actually rather die than pick up another instrument, I decided to venture into a territory I've not taken too seriously before: Singing.

MY FIRST IDEA WAS SIGHT-SINGING.
Well...that idea stemmed from the idea of somehow developing perfect pitch, but that was realistically not going to happen. So, sight-singing. I was pretty set on that idea for a while, and there was actually no real reason that wasn't going to work, except that I came up with a better idea. Haha. Fooled.

THAT "BETTER" IDEA WAS SONGWRITING.
I've written songs before. And by songs, I mean lyrics with a tune and hypothetical instrumental. By that, I mean that I've never successfully incorporated instrumental into any of my songs. So, interestingly enough, I was sitting at the piano and trying to arrange some sort of instrumental for my current (absolute trash) work in progress, when I thought, "Hey, Genius Project." Songwriting, but like, Actual Successful and Complete Songwriting. What a concept!

JUST MAKE IT MORE COMPLICATED FOR THE KICKS.
Songwriting was already including my two passions of Music and Writing, but why don't I just expand on it

To include more of my writing passion, I came up with the idea of writing songs for an existing story, almost like a soundtrack. I may or may not have been influenced by La La Land, Les Mis, Hamilton, and every other musical/musical film on the planet. I decided to choose one of my absolute favorite books of all time, The Book Thief.

NOW THAT I'VE RAMBLED ON FOR 7 YEARS:
Why don't I tell you what I'm actually going to do, once and for all? I mean, that's why you're here.

IN A (LARGE) NUTSHELL, I am going to write three (3) songs based on characters and scenes from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I will do this by using the lovely piano that is conveniently 15 feet away from me. I understand that The Book Thief already has a movie with a soundtrack written by the esteemed John Williams, but I will do something different. I will write lyrics for these songs, which means I will have to sing them, which means all of us will have to suffer. That, in case you cannot guess, is my goal. 

OKAY, BUT WHY IS THIS A GOOD IDEA?
I never said it was a good idea, only that it was better. But it actually is a good idea for me to venture into such Esteemed Songwriting, because this is a true test of musicianship right here. Music also deals with emotions, and I think I'm correct in saying that The Book Thief is a very emotional book. It will be a testament to my own emotional understanding of the novel and its themes, by trying to make something new and concrete out of them.

AM I A MAN WITH A PLAN?
Well, after some quick research, now I am. Note that this is subject to change, should I suddenly drop dead.

Week I

> research (blog post material!)

     - things like chord progression, lyrics, song structures, themes, and emotion.

> develop the tune and backbone for Song #1 (Liesel)

> interview my good brother, who has composed many songs, though without lyrics, on the piano

     - he's 26 and close to an expert on the piano, so he can expand more on the theory and personal experiences with songwriting

> if I'm lucky, I may try to get an interview with a lesser known professional songwriter. Or I'll just literally barge into John Williams' home. 

Week II

> write lyrics and instrumental for Song #1 and essentially finish it (blog post material!) 

     - video of me performing this and trying my best

Week III

> take a moment and assess that song, and also get some people to voice their opinions (blog post material!) 

     - how can I improve for my next song? also, Song #1 might have been utter trash

> utilize this new insight and put more thought into the tune and instrumental for Song #2

     - what if I did all the musical stuff before the lyrics? what a cool scientific experiment

Week IV

> now write the lyrics for Song #2 and essentially finish it

     - video of me performing this and trying my best

> assess this new result, and form an opinion on whether it was actually better to go in this new order (blog post material!)

     - from this, decide on how to approach writing Song #3 (Hans) for optimum results

Week V

> somehow, in whatever order, finish writing Song #3

     - video of me performing this and trying my best 

> conclusions upon the most effective way to write songs (blog post material!)

Week VI

>  in case my schedule is a tad too fast, leave some room for overflow. Maybe I'm not a songwriting genius and can't write songs that fast

> choose which song is the best and present it as my final product 

     - logically speaking, it should be Song #3, but the world can be surprising sometimes

> prepare for TED talk

     - just. Prepare. I still don't know how this whole thing will work out, so....

WHAT IF I AM SEVERELY OVERESTIMATING MYSELF AND I FAIL AND ALSO DIE?

That's unfortunate. But the way I will measure my success is through my three final songs. I will make some people listen to them, both musical and non-musical friends and also my brother. If they have read the book, do they think I am conveying the right emotion through each song? Maybe they don't understand chord progression and all that, but are they  g e t t i n g  t h e  f e e l s ? If they haven't read the book, are they interested in it now? Are they somewhat intrigued by the story my songs seem to be referencing? Is it better than Kidz Bop?

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED:

Here's the actual official John Williams instrumental soundtrack to The Book Thief movie. So yeah, I really like the feel and the tone of it. I'm going to be John Williams.

HERE'S A COOL POWERPOINT
This was my "Project Pitch," which basically sums up everything in this post but in a much more concise way. And, uh, ignore the document title.

I SHOULD STOP (THIS).

That was a lot. I'm tired. I haven't seen my family in years.

See you on the other side of the war~