Script:
My first composition was done in my Personal Project in 10th. After that, I made a few small ones, but wanted to do something bigger. I began to write this album during my grandfather’s last stage of his life and completed the eight quartets just recently. I wrote and produced all of the music on GarageBand as a Creativity component of my CAS. I utilized my music theory and, along with some obscure references to some of my favorite pieces, I was able to create a full eight quartets (technically 7 and 1 sextet) showing the emotional journey that my family and I went on during those last stages of my grandpa’s life.
LO2: I took a challenge this time, as I had never written any quartets before and I committed myself to writing eight whole pieces in cohesion with one another to portray a full story. I had never really done anything of this magnitude, and it took me over a year and half to complete this task. I got stuck several times and had to work on other things before returning to it. I overcame this challenge by grinding it out and working out each individual piece, bar by bar, note by note, until it was to my satisfaction. I actually improved a lot in my voice leading and harmonies through this journey and that can be seen by comparing it not only to my previous composition but also to the earlier quartets that I wrote within this album.
LO3: This CAS experience was completely planned by me individually and I did not work with any other people in this. I had to plan out the overall journey for my whole album and had to organize my time, as this task was a long-term project that I worked on in the background of my school tasks and other extracurricular activities. I think that by self-managing myself through this process I learned how I work best (focused sessions once in a while rather than short sessions every day), and will be able to apply that to my future projects.
LO4: Since this project took so long I had to persevere. Like I mentioned earlier, I got stuck several times, which was very frustrating and also very stressful because I knew that I had deadlines. I had to remain persistent and keep working forward, pushing myself to achieve my goals. Normally, I experience similar things when creating projects, but this time it was much more drawn out as it was far longer than I was used to. I learned how to work through those times of stress and am now more disciplined.
I loved this experience overall and learned so much not only about music but also about myself. I would love it if my pieces achieved popularity, but I know that instrumentals are not so prone to become loved in the modern day. Either way, I am happy with the way that it came out!