Incentives are almost done!!!

This week not a lot of progress was made because our class was making incentives all week. We are close to done! We should be done by the end of next week. Also my next project a friend and I will be creating a music video in Chinese. This week we have been working on the song which in English is called "Can I Hug You One Last Time". It is going to be a challenge because we are going to have to memorize the lyrics and act out the video at the same time.

Finally Some Actual Progress

This week has been a very productive week! I have "A Life That's Good" recorded both the guitar and vocals. Of course I may or may not re-record the vocals, chances are I will cause I aim for perfection! Also, my original song's (Yes it has no name yet, I'm working on that) piano portion is done. I have recorded some some vocals but my teacher and I want to get it perfect so we are going to add more instrumentation, and work on the vocals, and reaching that perfect pitch. I have been tampering with Logic Pro X and added in some drums but I need an opinion on it. Hopefully this Friday I will get that in our peer review. 
Also all of you who are anxious to get there rewards from donating we are working very hard we cranked out all the sticky notes, tie died the t-shirts, got the art, and are working on the infographic. The t-shirts are not quite done we still need to but our logo on which I must brag looks pretty good. That's all for this week chime back in next week.

Finally! Progress!

This week I accomplished recording the guitar instrumental part to a Life That's Good thanks to Aric Rhodes! We originally made the instrumental part the week before but we did not have a guitar capo therefore we had to re due it. Also, this week I worked with my Music Tech teacher Mr. Gallagher to record the instrumental part to my original song. This week we hope to accomplish adding in a base and a melody part for my voice to sing along to.
Furthermore, I am also becoming more and more comfortable with Logic X Pro, I now know how to copy, paste, delete, and add effects. This may seem minor but I couldn't do any of this before. The program is also more intuitive than you would think too. 
I am still not quite on track with my time line but I am still making daily progress therefore, I should be able to catch up with it. By the end of our two and a half day week I hope to have a complete recording of A Life That's Good on soundcloud. Also, I would like to at least add a bass part to my original song and be able to get parts of my voice recorded.  This week we also worked on tie dying shirts and focusing on our Kick Starter incentives (If you are confused read early posts).

Week Two of The Project

I recently learned that my timeline did not give me enough time to finish a project. For instance, this week was a four day week and I was sick for one of them. Therefore, I was not able to complete my project this week. I am going to restructure my timeline so I have more time and it is more realistic. When I first developed the timeline I was a little bit over ambitious. My current timeline will be as follows.....

November 22 - Have "A Life That's Good" up on youtube. This includes learning the song and having Aric learn how to play it too this will take three days. I will record it using Youtube in two days.December 6 - Have "Flicker" posted. This includes having Mr. Gallagher remember and play the piano and record the vocals via Youtube. This will take a few days and putting it on sound cloud will take one. January 2 - Have new material on youtube. I need to finish wiring the song and work with Mr. Gallagher to write the piano portion. Writing the sng will take a week and then writing the piano portion will take four days. Then it will be record  in one day on youtube. Also, I would like to put it in the sound cloud, which will take one day. January 23 - Have another original song online. I need to write a song and work with Aric on finishing the song. Then post it using Youtube. It will take a week to write the song. Two weeks to write with Aric and then uploading it will take a few days.

First week of the project

This week I am edging towards having my first cover up on YouTube. I am finding out that this was not as easy as I thought. Firstly, I had to wait for someone else to learn the song, which was different because I have only relied on myself. Therefore, installing that trust I am finding out is just as hard. But for the most part things are going well. I have the quitat on Logic Pro X and am getting vocals up soon. Then I will be able to play the instrumental in the background while I sing and then can post that video to YouTube. Therefore, I am doing pretty well and the timing is pretty good I might have to go into next week but I am determined to get this project finished by Wednesday.

PROJECT PLAN

Project Tittle: Mackenzie's Plan

Teacher: Mr Gallagher

School: AMHS

Grade: 11th

Subject: Music Tech

Summarize the theme for this project. Why do this project?

The theme for this project is to get my voice out there so not only I can enjoy it but hopefully others can too. On my Youtube Channel that I will create I will have covers and some original works.

Identify the content standard that students will learn in this project.

I will learn how to make youtube videos and use Logic Pro X. Also, I will hopefully get to tamper around and learn the piano a little bit.

Identify key skills students will learn in this project. List only those skills you plan to asses.

I will write songs and tamper with the piano, drums, and guitar I will have people in my class that know how to play the instruments, play them for me.

Identify the habits of mind that students will practice in this project.

-Use logic

-Use Youtube

-Use some kind of camera

-Tampor with different instruments

State the essential question or problem statement for the project. THe statement should encompass all project content and outcomes, and provide a central focus for student inquiry.

The goal of this project is to make and account on youtube and do covers and original songs on one account so I can always have them. I also like the concept of having music out there that anyone can click on.

Early in the Project:

-Create Youtube Account

-Figure out songs

During Project:

-Record using macs and logic

End of the Project

-Have four full videos on youtube

Product: Record "A Life That's Good"

Criteria: Record vocals and get Aric to play guitar

Product: Record "Bones"

Criteria: Record vocals and figure out who can play the instruments the song uses.

Product: Record "Flicker"

Criteria: Re-record vocals and have Mr. Gallagher play the piano.

Product: Record New Material

Criteria: Record vocals get Mr. Gallagher to play the piano, Peter to play the base, and Kate to play the drums. Then record all onto Logic Pro X.

Knowledge and Skills Needed

Vocals - Already have learned

Learn Logic Pro X- Learn during the project

Make Youtube Account and use it - Learn during the project

Play Piano - Learn during the project

Timeline

Tuesday 5th - Have "A Life That's Good" up on youtube. This includes learning the song and having Aric learn how to play it too this will take three days. I will record it using Youtube in two days.

Friday 15th - Have "Bones" uploaded on youtube. This includes figuring out the instruments I will need played and finding players this will take at least 4 days. Also, I will have to learn the song and record on Logic Pro X this will take 5 days.

Friday 22nd - Have "Flicker" posted. This includes having Mr. Gallagher remember and play the piano and record the vocals via Youtube. This will take a few days and putting it on sound cloud will take one.

December 6th - Have new material on youtube. I need to finish wiring the song and work with Mr. Gallagher to write the piano portion. Writing the sng will take a week and then writing the piano portion will take four days. Then it will be record  in one day on youtube. Also, I would like to put it in the sound cloud, which will take one day. 

January 6th - Have another original song online. I need to write a song and work with Aric on finishing the song. Then post it using Youtube. It will take a week to write the song. Two weeks to write with Aric and then uploading it will take a few days.

January 20th - Have “Can’t Help Falling in Love” online. Have Anna play the piano and I sing along and record on youtube. I know the song therefore, Anna will need to learn it and it will probbly take her a week. Then a few days to record it.

January 26th - Have “Love, Love, Love” online. Have Payton and I learn the song and do the acoustic version with Aric playing the guitar. It will take Payton and I 3 days to lear and Aric 3 days then we can record it.

The Phonograph

Our assignment this week was to find a piece of equipment or technology that has furthered the making of music. I choose the record player, which is also known as a phonograph. I decided to choose a record player because without it we would have never have been able to record music and then play it back, and a world without music would be no world at all.Therefore I found out that the first record player was created in 1877 by Thomas Edison. He was the first one to be able to play sound back. Others such as, Alexander Graham Bell we able to record sound but were unable to play it back. At the time Edison was working on creating a phone and a telegram system but he jumped on and off of a lot of different projects.  His original phonograph had three parts a speaker containing a diaphragm attached to a scribing stylus, a four inch diameter metal drum attached to a hand crank and wrapped around with a toll of tinfoil, and the listening tube, very similar to the speaking tube, which contains a detecting stylus which is attached to the diaphragm. You would talk or sing into the diaphragm and the sound would vibrate, and the vibrations would record. The device could only record for three minutes though. The first thing every record on his device was him saying Mary had a Little Lamb. You can listen to his recording at - http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/edison/sfeature/songs/maryhadlamb.mp3 It is very short but think about how that is truly amazing it is compared to what we have now. The sound quality is also quite clear and pretty good compared to what we have now. If you are wondering what the first phonograph looked like you can look at the picture below.
This picture shows you all of the parts to the phonograph which I think is pretty awesome because it is amazing to look at how far technology has come. Just to show you how far we have advanced I wanted to show you two more photos, one of Edison's record player and one of a record player made recently.

Now of course Edison made the one on the left and the one on the right is a very modernized player but both do essentially the same thing. Except the more modern player only plays back music you cannot record on that device. Also the recordings that are made are put onto records and that is what the record player uses to make the sound. It is truly pretty extraordinary to see how far we have come. Think about it now me have devices such as the iPhone and iPod's that can both record music and play it back to us, and of course do so much more. Although if we are really going to record music we have to use different technology that would be found in a recording studio.

Citations

"Sound Recording: 1877 Edison Phonograph." -- Kids Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. <http://kids.britannica.com/elementary/art-90615/Thomas-Edisons-first-phonograph-recorded-sound-when-someone-spoke-into>.
“Thomas Alva Edison Patents the Phonograph." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. <http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thomas-alva-edison-patents-the-phonograph>.
"Timeline of Thomas Edison's Life." PBS. PBS, 2000. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/edison/timeline/index.html>.

The Beat

Week Four

This week in Music Technology we tried to create a beat using Logic. Sounds easy enough, right? Well it is not especially when you are as picky as me. I have never been one for a techno beat or synthesized instruments, I much rather prefer the basics such as the piano, drums, and guitar. Therefore, this assignment was a little tricky because on Logic the basic instruments like piano do not sound good they sound "techky." So I had to open my mind and move to the synthesized instruments, which at first was not very fun but I eventually got into it and made a beat. Also, another thing to remember is that a beat is just a beat it does not have to be perfect it can be wherever your musical mind takes you.

Week 3

This is week three of Music Technology, and this week we focused on recording audio. We read last weeks blogs and recorded it in Logic Pro X. It sounds easy but it is not you have to go to the settings and choose the device your using to record and when you do not know what your doing it can be quite difficult. Needless to say though I figured it out. We also figured out that the iMacs built in microphones are not the best so we need to be in a sound proof room and use a plug in mic to get the best quality. Furthermore, this week we had to save all of our work to the hard drive, because how many times have we lost work we have forgotten to save. It is hard learning how to save things on a Mac because throughout my whole life I used a dell, therefore it can be challenging learning the ropes. Lastly, we worked on making some of the incentives such as sticky notes for our awesome donors. We still have much to do incentive wise but I am sure we will crank it out. It has been another interesting week in Music Technology and I look forward to many more.

Week One

This is week two of music technology and so far things are going great! Coming back to school I had forgotten that we would have to send out incentives for all of our fabulous donors who contributed through Kick Starter. (For those of you who are confused go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/musicandmedia/chromatic-building-a-media-lab-for-art-music-and-a?ref=live. Here you will be able to see how we were able to have this class.) Needless to say we have a lot to do, we need to get a plaque made, tie dye 24 t-shirts, make inphographics, and create lots of sticky notes. But the technology and all the fun gadgets are so worth the hard work. We have iMacs installed with logic and adobe final cut pro, and headphone jacks, new headphones, and keyboards that plug into the macs.
We first are started out experimenting with Logic which is similar to garage band but Logic has more instruments and more things you can do. Going through all the sounds was awesome because some were really cool and others were very out there. But I am pumped to start making music. Right now we are focused on the instrument portion of the music but we are soon going to move onto audio.
Now that you know a little about the class and how we got here this year I hope to learn more about composing the instrumental part of music. I have always been a singer and I love to write my own songs but it's not really my own song if someone else writes the instrumental. Therefore, this year I hope to create my own songs. Also, I need to become more tech savy because I never know what to do with technology, which is sad considering I am a teenager and the time is all about technology.