Skills Developed / Enhanced:
This project expanded my arsenal of instruments. I had never used virtual instruments before, so this was something completely new for me.

Problems / Challenges:
As I worked through the project, it became clear that the synthesized violin and other instruments weren’t going to cut it. I started from scratch and relied more heavily on live instruments (guitar and vocals). I still kept the violin and other string instruments in the background, but the track sounded very busy, so I removed many of the other virtual sounds.

Future Improvements:
In the future, I would increase the tempo of the song. After a while, the song starts to drag and this could lose the interest of the listener.

Get It Right

this is a test to see how this feature works

While Longer

Skills Developed / Enhanced:
This was my first time working with samples. It was certainly a learning curve, but I feel that I have added a new technique into my song creating tool belt.

Problems / Challenges:
This project was much more time consuming than I anticipated. After I split the scale into each separate note, I had to manually place each one. It took hours to create just two minutes of audio.

Future Improvements:
If I were to do this project again in the future, or something similar, I would automate some of the monotonous work. Possibly by adding every A# note at once, then B, and so on. That way I could just copy one note to my clipboard, instead of copying a different note each time.

Someone You Loved (1% Skill 99% Editing)

Skills Developed / Enhanced:
This project taught me that music can be found anywhere. I learned how to turn something as simple as a door into a drum track, or a water glass into a melody.

Problems / Challenges:
I wanted to use real water glasses for the melody, but tuning an instrument entirely made from water is very difficult. By the time one of the glasses was in tune, the water in a different one would evaporate and go out of tune again.

Future Improvements:
In the future, I think it would be cool to make a song entirely from household items without the use of Auto-Tune. Possibly putting the water into sealed bottles, or using different types of canned foods would eliminate the issue of evaporation, while still providing a clean melody.

Believer (Music with Household Items)

Skills Developed / Enhanced:
This was my first time working in-depth with Auto-Tune on a single sample. It tested my ability to create a full track from just one clip.

Problems / Challenges:
This is the hardest project I worked on all year. Each time I worked through an obstacle another one came out of nowhere. The biggest problem was finding written sheet music to follow. I ended up having to tune the project by ear, which took much longer than it would have otherwise.

Future Improvements:
In the future, I would create a song that already has tablature posted online. Selecting a song without sheet music, made the project unnecessarily difficult.

Who Let The Dogs Out (Played with a Dog)

Skills Developed / Enhanced:
This project further developed my skills with Auto-Tune. When I made music with household items, I only scratched the surface of Auto-Tune, so I decided to create another project to enhance my skills.

Problems / Challenges:
The biggest challenge was making the different themes flow seamlessly together. I’ve never created a medley of any kind, so this project required me to learn a lot about music theory. I researched the reasons that certain notes sound good together, learning how chords work and the CAGED system. A YouTube channel called ‘Marty Music’ was very useful in the creation of this project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxZC6Qa4bRo).

Future Improvements:
In the future, I would create a video to accompany the audio track. I gathered all of these sounds from Minecraft, so recording my screen to show the different sounds inside the game would make a great addition.

Video Game Medley (Played with Minecraft)

Skills Developed / Enhanced:
This project developed my songwriting skills and piano playing. I don’t have much experience playing the piano, so this project really stretched my abilities.

Problems / Challenges:
The biggest challenge I faced when creating this track was writing the story. This was inspired by my ISU novel, Dark Matter, where an ordinary man named Jason is ripped away from his family and must fight to return home. It took me hours of writing lyrics until I was happy with the end result. I decided to use real events from the novel as building blocks.

Future Improvements:
If I were to make this song, or something similar in the future, I would add another verse. It ends with the main character still searching for his family, but closing it off when he is finally reunited with his family would tie everything up in a nice bow.

William Behnke

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