My Semester Project

My Semester Project

My driving question for the next few months is how will I create a well-made music video for one of the songs that I wrote?

For the rest of this semester, everyone in my class has to do a special project, and I am going to record two original songs with me playing drums and two other people singing and playing piano. One is songs that I wrote, and one is a song that the lead singer wrote. I will record and edit one song each week over a three week period, starting next week.

Once I am finished recording all of the songs, which will be in about four weeks from now, I will choose one and create a music video for it, and then edit it once I am done. It will probably take me over a month or two to finish filming and editing it, making it around late January when it is done, which is the end of the semester. I think that the filming of the video will take two or three weeks, which leaves me over a month to edit it.

The key skills that I will learn while doing this project will be how to use recording and editing computer programs such as Logic Pro X and Final Cut Pro. I will also learn how to use a professional video camera, and in my weekly updates, I will include the information that I learned that week from filming or editing.

Schedule:

11/1

Record the first song

11/22

Record second song

12/13

Design music video outline

12/20

Finish recording music video

1/15

Finish editing music video and upload it to blog

The criteria needed for each product:

1. Product: Videography-

I need to make sure that the camera is in the right spot at all times, isn’t shaky, and has the right lighting.

2. Product: Editing-

I need to make sure that everything is edited well without jumps between each change in scene, etc.

3. Product: Sound-

I need to make sure that the sound in all of my videos is good quality and cut together well.

	Skills Needed	Already Learned	Taught Before Project	Taught During Project
1	Drum playing	-----
2	Recording			-----
3	Video Taping			-----
4	Editing		-----

Tambourine History

The Tambourine

For the few of you who are wondering what a tambourine is, it is one of the simplest musical instruments ever made. It is part of the percussion family, is usually handheld, and can be played in virtually any genre of music because of how plain and universal the sound is. The metal disks are called “jingles” and are around the outside rim of the circle of wood. Throughout its history, the tambourine has barely been altered in its looks because of how simplistic and easy it is already to use.

The tambourine was first used in Greece and Rome during the 13th century in religious and folk songs. Since the late 1700’s, it has traveled around the world and landed in Europe, where Mozart began to include it into his compositions. Once the tambourine was heard in classical songs, many artists began adding it to their own work, snowballing the sound into nearly every song you heard until recently. Now, new technologies have enabled us to use fake sounds produced by computers, so most instruments are not needed in creating a song anymore.

The percussion consists of some of my favorite instruments because each piece of it has such a unique sound. Also, they are so important to music because they keep the time and add the structure to the song. The tambourine is awesome because even though it is so simple, it adds so much to a song and can have very complicated rhythms that add something special to each melody.

Bibliography

• http://www.x8drums.com/v/blog/2007/02/history-of-tambourine.asp
• http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=tambourine
• http://www.vsl.co.at/en/70/3196/3211/3215/5813.vsl
• http://www.promusicaustralia.com/drum/TocaImages/T-H_Series.jpg