Interview 1 & Presentation 1

1. My first interview changed my topic from musical composition to music teaching. I really enjoyed what my interviewee said about why he became a teacher, to be able to teach others the same subject he loves is great. I've always been fond of the idea of teaching others music, because I believe that everyone should have basic knowledge of musical theory. This interview cemented that idea as my new topic, so I can broaden my studies about music. It gave my presentation new things to talk about alongside composition, such as performance, theory or previous experiences with music teachers.
2. What stood out I think was that I was one of the few people who changed their topic because of their interview. I'd say the fact that I'm currently very comfortable with my new topic added some fresh enthusiasm to my presentation.
3. I think the most challenging thing to do in my presentation was the organization of my info, as well as remembering to apply it to your audience. It's easy to know and present a topic that you are very passionate about, however to be able to effectively get your point across while maintaining a sense of direction during the presentation is very hard. Especially when trying to cover every point of the LIA.

Senior Project Presentation 1

For my five minute presentation, I plan on talking about the importance of math in music, since composers deal with math every time they compose. I plan on going over the following:
 1. Inform people on just how much math is involved with musical composition.
 2. Go over a quick history of math's involvement in music.
 3. Try to give an example of a procedure or term that involves math. This may involve my visual.
To check for the audience's understanding, I may ask brief questions or warm-ups involving  what I presented to see if they are not lost during my presentation. My visual will either be a chart explaining my procedures, a musical instrument or possibly even both of these things. I may go over steps 1-3 again as well, but with different information the second time around.

Interview Check

For my first interview, I will be interviewing a music teacher who used to perform live at shows before teaching a music class. His name is Chris Waters, and has been working with music since he was in high school. Eventually he started teaching a class down at The School of Arts and Enterprise in Pomona.
I would also ask him things like how would I better myself as a performing musician? How does someone get started in musical performance? Is there any specific aspect of a musical career that would fit me best?

Why I Chose My Topic

My topic for my senior project is musical composition. Since I was young, I had an interest in all kinds of art; from drawing to playing music, it always gave me great joy to be able to have so much fun and be so expressive at the same time. At some point I realized that I had a lot more fun composing and playing my own music and that I was quite good at it, so I chose it as my topic. After studying my topic, I hope to be at a near professional level of musical understanding, so that I'm able to incorporate what I learned into my own musical compositions. I would also like to have a career as a musician later on, and I definitely need a good understanding of musical composition for that.