Turner - Senior Thesis

1. I contacted 5 more people to be my judge today and one of them responded during this class period. We talked over email for a bit and he said he could possibly come but not to lock him in yet. 2. Instead of working on my paper, I decided to work on some music since I have my upcoming concert in about a month and a half. I want to get about 2-3 more songs out by May 10th so I need to hustle! I didn't make anything I like really however, but I did find this BOMB producer on YouTube who sells his beat for only $20 and are free for nonprofit (soundcloud use only). Listening to his beats kind of make me feel like my beats are garbage but it's okay because I'm still learning and I have to remember that. 3. The song I'm going to release on Friday will most likely be my most played song ever since the beat is awesome and also includes a female artist on it. I don't want to get into the habit of using others' beats though because I want to continue expanding my sk

1. I continued working on my thesis paper. I believe it's coming along pretty well. I'm about five pages in. I'm going to ask Mr. Correa to proof read it. 2. I also was contacted by a booking agency to perform a show on April 27th. However, it was in Forth Worth on a Friday night at around 11 pm. I declined because I don't think a lot of my peers would drive roughly 40 minutes to go see me perform that late at night. Luckily, the agent asked if I was available May 18th. I accepted this offer although its the same night as Townview prom. Most of my friends aren't even going to that so I decided to take it!

Today, I mainly focused on the song I'm releasing tomorrow. It was kind of difficult to focus since everyone around me was talking but it kind of forced me to get into a zone and black everyone else out. I cleaned up the song that I want to release and I started the artwork for it. I decided to start releasing my music on Fridays rather than Mondays so I can get more people to listen as I feel that people are more inclined to listen to a song on a Friday rather than a Monday. I also continued reaching out to different local artists in hopes of having them be one of my judges. So far, only my mentor has agreed on being a judge.

1. I contacted three artists in regards to being my judge for my presentation. I haven't received any response but one of them is my mentor so hopefully he can. 2.  I finished a song I started over Spring Break that will be releasing this Friday. Then I started working on a song that I want to release next Friday. I've changed my release days to Friday because I feel like more people will listen on a Friday. 3. Then I talked to the Marines recruiter.

Initially, I was going to work on my thesis paper all class, but I decided to play around with a couple of samples I found yesterday. I was only planning on making beats for about 30 to 45 minutes but then I got really immersed in my music and I lost track of time. I worked on one beat the whole class period and I think it's REALLY good. I'm going to record during TAG-IT so I can release a song this Friday. I decided to release this song on Friday rather than my usual Monday releases because although I like to release music on Mondays, people usually don't listen to music on a Monday because they're LAZY. So I think I'm gonna do Friday or Saturday night releases from now on.

For the first part of class we discussed the thesis presentations and the guidelines for the paper and the presentations. We then asked Mr. Correa questions about the guidelines, the rubric, and the presentations. For the rest of the class, I searched for new sounds that I could use in my beats. I downloaded some drumkits and sound packs and fell in love with a specific instrument. I started constructing a beat around this sound and hopefully I can release another by the end of TAG-IT.

Today, I decided to make a beat from scratch instead of using samples. I really just played around with instruments and plugins. I didn't have any idea of where I wanted to go with the beat, but it turned out nicely. It's not really my type of music and I couldn't see myself on the beat but I do think it's good that I focus on beat-making once in a while so I can advance my skills.

I worked on beats during all of class. My main focus for the day was to explore samples to use for beats. For the first half of class, I listened to probably 30 songs from between the 20th century, trying to find something to use to sample for a beat. Luckily, I found about four songs that I really liked and wanted to sample. For the second half of class, I attempted to make some beats using these four samples. I made two beats using two of the samples. However, I'm not sure if I'm going to be using them.