Finding Your Voice

Category: Portfolio & Reflection (Page 1 of 12)

Final reflection keon

Going to college was probably one of the smartest decisions I’ve made, I didn’t really know what to expect with the classes I would have. I thought the work would be very hard and a lot to do but I’ve managed to get through my first semester. I knew that I would get through it and finish the semester strong. With my English class it was really good because Professor Hall was a very good at keeping the class engaged and interested. She explains things very well and makes sure that we get the materials that we need in order to do what we have to do. That is what a professor is suppose to do while teaching a class because without the professor doing that the students taking the class will be confused trying to figure out what to do on their own or asking a peer. That’s why it’s good to try to interact with your professors such as asking questions, conversing, and even sharing your ideas to the professor.

Taking an English class this semester I’ve improved in a couple of things. I feel like what I have improved on most was being able to add dialogue and be as detailed as possible in my writing. A time where I used dialogue in my writing was when I had to write my unit one paper. In the unit 1 assignment, at first I wrote, “He said don’t let this happen again or I will have to tell your mom.” I had read it over and said to myself that it wasn’t descriptive so I switched it with, “He even said if this happened again I will tell your mom. I reacted fast and said “No please Don’t” with quickness.“ now when I read this it was more descriptive. I could imagine myself in this scenario that I wrote. When writing it’s good to be descriptive in your writing because it allows the reader to stay interested and have the reader be able to imagine and picture themselves doing it as they read your paper. Another thing I have improved on is sentence focus, this is something that dr.Hall has taught me while taking the course. Sentence focus is being able to make your sentences more focused, by doing that your writing will be more clear, and direct. Using Strong using strong and active verbs and using  nouns will help your sentence be more focused.

These skills will really help you in the long run and being able to use it will really benefit you. Now when it comes to essays I am able to write them and no be so lazy when I write because I have a bad habit of just writing what comes to mind and just typing instead of just analyzing what I am writing and trying to focus the sentence more which is why I am glad I learned a lot more about about sentence focusing

Furthermore, with this ELA course  I am glad I was able to have such an amazing teacher overall. I have learned a lot from doctor hall within this semester, my skills have change over some time and I have also became more interested in writing stories. I’ve learned how to better my essays and make it flow more so that the story can sound more creative and more interesting. In order to be able to write a story you have to write from your point of view and also from what you know and seen. In order to improve you have to be dedicate and has to be something you’re really interested in to make it ten times better. Wats that you can learn is by participating and asking the teacher the questions, when you are quiet you tend to not know even if you do know. It helps you learn the  material faster. Every skill that I have learned in this class I have applied and will continue to use it in all of my writings and in the future. Applying these skills in class will also help you be able to help your peers and even family. Helping yourself become a better writer can also mean that you can help others around you become a better writer.

 

Final Portfolio

Final Reflection

 

What I learned about myself as a writer is that sometimes when I personalize my writing it actually can enhance my writing. Before I wasn’t comfortable getting too personal in my writing but over time with peer reviews and different assignments I learned to do this. This is a quote from my Unit 3 tik tok “For me music can be very relatable and usually relatable music helps me find things out about myself”. The background was a part of a song from Frank Ocean where he says “Sometimes I feel like I’m a god but I’m not a god”, this may not seem as personal but to me it was very personal and i think it helped my tik tok because my audience can see what music does for me, and this helped my claim. This is from my earlier writing pieces of the semester “Education is important, however some children can be easily manipulated into thinking that it is the only way to be successful, or that it’s simply the most important thing in our lives.  When this happens it can lead students into feeling like a complete failure if they do badly on a test  or aren’t the top of their class. In the skit the speaker  says that while everyone is making money i’ll be in school and ill have my degrees, and this makes me think about how some kids don’t always live their youth to the fullest 

because they are worried about how they will be perceived based on their educational status. This skit made me realize that education is important but it’s not more important than actually living life in the present, and that worrying too much about how successful I’ll be in the future according to my education is simply a waste of energy.” There were multiple times where I could have added a personal experience in this, however I didn’t because maybe I wasn’t comfortable enough yet, or I didn’t know the impact it can actually have on the writing. 

 

   This can help me in the future because now I know another way to sway my audience. This can help me in future English classes or if I want to apply for a job. This skill is very useful and I will use it to help me reach other goals. 

 

   When I compare how I read in the beginning of the year compared to how I read now I notice some changes. Ever since I did the  “How to Read Like a Writer” assignment, I notice that while I’m reading a text I think about the author more. More specifically I think about what was going through the author’s mind when they made the decisions they did in their writing. Why did they use this word? Why did they use this literary device? Questions like these have helped me to understand texts more. This is obviously a skill that can really help me with future English assignments, however, in addition to helping me comprehend texts more, it also helps me become a better writer because now i think of why i’m really doing things in my writing and the impact it can have on my audience. When making the rhetorical analysis we had to analyze the authors decisions regardless, but the “How to Read Like a Writer” assignments helped a lot. For example, in my Unit 2 final it says, “Salimpoor uses experiments to find answers to her question and these experiments are specific and precise. This can build a sense of trust in her readers.” The  “How to Read Like a Writer” text helped me to analyze texts and by doing this I was able to figure out why this author made this decision in her text, and this shows how something we did in the beginning of the semester can carry on to something we do towards the end of the semester. 

 

 Something that was very difficult for me to do this semester is time management on my assignments. At times I would do assignments just before the deadline and this probably stopped my writing pieces from being as good as they could’ve been. I would procrastinate a lot and this was hurting my writing and my sleep schedule. What I did to combat this problem was doing or at least starting my assignments right after class since I had a big gap in between my next class. Or I would make sure to start my English assignments before any of my other classes. 

 

                                                        Revision for Unit 3

 

I took out the examples of Steve Jobs and Kanye since they aren’t the best examples, since they still in some way did attend college or something similar for an amount of time. 

 

I added transitions to my 2nd situation about education. I also included the skit in the transition so that it ties together and makes sense in the essay 

 

Fixed typos 

 

I get on the bus, listening to music through my AirPods as usual.  Probably listening to some Destroy Lonely or Lucki . I get my favorite seat on the back of the bus in the corner. I usually get bored on the bus so I start to play Clash Royale as I’m listening to music. All of a sudden I hear a familiar voice in my AirPods. I just knew it was some guy from one of Kanye’s skits (School Spirit Skit 2) from his earlier albums, and I usually skip skits but I was in a very intense game and I didn’t want to lose, so I decided to let the skit play. The match finishes but I keep listening. The skit starts with this guy talking about getting his degrees in a boastful tone. This dude went as far as talking about dying with nothing other than his degrees. It’s like his life goal is to go to school, get his degrees, and nothing else. So I finished listening to the skit and I began to think.

This changed my view of education in various ways. One of those ways was that society sometimes puts too much importance on education. Education is important, however some children can be easily manipulated into thinking that it is the only way to be successful, or that it’s simply the most important thing in our lives.  When this happens it can lead students into feeling like a complete failure if they do badly on a test or or aren’t the top of their class. In the skit the speaker  says that while everyone is making money ill be in school and ill have my degrees, and this makes me think about how some kids don’t always live their youth to the fullest because they are worried about how they will be perceived based on their educational status. This skit made me realize that education is important but its not more important than actually living life in the present, and that worrying too much about how successful I’ll be in the future according to my education is simply a waste of energy.

Today education is so pushed and emphasized because more educated people lead to innovation and economic growth. While this is true if students are taught that higher education is the only way to make a living for themselves, it can make some students feel lost or discouraged. 

Listening to Kanye’s skit about education and college made me think about a moment in my academic career. It was the middle of my junior year. The AP tests were coming up and I was in AP English Composition. I was nervous to take the test but I was still confident in my skills. Since COVID-19 was still around, everyone was taking their tests online. I started the test and was feeling pretty confident…then I got to the essays. I remember typing as fast as I could and taking a lot of educated guesses. I barely finished my second essay and barely got to start my third. My keyboard stopped working and I realized the test had ended. At this point I also realized that I probably failed, but in the back of my head I had a delusion that it was still possible that I just barely passed. Eventually, I got my results and I wasn’t too surprised but I was disappointed.

When I think about this event and think about this skit I think to myself, “life goes on”. This skit helped  me realize that if I were to beat myself up every time I ran into an academic obstacle I would be on the floor with just some of my academic achievements and nothing else. Just like the  speaker in the skit who would be happy with dying with just his degrees and nothing else. His only worry in life seemed to be reaching academic goals and nothing else. If I didn’t come to realize that life goes on even after academic failures I would’ve kept the mindset that academic goals are the most important goals in life just like the speaker in the skit.

Now imagine an event like this but on a bigger scale, for example failing a college class. Now failing a college course is a big deal but what happens after that? Life simply goes on, but failing in education does not mean that you won’t be successful or that you yourself are a failure. However, when students are taught that failing in education is simply the end of it all it is hard for them to think “life goes on”, and this can be detrimental to one’s mental health. Instead students should take failing as a wake up call, and this can mean many different things. It can mean studying harder, making more effort in the classroom, or even it just isn’t for them and they have something else that they are more passionate about.

Again, this isn’t to say that education isn’t important whatsoever, nor is it to get students to drop out of school. It is to help students realize that there is a lot more to life than the classroom and paperwork. A successful student does not always equal a successful life, and a struggling student does not always equal a struggling life. The misconception that education should always be the number one priority in a person’s life can cause more damage than teachers and parents realize sometimes. Education is important but it doesn’t always have to be the most important in everyone’s life.

 

 

                                 Revised Unit 2 

 

I totally forgot to add my title in the final draft…so I added it, and my question is the title. People will know what i’m actually talking about before reading the paper now. 

 

Added how music helped me to be myself in my intro but im still going to leave it in my conclusion because it something i want the reader to remember when they are done reading it, but i also don’t go too into depth with it compared to how i do in the conclusion 

 

Explained why music is important to Gupta in my intro, instead of leaving it on some kind of cliff hanger

 

Related the info I learned from the paper and explained how this information helped me realize WHY music has benefited me. (in conclusion) 

 

Fixed typos

 

                           Why is music pleasurable?

I’m interested in this question because I truly love music. Since I was young I was always around music. For example, cultural music, religious music, or the music me and my sisters played in the house. From a young age music has helped me to be myself and nowadays, I find myself listening to music almost all the time. Whenever I’m doing something or going somewhere, 9 times out of 10 I’ll have music playing. Furthermore, I once had an experience where I was listening to a Frank Ocean song and I asked myself “Why this song got me feeling like this? I have never even experienced something like this before.” After this experience I really started to think about this question and different aspects of music in general. What I expect to find is information that has to do with the brain and probably even psychology or simply science on how the brain works when listening to music and how music affects us emotionally and physically. If my research isn’t what I expected at all I will continue to write about it because this is something I’m really interested in and something I’ve been wondering about for a while now. I’m already expecting a specific type of info and so I will challenge the assumptions I’ve already made and see if they are correct or not.

 

Gupta, Robert. “Between Music and Medicine.” Robert Gupta: Between Music and Medicine | TED Talk, 2012, https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_gupta_between_music_and_medicine?language=en.

In the Ted Talk “Between Music and Medicine” Robert Gupta goes into depth how music can significantly and positively impact people. Gupta uses examples of people who are in a very distressed time and how music helped them in those times. He even uses the example of a patient who was shot and couldn’t speak but was able to when they began to sing with their therapist.  Gupta also mentions how he started an organization called “Street Symphony” that was supposed to help those in dark times, by using music. This organization performed at shelters and clinics for the homeless and mentally ill on Skid Row, performed for veterans with PTSD,  the incarcerated and the criminally insane. Another example of healing with music that Gupta mentioned was after one of these performances where a lady with some type of palsy had finally stopped shaking when she heard classical music for the first time. Gupta emphasizes the power of music and why it is so important to society and to him, which is because of how music can affect people’s lives for the better, and in some cases has the power to entirely change peoples lives. 

Robert Gupta is a violinist, he attended Yale University and Marist College. This Ted talk was released in 2014 to spread awareness about the power that music holds and how music can heal. Robert Guptas audience here could be people who share similar interest in music and may even pursue careers in music, however the audience can also be casual music listeners who have a passion for music.In his Ted talk  he uses peoples experiences with music to move the audience with emotion. For example, in his Ted talk he uses this experience, ” a woman walked up to us and she had tears streaming down her face, and she had a palsy, she was shaking, and she had this gorgeous smile, and she said that she had never heard classical music before, she didn’t think she was going to like it, she had never heard a violin before, but that hearing this music was like hearing the sunshine, and that nobody ever came to visit them, and that for the first time in six years, when she heard us play, she stopped shaking without medication.” This example can evoke emotion in the audience because of how much emotion was in the situation and Guptas tone of voice. Guptas tone becomes softer when he is describing this story and this helps in evoking that emotion out of the audience, but these emotional experiences that Gupta tells the audience is what really puts the emotion in the audience and this is how Gupta informs, moves or even inspires his audience. Gupta also uses credibility to build a sense of trust in his audience. When Gupta mentions his mentors, how much he has been around music, where he has studied, and the way he can play the violin in the beginning and end of his talk, this makes it easier for the audience to believe what he is saying and trust him. He also started the “Street Symphony” organization in 2010, where various musicians traveled to homeless shelters, jails, clinics and probably more places where people don’t have easy access to the music and art. He started the “Street Symphony ” organization in 2010 and the Ted Talk was made in 2012, so his experiences in the last couple years with less fortunate people and music would have pushed him to make this Ted Talk and finally be able to share his experiences on a larger stage. This source helps me answer my question significantly because it answers my question with real life experiences and it also gives me extra information on the topic as well. Gupta cites various mentors and people he learned from in the past.

“And after a few moments, her therapist tries a new tack, and they start singing together, and Gabby starts to sing through her tears, and you can hear her clearly able to enunciate the words to a song that describe the way she feels, and she sings, in one descending scale, she sings, “Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” And it’s a very powerful and poignant reminder of how the beauty of music has the ability to speak where words fail, in this case literally speak.”

” a woman walked up to us and she had tears streaming down her face, and she had a palsy, she was shaking, and she had this gorgeous smile, and she said that she had never heard classical music before, she didn’t think she was going to like it, she had never heard a violin before, but that hearing this music was like hearing the sunshine, and that nobody ever came to visit them, and that for the first time in six years, when she heard us play, she stopped shaking without medication.”

“and for those living in the most dehumanizing conditions of mental illness within homelessness and incarceration, the music and the beauty of music offers a chance for them to transcend the world around them, to remember that they still have the capacity to experience something beautiful and that humanity has not forgotten them.”

 

Salimpoor, Valorie N, et al. “The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal.” PloS One, Public Library of Science, 16 Oct. 2009, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2759002/.

Have you ever wondered why people love music so much? In “The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal” by VN Salimpoor a lot of information on pleasure from music is provided. The paper starts with background information on the topic and what is going to be researched, which was the relationship between emotional arousal/pleasure and music, or in other words “why is music pleasurable”, which was the first sentence of the introduction to this paper. Experiments took place to find answers to this question. Participants listened to music while emotional arousal was observed. In other words, participants’ emotions were recorded while they were listening to the music. These were recorded through measurements of sweat, temperature, heart rate, blood volume change and respiration rate. Participants measured their pleasure levels with ratings of “neutral”, “low pleasure” and “high pleasure”. The experiment ended up showing that music does evoke emotional arousal, which usually leads to pleasurable feelings.

The author of “The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal” is by VN Salimpoor who studied at McGill University, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Music Media and Technology and the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research. This research article was published October 16, 2009 to find a scientific answer to the question “why is music pleasurable?” . Her audience are people who are also studying like her. We know this by the language she uses throughout her paper, but also the graphs and data recordings she uses. For example, in the text it states “More specifically, emotional arousal is physiologically marked by increased activity of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, without voluntary control.” This kind of language suggests that her audience are people who are studying similar topics, because most people wouldn’t know what some of those terms mean without some kind of study beforehand. To persuade her audience Salimpoor uses credibility, experiments, and facts. She already is a credible person for the amount of studying she has done but she also references other credible sources like other professors, and other studies. The data recordings are very detailed and wouldn’t be able to be read by someone who has never seen it before or learned how to. Salimpoor uses experiments to find answers to her question and these experiments are specific and precise. This can build a sense of trust in her readers.   She definitely has a love for neuroscience and how music affects the brain because of her vast studying on the topic . The genre is educational because the reader will learn why music is so pleasurable to humans with the scientific findings that were found after experiments and research. The tone is neutral or informative, this makes the reader trust the paper more because the neutral tone doesn’t suggest any bias especially because it is a research article, no opinion is present. This article helps me answer my question because it provides different kinds of answers to my questions compared to my last source, so now I can answer my question in a different way with the more information that I have from the article. The article actually wasn’t only put together by Salimpoor, but also by other researchers with credible backgrounds, and many references are cited.

“Yet music has been present in every known human culture as far back as history dates. Although there are various theories as to why music may have developed (for a review see [1]), the intense degree of pleasure associated with listening to music remains a mystery.”

“These results have broader implications by demonstrating that strongly felt emotions could be rewarding in themselves in the absence of a physically tangible reward or a specific functional goal.”

Anuta, Joe. “Probing Question: What Makes a Song Catchy?” Penn State University, ​Penn State News, 4 June 2006, https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/probing-question-what-makes-song-catchy/.

 

“What Makes A Song Catchy” by Joe Anuta is simply about what truly makes a song catchy to people and why. In the text it is stated that it may not 100% be known what makes a song  There are various factors for why a song can be catchy to someone throughout the text. A cultural connection or familiarity between the listener and the music can influence the listener to think the song is catchy. For example, my mother would probably find a song she grew up on more catchy than I would and vice versa. Constant repetition was a factor that was also mentioned that can possibly make a song more catchy. When a song is constantly being played on the radio or in the media even if a listener doesn’t enjoy it the melody can stay in their head. These are just two of the factors that can make a song catchy according to Joe Anuta.

“What Makes A Song Catchy” by Joe Anuta was published June 4 2006. This research article was written for casual music listeners who may have wondered why some songs are catchy, or why a specific song was catchy to them. In the article it says “Referring to a study done at Dartmouth College last year, Duffy explains that “MRIs show that a catchy song makes the auditory part of the brain ‘itch’, and the only way the itch can be scratched is by listening to the song…If mentally repeating a song is the brain ‘scratching’, Paul Barsom wants to pin down exactly what causes that initial ‘itch’.” This simply explains to us that when we listen to catchy songs it does something to our brains but in this article Joe Anuta wants to know how does this catchy song does to our brains to make it initially catchy, hence “that initial itch”. Joe Anuta uses logic, reason and credibility to inform and persuade his audience. Throughout the article multiple professors are mentioned and a college study is referenced, this allows his audience to trust the article more due to the credibility. The reasoning in the article then informs the reader of the question they probably had in mind which is “what makes a song catchy”, the reasoning makes sense and gets straight to the point so that the reader doesn’t get bored while getting answers to their question. Even though the article mentions various credible sources like the professors the diction used isn’t hard to understand so readers can read it comfortably without getting lost, especially casual readers. For example, in the text it states “”We will, we will, rock you is just easy to remember.”” The “its just easy to remember” part of that quote is very informal especially for a research paper so this relaxes the reader and makes the tone feel more conversational. Joe Aunuta’s article helps me answer my initial question, “why is music so appealing to humans?” by addressing the “catchy” aspect of songs which also plays a role in the appealing aspect of music.

“a particularly appealing performance of the song may be enough to make it stick in your head.”

“”I know when I am composing and recording music, certain chord or note progressions will evoke an emotion in me, in almost a primordial way. When this happens, I am compelled to explore that relationship further,” he says.”

 

Overall, music appeals to the emotions of people. Music can amplify emotions or help us find emotions that we thought we didn’t have. It can evoke emotions from love to anger, or tranquility to chaos. We see how music can heal us, why we enjoy it, and what it does to us.  In my opinion, music is one of the most powerful forms of art and can change lives. Music doesn’t have a set language, for example there is music that is recognized all over the world for its beauty and power. In Robert Guptas TedTalk I was surprised at the fact that music actually healed a woman with a palsy. Even if the affects of the music were permanent or not it doesn’t change the fact that just some specific sounds and melodies took away a medical condition from a lady. I always knew music was powerful but I did not know music had the power to change lives in these kinds of ways. Music can be a helping hand to someone who never got a physical hand to help them up, or a hug to someone who needs it but hasn’t felt the embrace of another person. Furthermore, I knew music reached the emotions in people I just didn’t really know why this drew us into the music so much, but the studies and research found in “The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal” shows that  music being in tune with how we feel  is simply what makes music listening pleasurable and keeps us coming back.

What I have learned is important to me because all of my life I’ve been surrounded by music and a lot of music has influenced my personality and how I think. Knowing this new found information now helps me understand how and why music has influenced me the way it does. The emotion that I feel when listening to music is what benefits my life. For example,  music has helped me in so many different ways, for example motivation, bettering myself, and having a positive but forward way of thinking. The emotions I felt when listening to music had an impact on how I viewed my life and how I viewed myself.  One of the most profound ways I can say music impacted me was by showing me how important it is to be myself at a young age. When we are young we tend to do what we see and act a certain way to fit in, but the music I listened to showed me that being yourself and not caring about other opinions besides yours is something that is so valuable and that being yourself is cool. Music is one of my biggest passions, and learning about what I listen to feels like science and art working together to help me understand myself and music more. I think it would be great for younger people, around the ages 13-17 to know about this information. Most young people or people in general enjoy music, however a lot may not realize that the music they listen to does impact them and their behavior. So if younger people knew this information it may lead them to critically think about their music choices with questions like, why do I enjoy this song, or how does this song impact my life? This will benefit them by understanding themselves more and will help them to build themselves as the person they want to be.

 

                                                        Unit 3 (not revised) 

 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRqUbUef/



Benjamin Sam Final Portfolio

google doc

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uKCOuGgdVZZdq6pfBe7IZigmATEUvyDBfZFwgd76qrw/edit?usp=sharing

 

Unit One(revised)

 

As I grow older, I crave wanting to go out and explore the world more and more. I can’t wait for the day when I can sit down in a random bar in a random country and just chat with a random person. While I do my school work I often listen to podcasts to make the time I spend doing the work more enjoyable at the moment my favorite podcast to listen to is trash taste; they usually just talk about random dumb stuff; but every now and again they go on tangents about their life growing up in another country, traveling and living in different countries, I always found it interesting.  I often compare their school life with mine, being intrigued by the similarities and the differences, hearing the stories of their school life always made me think of when something like that happened to me and their stories helped unlock memories I would have otherwise forgotten. I’ve noticed that people often remember personal experiences from school more than lessons or information that they learned. These experiences, whether positive or negative, tend to have a greater impact on them. In the 12 or so years we spend in school we take away not the lessons created by the school board and teachers but the random lessons we get from when we reflect on our special moments in school when we tell our stories.

 

Positive experiences and memories can teach us valuable lessons about how to get along with others and contribute to our overall happiness. I remember in my senior year of high school one of the teachers was moving to another school because it was a better opportunity and we were all happy for him, that day we had a fire drill so my grade decide to give him one final farewell and it was one of the most heartwarming things I can remember from the time I spent at that school and now I can take that memory with me for the rest of my life. These memories are one of the main things that shape me without them. I can’t imagine what kind of person I would be without them. In the beginning of my freshmen year i hated that fact that i was put in this school and i was committed to transfer but  as i started build connections with classmates and teachers I ended up not wanting to leave anymore because of all the friends I made that school almost became like a second home. 

 

I remember one day in middle school, that day everyone had to leave the building and to this day I’m not entirely sure why we had to, other than apparently there was an intruder. But all of my teachers were calm and they even let my class who had gym at the time, go up and get our jackets. Even though it was probably a situation where everyone should be on edge; I don’t remember anyone being scared. I remember being in a circle one cold early afternoon in February and talking to my friends to pass the time. I remember being huddled in a circle to try to keep warm and every now and then one of us jumped in a place like a penguin because that is what one of our teachers told us every time we complained that we were cold she’d say “jump up and down, it a good way to stay warm, it’s what penguins do” and jump up in down in place in a demonstration. We were outside for a long while but it wasn’t a bad time at all in fact I cherish that memory.

 

Looking back at that moment made me realize that as important as getting an education is, I feel like making friends is just as important if not greater. As I went through the grades I never woke up at 6 am excited to go learn about Aristotle the legendary Greek philosopher I when excited to talk about Dc vs marvel with my friends. When I think of all the most significant moments in school I had, me and my friends I made in school were a core part of it whether it be shenanigans in class that got us sent to the principal office or us competing with our grades of who can do the best in the next quiz. As Aristotle said, “Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual.”. When I learned this quote I completely brushed it under the carpet in my mind but going over that moment in February made me realize how important socializing really is.

 

I can’t tell you exactly why but having friends to create memories with is one of the best things about life. I wholeheartedly feel that even if I didn’t have the highest GPA in my school or I didn’t have any crazy achievements in my school, I still feel like I succeeded all the same because I was able to truly enjoy my time at school. The valedictorian of my school made a bunch of sacrifices in order to achieve his goal. He never did talk to anyone if it didn’t involve school work and he never seemed to have a life outside of school as much as I respected him, I do not want to have to go through school like that. I don’t like the idea that the only way to succeed in school is to sacrifice your social life; it’s definitely possible to do both. Maybe I’m wrong or biased towards the social aspect of school way more than I am toward the learning aspect. But I feel like the best way to do school is to balance the social part and the learning part perfectly. 

 

Unit Two(revised)

What is music’s role in video games?

 

As I grow older, I reflect on how I’m spending my time on this world and without a doubt I can say a majority of it was spent either playing video games or watching people play video games and I don’t regret it. From watching an orange British cat play Minecraft on an Xbox 360 to me playing Call of Duty with my friends and arguing with them about who is letting the team down. Across all the games I’ve experienced, the thing that sticks out the most, the thing that allows me to remember the experiences I had with these games is the music. It’s so weird that it wasn’t the gameplay or the story of the game, it was the music. For something that feels so minor has such an important role in the game. I want to know what makes music in games so important? What is music’s role and how exactly can it be used to create such memorable moments? I expect to find many people stating the obvious like saying that the music in games is there to make the players experience better by setting the tone and to fill in the boring silence there would be without music. But I want to go in a level deeper, I want to know how game developers make their music decisions and how the music they use create such memorable moments. 

 

Title is  “Adaptive Music (In Gaming) Is Amazing”

The author goes by “Noodle” 

 

A somewhat notable youtuber creates a video displaying not only the reason music is important in video games but how music can be used in games. He also uses examples of what he thinks are good examples of the music that is used in video games which is called Adaptive Music. The video uses nice visuals and comedy to maintain the viewers attention. The visuals consist of cute pictures of the creator’s character. I think the main use of these visuals is to express his ideas in an entertaining way. After a joke to open the video he starts by asking the viewer to think of their favorite song from a game or soundtrack and then telling them that “no matter what you thought of the music it did make your experience with the game better, right?” and with this statement he introduces Adaptive music stating “yea, that what adaptive music is about, the music adapting to what’s up here(him referring to his video)”. He goes on to explain that  creating a game that has timed transition based on what’s happening in the games is very difficult and confusing to do, then he introduces two options a game developer can do that, one of which is that the music just fades in and out, which he makes apparent that  is  very boring for a game to do and two adaptive music, Noodle explains that there are a few ways games can do adaptive music. One way is called mixing horizontally  which is just going from song to song or the transitioning which is as he mentioned earlier is kind of boring. The other way a game can do adaptive music is to mix vertically which is when a game  uses a different version of the same song in different areas of the game to create a different vibe, so for example there be the main bit of music when the player is just walking around in a normal area and if the player we to go under water for instance the tone would shift or the same song would be play by a different instrument . 

 

I was able to take way a lot from this video, the way Noodle set up this video so anyone could understand the what he is trying to explain his point and he does it in a way so that is entertaining so his audience will pay attention, his audience being people who has an interest in games. This video was very useful in figuring out how game developers make the music in games go with their media so nicely to create memorable melodies by timing the music’s transition perfectly with a change in scenes or areas.  

 

“The power of video game music”

By nakey jakey 

 

In another video I found on youtube by a different creator called “the power of video game music” by a man that goes by the name NakeyJakey a youtuber with decent following and creates videos mainly about video games made this video, a video talking the music of video games impact on the actual player and how the music creates a lasting effect on the player. And he shows his points by using examples from various games and explaining how the music had its effect. Jake begins the video by telling the audience that “video game music is kind of crazy, in the sense that it’s not like anything else..”  accompanying this statement are just various clips of video games. Jake doesn’t really use any unique visuals to catch his audience’s attention. Instead, I think he’s playing into his strength and creating and telling jokes to maintain the audience’s attention. For example Jake uses this topic of music to create jokes by creating very bad rap using the music in one of the games he is talking about to make his video entertaining to his audience. Throughout the video jake first mentions the music in games that tells the player the overall feeling of the game and how it positively impacts the player. For example he mentions Vice City GTA(a 2006 mob game) and how the music in that game makes him feel like he is Scarface(a 1983 mob movie) like he’s taking part in illegal activities in the game he feels like a gangster. He goes on to mention that music in games is also a way to let a player know what to do or what’s going to happen with outright telling the player, he mentions resident evil(a horror game) and how safe rooms always played the same music gave a huge relief for the player because now they are sure that they are safe. He adds here that because the players of games spend so much time listening to the game’s music it will stick to the player along with the game’s impression and how good the game was to the player. 

 

While I do feel like this source is a bit unprofessional compared to the other sources I’ve found, I think that NakeyJake’s points are very well said in that music has a very emotional impact to the players that play the games. I like how he edited the video to sync with the music he used to drive home his point. This whole video showed music’s role in games which is to make it so that games have a lasting impression by using music to create a vibe for the player or to surprise the player with a really memorable moment they will take with them for the rest of their life.  

 

“Hail the nightmare: music sound and materiality in bloodborne (Kolassa #)”

By Alexander Kolassa

 

The article paints an in depth picture of how the game starts and its overall atmosphere. As mentioned in the article, Bloodborne is created by Hidetaka Miyazaki, Who is famous for his brand of games which are very difficult and very punishing but at the same time very gratifying to play and finish. Most of Miyazaki’s games are baseds off of knights and dragons none of these games are really meant to insight fear on the player, Bloodborne stands out the most, being based on Lovecraftian horror. He goes on to mention the games music and how it well it goes with the gameplay,  “Bloodborne’s tortured and twisting, temporally unstable score – the one that rears its head with the arrival of the game’s monsters” Kolassa calling the music tortured and unstable to show how unnerving music is in the game. FromSoftware put an incredible amount of effort into the music using six different composers working through multiple years. The style they chosen was Victorian gothic, they were going for a very dark and gloomy feeling for the music, they aimed to create music to both unnerve and enchant the player. Hp Lovecraft, an american writer who’s short stories are most known for producing an overwhelming sense of sheer hopeless and terror these stories are thought to be impossible to turn into any visual media but with a terrifying marriage of music and gameplay bloodborne is able to do the impossible.  Kolassa goes on to add and example of how music adds to the experience of gameplay the chorus of the score for one of the boss fights is sung by a male choir in Latin and how the notes were used to add to the uncomfortable feeling like the player is witnessing a satanic cult.

 

I like how Kolassa written this article, he written in in a way describe the world of the game in such a way so that someone how hadn’t play the game could understand. His points on the amount of effort the composers made to match the feeling of the game really caught me off guard and allow me to understand the amount of effort that went into the game. To leave it’s mark on the player, bloodborne uses it’s most defining feature its music to create a lasting impression on the player. 

 

In the end,  it amazes me how hard it is to make music for games and how many small moving parts there are in adding music in games from vertically and horizontally mixing to making the decision if music should be the center of the scene or to let it be in the background just to aid the passing moments in the games. More game developers should do this using music like this may be a pain but in the long run it will make your game a lot more memorable. If there is anything at all you should take away from this, is that musics isn’t just a sound to go along with the game you are playing, it is a device that used in many different ways in order to leaves its mark on you, it’s so when you remember the time you played that game you think of the music and remember your epic fight you had against the games boss and you get a smile on your face.  NakeyJakey put it the best “music is an insanely valuable tool especially when creating video games… music isn’t really just music anymore it is something intangible that has been stapled to your identity as a reminder of what you love to do ”. 

 

Works Cited

Jake. The power of video game music. Sep 15, 2016. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6ju5UGN9XM.

Kolassa, Alexander. “Hail the nightmare: music sound and materiality in bloodborne.” 25 October 2019. http://citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=145303807&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Noodle. “Adaptive Music (In Gaming) Is Amazing.” Youtube, Jul 7, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLd5wmBNCBM&t=83s.

 

Unit Three

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYcRSjiT1xU 

 

Artist Statement 

When we were told to come up with a topic to research about i first chose how childrens programing change over the years but after a few days of fruitless research i decided to completely change my topic. Because one, i wasn’t really interested in the topic i picked and two i recently competed the game Bloodborne and was was really inpirsed by it’s music. So i decided to based my topic around that and eventually I landed on musics role in video games. I do feel my topic is a bit light compare to my colleges but i didn’t want to do a heavy topic because researching somthing like is just depressing and I feel like it be kind of nice to bring attend to the music in games.     

 

 Before I started this project i wasn’t sure at all what I was going to do for it. At first i wanted to do a powerpoint because it was simple, easy and to the point but I came to the conclusion that it made no sense for my topic. So then I had the idea to make a short video essay much like the video i used in my research because my topic is basic of the music in games so i have to use the video to showcase the music and explain how the music is used. But then came figure the plan for a video which was a bit of an issue but in due time i figured it out, how to layout the video. I want to try my best to maintain the viewer’s attention so i made a the video around a family guy clip to keep everything somewhat entertaining. Planning the video made me realized that this genre is really good for my to topic because  i can present everything to the viewer in a neat package. 

 

While working on this project a problem quick emerged, this is my first video ever editing and i had no idea how to edit. So i had to stumble my way through though the editing software i was using and research and ask my friends for help on how to download videos and sync my voice with the video. Soon i was able to create a short of flow and understand how to use the software but just when i thought i figured everything out and finish the video i could not for the life of me figure out how to upload the video from the software. But after a while i did figure it out but it to too long and it would make me end up finishing everything late and deciding last minute to write out a transcript for closed captioning for video because there were points where my mic bugged out or the music was too loud and you could hear my voice clearly didn’t really help my cause either . 

 

At first i wanted to make a longer video taking bout 4 different types of games like Elden ring, bloodborne, Undertale and red dead and the the two ways adaptive music is used in those games but i soon realized after seeing my colleagues works and remembering that i don’t really that kind of time to make a 15 minute video. Looking back i think it was a good idea to keep the video short because i feel like with my kind of topic i think the video will just end up dragging on and putting everyone who watch it to sleep and if I’m being honest with myself the video will just me gushing about the music in games that i’ve played. But still i had a fun time doing this project and because of this project i was able to get a grasp on video editing and i feel like if i were to do this project over again i would be able to do it faster and make something better than this video. 

 

Final Reflection

Throughout my first semester in college i’ve learned many things about myself as a writer. Only at the end of this semester is when I realized for the first time that the stuff I learnt throughout middle school and high school are stuff I’m actually using in college. During my time in English in high school I always thought that my writing was very plain and that it had nothing to do with my personality. But with these few projects I was given the task of completing. I was able to truly figure out my voice. Looking back, even as early as the first project I can actually see my voice in my writing especially with my anecdotes throughout the paper. 

 

However  with this discovery I also see a few flaws like how I tend to use some of these anecdotes to pad out the word count in a paper just to reach the word count for that paper, and these anecdotes tend to take away more than they add to my papers. Like in my first paper how I talked about the teacher who left the school, “ I remember in my senior year of high school one of the teachers was moving to another school…”, that story wasn’t completely necessary to my overall point of this paper which was “we should care about socializing as much as we do learning”. I learned that I do this because there is a word count I need to meet but I don’t know how to add it to the paper correctly. But I am still quite happy on how this paper turned out.

 

During this semester I learned many big and small things about writing and with this knowledge I can apply this to many aspects of my life. For instance, all that i learned on analyzing sources can first, be used to truly understand multifaceted and ongoing topics so I don’t jump the gun and assume one party is in the wrong and the other is in the right, but also I can apply all the skills I learned analyzing sources and use them in order to understand the story in tv shows and games I can pay attention to all the little details and choices the author chooses to add and figure out the full story which allows me to appreciate these types of media more. Going back to sources I also found really interesting youtube channels that tackle subjects I’m interested in like Coffizilla and noodle to name some. And now as I go on to my next semester I can use all of these things. I may have struggled with a few other things like editing a video or meeting word counts or finding good sources and have a better time doing them because I have a more of an understanding of them. And even the youtube channels i found can help me in the long run with a good steam of ideas and topics i can be ready for the next project that ask to find a topic to research about and put myself in a corner with a topic that is too simple or i don’t completely understand or care about like my first initial topic i had for the second unit paper. 

 

While i’m glad I changed the topic to what i’ve changed to, I can’t help to feel like there was a better topic i could have used for my topic. The topic was “what is music’s role in video games” and while this is a fun and interesting topic for me i felt like my audience i was writing this for wasn’t exactly clear and i could have chosen a topic that could reach out to a clearer group of audience. Overall i have many regrets with this unit, i don’t really dislike my topic that much for this topic i think the main thing i have a problem with is the video i created for it. While the video gets its point across my main issue with it is the audio i recorded for it, i never expect for sound mixing for a video to be so fickle and to make matter worse i think my microphone was pretty bad at times, granted it could be the fact that i really detest the sound of my voice but one i know for sure i mess up was mixing the sound for the video. However with this experience i believe in the next i can use all the experience i gained bad or good  to completely crush my next semester.

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