Wow.
The Genius Project is finally over. That was the longest project ever, we
started it in February, now it is April, but it is over. The stress, the
anxiety, everything that came with it is done, and now we can relax because it
is spring break! And like Kevin Durant says, we can finally sleep. But beside the
stress and anxiety and exhaustion that this project brought, what did I gain
from it? Were there any valuable skills that came out of it. Well yeah, there
were actually some things to be learned.
For one, I improved my skills at
time management I have finally learned not only how to manage my time
successfully, but also why teachers stress it so much. Being forced to learn
the drums in two months, makes you actually begin to organize your time, and
prioritize the things that you need to do. This is what I did about one week
into the project. Through the first week or so however, I didn’t realize how
stressful it would become. I didn’t know we would be reading Les Mis, and doing
several large History assignments, so I would just play the drums whenever I wanted.
However, when I realized how much work I had on my plate, I began splitting it
up. I initially tried just organizing my time in my head, because I figured
that would take the least amount of time, but that failed, epically. So then I tried
another method, which was using the sticky notes on my computer. This was a success;
I was able to easily manage my time without any problems. I created a calendar
of what needed to get done, by what date it needed to get done, and had a “To-Do
List” sticky note. On this sticky notes I had what needed to get done that day
in the order of importance. This helped me greatly. By the end of this project,
I was basically living off of these sticky notes.
But, besides just learning how to time manage, I also
learned how to, most importantly, DRUM. This was my big achievement over the course
of these two months. When I first started, I thought I had signed myself up to
do the impossible, but after about two weeks I realized that drumming wasn’t
all that bad. It was something that I could do without much trouble, and I was
a pretty fast learner. Once I began really getting into playing, it seemed to
come with eases, but this was only until I started playing more difficult
music. Once I got into more difficult music, I realized that problem with
teaching yourself how to play the drums. The problem was that I learned how to
play from sheet music, I learned the notes and what they meant and I taught
myself to memorize the music and play with a song. But once I began trying to
play these harder songs I realized that most drummers learn by ear. They learn
to listen to something and then play whatever they heard. This is something that
I couldn’t do when I first learned about it, and still cannot do now. This was not
a problem I could solve, being that I was already at least three weeks into
learning, so I worked around it. I decided that I would play this harder music
by the sheet, and it worked… sometimes. It also didn’t work sometimes, but that
was OK, because if I couldn’t play the song off the sheet music it was out of
my skill level. However, the fact that I couldn’t play by ear really was a
setback for me that I had to work to overcome.
After overcoming my issues with time management, and
learning to to play by sheet music, not by ear, I finally had to present my ted
talk, this was the most difficult part of the assignment by a long shot, and
was probably the most nervous I have gotten for a presentation. It was hard to
come up with a good way to explain the “definition of success” which is what I did
as my focus. I had a hard time putting into words exactly what I wanted to say.
Also, after I realized what I wanted to say, I had a hard time making it funny,
or clever at all. I couldn’t seem to make it worthy of the name “Ted Talk”.
Because this name inquires that it will hook the audience and really grab their
attention, which is really hard to do when you’re talking about yourself
drumming. So, I redirected the focus, and instead f talking about myself, I talked
about “us” or the class as a whole. This hooked them because then I wasn’t walking
about myself succeeding, but all of us, as a whole, or individually however you
want to look at it succeeding.
After the presentation ended, I thought I did well and was
happy with the result of this project. I plan on now, continuing to play the drums
from time to time, so hopefully I will be able to continue this blog and post
videos of what I learn. Thank for tuning in and reading my blogs through the course
of this project! Goodbye for now!
I hate reading off sheet music. It locks you into a basic beat, with not much flexibility given. Here's how I found how to play by ear.
ReplyDelete1: Know your basic beats. Most songs are made of them, with only slight variations, and you almost are never locked in in terms of when you can play the bass drum. I recommend the mini monster book of drumming, which gives you almost every basic beat, and allows you to learn any song. https://www.amazon.com/JRP02-Mini-Monster-Book-Rock-Drumming/dp/161727013X
2: There's a lot of repeats in songs. If you've taken a look at sheet music, its mainly just one beat thats repeated multiple times. Think and break up your songs in terms of 4-8 measure bits, and you'll be able to organize the song between verses and choruses.
Some easy tips to learn how to play by ear, a much needed aspect of drumming.
I think it's awesome that you were able to take something away from this project that could help you with your life. While you learned to drum (really well if I may add), you also learned some good life skills about multi-tasking. It was really cool to keep up with your progress and watch your drumming videos. Your TED Talk was awesome by the way. Your video was great and you spoke really well. I wish I could've been that natural when I was presenting.
ReplyDeleteHey Michael! Its so great that you could take away such a great lesson from drumming. Time management is important, and it will really help in the long run (especially in gifted). Your project seemed to work out great for you! Good job freshman!
ReplyDelete