Final Blog Post

This class has been a mix of new experiences for me. I learned how to make an effective blog post, create memes, create Gifs, and create/customize a website. I learned how to blog about things I care about, like what makes me happy on the internet, and I went through the process of choosing a strong domain name for my website.

What Grade Do You Deserve?

While I wasn’t the best student, I believe that I should get a B grade in the class.

Throughout the semester, I made sure to complete my work as best as possible, and as close to on time as was possible for me. While not all my assignments were handed in on time, I made sure to not let the assignments stack up too much so that I can manage, and so that the professor could grade them at a comfortable pace.

While I do admit I missed some assignments, and I was absent to class a few times, I showed up to the classes that I could come to, making sure to stay behind during lab hours to reply to other student’s blog posts and respond to comments.

What did you enjoy about our class and how will you apply your new skills into the world?

This class was a breath of fresh air for me compared to the classes I had before. While my music classes were always fun for me, classes that were outside of this subject always drained my energy and stressed me out. However, CT101 broke this trend. I was able to relax since assignments did not have hard deadlines, as long as you kept track of your assignments and did not try to do all of them last minute.

In addition, the class was fun to attend, the professor providing a light atmosphere for students, and showing a bit more understanding to the students’ nature than other professors I had.

While I do not have a clear idea of how I will use the newly acquired skills moving forward, I now have an easier time with content creating. I will now be able to bust out ideas quicker and I can probably try to continue the website.

You learned how to build a website, will you maintain and keep up your new website?

I am not too sure if I will continue to maintain my website. While I like having the website as an easy way to copyright my creations, the cost of maintaining a website may not be something I am willing to pay right now.

On the one side, while it’s a great tool to post everything I want to about music, whether it be my performances or my musical creations, I am not exactly sure how much it will cost to keep the website running, and if the benefits outweigh the cost of maintaining it right now.

New Website: Chromediant

So, the name of my website is Chromediant. The name comes from a music theory term called Chromatic Mediants. While I did find some domain names that did not combine any words, I felt like this was the best way to get a unique domain name. Not only would it be a term that most people do not know, since it’s music theory, but it will also be unused since the name comes from combining the two words.

Failures

WordPress Customization Part 1

What will you work on first?

First, I want to work on removing the default WordPress content. By doing this, I will be able to add titles, menus, and other things that I want people to see that are specific to my website.

Will you create a series of new pages?

While I am planning on adding new pages to the website, I don’t plan on making too many. I feel like too many pages will overwhelm the viewers of my website. I want my pages to be straight to the point, and easy to find.

Customize the home page?

Without customizing the home page, the website will look really boring, and I doubt anyone will stay on the website long. I plan on adding some type of image for the background of the website, and, if possible, I will like there to be a picture under the words. I feel like having a picture directly behind all the writing on my website would look cool and be very engaging.

In addition, if possible, I would like to add background music for the site. Maybe a chill song by Robert Glasper or Oscar Peterson to show the type of music I am into.

Example of a possible song:

Publish a blog post?

I thought this would obvious. I think it would be in my best interest to post blogs on my website. This would allow me to share some of my thoughts on music theory, new music I discover, new techniques or piano sounds I found, and a lot more. If I didn’t blog these things, my website would lack a lot of content.

How Will You Use This Website?

Silly me, I already sort of answered this question during the last question.

Nonetheless, I plan on using this website to blog about new music I discover and like, new techniques and concepts of music theory I am trying to better understand and apply to my music, and maybe answer questions about music based on what I understand so far. I will also be using this website to post some of my performances that I did, and maybe display some music I have created.

The End

I am excited to display my website when it is more completed, but nervous to try and bring my ideas to life. Either way, this should be a fun experience.

Assignment #7: Picking A Domain Name

When coming up with these domain names, I thought of what best represents me. This is when I went back to my passion assignment, ultimately deciding to make domain names based off of music and my attachment to the piano.

1. GrayKeys.com

The reason I went with gray keys is because you have both black and white keys on the piano, and when you mix those colors, you get gray.

While this seems like a basic explanation at first, let me explain. There are many people who get by with playing mostly white keys, or mostly black keys, and some musicians even use transposition buttons on their pianos in order to play in other keys without having to playing these other notes. The reason I chose gray keys is because only by knowing how to play both white and black keys fluently will you be able to sound good on the piano.

2. SlyProgression.net

This choice was inspired by the keyboardist Stevie Wonder. I love the way that he maneuvers through chord progressions with ease. He is known for being able to change the progression without people noticing that the song went somewhere totally different, hence sly.

Here is a song that shows Stevie’s ability to go to places no one expected and come back to the original key.

3.  FlurryRuns.com

Despite the title looking like complete foolishness, it fits with some of the pianists that inspired the way I play today. Pianists Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson are musicians who are praised for their technical skills and flashy performances. They use runs often to impress the audience and to create an effect in the moment while performing. This, plus their crazy ability to play at top speed, is why I decided to go with FlurryRuns.

Here’s an example of the speedy performance and flashy runs by Art Tatum.

4. Chromediant.com

This domain name is based on something new I was looking into a musical term called chromatic mediants. I began looking at it in order to spice up my chord progression in a way that didn’t use the circle of fifths in its traditional way. This method allows you to travel between different keys without taking a long route there.

Fun fact: Most widely known Disney songs, like A Whole New World and Circle Of Life, make use of chromatic mediants, but it is used in order to modulate to a different key instead of simply using it to build a chord progression.

5.  Melominor.net

This domain name is based on the melodic minor scale. The melodic minor scale has been another new thing that I have been working into my performance habits.

Originally, I just used this scale for a sound over dominant chords, however, recently I have been experimenting with when I could use this scale in order to make my improvisation more interesting.

Assignment #6: Midterm Recap

Over the last few weeks, I have been completing assignments to the point that I did not even realize it was around the time that midterms were being given. I guess that’s what happens when your mind is focused on due dates. Anyway, throughout the semester so far, I learned how to create an effective blog post, create a GIF, and create memes. With this knowledge, I was given the opportunity to try and put all of it together to talk about my passions.

How am I doing in CT101?

I believe I am doing ok in the class so far. I have no reason to think otherwise as I always get positive feedback for my posts, however, one thing I am working on is telling more of a story with my posts.

What have I learned and retained the most?

The things I learned and retained the most would be the basics of what makes a good post. Throughout the semester, I made sure each post I had contained a good number of hyperlinks, Gifs, and I made sure to keep my paragraphs short in order to not lose the readers.

What new skills have I developed, cultivated and displayed regularly in my weekly posts?

Yes . . . As stated before, it has become a usual thing for me to include Gifs, memes, and hyperlinks in every post I use.  This is a skill that has been developed with each assignment that was given to the point that it seems strange if I don’t see a moving picture before I write something.

What do I know now that I did not know before taking this class?

Something I know now that I didn’t know before taking the class was how easy it could be to create your own Gif or Meme.

While many people may already know how to do this, making memes and Gifs were not something I did. I usually took part in enjoying them once they were already created, which I would only see them because my friends sent them to me through our group chat.

What grade do I believe I am maintaining and why do I deserve that grade? 

Personally, I believe I am maintaining an A- grade, if not a B, because I feel like my posts are good, however, there are some assignments that I am currently missing.

Do I see my weekly blogging work expanding creatively? If so, please explain why – or am I stuck in a loop where my posts seem to look the same most of the time, how will I change that?

I do believe I am stuck in a loop because I developed a system for making posts, having a checklist in my head in order to meet certain requirements for a good blog post.

This is why I felt that working on creating a story in my posts, and trying to lighten the mood with humor will improve my posts so that they are more enjoyable to the readers.

Are there any assignments that you are missing? 

Currently I am missing Assignment 5, and assignment 7.

Are you commenting regularly on your classmates posts? Are you responding back to comments given to you by the professor & your classmates?

Recently we were called out by the professor for not utilizing lab time effectively in order to comment on posts. It was only after this that I began to comment to my classmates more. I use lab time after class to read posts and leave comments or reply to comments. However, I have not replied to comments by the professor.

Are you participating during the class time?

I have not been participating during the class time.

The whole-time during class, I’ve been paying attention to the steps needed for the next assignment or reading through the assignment blog. I also have been looking through the different hyperlinks used in the blog by the professor.

How will you make needed improvements?

In order to do better, I will try to incorporate more humor and more of a story into my blog posts. I started doing this with Assignment 4, however, I will try to do it more often to liven up my posts. In addition, I will try to participate and be more engaged in class. Lastly, I will try to catch up on the missing blogs that I still have to do.

Assignment #4: Passions

What I am most passionate about is music. But what about music? When it comes to music, I enjoy discovering new things that I like that I would incorporate into my own music/ performance habits.

One thing I look for when listening to music are licks.

Yeah, you heard it right. I look for licks in music. The reason I look for these most of all is because by knowing certain licks over certain common chord progressions, you make the art of improvising over those chord progressions a lot easier, and it makes you have to think less about what you’re doing.

In the Jazz space of music, there is a famous lick that is said to be so commonly used, it was named “The Lick.” There is a whole video that just shows examples of the Lick being played in so many songs. It even managed to infiltrate Halo.

So, What Got Me Into This Passion?

I recently got into this passion during the summer of 2023, around August. I didn’t have a piano around since I went on vacation to Barbados. I asked my piano mentor what I should do during that long break since it would be impossible for me to practice, and what he told me was eye opening. He said I should listen to as much music as possible.

While it may seem obvious to most that one should listen to music to get better at music, at the time, I thought that the best thing I could do was practice my instrument. However, after applying this advice during my trip, it become a passion/ hobby that I do often.

During my trip, I listened to a lot of Oscar Peterson, which blew my socks off. He sounded incredible, and, what I liked most of all, his style of performance seemed like something I could try to replicate. His performance was both flashy and simple. The more I listened to him, the more I wanted to practice, but I couldn’t.

Here are some of my favorite performances by Oscar Peterson:

This is my favorite performance by him. Although this performance does not sound like the original song, I feel as if this is how the song was meant to be, and should have been, played when it was first released.

This performance is my second favorite. It shows some of the flashiness of Oscar Peterson’s playing, but also shows how simple, and how often he repeats ideas.

As my family and I were making our way through the airport in order to come back from Barbados, I was shocked to see a public piano waiting to be used. There weren’t many people there too, so I was more inclined to use it, and use it I did. With all the music I listened to on the trip, I was ready to try and replicate at least one thing I heard. Unfortunately for me at the time, I was not able to replicate what I was hearing and sounded horrible trying.

While I did not sound how I thought I would sound after listening to all that music, I was deeply inspired, which fired me up to practice my instrument more. Now, I can replicate what I heard during that summer, and I am eager to continuously look for new things to admire and replicate.

Are Memes art?

Based on the Harvard Crimson, memes can be considered art. It is not simply a message that is put on top of a picture, but a combination of image and text that conveys emotion. The ability to know how to properly combine the two so that the meme is effective, and gets the message across, is art.

In The Rise of Memes as an Art Form, it is stated that Puerto Rican artist Jesús “Bubu” Negrón compares the process of memes entering the art world to a video going viral on YouTube. The same comparison could be made with memes becoming popular in the first place, and how effective a person can make a meme.

As said in the Harvard Crimson, memes die as fast as they are created. A good meme will be effective at conveying its message, it will be able to be replicated, or re-interpreted, and will be able to come back after it dies.

Are Memes Good or Bad for Art?

Memes could only be good for art. Memes gives artist content to use instead of having to create ideas from nothing. Artist can take popular memes and reinvent it, whether by hand drawings, or through graphic design. Either way, by using memes, artist can broaden their skills. In addition, using memes in art will attract more of an audience to the artist because people will recognize what is being drawn, and may like the way the artist reinvented the meme.

Are Memes Good for Communication?

Memes are a form of communication, there is no way it could harm communication. If anything, memes enhance communication by making it more entertaining to do. Instead of just talking, or sending text, people now go and send memes that convey the emotion they are feeling, or that represents the response they want to give to the other person. As a result, this meme makes the recipient more engaged in the communication and maybe laugh at the response.

Are Memes Simply Just Forms of Self-Expression?

In no way are memes just forms of self-expression. Memes meant for self-expression usually involves pictures, or short clips, to help express the emotion trying to being communicated. However, as stated in the Harvard Crimson, a meme could involve a simple screenshot of a funny text message. At that point, the meme would not be for self-expression, but to show a funny moment that happened, which may be reposted because someone else found it funny.

Favorite Memes

Some Memes I Created

What did you think on the first day of the CT101?

Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel?

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes so far?

This week, I discovered a new instrumentalist to study on my musical journey named Eldar Djangirov. He’s an amazing pianist who is considered the best at using his left hand to play today by some people I know.

I was bored during the week with no inspiration because everything I listened to was something I already heard. For example, I like listening to music by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, and Robert Glasper, however, after some time, the songs that I listened to from these guys got old. Of course, that’s what happens when you listen to something on repeat, and I know that when you take a break from it, you will find something you like when you come back to it, but the problem was what to listen to.

When all hope was lost, one of my piano mentors showed me a performance from Eldar which blew me away.

The left-hand only section starts around 5:11, but I recommend listening to the whole performance.

This performance sparked a feeling of jealousy in me when I saw how he was playing with his left hand which inspired me to try and replicate it. Ever since, I have taken much joy in practicing building up my left hand so I can play similar things like he did.