Saypharath 1 Portfolio Final Essay Isaac Saypharath Suzanne Ingram ENGL 1101-003 09 Jul 2013

Piano notes fill the air of the church hall. My mentor's hands gracefully move across the keys of the piano, like how water flows in between rocks. I sit on a stool beside him and watch his hands intently, hoping to imitate the movement and flow of his hands when it was up to me to demonstrate what I had learned the past hour. It was towards the end of a nearly eighteen week graduation project, and my time to come up with a product to present to the judges was right around the corner. The goal of the project was to take part in a completely new learning experience, one in which you had no experience prior to the project. Seeing as how my other project proposals were rejected ( they were too dangerous or they had no mentor I was able to find), I chose learning to play the piano. Every Thursday night, I would meet with my mentor in the local church, and I would learn the ins and outs of piano. My first piano session consisted of learning scales before moving onto my first set of chords, each night I would come home, my forehead bathed in sweat and my fingers cramping from having to press down on the weighted keys of the piano. From striking my first C key to learning about how to play inverse chords and octaves, I would take what

Saypharath 2 knowledge I acquired that night, and drill it over and over again until the next time we met. Each time I would hit a chord correctly, a beautiful sound would fill the air, and I would feel this sense of achievement. And with each failure, I would drill more until I got it right, gaining experience along the way. The song I learned for my senior project was You Are my Wholeness. This song took approximately three weeks to learn, having to learn each part of the song, as well as be able to move from note to note quickly and with smooth transitions to make song flow together. This was accomplished with use of the foot pedal, a device that elongated the notes played so that the song ran together. In order to get each part of the song right, many hours of drilling each note into my head was needed. As a result of practicing so much, I started to get Carpel Tunnel Syndrome in both my hands, but nonetheless, I kept practicing, even when my hands ached with dull pain. As the pain progressed, I would keep telling myself, "One more repetition," or "Fifteen more minutes, you can do this." But with each hour, my learning would progress and I would become better. Not only did I have to learn how play the piano itself, I also had to learn how to read sheet music, memorize chord charts, as well as know a bit of math to determine the simplest way to link chords together. Each press of the keys on the piano had to be smooth, have flow, and most of all, be in the correct order to make the notes sound right in the song I wanted to play. After each accomplishment, my mentor's face would light up with pride with each success I would have, and seeing his face smile, also made me realize that I was progressing at a steady pace. After the eighteen week learning period had ended, it was time to me to create a product and present to members of the community who would judge my project and therefore determine if I passed or failed the project itself. My mentor and I had decided to meet at his friends house, who also had an amateur recording studio in his basement, so that I could take film of me

Saypharath 3 playing piano, as well as record the audio of my playing so that I would be able to over lay the video (which had poor sound quality) with the recorded track (which had the best sound quality). The whole process took a little under two hours, with many takes being thrown out due to me having to get used to the equipment itself, as well as playing the song many times to made sure it sounded perfect. After the recording process had ended, I was able to put the recording and the video together to have a good video of me playing piano as well as have optimal sound quality to present a quality product to the judges. This video, combined with pictures, as well as a slide show I made earlier that semester would serve as my presentation to the judges on presentation day. It was finally boards night, the cafeteria was filled with numerous nervous seniors, anxiously awaiting to present their hard work to various members of the community. Each name that was called by the assistant principle sounded like the name of a cell mate being called for execution. Finally, after a long wait, my name was finally called up for the presentation that would decide my fate. The slow walk to room 302 was nerve wracking, and was solemnly greeted by three women who looked to be in their late forties to early fifties. I took a deep breath and inserted my flash drive into the computer that was set up onto the table. I could feel the eye's of the judges staring into my soul. I glance at the teacher who would be keeping my time for the duration of my presentation and she gives me a reassuring nod. I start my presentation, staring straight at the judges to make it seem as if I was confident in my presentation. The look on the judges faces show nothing but concentration, taking in every word I say and dissecting my speech and PowerPoint, piece by piece, slide by slide. I get

Saypharath 4 to the most important part of my speech, the viewing of my product. Two days before I had inserted my video into the end of my presentation, it had worked on the computer in Room 302, and it had also worked on the computer that I used for my presentation to the class. However, lo and behold, when I tried to play the video for the judges, it went blank. An awkward silence ensued as I scrambled to restart the presentation and get my video to play. When I found the video file itself, I attempted to play it through the computer as well, but this effort was simply futile. The judges were only able to hear the audio of my piano playing, as I stood beside the desk nervously observing the reaction of the judges. Then with a "Thank you for presenting," and a "good luck" from the judges, I was dismissed from the room questioning how well I did on my boards presentation, despite the numerous technical difficulties. Over the next week, I attended school a nervous wreck, with everyone receiving their scores on their presentations but me. When my advisor finally called my name, I walked up to her desk to what I expected to be a failing grade. As a result of my product not being viewable, I had expected my grade to be a failure, and I would have to re-present in front of a new board consisting of teachers and the administration (which would have been more difficult). But alas, even though the presentation was lackluster and my product could not be viewed, I had still passed with a relatively high grade. With a sigh of relief, I collapsed back into my chair, content that I had passed my project and that I would be eligible to move onto a university education had I decided to take it.