Musical Project Portfolio

Written Statement

Lindsay Johannesson

EDUC 3601 - C&I for Music Majors

February 17, 2023

 Creating this musical project portfolio has been a fantastic experience, albeit stressful and

frustrating at times. I have always been a supporter and advocate for project-based learning and it

was interesting to be on the other side of the experience for the first time since high school. I was

reminded of how exciting it can be to feel in charge of your own learning and progress, but also

faced frustration when I was out of my element working in mediums that I’m not familiar with.

My own classroom experience at this time is limited to band clinics and early elementary, and I

feel it necessary to address this. While project-based learning is beneficial in numerous ways, I

find it difficult to imagine even pared down versions of these musical projects being realistic for

early elementary students to complete. Throughout this process, I have found myself returning to

Dolloff’s Imagining ourselves as teachers article as inspiration and guidance during my

reflections. As students, we take for granted all that a teacher is, and we have formed steadfast

perceptions of what a good teacher should be based on our individual school experiences by the

time we reach graduation. As I become a teacher, it is vital that I both throw away my limiting

views on how I should be as a teacher and remember what it means to be a student. Project-based

learning at its core is experimental and experiential, and I need to be aware of how it feels to be

immersed in the experience of experimentation in order to craft valuable learning opportunities

for my students. Music deserves to be explored in a variety of mediums and methods, and music

teachers should strive to teach beyond the limitations of the curriculum documents at times. The

more students are personally involved and invested in the crafting and development of their

learning, the deeper their learning will be; the deeper their learning is, the greater the chance that

they will be compelled to learn beyond the breadth of their time in your classroom.
Artifact #1 - Reimagination

Initially, I was thrilled to have a song reimagining as the first musical project for this

portfolio. I grew up an avid reader, which blossomed into an interest in writing and poetry in my

early teens. Although my only experience making music has been in a classical instrumental

setting, my first connection to music was through the lyrics of folk and punk music. Though

vastly different genres, there was a common thread of truth and vulnerability in their lyrics that I

found deeply moving. In late high school, I stumbled upon spoken word artists, and I became

hooked. I have never been a singer, but I was simply in love with how much more powerful

words could be when set to the right music–this is how this song reimagining came to be.

Though I had the concept for writing poetry over a song, I struggled with picking a

subject matter at first. My partner and I have been long distance for nearly a year, travelling back

and forth to see one another every few months. Each time that we have had to part, he has

handwritten me a letter, every one ending with lyrics from the same Kygo song: “A couple

thousand miles is just a little space, so I’ll wait.” This project became a sort of response to the

letters my partner had written to me, and I found the writing process harder and harder as the

idea of it became more significant. Though I don’t know I could ever be satisfied with paring my

feelings down into a few lines of poetry, it was a very interesting and emotional process to take

on; especially for what was meant to be such a simple school project.

As an educator–as well as in my personal life–I believe strongly in the notion that art

should be an outlet for emotional and inarticulable parts of the human experience. I strongly

advocate for the implementation of project-based learning and encouraging students to take part

in creative, open-ended projects such as this song reimagining. Though I struggle with the

language surrounding the entrepreneurship approach to education–this term evokes associations

with capitalism for me–I believe this project falls into the realm of learning that Heitanen and

Ruismaki describe in their article. This project was a long and reflective process for me, where I

experimented with different versions of the song, different vocal interpretations of my poetry,

and even different versions of the poetry itself. I have never done a musical project like this

before, and I was led to experiment and then compare my work to spoken word artists and styles

that I admired until I was satisfied with my work.

Overall, this was an interesting project for me. I can imagine giving a similar project to

my own students someday, as it aligns with my teaching philosophy for self-guided and

reflective learning, with high school students. This project does not necessarily link to the

Alberta curriculum documents in the way of concrete skills, it does attend to the general learner

outcome of Creating which states: to develop additional avenues of self-expression through

interpretation, improvisation, arranging and composing. On a personal level, this project allowed

me to truly, personally connect to the subject matter–which is a powerful tool in individual and

academic development–and reflect on how my interests and experiences in other subject areas

can interact with music.

Artifact #2 - Rhythm Jam

Of all of the musical projects and experiences that I have taken part in over the course of

this semester, this was the most challenging for me. My only experiences with making music

electronically prior to this project had been making a song in GarageBand in my tenth grade

band class, and self recordings using Audacity during the Covid-19 pandemic. When introduced

to the BandLab software in class, it looked easily navigable and I assumed I wouldn’t have an

issue completing the assigned task of creating a rhythm jam–I was sorely mistaken. My first

struggle with BandLab was microphone connectivity; I could not get my computer to allow
access to my microphone for recording. Once that issue was resolved, I was able to record a

simple beat by tapping on my desk. The second issue arrived when I attempted to place a

contrasting rhythm on top of this one and experienced severe latency problems. I spent nearly

half an hour at this point attempting to get around the hang-up in a variety of ways: muting the

playback and using visual metronome ticks to line up my rhythms, using the slider function to

move my takes around to physically align them, and even recording my different rhythms on my

phone and importing them to BandLab. No matter what, I could not line up my tracks enough to

satisfy me and I was getting progressively more and more frustrated. Finally, I stumbled across

the soundboard feature. I recorded three different sounds and attempted to record tracks by

clicking on the sounds in time–latency was still an issue, however less so. This resulted in two

very mediocre 4-bar rhythm jams, which I then imported into Audacity and stitched together.

I learned in class the following day that it would have been possible to drag and drop the

sounds rather than play them live over a loop track. Needless to say, I was heavily embarrassed

and overall displeased with the final product from this musical project. My experience using

BandLab for the first time creating this project goes to show that knowledge is power, and being

asked to “explore and experiment” in a medium that you are not familiar with is an extremely

daunting and frustrating task. Overall, I do think BandLab is a fantastic resource for teachers

wanting to expose their students to digital music and recording software, but I would not send

my kids into the thick of it without some instruction or a chance to try out the site with me

present to help assist with some technical difficulties. While I understand that technical problems

are part of the experience of creating digital music, I experienced a lot of stress with being so

largely unsuccessful after I attempted to problem solve multiple ways.

 I would argue that this project is relevant under the general music curriculum general

learner outcomes Valuing: continue developing an appreciation of the creative process in music

and Creating: develop additional avenues of self-expression through interpretation,

improvisation, arranging and composing. My takeaway from this experience was that I have a

deficit in knowledge of digital music creation and it is an area that I can strive to improve my

fluency in. I absolutely see the value in using and encouraging music software in my classroom,

but I cannot expect my students to be successful with it if I cannot be. Going forward, I will be

exploring digital music as a personal and professional development project in hopes of

increasing my literacy with this subject matter.

Artifact #3 - Cover Song

I had mixed feelings about this musical project. I have always been an extremely self-

conscious singer despite multiple years in show choirs and musical theatre, including a leading

role in a musical in my ninth grade year. I have always admired people who could sing

effortlessly and well–I was simply not one of those people. The thought of not only having to

record myself singing a cover, but learn an instrument to accompany myself, sounded truly

awful. I spent days going back and forth, researching songs and half-learning them on the

ukulele before deciding I didn’t like the way my voice sounded and moving onto the next one.

Despite knowing only one person besides myself would ever have to hear this recording, I was

mortified at the idea of submitted evidence of one of my biggest insecurities.

Upon talking with my classmates, singing is an insecurity for many–this would almost

certainly apply to any students I have in the future as well. The other aspect to this project was

learning an accompaniment instrument. I picked up the chords quite quickly, but had difficulties
with coordinating the chord changes while strumming, singing, and reading off a webpage for

lyrics and notes. I struggle with the idea of incorporating a project like this into my future

classroom. On one hand, I find it extremely inappropriate to force students to partake in–and

grade–an activity that makes them severely uncomfortable or miserable. On the other hand,

choking down that fear and accomplishing a daunting task can be such a character- and -

confidence building opportunity. The only way for this project to yield the latter result is to first

come to terms with my own feelings and fears about singing. Considering the Doloff reading,

Imagining ourselves as teachers, each and every one of us has a perception of what we believe a

teacher to be–how they act, what they look like, how they should present themselves–and it can

be detrimental to our growth and flourishing as teachers if we adhere to these preconceived

notions. Allowing myself to be vulnerable and trying out this project before I expect my students

to do so shows them that it is not an impossible task and breaks the untouchable authority

barriers of teacher vs. student.

I think the major saving grace in this project for me was the fact that I did not have

endless amounts of time to complete it, therefore could not endlessly obsess over my voice or my

messy ukulele playing. Ultimately, I enjoyed this process once I was able to get past the details.

As far as relating a cover song project to the Alberta music curriculum documents, they could

apply to Performing/Listening: develop understanding of the elements and structures of music as

they apply to music making and listening and Attitudes: develop positive, realistic self-images

through an understanding and acceptance of themselves, with their strengths and their

limitations. Confronting and overcoming my limitations was a powerful experience, and I will

consider some variation on this project for use in my own classroom someday.