Capstone Project Proposal Good Copy

Name of student: Nolan Overgaard Date:

May 15/24

Teacher: Mr. Green

Block: C

The Capstone Focus I have chosen is Product

My inquiry question is:

Can I compose a musical piece on the piano which will represent my emotions and be
meaningful to others?

Rationale/context:
I am choosing to do this as my capstone because ever since I was a kid, I've always
wanted to write my own song on the piano. I have been playing the piano since I was 4
years old, but never learned the necessary skills to compose a piece. The curiosity I
have surrounding music writing has led me to decide that I want to research and learn
how to compose a piece of work that will be enjoyable to listen to and reflects some of
my own emotions.

Background:
I have been taking piano lessons (and playing the piano in my spare time) since I was
four years old. At some point around the covid era, I took a 1.5 Ish year break, as I lost
motivation to play on my spare time. I picked it up again after I got over that covid
loneliness affect and returned to my piano teacher with songs I wanted to learn. I have
very little knowledge on song composing, and I wish to learn.

Career connections:
At this point in time, I plan on taking a gap year to determine what I want to pursue. My
inquiry question connects to my general mindset: I want to do things in life which I am
intrigued by and wish to pursue but will also have meaning and possible benefit to
others. At this moment in time, it does not connect to either academic or career goals,
but rather connects to personal interest, and will most likely continue to be a valuable
occupation of my spare time. I also want to work a career where there is creativity
involved, just like how this project will have a lot.
Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections:
Creative thinking – throughout the project, I will be constantly generating ideas and
developing the ideas which I value more. I will be providing others with my unique
insight on my perspective on music. I will also use inspiration from other piano songs to
generate my own ideas. I will persevere through tough moments and mind blocks and
understand that failure is productive, rather than being frustrated.
Communication – I will be taking advice from my piano teacher and communicating with
her to determine which things suit me best. I will look at what I have learned and
synthesized for my piece, and I will share to my friends to get their opinions.
Personal awareness and responsibility - for this project I will be regulating my short-term
goals and will seek advice to keep me determined to complete it.
Critical thinking – I will be exploring different ways around my composition and will
assess my progress along the way.
Personal awareness and responsibility – I will be self-motivated and bring all my
problems and hiccups to my piano teacher when I need help. I will set multiple short-
term goals for myself as I progress and be patient with myself to regulate my progress.
Social responsibility – I will take in other perspectives on my music and use them
effectively to add anything or change anything in my song that I see fit.
Personal & cultural identity – I know my strengths in my piano playing and will take them
into account when writing my song. I understand what is important to me and
incorporate the feelings they give me into the song.

Capstone Presentation medium:

I will most likely use an audio file or a video of me playing it, along with a printed or
digital copy of the sheet music. I will also upload the song to Spotify and/or
SoundCloud.

Description of my Capstone project.

For my capstone project, I will be composing my own original piece of music on the
piano. In order to have the capabilities I need; I will do research on music theory and
composing tips. Although I will be doing research, my main source of information will be
from my piano teacher, who is very knowledgeable in the topic. She will provide me with
teachings, practices and sources that I need to assist me in my work. These things
include the main chords of each scale, and how to structure a song properly. Within my
own personal research, I will look at older sources to get the classical side of things,
and then shift my focus to more recent sources, to gain a more diverse outlook on how
the music can be synthesized.
I will follow this rough process to complete my project: first I will do research on the
things I mentioned before. The next thing I will do is through the songs I know how to
play; I will determine which scale I will use through which songs I like the sound the
most. The thing which will influence this decision the most will be the feel of the song I
am looking for, which is still up for grabs. After I pick the scale which resonates with me
most, I will play around with chords and patterns to get a better feel of what I can work
with. I will also look at my songs that I can play and take parts of their melody and
transpose them into my scale, to see if I can take inspiration and incorporate it in some
way (without plagiarizing of course). Then I will take all my ‘playing’ and take my
favourite ideas and officialize them. I will then continue refining my work through this
process, both by myself and with my piano teacher, taking her advice greatly into
consideration. After I find a feel of what I want to produce, I will take all my notes and
recordings of my ‘playing’ and mix and match, give a little and take a little, until I have a
product which I am satisfied with.

Resources/ Technology/Skills:
I will need a set of staff paper (musical sheet paper) to write notes for ideas of what
notes I will use in the piece. I will need some sort of stand to set up my phone to record
myself practicing for my capstone blogs. I will obtain the staff paper by searching up a
format and printing it at home, and I will obtain the stand by either making one or buying
one online. I will also download a notating software to notate my piece onto proper
sheet music.

Mentors/Community Connections:
I will reach out to my piano teacher to shift my learning from learning songs to learning
how to compose one. She will help me by teaching me how to identify key chords of a
scale, which scales match with each other etc., all things aligned with music theory.
Since I already see her weekly, I will just have to bring up the project to her to begin the
learning.

Project limitations:
The biggest obstacle I can see affecting my project is the inevitable procrastination, and
possible mental blocks that will come at different points throughout the writing of the
piece. Time wise, my schedule with work, the rugby season and going to the gym daily
could be an obstacle when I try to set aside time for the project.

Other considerations:
I may decide to teach myself how to use a system which I can connect my piano (as it is
electric) to my computer and the notes I play will be uploaded to it. This can be useful
because then I can play back the notes I just played, and easily make small tweaks. I
will decide if I want to use this depending on how the process goes just using the staff
paper.
References:
Kaminsky, P. (1989). Principles of Formal Structure in Schumann’s Early Piano Cycles. Music
Theory Spectrum, 11(2), 207–225. https://doi.org/10.2307/745936

Konowitz, B. (1980). Improvisation on Keyboard Instruments. Music Educators Journal, 66(5),

86–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/3395782

Alex Ruthmann. (2007). The Composers’ Workshop: An Approach to Composing in the

Classroom. Music Educators Journal, 93(4), 38–43. https://doi.org/10.2307/4127132

van Elferen, I. (2013). Fantasy Music: Epic Soundtracks, Magical Instruments, Musical
Metaphysics. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 24(1 (87)), 4–24.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24352902

McGowan, J. (2010). Riemann’s Functional Framework for Extended Jazz Harmony. Intégral,
24, 115–133. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41495296