Realizations (WR 26)

Originally, it had been my goal to write and produce five songs for my final product. After careful thought and discussions with my mentor, we have decided that it will be best to stick to four songs. Heres why; The main reason is that it is much better to have four amazing songs, then five 'okay' songs. My mentor Jonathan said that in todays music world, people would much rather a fewer song album with all of the songs being outstanding. This can be seen in many successful artists nowadays. A lot of artists are releasing shorter 5-6 song albums with each song being very high quality. This tied into a factor of time lead me to make the designs to only produce 4 songs and spend my remaining time perfecting the songs I have and also working on the two videos and marketing the album.

Looking Forward (WR 23)

There is a month and a half left until FPN (final presentation night). To some, this is a reality check but to me this is a checkmark. I feel good about the position Im in. In regards to my final product, I have almost 4/5 songs complete. This means I just have one and a half songs to complete. Technically, I am a little behind on the calendar I created but this is fine because I built in extra time to compensate. I am learning that with creative projects, they often take longer then expected because of how the creative process works. This is also something my mentor warned me about earlier in the year so I feel prepared. All in all, things a going great I just need to spend some time on the project and it will be complete very soon. "Rome wasn't built in a day"

"Break" (WR 22)

This past week I was fortunate enough to have the entire week off of school for spring break. This was a great opportunity for me because it allowed me time to get a lot of stuff done and be very productive. Even though it was spring break, it was hardly a "break" for me. Every day I was productive and I spent a great deal of much needed time working on ISM related things. The first couple days I spent working in my home studio on my album. I got a lot of great songwriting, production, and mixing done. I even started working on the 4th song (out of 5). Then on Wednesday, I got the chance to spend the entire day working at C - Factory with Christian Chavarria, an associate of my mentor, recording and producing one of his up and coming artists. This was a great experience and I got to meet/hangout with some really cool people. Then on Friday, I once again went up to C - Factory to meet with my mentor. We worked on some of my projects, talked, and I also got to sit in on a session with one of his clients. Overall, it was a great week and I got a lot of much needed stuff done.

Progress (WR 21)

Ambitious goals yield great results, but only after you put a lot of time and hard work forth. This year I have set a goal to write, record, and produce my own album/ep. For me this is a very ambitious and I know that if I waste any time, I will not get it done. That is why I am currently working very hard and spending most of my available time working on it. I play to produce a total of 5 songs and I am just finishing the 3rd. This is very encouraging to me because when I first started I thought there was no way I would finish. Now I am seeing tangible results and real progress. All I need to do now is keep up the pace Im going at and with a little help from my mentor I should be right on track to finishing on time.

Final Product Calendar (WR 19)

One assignment that was due this week was the final product proposal and calendar. The proposal is simply an overview of what my final product will be and the calendar is the schedule of dates of when each segment of the final product needs to be completed. When I was completing the calendar, I had a couple of eye openers. The first and most important is that I do not have as much time as I thought I had. I initially thought, "I have plenty of time, its not due until the end of the year" which is partly true. The project is due at the end of the year, but that is only about 2 months away. I now know that if I want to complete this album (my final product), I need to start ramping up the amount of time I spend working on it. This means putting my other projects on hold for a few months and focusing on this album. Another thing I realized from completing the calendar is that planning ahead is very crucial. For example, I want to have physical copies of my album at FPN (final presentation night). For this to happen though, I have to have the album complete and sent off a couple of weeks prior to make the copies and get it published.

Mentor (WR 15)

Over the break a lot of exciting things happened to me in regards to ISM. The biggest being that Jonathen Camacho from C-Factory Productions said yes to being my mentor! Jonathen is one of the best music producers in Dallas and I am very excited to get to work with him all year. He produces all kinds of music ranging from latin, pop, rock, and so much more. You can read more about Jonathen and C-Factory here (http://christianchavarria.wix.com/c-factoryproductions).

Another exciting thing that happened was that on this past Saturday, I got to visit my mentor for the first time. The first thing I experienced was Jonathen working with a client. They were in pre-production and had just created a scratch track. Once his client left, Jonathen then took the time to help me with some of my songs. We worked on mixing them and basically rebuilt them from the ground up. He showed me all the things I was doing great, and all the things I need to fix and improve on. All in all, this has been a great break and I got a lot of productive stuff done.