A Look Into My English Life

For my Genius Hour Project, I am satisfied with the outcome, although I could've done better. I liked the fact that everyone I showed the video to enjoyed it. My audience actually noticed the lyrics and the depressing music video, instead of just listening to the melody. My mother didn't understand the lyrics, but she said she almost cried. However, one thing that I would've changed is: I wish I spent more time on the piano composition part and the voice recording, instead of the making of the melody itself. My piano composition came out on a higher pitch than expected, and it's really fast. My original song was slower when I sang it; I felt like this made the song more depressing. The new revisions also made it even harder to breath with the instrumental. The song had to be divided into four sections, and it caused the song to be really disconnected in some parts. The music composition part is probably the most important part in recording a good song. Instead of focusi...

I finished the majority of my Genius Hour Project. The video was filmed on Wednesday fully; I recorded in my house and neighborhood. It was actually easier than I expected. I just had to imagine myself being in the Schizophrenia patient's shoes. Then, I was able to edit it yesterday with my friend Thinzar. It is black and white to make the mood more depressing. Also, the clips at the end are fast and short with it ending with the beginning clip but backward. The purpose of this is to show how the individuals' lives are repetitive, lonely, and scattered. The video is now up on YouTube for the public to view! I was actually debating whether to place it on unlisted or public. However, since it is Schizophrenia "awareness", I chose to open it to everyone, even though I was afraid of criticism. As far as the response, I have been getting positive feedback from my peers, but they acknowledged that it isn't perfect. They really like the chorus, and many of them noticed t...

This is the final week before the Genius Hour Project is due. I have finished creating my song, and I actually chose to add the rap to my song. I have heard some ballads with raps, and so I attempted to place it in my song; I referenced to iKON's Apology for the idea. The rap I created will actually be a flashback of the Schizophrenia patient's past events that stood out to him/her. There is a rhyme scheme to it, and I'm planning to rap to it with no instrumental around the end of the song. Recently, I have also finished the piano composition of my song using the website https://flat.io/score/59178bbc27e2f62fadae3072 . It allowed me to create music sheets, and I loved the fact that it plays the note for me so I can actually hear it. The difficult part of creating the composition was actually finding the notes; I tried to make the melody vary. The timing for each note was also unusual. In addition to this, I am currently trying to sing over the instrumental. The song is roug...

I'm currently at the point in my project in which composing gets a bit difficult. It is frustrating to decide how to continue on from what I've gotten. To learn more about how others dealt with this, for an even longer time than me, I decided to find my primary source now. Since the song Hallelujah was an inspiration that I went off of, I found an interview with Leonard Cohen, the composer. I found it on https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/07/15/leonard-cohen-paul-zollo-creativity/ . Leonard Cohen talks about hard work, inspiration, and the complications in composing with the speaker. The Canadian admitted that he actually takes a long time to create a final song; he creates many versions of one to find the perfect choice. He takes from a month to more than two years. The inspiration that he finds to make music is the fact that the lyrics can make others relate. Despite the numbers, there will always be at least one person that understands what he is trying to get though. With t...

Now that I'm done with The Madman's Daughter , I can focus on my Genius Hour Project fully. As far as research goes, I was able to find another account that seems reliable and more descriptive. The source is https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article/32/2/209/1899556/Kurt-Snyder-s-Personal-Experience-with . Kurt Snyder experienced symptoms of Schizophrenia starting when he was 19-years-old, and it fully developed when he was 28-years-old. It began when he learned about fractals and infinity in school; he thought he would be able to make a discovery that the world didn't know. Snyder spent many years trying to decipher the problem that would lead to his success. He literally thought of nothing else, other than this. But, little did his brain realize that this was all a trick. When he turned 22, he began to think that "them" were after him. Thoughts of being watched haunted him. Things like events, police tickets, and security cameras was associated with...

I have just finished The Madman's Daughter , and I'm pretty satisfied with the whole novel in general. Since it is a trilogy, the ending of the first book left me hanging; it was a bit frustrating. Overall, the plot was addressing the problem of Juliet's dad and his "creations". Juliet's father, Henry Moreau, used to live in England. However, he was accused of butchery; he performed vivisections on animals, in hopes of turning them into humans. Moreau was then labeled a criminal, so he ran away to an isolated island close to Australia along with Montgomery, his servant boy. His daughter, then, discovered that he was alive and went after her father-- not knowing what was waiting for her. She wanted to know the real truth behind the figure who called himself her dad. Juliet still trusted him. When she got there, she was really oblivious. The creations just looked like villagers to her. That was until she saw her own dad performing the surgery in his laboratory o...

I have actually started searching up some first- and second-hand accounts of those with Schizophrenia. One article that I found was https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/diary-of-a-high-function/ . It contains an interview with Elyn Saks, a law professor that has Schizophrenia. She has had it to a less degree during her childhood years, but her major psychosis came during her first two years of graduate school. She described it as a "waking nightmare", "weird", and "bizarre". Delusions, such as killing others to seeing spiders on the wall, was common for her. Saks claimed that work was actually the mediator that helped her forget about her mental illness. The word that she really wanted to get out to others was about forced treatment and self-esteem. Elyn Saks thought that the forced medications and treatments was the most traumatic experiences she has ever had; she was restrained from moving up to 15 hours a day in a span of a few weeks. Although the...