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In-Depth Introductory Blog Post

Howdy!

The purpose of this blog post is to introduce you to my skill and my learning plan for the In-Depth project. I’ll be discussing the process I’ve come up with, the timeline I’ll try to follow and the support that I might need as the project progresses.

First of all, my in-depth skill will be singing and it’s applications to other areas of music. I have chosen a mentor, my music teacher from middle school. She’s one of the best musicians I know and an excellent teacher. I love to sing, but I’m worried that if I’m not constantly taking lessons I’ll fall behind. I’ve only ever been in choirs; I want to find my own voice and learn things that a solo singer would need to know, like voice projection, certain techniques and stage presence, et cetera. I also anticipate learning about the techniques my mentor thinks I should work on. Singing is my mode of expressing myself, and one day I want to be a singer-songwriter. Developing my skills to this extent now will be really helpful in reaching that end goal.

Over the course of the next few months, I want to develop my singing ability and eventually go on to make something out of it, perhaps a song if I delve into other areas like theory or a cover channel on YouTube if I’m brave enough. My end goal, at its core, is to be confident in all areas of my voice and reach my full potential. There are a number of individual skills I want to work on to reach that final product and I hope I can receive additional support on the way in order to understand what else I need to work on. 

I will be working towards my goal by making “cover projects”, small projects that contain a number of song covers I choose to make because they challenge me to utilize the skills my mentor teaches me. I will use them to monitor my progress and keep track of my learning. To reach my goal, I should practice consistently between meetings, and my mentor and I will decide on a schedule for that after our first meeting. I want to prioritize vocal safety, experimentation and the ways I can apply my singing skills to learning other areas of music. My plan of action going forward (taken from my learning contract assignment) will be as follows:

Plan: An outline of methods, activities, strategies, people and resources you can use to meet your challenge	Timetable: The specific dates or times when you will accomplish the steps in your plan
Finalize paperwork with my mentor	The first week of January at the latest. [Nearly completed as of the writing of this post]
Roadmap/Plan outline	In the second week of January, I will arrange a trial meeting and establish a clear roadmap of learning concepts, in order to accurately plan the rest of the project.
First Meeting	The first meeting will take place in the third week of January.
Regular Meetings	We will meet once a week for 45 minutes, whenever is best for my mentor.
First Cover Project/Check-in During the roadmap I will decide on a “focus skill” for each section of the project, using the check-ins like dividers for my skill development. The first section will focus on the basics/foundational skills and safety, but it’s up to my mentor.	The first cover project will be recorded a week before the first in-depth check-in and I will work on it that week.
Second, third, fourth etc. These sections will focus on individual skills I want to develop.	Second, third, fourth check-in weeks. See above!
Fifth and Sixth (Tentative plan/idea: I will reserve the last two project sections for learning additional skills, not “focus skills” or individual techniques. This will be up to my mentor, and it will depend on whatever she thinks I need to work on.)	I hope the pattern makes sense by now.
Begin preparing for the final project (meetings ongoing)	As soon as the final projects are announced. Meetings will be ongoing.
Concert Rehearsal	Every day (with lots of breaks) leading up to the date of the final project.
Online “Concert” (Final project)	Whenever the final project is due, but preferably not on the night of, in order to have it uploaded to my blog on that day/handed in and also to avoid overlapping with other presentations)

 

In addition to what I have planned and what I have, I’ll need support from my friends and family. An excited audience for the “concert” I’ll be holding, constructive criticism, emotional support, assistance from my parents in buying equipment and help with finalizing my plan from my mentor would all be very appreciated. On the topic of equipment, while I don’t technically “need” any fancy equipment, a nice microphone and all the bits and pieces I would need to go along with it would definitely up the quality of the project and make me feel a lot better about it. 

To wrap it all up in a succinct package, my goal is to improve my singing ability and to become confident enough to work that into other things I want to do musically. I will approach this goal by breaking it down into individual skills and challenging myself to develop each one within a certain timeframe, allowing me to combine them all into a large final project (the concert) at the end and also allowing me to expand on what I learned in the future. I will do this by practicing consistently and asking for guidance on potential areas of weakness from my mentor. I’ll also need additional support from my friends and family in areas like emotional support and assistance in getting equipment. I still need to finalize some scheduling details and other small things, but overall, I’m ready and excited to get started!

Thank you for reading my blog post. I’m excited to get started and I hope you enjoyed learning about the learning plan I’ve come up with.