justinlcpsarts-blog

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Final Reflection

ArtsFest was now two weekends ago and the Academic Showcase was just this past Thursday. I am extremely proud of the capstone project that I presented. The addition of the 3D printer at ArtsFest was a hit and many people came up to me and asked questions about my project which was very exciting and a lot of fun. I feel that the project would not have been as complete without the physical printer at ArtsFest. 

Reflecting back on this semester, I feel that I ultimately accomplished what I wanted to and am happy with the overall result. I managed my time well so that I was not extremely stressed when ArtsFest came around and I think that a lot of that came from a result of doing a lot of the hard work over spring break (designing and printing the mouthpiece). These are some points that I noted in my final reflection:

1)     The most challenging part of completing my project was by far when I first started to design the trumpet mouthpiece. I was not very comfortable with using Computer Aided Design software so it took me a long time to research and watch YouTube videos to figure out how to get started. However, once I found the right tools that I needed to use, it was straightforward from there on out.

2)     Looking at my learning agreement, I did successfully learn how to use AutoCAD to create a mouthpiece. While I did not record myself playing on both my usual mouthpiece and my 3D printed mouthpiece, I did record myself playing the 3D printed mouthpiece and put it in my presentation for people to listen to. The last point of my learning agreement was to sketch trumpets from different time periods which I attempted to do, but ultimately failed to do so because of time constraints and because I felt that photographs would do it more justice.

3)     The most helpful aspects of the classes were when we did our first and second look presentations because I got a lot of constructive feedback from my peers that helped me shape my capstone project and focus it more. Also, I just liked the environment and overall vibe of the class because it made me feel calm and that I had a team behind me that supported my project. What I think would be beneficial to add is making people do a quick update on their projects every class so that they can get feedback if needed.

4)     I was most proud of the 3D printed mouthpiece because it is something that I feel is very representative of me. I am glad that I could use a 3D printer because it is something that I have been wanting to experiment more. I am proud of the fact that the mouthpiece worked correctly based on the design I created, even though it had to have extremely precise measurements.

5)     If I could change one part of the project, I would have it so that I created more mouthpieces that were constructed for different repertoire. For example, I think it would have been interesting to make four mouthpieces that all had the same bore size, but the cup diameter was changed. I think keeping some aspects of the design constant, while changing others would have made this project more interesting and allow me to showcase how construction impacts the overall sound clearer.

6)     For next year’s Capstone students, I would say the same thing that I told many students that came up to me at ArtsFest – start early and do a lot of the work over winter or spring break. Once midterms hit, they do not stop and since I did a lot of my work over spring break I did not feel overwhelmed when ArtsFest came around. I think this is the best way to prepare a capstone project that you are proud to present, while not feeling overwhelmed or stressed with everything else that is also happening in April.

[justinlcpsarts-blog]

Academic Showcase Poster

This was my poster that I had at the Academic Showcase. I was happy with the size of the text and the amount of color that it had. My favorite part was the title and how it was inline with the music staff.

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Last Sunday, I went to my friend's flute recital at the Leah Smith Lecture Hall. This was her sophomore recital to showcase how she has grown as a player this year. I've never gone to a flute recital before, so going to one was a really cool experience for me. I never knew the range of pieces that the flute could play and how captivating of a sound it could make.

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ArtsFest Display!

I am so happy that I was able to bring my 3D printer to ArtsFest and live-print my mouthpiece. I had a lot of people that stopped by to ask questions.

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Tumblr Assignment

What connections did you see between your project and the projects of those in your small group? What was the most helpful piece of feedback (or support) that you received? How will this help you proceed with your project?

I don’t know if this was on purpose or not, but all of the capstone projects that were in my small group were related to music in someway. However, what I found most interesting was that they were all unique in their own way; Somin was using an instrument called the haegum and learning about how to play it, Amy was composing multiple movements to a piece inspired by pun motifs, Amrita was arranging Real by Brayton Bowman for her A Capella group, and Joe was researching how the music industry has changed with the creation of streaming services. Each of these projects were inspiring to see and made me explore the different aspects of my own projects more. The feedback I received helped me most in getting re-motivated for my project and pushing through to the end. I found myself feeling lost in which direction to go with my final presentation, and I feel as though the positive vibes that were sent my way helped me finalize my plan and become more focused.

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Advising Meeting 2

NAME: Justin Lehr

 ADVISOR: Harold Burgess

 MEETING DATE & TIME: 3/29/2017 at 2 pm

In 3-4 sentences, please describe what was discussed during your meeting.

This meeting we mostly discussed what the ultimate goal was for the presentation at ArtsFest. I was having difficulty figuring out what I wanted to present, and we came up with a few different ideas. One idea that I would love to do if I can get everything over is have the 3D printer at ArtsFest and show it printing the mouthpiece with a small poster next to it showing the main points from my research and how I went about designing the mouthpiece.

In 3-4 sentences, please explain what the next steps you will take with your project will be.

Since I have finished my research and mouthpiece, my next steps are to finalize my presentation for ArtsFest. I will create an engaging display that lists out the main changes in the trumpet throughout history and then describe my process on designing the mouthpiece. I also must finalize my poster for the Academic Showcase, which we discussed ideas such as including more graphics of the trumpet and more organized CAD drawings of the mouthpiece.

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Midterm Reflection

I have completed the entirety of my 3D mouthpiece which includes the CAD drawings and the actual printing. It took me a lot longer to make than I had anticipated, but I was glad that I did it over spring break and not during school. I am happy with the way it turned out - while it does not look as professional as a real mouthpiece, it does work and my tone quality is pretty normal on it! Some difficulties that I ran into included an error in the design which caused multiple print malfunctions and wrong scaling factors which made the mouthpiece too small originally. I was able to fix these errors after inspecting the drawing that I had made. I now need to get started on tying the project together to prepare for ArtsFest!

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These are two of my rough, initial sketches of trumpets for my project. I plan to have a lot more detailed/precise sketches for ArtsFest. I really did these sketches for each century so that I could show visually the changes and advances in the trumpet over the centuries. The bottom picture is a Slide Trumpet which was used in Shawm Bands in the mid-15th century. The tube connecting the mouthpiece to the trumpet is able to be pulled out like a slide to change the pitch of the instrument. The top is a Natural Trumpet which was based off a design in the 17th century. It has multiple finger holes that can be plugged or open depending on what notes the musician wanted to play. They were mostly used to portray nobility or used in religious ceremony during this time.

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Final stages of research...

I am in the final stages of my research and I have come across a couple of things:

1) I am definitely not on schedule, but that’s alright. As long as I finish up the research before Spring Break I will be good to go.

2) A problem that I have encountered that I did not see happening is actually having too much research. Because I feel as though everything is important, I’ve been wanting to include everything. This means that I will have to go back and revise and trim down the research that I have (not necessarily a bad thing).

Overall, I am happy with the progress I have been making. I have started collecting ideas for my CAD drawing of my mouthpiece so that will be ready to go by the time I get back from Spring Break. I hope to have my mouthpiece printed and all of my research done so that I can focus on finishing sketches and composing my research together.

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Finally finished my original mouthpiece. It took 3 attempts to print total - the first attempt was scaled wrong (second picture shows the wrong one next to the right size), the second attempt had a problem in the design that caused the 3D printer to drill the nozzle through the center of the mouthpiece (the third picture shows the outcome of that), but the third print was just right! I designed the mouthpiece so that it had a larger diameter and was deeper so that it is best suited for symphonic playing. In addition, I had a medium sized bore that works well for symphonic playing. I did this design based on research that I had collected previously and wanted to create a mouthpiece that I could use to play an etude on for my final presentation. More photos of the CAD drawing coming up!

[justinlcpsarts-blog]

Finally finished my original mouthpiece. It took 3 attempts to print total - the first attempt was scaled wrong (second picture shows the wrong one next to the right size), the second attempt had a problem in the design that caused the 3D printer to drill the nozzle through the center of the mouthpiece (the third picture shows the outcome of that), but the third print was just right! I designed the mouthpiece so that it had a larger diameter and was deeper so that it is best suited for symphonic playing. In addition, I had a medium sized bore that works well for symphonic playing. I did this design based on research that I had collected previously and wanted to create a mouthpiece that I could use to play an etude on for my final presentation. More photos of the CAD drawing coming up!

[justinlcpsarts-blog]

Here are the Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawings that I made and an image of what it looks like in the software I use to export it for printing. It looks more complicated than it actually was, although it was definitely tedious.

[justinlcpsarts-blog]

Finally finished my original mouthpiece. It took 3 attempts to print total - the first attempt was scaled wrong (second picture shows the wrong one next to the right size), the second attempt had a problem in the design that caused the 3D printer to drill the nozzle through the center of the mouthpiece (the third picture shows the outcome of that), but the third print was just right! I designed the mouthpiece so that it had a larger diameter and was deeper so that it is best suited for symphonic playing. In addition, I had a medium sized bore that works well for symphonic playing. I did this design based on research that I had collected previously and wanted to create a mouthpiece that I could use to play an etude on for my final presentation. More photos of the CAD drawing coming up!

[justinlcpsarts-blog]

I had never heard the song Real by Brayton Bowman and started off initially listening to the original song. Your arrangement of the piece sounds really great and I extremely impressed! Your ability to use the keyboard and outside resources to create chords sounds like it worked out really well - who needs music theory anyway :) I am interested in learning more about how you go about teaching an arrangement to Faux Pax and I cannot wait to hear the final recording!

This a screenshot of the sheet music of my arrangement of Real by Brayton Bowman, and a sample from the MIDI file for the music. I spent about 3 weeks to a month finishing this arrangement, as I was very careful with it, because it is my first attempt at arranging a piece of a cappella music for my group, Faux Paz, by myself. My main struggle with this process was not letting the song be an exact transcription of the original. In a cappella, many groups will sing songs very similarly to the original. Faux Paz likes to set themselves apart by putting their own creative spin on songs. Implementing the styles of Carnatic music into the arrangement has helped a lot with differentiating the arrangement from the original song. Another challenge I had stemmed from my less than extensive background in music theory. After spending a lot of time with my keyboard and going on educational music theory websites, I was able to overcome this obstacle.

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I had never heard of the haegeum before looking at your project and I think it is such a unique instrument. It is very cool that you had a friend who knew someone who played it and were able to go and try it out yourself. The most interesting part of the haegeum that you brought up to me was that you have to place the bow in between the two strings. I am interested to see how your experience playing the haegeum will shape our overall project in the end.

My attempt at playing the haegeum

So today I got the chance to actually try and play the haegeum. I have a friend who does Korean dance and she happened to know someone who is a performer of haegeum and I was able to meet up with her and learn about the haegeum. Obviously since I have no experience with the haegeum, it was really hard to get the correct sound even just playing open string without it sounding like a dying cat. Also, since I have a background in violin it was really interesting noting the differences between the two instruments. The haegeum actually only has two strings which the bow goes in between, and you switch from the outer to inner string. I kept needing to get help with placing my fingers on the strings since I would take my hand off and lose my place. Additionally, something really interesting I learned was that the strings on the haegeum will loosen as you play it and can change the pitch slightly(or in extreme cases go down a whole pitch). I also felt very uncomfortable holding the bow since it was a completely different grip that what I’m used to with the violin. Overall, I’m really glad I was able to meet up with and talk to someone who actually plays the haegeum and it was a lot of fun learning about and how to play the haegeum.

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This was a very interesting video to watch. I had no idea about the statistics that they brought up, for example, that the number of paid streaming subscriptions grew by 750% percent in the past five years alone. This video I feel does a good job at broadly explaining the second-half of your project, and I am excited to see a more in-depth analysis of what the digital age may do for the music industry.

this is somewhat of an inspiration for the second half of my project. The first half being the history of the music industry and its impact on artists, the second half being the present/future of the music industry (creatively/economically) in an internet-driven age. This video puts that second half into better words than I could think of, so bam: inspiration at its finest. It influences how i am looking for/interpreting my sources. This is the kind of timeline I’m searching for with theories on where the industry is headed. To say that the music industry will be experiencing a ton of growth over the next decade is well-supported in the literature, and I will be looking to piece that together.

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Repost:

I really enjoy the motifs that you stated here and I find it a really interesting way to get started and create music. Your insight into how you brainstorm ideas was helpful to hear, especially to someone like me who has never attempted to try composing their own music. Maybe if I ever want to get creative I will try out this technique that you use :D Your project seems really interesting and exciting - I cannot wait to hear what you have at the end. It seems like you have made a lot of progress since this post too; overall, great work!

Update 3/16

After mapping out my first movement in an attempt to try to get the second movement together, I’ve begun typing up notes and analysis for my first movement in order to help me explain and present my piece at Artsfest. 

I used three motifs/themes in the first movement and I’m going to also use three motifs in the second one. These motifs tend to be puns, something symbolic or something that just sounds good. My pun motifs, which I am very proud of, include the notes “DEAD” and a series of notes that range from scale degrees 7 up to the minor 3, which in solfege syllables is “ti” (7) up to “me” (3) and spells “time.” 

~

Today is the Thursday before spring break and all of my classes have been canceled. I still have my rehearsal with my chamber group, and I’m going to ask them to play some parts for me. I’m also going to get my other friends to record some parts for me.

~

I’m currently trying to upload recordings of my composition process to my Tumblr but it doesn’t seem to be compatible. (tumblr’s asking for a link, but my recording is an mp4) Thus I’m writing text.

A way to help you brainstorm is to just play freely for 15 minutes. It’s okay and even good to make accidents. In fact, most of my accidents lead to really cool ideas. I listen to these recordings and use my aural dictation skills to figure out what notes I was playing. 

Overall this is a pretty time consuming process, but I enjoy it and am very determined to get it completed. I’m looking forward to a productive Spring Break!