This quarter, STAC worked on individual projects. Projects that we get to choose the type of media we want to work on. This media would eventually have to be presented to the class. I decided to continue with songwriting. All of the songwriters got together and decided to work on on huge project. Our project came to be that we all write 3 songs each in a week, we pick the best of the three and then harmonize and play instruments on each other’s music. There were a total of four songs; my song and a song from each of the three other songwriters. This project was really hard for me in the beginning because I always thought of songwriting to be an individual project, not a group effort. Once we got into the project and started to bounce ideas off of one another, we started to get really awesome things. We got cool ideas when it came to harmonies, background vocals, instruments and how we can make our songs better! I found that in working with a group I was able to look at other music as well as critic my own. I was more open to changing things in my music knowing that those changes would help me. I learned to be open minded and accept constructive criticism as well as apply it to my music. It has really helped me understand change and be okay with it. It has always been a struggle for me as an artist to make a change to my work. I was always afraid to make mistakes and change things. Now since I’ve worked on songwriting in a group, I have learned to accept the constructive criticism and finally appreciate the benefits of it. The criticism has helped me make my songs better and more appealing to the audience. Along with learning about constructive criticism, this project has helped me branch out into new instruments. I have always stuck to the ukulele and never wrote music on any other instrument, but I’ve began to branch out into the guitar as well as the piano and be able to play on my own music as well as others music. This project has really forced me to go out of my comfort zone and learn what it is like to work on music with a group rather than it being an independent project. I was able to really learn a lot about the three other songwriters as well. We were all able to really connect with one another and understand each other’s stories and how they connect to music. Music is what brings the world together, and this project has really help me increase my knowledge of songwriting and how different every songwriter may be.