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I made this song out of my style. I picked this name “Don’t Hold Back” because I feel like someone is waiting for me and holding back on their future when I close my eyes. I want them not to hold back and keep moving with their lives because I will not be in their way. The instrument I used the most was the piano because I wanted the piano to take the lead in this song. I used many piano melodies together to make a good combination. Then I added the drum. The drum was an instrument I used a lot as well. I wanted this song not to be boring and rather be something relaxing to listen to.

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Have you ever dealt with someone in your life where you put so much time, effort, and heart into them? Where the relationship--whether it was a brother, sister, cousin, boyfriend or girlfriend, or a parent-- was only alive because you gave it your all to maintain contact. This person did not care if you have not spoken in days or even weeks even though they knew how important they were in your life. In this song, you will feel the emotion of sadness, disappointment, or heartbreak. The instruments included in this song are a synth, the grand piano, scratch sounds, shakers, timbales, and two-beat loops. The change of beats and rhythms is to convey a change in the mood. It is from being heartbroken to becoming upbeat in life, no longer worrying about the past. Towards the end, you hear the sound of a bus coming and going as a way to express that you have picked yourself up and moved on.

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Hello and welcome to our virtual showcase of the songs the HUM107 class composed. Students created their own original musical compositions using a program called "Soundtrap." Listen to their songs and read their descriptions below. Feel free to comment on their posts and "like" their compositions. Enjoy!

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"Smooth Melody Atmosphere" by Lorin Medina

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"Smooth Melody Atmosphere" by Lorin Medina

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The reason I chose this style is because of the melody. It gave me a sense of calmness when I was creating the track. I added a minor piano riff that does not overpower the track and some guitar notes to help fill in the middle. I thoroughly enjoyed this activity which allowed me to tap into my creative side. I love music, and it is a huge part of my upbringing. I was happy that I was able to create my own instrumental composition. I feel it had the right balance, not too fast that makes me jump or too slow, making me go to sleep. This track was melodic and atmospheric, which is what led me to the title. Music is a huge part of me, and this led me to reminisce about the days back in the Dominican Republic.

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Medina L - Final Project - Smooth Melody Atmosphere (1)

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My composition is about someone who loses love and feels sad. The person thinks his or her life should end because the other person didn't love them anymore. I was inspired to write this poem and music because in my past, I loved someone, but it was unfortunate. I felt that if I didn’t have this person with me, my life would end. My heart broke into many pieces, and my love for that particular person was more extensive than the sea. I was depressed for five years, but at the end of the day, I understood I needed to love myself first. Even though this person didn't love me, I needed to love my body, mind, and heart. My recommendation is to love yourself and take care of yourself.

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"The Ole' Mississippi River" by Clara Santana

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"The Ole' Mississippi River" by Clara Santana

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The song for my final project is entitled “The Ole’ Mississippi River” which consists of two loops from the Soundtrap loop library and two recorded tracks. The first loop is a banjo and the second is a fiddle. The first recorded track is a steady drumbeat, and the other track is my husband’s voice. The song is a Bluegrass song with few simple repetitive lyrics as follows:
“I miss my Ole’ Mississippi river,
and I miss my Ole town, I miss my mama,
the banjo and the fiddle, I miss my ole Mississippi town.”

I was inspired to compose a Bluegrass song because I find the genre very similar in structure and content to the traditional merengue of the Dominican Republic. As in traditional merengue, the bluegrass singer repeats the same lyrics almost like a lament. I also love the fiddle and banjo. I wanted to find a genre that goes back to some of the traditions of my new country and some simple lyrics celebrating a famous natural landmark “in tune” with a bluegrass sound.

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Santana-Final Project-The Ole' Mississipi River

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My musical composition is about my family. My inspiration to create it was my relatives who are no longer with us. Nostalgia caught me a bit, although I wanted to give it a twist because, like everything in life, the musical composition ends in the same way as I started it. In this composition, I used piano, drums, guitar, and others. I wanted to convey a bit of mystery to arouse curiosity with the guitar, and then I continued with the drums, giving it a special touch. The last instrument I used was the piano giving the rhythm a little more motivation to move forward. I decided not to put voices in the musical composition because I thought it could have a more dramatic melody. I wanted the musical composition to convey the message that we have to support each other and love each other as a family despite the adversities.

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I like the track called “Beanie-Beat (full)” because it transports me to the past, and makes me remember when I was studying at the Lima Departmental Institute. In 1991, I was one of the participants in the band playing drums for my independence day parade in my country. I like the drums because the rhythm is noisy, and it has many changes of sounds, and it also makes me remember when I was a child since it was always one of the favorites at school. I chose the “Midnight-Backing Vocal” because I like it for its strong tone. I decided to use the loop called “Red-Backing Vocals II'' because of the timbre of the singer's voice and the melody. The last looping track is called “Fully Charged Money,” it reminds me of how my dream was to play the guitar when I was a child. When I was eight years old, I wanted to take guitar lessons, but I could not achieve my dream due to poverty. When I turned 17, the first thing I did was get a job to help my parents with household expenses, leaving my dream behind. Now let me say that thanks to this music class, I have revived my desire to learn to play guitar despite my age. For me, music is life and everything that I have learned today is what I want to put into practice.

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This soundtrack conveys a feeling of calm and upbeat moods when you listen to it. This soundtrack is supposed to be something different from what someone would hear. It's a combination of piano music, bass, and other sounds, but it's mainly the piano that carries it for the whole time. This is the soundtrack I made, and I hope everyone enjoys it.

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In my composition "You Can Do It," I was motivated to create a melody that serves as background music to say some motivating words. It would be a melody playing while someone is quoting encouraging words to other people. I think that in these moments when society is going through so many changes, where every day we see how it becomes more difficult for us to realize our dreams, it is important to motivate others and tell them you can. If you have a dream or want to do something, you can do it and achieve it. Sometimes we need a few words to motivate and give us strength to get started. At other times we need a helping hand to help us continue. The sky is the limit. You can do it.

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When I first was assigned this project at the beginning of the class, I was very nervous and excited at the same time, as I had never been exposed to an experience like this. I began to try so many things out, watch videos, and engage in conversations as a way for me to take one step at a time and learn as much as I could to be able to fulfill this task. In all honesty, it was not an easy one, but it was well worth it. I searched for help from the worship leader at my church, who helped me organize my ideas and express what I wanted to say in the song.

“Hazme Entender,” which in Spanish means “Make Me Understand,” is a personal conversation between God and me. I tell Him I want to be closer to him and that I am thankful he answered my prayers; through His love, I have seen great miracles in my life. This project is pretty straightforward regarding the instrumentation: drums, bass, keyboard, electric guitar, and vocals. I asked my worship leader to sing the song as I felt more comfortable if she led the song. She taught me some chords on the keyboard, and from there, we built the song.

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The message of this song is a soft song about your true self. I put a beat to make your body go with the flow of the music. This song is for you to feel your bodies move with the music. The meaning of it is about you knowing your true self and how life is like a protest and just goes with the flow like the people make a change and hits hard like the beat. It should make you connect to how grateful you should be and that you should love yourself and live life with the beat. I truly hope that the song helps people just take a step back and appreciate themselves. That was the meaning of my song. I hope you get it and it has a really strong meaning.

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When I closed my eyes at night,
I see you are here.
In each moment of my life,
every moment,
I only I am thinking only of you,
and when the moment comes,
I see you.

I always feel that I am in a dream.
You are in my dreams and in everything I am going to do
because you are my heart.
You are the air that I breathe,
you are the wind that I feel on my skin,
you are in my dreams.

You are in my dreams
because everything that I always want in my life is you.
You are in my dreams
because I don’t want to wake up in this dream of you.
You,
only you
and I don’t have anything if you are not in my dreams.
You are in my dreams.

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Gomez - Final project - You Are In mY dreams

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"Kings and Queens Arise" by Adriana Meija

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"Kings and Queens Arise" by Adriana Meija

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I named my project “Kings and Queens Arise” because of how I wanted to empower others who may not feel as though they are kings or queens. I think many people are trapped in the idea that they need to be and look a certain way in today's society, so this Soundtrap composition is supposed to lift people from their seats and see themselves as the main character in their own lives. The hip-hoppy vibe you get from the Soundtrap composition represents empowerment. The music piece is there to make people smile and feel confident in themselves. Lots of other great songs do that, and I am hoping that this song will too. It is okay to feel down sometimes, but you always have to remember that a king or a queen is still inside you. Overall, I wanted people to feel good and to take control of their lives. I feel that this groovy, chill, empowering type of beat in Soundtrap will do wonders for that; it did for me, at least.

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The name that I chose for this song is “Connection” because every little sound I chose connected with me. When I hear this song, I feel relaxed, happy, and I love it more and more. If I were to feel sad or not loved, listening to this song uplifts me and puts me in a better mood. The lyrics in this song remind me that I am not alone, and this song gives me what I need right away. Listening to this song makes me feel happy, confident, and proud of myself because I didn’t know anything about music at the beginning of this class, and look at me now composing my own song.
When I started using Soundtrap, I was so confused about how to add a melody. Now when I go to my project, I know what to do. This project also helped me be closer to my children because they wanted to make music with me, and we did it for a few hours, danced, screamed, and enjoyed this very much. I want to thank my dear professor for this project.

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My idea for my Soundtrap Composition Project was to make a relaxing song to help you sleep and relax after a long day of hard work. When I started to listen to different instruments and sounds, I couldn't keep relaxing. I like Dominican urban music called “Dembow,” a music genre originally from Dominican Republic in the 90s. Reggae influences this genre in Spanish, dancehall, and hip hop. When I started creating this song, I was happy listening to the different instruments because it was really exciting and fun. I just wanted to dance, and the sound of the different instruments reminded me of the Dembow from my country. I started creating the base of the song with the drum kit at tempo 120 beats per minute, like in Dembow. The second instrument that I used was the snare drum and the third one was the hihat and the last one that I used for the base of the battery were the claps. Lastly, I added a piano with bass to give the song more body.  I hope that you liked it because it was really hard but fun.

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This music can be used as instrumental background music for various activities such as when doing a conference or to relax. Listening to my melody with several different melodic ideas, you will be a little curious to hear the voice form here. There is a varied mix of medium and low sounds. Each track has a uniqueness that I like and represents who I am inside. I hope you like it and can interpret my mix differently.

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Felipe - final project - asi me siento yo

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When I think about this music, I think that it can be utilized in different situations, whether you’re feeling down or just feeling calm. This music brings back many memories of my adolescence because when I felt sad or bored. I liked to listen to this type of rhythm in songs. When I heard this type of rhythm, my mood would usually change completely. This type of rhythm can usually be found in calm yet upbeat songs to change someone's bad mood to a better mood. The purpose of the rhythm of this song is to make people feel good, and it can be useful at gatherings between family and friends. I think it is very nice to listen to this music in a restaurant as background music as well. When listening to this type of music, I want people to feel moved to calm them down and put them in a way better mood than before.

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"On the Other Side of the River" by Ana Williams

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"On the Other Side of the River" by Ana Williams

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My composition is titled "On the Other Side of the River," which represents the relationship with the lifestyle of the person who lives on the other side of the river. The discipline and behavior, the attention they have between themselves and others, differ from those who live on this side. When I visit this person, they treat me with great affection, kindness, and respect. Being on the other side of the river, we feel very good breathing fresh air and enjoying a favorable climate. The sound of the current of the river water produces peace, calm, and tranquility. It also inspires artists to compose poems, songs and helps with creativity and painting beautiful paintings. The environment favors the artist to connect with nature by listening to the singing of the birds. I did a lot of listening and practicing the instrumental tracks correctly until they connected with me.

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Williams - Final Project - The other side of the river

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For my final project, I wanted to use my composition for meditation which I have found helpful as it calms me down after a long day of work. I knew I wanted to make a musical composition I found peaceful. I started with the anthem beat because it reminds me that I can feel and hear my heartbeat when I am calm. I used a mixed choir on my musical composition because when I close my eyes and hear this mix, I imagine being in Heaven with the angels. For the rest of the track, I tried to mix them around so each track will complement each other, and in my opinion, I believe it does. Combining both the musical composition with meditation is a very interesting way of feeling better mentally. Meditation is an important part of improving your mental health, but also the use of music makes you feel good, which is why I based my music track on meditation.

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santana m- final project -meditation timev 

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"Missing You" is a poem about a person thinking they miss someone, but they question themselves, wondering, "Do I actually miss this person or all the ways they made me feel? Am I just lonely? Maybe that's why I think I miss that person who was once a part of my life." I chose a nice R&B sound with some piano, soft drums, nice kick drum and snare in the piece along with some vocals at the beginning. The piano provides chords and melody. The kick drum and snare helped guide everything, and I put them in the right places along with the vocals at the beginning. I had a fun time making this!

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Where is the light
in this dark space in life?

Why does everything hurt
when you take it away?

Small things get big but never live long.

You were the peace to all problems,
but the pain to start them all.

When I wanted to escape,
I turned to you.

Now I see red and flames,

wanting to see the beauty within,

the peace to the soul
and joy through the heart.

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"Strangers to Them" by Martha Griselda Frias de la Rosa

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"Strangers to Them" by Martha Griselda Frias de la Rosa

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This song is called "Strangers to Them," and it was inspired by my children who were inseparable. At that time, my children and I shared practically everything: activities, parties, and more. This song was thinking of them since they are far from me. I started to think about them as I made a soft melody on the piano. This song says, "My reason for living is you. I think about the things we did together. I don't forget them. That's why strangers are my life. Missing them, I live all the time remembering the afternoons we shared together. They are my life, and that is why I love them." I interpret this melody full of nostalgia because I really want to be with my family, who are my reason for fighting and living.