Process: For my piece, I used a program called Soundtrap to make a song through electronic manipulation. I wanted to make a song that would make listeners want to listen again and again. 

To do this, I started with multiple drafts for various genres of music- lo-fi, classical, and 80s rock, for example. However, I was unhappy with these ideas. In the end, I simply put together components that I thought sounded good when played together; it’s where the name “To My Own Beat” came from. 

I used free, premade loops for the bulk of my music, editing pitches and manually adding tracks as needed. Using prior knowledge from my music and production class, I incorporated song form and harmony into my music. I added two bass tracks during the second “A section” to give it a bit more bite, and changed up certain rhythms to keep listeners engaged. 

I asked peers for critiques and fixed any issues pointed out as necessary. "To My Own Beat” is 124 beats per minute and is 2 minutes and 58 seconds long. From the first idea to the final product, my piece of music took about a week to make.