Creating A Music Album with the Theme of Finding Happiness

Step one: head to university, get a degree, graduate. Step two: find a stable job, keep a consistent career path, be successful. Step three: build a family, get rich. Live a nice life. And only after this consequential progression of events is followed, will we find fulfilment in life and obtain the happiness we all seek to come by. Or so I was led to believe.

My name is directly derived from the Latin word for “joy,” given to me by my parents in the hopes that I’d grow a happy person and be able to share my happiness with others. But what is happiness? Is it exactly as society says? How do I find it?

It’s only recently after I recovered from a major surgery and learned to be more grateful for the smallest of things when I realized that happiness doesn’t always have to be grand like that. It isn’t always a huge epiphany or an entire life goal. Happiness is a choice and a state of mind, like how a big part of my own manifests through music.

Listening and learning about different genres and styles of music has always brought me joy, and I myself have been singing and playing instruments for as long as I can remember. My interest in music is an ongoing process, and so is understanding joy, which is why I am taking this Personal Project as an opportunity to create a music album expressing the theme of “Finding Happiness” based on my personal beliefs and experiences by developing my song-making skills.

This is a highly challenging goal first and foremost because while I am no stranger to music and while I have no trouble coming up with words and melodies in my head, I have not seriously written and produced many original songs; I am lacking in experience. Because of the introspective and expressive nature of my theme; I also want myself to dig deep in order to successfully articulate my thoughts and opinions through sounds and words in the way I want to, which will take a lot of time and effort. Additionally, the making of an album is an undeniably difficult process involving many steps, so I’d have to put in much dedication and energy in order to achieve maximum quality in this short amount of time.

Global Context

The global context relating to my project would be Personal and Cultural Expression since the music album itself would be a medium for me to extend, express, and enjoy my creativity, especially because I’m creating songs with subjects primarily based on my own thoughts and experiences. Adding to that, the theme of happiness in my project as well as choosing to convey it through music is something universal and transcendent over cultures and identities. No matter who someone is or where they’re from, the concept of happiness is not one that’d be foreign and the same goes for the use of music, further showing the Personal and Cultural Expression.

Product

My product is a six-track multi-genre musical album entitled “Joy” with audio files compiled into one folder and accompanied by an album booklet containing lyrics and background for each song, all for the purpose of encompassing my beliefs on simple happiness.

I believe that my product fulfils the project goal, as I was able to conceptualize what happiness means to me, and from there fully self-compose and self-produce six original songs. I had to use my technical abilities in music as well as the compounded knowledge from all the years of studying to produce the songs. I was able to reflect on myself and others to write introspective lyrics for those songs, and encompass the entire process with an accompanied designed booklet emulating the theme.

The album is in line with my global context of Personal and Cultural Expression, because through my creative thinking, I translated my own interpretation of the universal concept of happiness into music that I believe many would be able to relate to and enjoy, regardless of background or culture.

Reflection

While I was never a stranger to music, I have grown musically to great lengths throughout the course of creating my album. I’ve honed my technical music skills for so long throughout the years, but this is the first time I got to apply and use those skills to the best of my ability. I used to only play existing songs, but I am now experienced in the process of creating them. I used to only dabble here and there with producing, but I have now gained in-depth and hands-on knowledge from this experience. Understanding the concept of happiness is another thing I definitely grew to do. With research by listening to the insights from other people as well as looking around at my own life, I was able to gain enlightenment on what simple happiness is to me, and express that through my work.

With my album meant to be a medium for me to extend, express, and enjoy my creativity especially because the subject is based on my own thoughts and views, I grew to deepen my knowledge and understanding of the global context Personal and Cultural Expression. Having to define my happiness by comparing it to what other people felt about theirs, looking back at my life, and taking in all the things around me gave me a chance to question and re-assemble my own views. After that, finding ways to effectively use melodies and words to convey those views to anyone listening taught me a lot about effectual self-expression. Music and happiness are both transcendent over persons and cultures, and I had the opportunity to tie those two things together through my album, giving me a more deep and genuine view on Personal and Cultural Expression.

IB Learner Reflection

Through this project I definitely grew to be more Knowledgeable. I had years of musical knowledge before heading into this project, but the growth in what I have learned regarding song-creation is something I could have gotten through hands on experience only. I sought deeper understanding of my previous learnings by gaining in-depth knowledge regarding writing, composing and producing through actually doing it. I also was able to explore the concept of happiness; a concept with a lot of personal and global significance, making me more knowledgeable about myself and the world around me.

I’d say my album as a whole; through its music style, in its words, in the melodies I made and everything about it, is an absolute representation of who I am and what I believe. I really thought hard about how to generate a touching narrative, and because of that and how much the album represents me as a person, I can say that I’ve grown to be more Reflective. I thoughtfully considered the world around me in accordance with my ideas and experiences while writing lyrics. I supported my learning and personal development by reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses. I welcomed mistakes as ways to grow and tried to improve with every piece of a song I made.