Internship: Week 3: Last Day

This photo displays the design aspect of my internship project. I did a lot of advertising for them, needed or not (haha).

I liked this one most because it is calm but also flashy. I think it displays a theme of modernism here, flaunting helvetica bold with various color gradients and mixed opacities. I like it.

This one is a summer camp sheet I was asked to design. I originally made this on illustrator, saved it as a jpeg, inserted it into illustrator again, and ran a live trace on it, giving it the hand drawn wavy look on the text. I once again feel like this displays an aspect of modernism. With illustrator, your possibilities are endless.

Internship Final Week- Day 3

Leslie Gereghty- Recreational Music Center (Owner/Teacher)

1) Q: After getting your bachelors, then masters at northwestern, you pursued doctoral studies in the Department of Music and Human Learning at the University of Texas at Austin. What did you do? What was it like?

Music and human learning- college level music teaching and education. Lots of research; and I already had a masters and bachelors degree in piano performance...so it was something new. I was always working as a musician. I never just went to college. I was always teaching. So that was good because some people don’t even work in college…and they are dumb (Laughs). So I was gaining experience while I was learning. I ended up leaving Texas for a good job offer that...you know I couldn’t resist.

Q: What was your job offer?

Senior editor at a publishing company..Music publishing.

2) Q: Do you feel you made the right decision going into an art related field, opposed to a more guaranteed higher paying business profession?

Yeah, there is a saying that (Winton Marsalis) you don’t choose music, music chooses you. And I think that is very true. And I think that there are three different groups of people. People that do music because there is nothing else...and they are often in trouble. Then, there is the second group that do it because they can’t see themselves doing anything else. Then the third group of people that find a balance to do music and something else…which is cool…but I was definitely the second group. I don’t want to make it seem like if you are unsure about something not to do it, but you will definitely know. It’s all about your experience.

3) Q: Even with a bachelor’s degree in music, did you feel unqualified going into music as a profession? Were you nervous? Did you ever feel that you weren’t good enough?

Oh yeah. Of course I did. It takes a lot of time to gain enough confidence and experience to feel good about yourself as a musician. And there are still parts of my business that I feel like a total klutz. Even though I never doubted my degree choice, there were so many times I wanted to quit. I had serious struggles with doubts.

Q: How did you overcome those? Did you put those thoughts aside?

I realized I was there for me. Regardless of if I won the competition or if my career was important to anyone else…I didn’t care what they thought. I knew what I was doing and I knew why I was there. It wasn’t their life. I didn’t care. You just have to focus on what YOU want. It’s like that band teacher you had. He said you weren’t good enough. You weren’t good at the skills he required, but he didn’t see what you WERE good at. That’s why you have to keep going, and not always listen to people that may be professionals.

4) Q: How does your work affect their personal life? Do you still find yourself doing all the things you once did before this company was your main priority? (Jamming)

Yeah, it has. Unfortunately. And I think in one hand its good, because now we play music all day long; but it does mean that I don’t play music anymore, and then come home and play music just to relax me anymore. So yeah, it has in a way.

5) Q: Did teaching music affect you in any way? What have you gained from teaching?

I just love the look on people’s faces when they get something. And it has brought so much happiness into my life that I just want to share it. And I want other people to feel that. It became a matter of fulfillment for other people…where as performing its all about you, and who you are impressing. I just feel a lot better sharing it.

Internship Final Week- Day 1

In the course of one typical workday, how many different people do you directly work with? How many people are indirectly affected by your work.

On a typical day, I will work with anywhere from 2-5 people. The studio is usually quiet due to the lessons in progress, but different teachers will rotate in, and I will help them prepare for a lesson, break down, manage their upcoming schedule etc. I don't think people are indirectly affected by my work. I can't think of how anyone would be.

Describe your direct collaboration with others—how does it go & how does it influence the work?

Direct collaboration is something I haven't experienced in great amounts at my internship. I have been a very independent worker in everything I have been doing. I have been helping a lot with events that the RMC has been having such as their Fun Friday and RMC Jam events. I guess that could count as collaboration, because the teachers and I work together to accomplish a common goal. Working together with the teachers to host good events, teach productive lessons and ensure a common sense of learning together have been a couple main goals I have tried to accomplish with the teachers and students at the RMC. I think this has influenced the work in a very positive way. I hope someone has walked away with something more than a music lesson because of something I have done.

Describe your indirect impact on others through your work—there are probably many people you never actually see who are affected by your work. How does this happen? How does this influence your work?

I think by designing advertisements for the RMC, people have seen them and have began to think about taking music lessons. Who knows if I have inspired the next Hendrix, Peart, or Lambert. This influences my work by inspiring me to keep designing for companies, because all it takes is the right design to catch someones eye, enough for them to read the poster and be inspired.

How might different resources change the way we work?

I think with better resources, my internship could expand their lessons and appeal to an older and more experienced audience. Right now, their classes are more directed towards the young (3-13) and older (40-70). I think by having more resources (Better drums, acoustic drums, brass lessons etc) they could close the gap between 13 and 40 and appeal to young adults such as myself.

How would you use collaboration if you were in charge?

If I were in charge, we would work a lot more as a tightly knitted team. A team bound to teach every kid a musical instrument before they get an xbox or ps3. To teach them how to think on the spot and play collaborate with friends on more creative things than xbox live. Participate in a quartet, join marching band. Something has to change with the exposure of music to kids.

Internship:Week 2, Day 4

My week was a very difficult week. I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do as my final project. I ran into conflict with my mentor several times about what they wanted me to do and what I wanted to do myself. There were arguments and disagreements, but through talking with my mentor and teachers, I have realized that I can only do the best I can do. I guess the highlight is negative, but positive in the way that it was a learning experience. Life at work is constantly busy, stressful and confusing. People often encounter obstacles and challenges. Some hit the obstacles and fall, while others find a way around them. I am trying to learn how to find my way around them. My week was a roller coaster. I hope I can get off of it soon.

Internship: Week 2, Day 3

Today I hit a brick wall. I was stuck, sick and extremely curious about how this internship and my projects were going to get finished on time. It lead me to think about how someone in my situation would take this obstacle, and overcome it. How someone in the world would climb over the brick wall and keep going. It has made me wonder about how incredibly hard it must be to have constant pressure and stress to keep your business afloat and a constant income in these times. I am just an intern, and I am feeling so much stress just to succeed. From now on, I am more inspired to constantly try to find a better way not to have to encounter these walls; and to find a way around them before I hit them.

Questions For My Mentor:

Do you feel you made the right decision going into an art related field, opposed to a more guaranteed higher paying business profession

How do you feel this choice affected your life and future?

With a baby on the way, and your business directed towards music lessons for kids and adults, do you think that having the baby will give you a chance to learn about a child and their views on music as they grow?

Even with a bachelors in music, did you feel unqualified going into music as a profession?

How did opening a music studio teach you about business, the balance of money and time, and how to keep a business open in troubling times?

Internship: Week 2, Day 1

I have grown to appreciate teachers more. It takes a lot more then it looks to teach something. I say this because I have began to teach music and several other things on a daily basis. The words and actions it takes to do something that you have aquired a skill for, are like chinese to someone who has never done it before. It comes naturally to you, but getting someone to understand, is very difficult. Last night, my neighbor called me asking for help in biology for her final tomorrow. She asked if I was good and I said that I had taken honors bio and could help her with what she needed. When I got there and sat down, I didn't know how to explain anything. I could answer trivia and narrow down multiple choice, but had forgotten how to get to where I am. It led me to wonder how my teachers were so good at making you understand. I don't know if its the several years of repeating the same lessons over and over again, or good memory or something else. All I know is that it is not easy.

Project description

I work at the Recreational Music Center. The Recreational Music Center is a music studio in NTC that teaches lessons and classes on all different instruments. I am doing several projects. One of my main projects is creating a First Time Buyers Drum Reference Sheet for parents and students looking to purchase their first drum kits.

Through making this, I am hoping to learn even more about the quality of drums. I am also looking to help prevent people from wasting money on bad quality drumkits that are still expensive. I will include a list of what to look for when buying a drum kit, a list of good starter kits and bad starter kits. Something like this would have been helpful to me when I was looking into buying my first drum kit.

By doing this, I will be helping the RMC find more affordable drums for their customers, and also for them as well. I began research for this project on Wednesday. On Friday I went up to Anaheim for the North American Music Merchants Show where I saw many good products, but also a lot of bad ones for customers to be aware of.

This project is going to take a lot of research and time. When it is finished, it will be anywhere from 5-7 pages with pictures and stories from other people that got fooled into buying a bad drum kit when they were young such as myself. It is going to take a lot of writing, so I am going to need to spend a lot of time with several drafts of the final project.

This will be exhibited at the RMC Jam on January 23rd. I am trying to get a couple of special guests and bands to appear at this event in Liberty Station. I will also hopefully have a draft done by this friday.

Summary

This was an amazing week at internship. My internship sent me up to every musicians heaven-The Namm Show, where I met several inspirational people and got a couple more clients for my internship. It was the best trip of 2010 so far. My cohort meeting went well also which I feel made my internship mentor a little happier about the whole internship experience. I think we will be starting off with a whole new outlook of this experience on Tuesday.

I faced several challenges this week. I had a lot of work that needed to be done, but I am still working hard to finish everything. I needed to concentrate a little harder and make myself free from distractions, and it is working well now.

Something that surprised me this week was the amount of clients that they had. I cleared out their database of clients that were former and new, and they have a lot more than I expected. I didn't expect a lot of people coming in for their events, but a solid 20-25 people came through, which made me feel good about the amount of people that will be seeing my final product.

I would describe my first week to someone that has not had internship before in one word. REAL. It was so unbelievably similar to what you are scared of going into an actual job. But just as other things do after the first week, it got better.

Internship-Day 6

My interview is going to be hard. My mentor is counting down the days until her baby arrives, making solidifying dates for things very difficult. But I am hoping to learn a lot more about my mentor/mentors.

Some things I would like to learn a lot more about are:

How does their work affect their personal life?

Do they enjoy doing what they do?

How did they decide to make music their career opposed to anything else? Was it a hard decision?

Do they feel that working here is harder then working at a traditional workplace?

These are all important to me because they are all things I am asking myself when I think about going into music. I hope hearing from them will help me understand, and I will take their advice into great consideration for the future.

Internship: Day 5

Project title: Drum Reference
Project description: Create a detailed reference sheet for customers at the Recreational Music Center looking to buy a drumset. Include price differences and information on what to buy and what not to buy.
Project schedule:
Friday-NAMM SHOW
Tuesday-Fri- work on getting information, and filtering information from the Namm show.
Mon-Wed.- Work on design for the reference sheet.
Materials & Equipment needed: Printer, Paper, Computer.
Project documentation: How will you keep track of your work?
I have been keeping track of my work in a folder on my computer, through pictures of my travels and quotes from people on various occassions.
How will others know about it?
Through my blog and through passing it out at my internship.
What will you have to show when internship is over?
Several completed designs, a completed reference sheet, several pictures from the namm show, and some other things that are still being developed.

Internship: Day 4

PROJECT IDEAS-NARROWED

• After School Music Program
• Advertisements Inside NTC Buildings
• Update Student Roster
• RMC Jam Event

1. What academic skills could you use on the job?
Time management and organization. I am an organized person in general, and I think I could somehow incorporate that into my work for internship, as well as my final project. Possibly a better way of organizing things for the studio, or updating work to make it more organized.

2. What forms of collaboration could you use in a project?
I want to collaborate music, art, and business into my final project by possibly having bands play at one of their events to increase the amount of people that come in.

3. What technical skills can you use at your internship?
I can learn a lot. So far I have learned how to sync 5 different instruments together to be able to hear each other, so people can come in with several people, and jam a song together electronically.

4. What new things can you learn while working at your site?
It is hard to answer this, but I have learned a lot about real world job application and how much it really takes to own and run your own business.

5. How can you exhibit, showcase or otherwise share your work?
During their weekly friday fun nights, during their RMC jams, over one of their summer courses, during one of their classes or during one of their friday night liberty events.

6. How can your work or your skills & abilities help your company or organization?
By giving them an extra set of hands and eyes to help carry out everyday tasks. I feel like I got here right on time to help them out with whatever they needed.

Internship: Day 3

PROJECT IDEAS

• New logo/website template
• After School Music Program
• Advertisements Inside ntc Buildings
• Update Student Roster
• RMC Jam Event
  

Answer these questions to get started:

1. What skills would you like to develop at your site?
I would like to develop a better schedule and method of doing and keeping track of my work such as a daily work log, to do list or a separate blog for my work.

2. What interests do you have regarding the work done at your site?
I am interested in the teaching of the classes and lessons. They are laid back and very casual, but still extremely helpful. I think it would be fun to teach a class there or at least assist a teacher during one of the lessons.

3. What needs can you address (needs your mentor has, your company has, etc.) based on your skills and interests?

Organization of the roster/calendar and daily work. I can produce new designs for them without having to pay for a designer to make them. I can be on hand at events where normally they are short staffed.

Internship: Day 2

Ben Wasserman

Recreational Music Center

Look back on your first two days at your internship.

What have you actively done to start off on the right note?

What have you actively done to create interesting opportunities for yourself?

What have you actively done to advance the interests of your mentor and/or site?

What can you do in the immediate future to improve yourself and your experience in the above areas?

It got off to a bad start. My mentor and I were not on the same page whatsoever about my internship there, so for the first couple days it was awful. On Friday we talked about everything that was bothering us, and it all boiled down to a series of misunderstandings. I am now starting on the right note with cleared air and a positive outlook on what is to come.

I have began working on a series of small projects, from which I will filter out the one I want to concentrate most on. On Friday, I worked at their Friday Night Liberty/Fun Friday event, and was suprised at the number of people that showed up. It was good to see that there will be a lot of people that I can display my work to outside of the High Tech High Community.

With a brand new start at a great internship site, I am looking forward to showing them my hard work and self motivation that will lead to a great project. To prevent any other misunderstandings, I will need to be more descriptive, personal and honest with my mentor. I feel like this is what got us to the bad start before. Not anymore!

Internship: Day 1

Ben Wasserman

Recreational Music Center

Pretty sweet Roland electric drum kits. The coolest part about their studio, is that all the instruments can be streamed together for lessons enabling several kids to play together on the same song at the same time. I get to test them out to make sure they work in the morning!

The walls of the office are decorated with album covers of several bands including U2, Michael Jackson, The Doors, The Beatles etc. This inspires students to ask about these classic and influential bands as a way of appealing musical education.

Just Jammin, you know. They have groups of 4 Pianos located all around the room. The studio must have anywhere from 10-12 pianos, 10-15 Guitars, 8-10 Drum Sets, and massive amounts of Percussion such as steel drums, shakers, harmonicas, hand drums, bongos etc.

The day started at 10:15 when I woke up. It was quite the amazing change from waking up at 7:30 every morning. My hours will typically be anywhere from 10-4 or 11-5. I was able to get up, make breakfast, shower, get ready casually, and arrive 15 minutes early. I am interning at the Recreational Music Center in the Karate building here in NTC right by Vons. When I got there, we got straight to business jumping off what we had discussed in our previous visits. Overall I am pretty stoked, but also very nervous. I want my project to reflect me. I have to work on finding that middleground where I will be helping them, but working on something that reflects my best skills, dedication and professionalism. I love my mentors, love the studio and location. Being so close allows me to walk back and forth from there to school if I need anything. The day ended well, and I see Friday going well.

Their business has actually stayed pretty neutral through the recession. With the arts being pulled out of the schools, parents have been enrolling their kids through music classes outside of school, but at the same time, parents have been less willing to spend money on recreational activities such as music classes for their kids.