It's been so incredibly fun, especially when everything all

comes together.  Here's my timeline to showcase how

everything went:

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September 25, 2017:

Finally picked back up on Wrath.  I've had a few ideas running around in my head, including a cool alto sax/horn feature, as well as a way to show the trumpets off.  Lastly, I was able to make a transition from the fast part to the slow middle section, so I have that going for me.  I just need to find out what to put in said middle section.

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September 29, 2017:

I've been working on Wrath these past few days, and I just need to say wow.  In government class the other day, I thought up of a really cool baritone saxophone solo, as well as a beginning to an epic climax in the middle section...and this is all slow!  I'm getting real excited for how it'll turn out.

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October 4, 2017:

Not too much done, but I was at least able to finish the middle section.  I continued the climactic part to be equally as intense, though toward the end, it suddenly becomes softer.  The neat thing I did with this, though, was that I introduced a d minor chord, into a d major chord, into a g minor chord.  It works very well, and it adds suspense.  Though, the song itself is in c minor, so I'm tricking the audience into thinking that the song will resolve into g minor, when really it's staying in c minor the rest of the way through.  Lastly, on the resolution, it's in a g minor chord very soft, however the baritone saxophone and the bass trombone will be continuing the beat that was introduced in the opening.  My goodness I'm having so much fun with this song.

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October 11, 2017:

So today I worked on picking it back into the fast section, with the same melodies introduced earlier.  It's really all about the same, just the same melody and the same structure, as well as the same transition into the melody.  However, it isn't so much the same, because instead of the basses having these big hits, it's everyone.  And in those hits, dissonance plays a huge role in causing all this tension.  Transitions are so hard to do, but they're so good when they work the way you want them to work.

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October 22, 2017:

I'm finished!  Well, not really.  What I actually mean is that I got all the basics down.  I've took time these past days to work on just the ending before I get into the horn soli.  Really, it all ends loud and super intense, until you realize that the little vibraphone solo that was played at the beginning of the piece is back all mysteriously to end the piece.  It's an extremely cheesy way to finish the piece, but I love it.  After I finished that, I worked on the horn soli, which took a few more days to even come up with.  However, I figured it out.  I'm going to have them play a lot of dissonant notes to help drive the song towards it's end.  So what I did was that I took the soli into c-flat, and put in a lot of major 2nd's, which are intervals that are very dissonant.  It sounds really cool, but now that I have the basics down, it's time to do the hard part - making the backgrounds.

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November 5, 2017:

These past few days I've been working on some backgrounds that could work, and I think I got it.  I mainly focused on the main melody of Wrath, and put background onto it.  However, after the alto sax and horn feature, and after that transition as well, it goes back to the main melody, however it's much more intense.  Why?  Because I put in this war cry-like countermelody in the alto saxophones and horns.  It sounds so cool, and I think it'll definitely be a good way for them to show off.

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November 7, 2017:

I've added percussion from the horn soli on today, and honestly what a huge difference.  It's much more driving, and it really excites me as well.

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November 14, 2017:

Not much done these past few days.  I was working to see what background I could put in the alto sax and horn feature, and I've resorted to just percussion hits.  Honestly, it works really well, and it makes it so much more effective.

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November 23, 2017:

Man there's so little to work on now.  The only thing I've really done this past week was changing the percussion transition from the big low c hit in the basses into the baritone saxophone solo.  And I'm just struggling to find the right transition.  This is where composing gets stressful, because you don't know what transition you want.

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December 19, 2017:

Haven't really worked much on this song this month until today.  And I got a few more things done.  First and most important, I added rehearsal markings.  It really helps performers to know where the conductor will be rehearsing areas, and honestly I'm glad.  The next big thing was that I added much more background for the transition between the alto sax and horn feature into the big main melody moment (with the countermelody).  It leads up to the melody much better than beforehand, and I'm really glad I added it.  Now I just still need to find the right percussion transition, because I'm still having trouble with it.

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January 3, 2018:

Before anything, happy new year.  Now, back on track with the timeline, I decided to show my band director (my mentor) Wrath, and how it's coming along so far.  The first thing he told me was that the bass clarinet goes way too low for it's range, so I later decided to switch some parts with the bass trombone part.  Anyhow, he had to speak with one of the people in our school offices, so my little meeting with him was cut short.  But that night, I decided to add in the trumpets and give them a little thing at the end.  My only complaint is that it covers up the woodwinds, but other than that, I like it.

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February 11, 2018:

No, it did not take me a full month to start working on it again.  I only took 3 days to work on it since last time, though, and those changes weren't really significant.  Neither was today's.  I mean, the only thing I've really been working on was cleaning up some of the backgrounds.  Actually, that's a lie, because I also added the piccolo part into the countermelody group in the climactic part.  Doesn't really make a huge difference, but yeah.  All I've really done was cleaning, so nothing much.

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March 8, 2018:

Holy moly, I talked to my band director today, and he brought up so many good points.  Luckily I was able to stay with him much longer today since nobody asked to meet with him and such.  First off, before I go into what all happened in this conversation, I want to say that I was able to find a way to make a gong sound without actually having a gong instrument.  This literally changes everything!  Anyhow, with my discussion with the director.  He says he likes it, but there could be so much more to make it truly astounding.  The first thing, is the percussion.  He says that the percussion is so bland and so boring, and that there needs to be much more impactful moments with it.  That's why he's the best person to go to, he'll be truthfully honest with you in the nicest way possible (he said that it was boring in a nice way).  Next, he talked about the chord progression in the trombones and how it fits with the melody...not well apparently.  He didn't just say that I needed to work on it, though.  He gave me a few ideas on what I could do to make it better, and even talked to me about looking at the melody to see what chord progression the melody has.  Another thing he talked about was adding cool unison impact moments.  Never really something I've thought about before, and honestly it makes it sound so much better.  Lastly, he talked about whether the backgrounds I made for the baritone saxophone solo was a good choice, because apparently it'll be very growly.  That's actually kinda the sound I wanted, but I never told him.  But I worked on everything he told me to work on, and just...wow.  It's all so much better.

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March 16, 2018:

Today I'm leaving for Italy, but before that, I want to talk to my band director one more time to see the improvements I have made.  So in the morning I went ahead and showed him what I got.  He says everything sounds great, but the low parts are just simply too boring.  He wants me to make them have more fun stuff to play, and honestly I do kinda agree with it.  Before I headed to Italy, I hopped on and added more melody for trombones, and cool 16th note pickups into some new phrases for the bass instruments.  But for now, I have to head off for Italy.  I'll get back to this as soon as I can.

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March 25, 2018:

I'm back from Italy, and it was amazing.  Though, it was my first time on flying, and I've thought up of so many new ideas for a new song (well, technically I have three new song ideas from just that trip alone).  I'm thinking about calling this song Flight, and I want it to capture the beautiful imagery of flying, looking down and seeing the world below you, with all these clouds below you as well.

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April 14, 2018:

I am officially done with Wrath.  I've got everything done, cleaned up everything, and I've even showed it to a few of my friends.  Only took me, what, the entire school year?  Yeah, I need to get faster.  But the important part is that it's all done, and I've even shown my band director.  He has told me that the only thing I need to work on now is to find people who I'm close with to play certain parts and see if it'll work.  I think I'm pretty happy with what I have wrote, so hopefully I'll be able to find time with other people to play parts of it.

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June 25, 2018:

So, uh, big changes to my plans.  You know that song Flight I talked about earlier?  Yeah, well, I began working on it as soon as I was done with Wrath, and now I think it's much better than Wrath.  While writing this song, I paid extremely close attention to chord progressions and form, as well as knowing when something is too much for someone to be played.  Right now, everything seems perfectly fine to be played.  Yeah, there's a few challenging parts, but overall it's a much better-sounding piece.  Flight is way different than Wrath in terms of mood, as Wrath is much more energizing and intense, while Flight is much more calm and beautiful.  Just because it's mostly a calm and beautiful song doesn't mean that there can't be some big moments.  In fact, the middle section is actually pretty fast (not as fast as Wrath, but close).  The fast section is to portray the adventure that goes into flying.  I know that doesn't make much sense, but it's such a cool concept that I had to write it down.  I'll be talking to my band director about it sometime after a visual camp rehearsal is done, so I'll see what happens.

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July 18, 2018:

Took a while, but I was finally able to show my band director Flight.  During that time, I did clean a few parts, even adding some percussion in the beginning.  But now, it was time to show him my new song, in which I've considered replacing Wrath for Flight to be my capstone song.  Now unfortunately two things went wrong: 1. people were being loud so it was hard to listen to, and 2. I forgot to grab the updated recording.  He was still able to listen to it just fine, but if I grabbed the other recording first, then it would've been so much better.  Anyhow, after the song was over, he asked a few questions about my choices (specifically why I chose to put some of the middle section into 6/8 time).  After that, he complimented me on how well my form was, how well my chord progressions were, and even told me that he thinks this was the best song I've composed yet.  That really surprised me, I actually made him impressed with my music, and the feeling is absolutely incredible!  Yeah, I think I'm replacing Wrath for Flight.  I'm ready to share everything, though I will still need to find time for my band director/mentor to be interviewed.