1. 1550 Owens Store Rd
Canton, GA 30115
19 April 2012
Judges, Senior Project
Creekview High School
1550 Owens Store Rd
Canton, GA 30115
Dear Judges:
My name is Keller VandeBogert. I am 18 years old and have been a guitar player for over four
years. My strongest areas in life revolve around math, science, and music. I have always loved
the idea of creating my own songs and having other people learn them, as I have done with other
peoples’ songs. My senior project was to create an instrumental piece that utilized many
advanced techniques on guitar in order to make myself better at guitar and also to learn more
about music theory in general.
The product I ended up creating was a little over four minutes long and had used many different
styles. The techniques I used were varied as well, including things like sweep picking, string
skipping, legato, and tapping. Utilizing these techniques has made me a much more well-rounded
guitarist and also a much more skilled guitarist. Many of the obstacles I encountered had to do
with my skill not being at the level required to play many of the things I wanted to play. In order
to solve this, much of the school year revolved around me heavily practicing and perfecting the
pieces of the instrumental I intended to produce.
My topic can relate to many different careers such as teaching guitar and performing for others.
Although I did enjoy creating my instrumental, I did not enjoy the post-production aspect of it. In
terms of post-secondary education, I want to pursue a minor in music because most music-
related careers are not in great demand and do not pay very well. Since I am very good in math
and science, I instead plan to attend Georgia Southern and then transfer to Georgia Tech after
two years to study mechanical engineering.
My opinion of the Senior Project is somewhat mixed. I do feel like it helped me because I am
now a much better guitarist and have learned a lot about music, but I do not feel it was really a
deciding factor in what type of career I wanted to do. The project was a bit fun, but I do not think
that it is really worth the massive grade that it currently has in senior literature classes.
Sincerely,
Keller VandeBogert