1. 1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
April 19, 2012
Judges, Senior Project
Creekview High School
1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
Dear Judges:
I greatly appreciate you taking the time to volunteer to judge my senior project. When I
was thinking about what I would do my senior project on, a lot of possible ideas ran
through my head, but after realizing how much time and effort I would have to put into it
and I recognized the potential reward it could yield I quickly decided I wanted it to be
something to do with the piano. I have been playing the piano now for 13 years, so I
decided that since I can already play the notes learning a song would not cut it for my
project. I felt that the next step would be delving into the inner workings of a song
building one from the lyrics up. So, naturally I wanted to compose a song that I would
like myself and a genre I was comfortable with.
For all the 13 years I have played the piano, gospel music has been my main area of
music, so I really wanted to compose a song in that genre. I also wanted to be able to
perform my song at my church and hopefully put some use to it. I wanted to complete my
knowledge and skills on the piano, or at least make them more dynamic. I wanted to
know more about the piano and more about what goes in to all the songs that I sit down
and learn, and now I appreciate each song I play much more because I know personally
the work that goes in to a song. I completed my research paper on the steps to composing
a song on the piano, focusing on what I did for my type of song. I delved deep into the
complexities of composing major works that really helped me understand a lot to
accomplish my senior project. I realized that you really do have to see what your target
audience is when you are composing a song and make sure it does fit with who you are
attempting to compose it for. Also, one thing that I really witnessed firsthand was the fact
that the lyrics are the base of the song and you have to have good and well organized
lyrics to have a good song. The act of composing a song really is broken down into steps
that cannot be moved around, so while the creativity of creating a song is unharnessed,
the method in which you compose the song is very methodical and important. With
anything as difficult as composing a song comes a large collection of challenges that I
had to overcome with the help of my facilitator. Multiple technical issues came up while
composing the song, from the verses not matching syllables to not being able to figure
out how to do certain things on the computer program.

2. Since I was a young child I have always had a passion for the piano, and I have always
considered trying to make a career out of it. As I completed this project and put in the
amount of time I did, I felt a great reward personally but considering the market for
southern gospel songs and the amount of money that could be made I realize it cannot be
a career for me. However, this does not mean I will not pursue it as a hobby or even a
small side job, but after realizing the amount of time it takes and the money it would
produce it would not be feasible.
Once again I would like to thank you for taking the time to judge my senior project. I
truly hope you enjoy my song and my presentation. My knowledge of the piano has
grown greatly from my participation in this project, and I feel that I have gained a
valuable life skill.
Sincerely,
Hayden Holcomb