During this unit I have definitely experienced some challenges and touched on various analytical approaches to music that I have not considered before. First off, the three producers we focused on exposed me to music genres that I do not usually listen to. I think this alone has already forced me to expand my music taste and appreciate the different artists’ unique sound. One of the skills I developed over this unit would be the analytical side to music production and really taking apart the production let alone delve into the motive behind why they create music. A good example of this would have been analysing Moor Mothers music with how she uses her politically charged music to bring awareness to social injustice. I think I benefited from this from an academic perspective from the blog post where I chose one of her pieces to analyse, as it required me to do some extra external research. I equally found it interesting with the way RZA incorporates his love for kung fu movies and how he samples music from them. The workshop that included the use of the AKAI sampler was a tough but humbling experience which really made me appreciate how far technology has advanced and how we often take it for granted. I would say that the workshop has opened me up to using samples in a more creative manner – samples do not need to be exclusively taken from other songs but other forms of media like film and television dialogue are equally as effective. The most foreign form of music to me was definitely Rashad Becker, and possibly the artist I struggled most with to relate to. Saying this, I did learn how to listen, view and make music from a completely different perspective. Using the VCV rack helped me understand this type of music and completely disregard any sense of tonality, rhythm or genre for a while as I experimented with modular synthesis. Although this went against every grain in my body in regards to making music it was a good experience to have done. Additionally, I did find that the presentation pushed me out of my comfort zone since it was something I haven’t done before and there are definitely things that I would do differently in terms of preparation for it next time. 

After this unit, I would definitely like to incorporate more creative sampling in my own music and learn to understand VCV rack a little better as it was a completely new concept to me. Although I found certain aspects of study harder than others, I feel like I can leave this unit behind with a new knowledge that has definitely improved my understanding of certain genres and new skills that I can introduce to my future productions.