Audio Slideshow

               
                To get another insight into how a musician comes do be, grows and excels, I interviewed the creator of this lovely slideshow and my partner for this project, Keith LaFountaine.

                Not being a musician myself, I was curious to understand how someone as talented and creative as Keith had first come into his own as a member of the musical community.
                He was born into a family that was musically inclined to say the least. With a Grandfather as a guitarist and vocalist, an uncle as the lead guitarist and vocalist to his own band, a father who played guitar and sang, a mother who sang, and a cousin who was trained in the art of opera singing, it is no wonder that Keith picked up some musical talent of his own.
               He informed me that it was at the age of twelve that he first got started. With his father’s acoustic guitar, a beginner’s book and an excitement to learn, he quickly began to pick up on some of the main chords, essential to all guitar players. Before he knew it he was strumming Highway to Hell by AC/DC and We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel.
              While his biggest influences have always been his family, Keith says he was also greatly inspired by bands and artist such as Kurt Cobain, Pink Floyd, and Nirvana.
              As well as being a musician, Keith is also a dedicated student, so he says that his practice time comes when it can. “I try to practice for about an hour a day. While I'm at school I sometimes stretch that to an hour every other day, depending on my workload. I'm self-taught, so I don't really do vocal exercises or anything like that. I have songs that I play to warm up my voice, and I do a lot of messing around with the guitar. I'll play a chord, see what it sounds like when I play it with different amounts of strength, and then I'll see how it sounds when I switch from that chord to another. But otherwise I pretty much just pick up and play."
              His advice to beginners is to simply get started. “Just do it, and then persevere. Making music is not easy, by any stretch. It’s an extremely personal thing, to create music, and even if you’re just doing covers of other songs there’s still something innate you are exuding to make that song your own. Just remember that the music you make is for you, not anybody else.”

Slideshow Summery

For our slideshow, Keith and I are going to focus on music.


      The slideshow will consist of photos taken of guitars and the music being played behind will also be guitar.


      The voices that we will incorporate will be Keith and one of his friends. They are both musicians and will have a conversation regarding their different playing styles.


      The written piece will be more of a musician profile where specific questions will be aimed to interpret one musicians take on his music.


      He will talk about how he specifically got started and give advice to beginning musicians.

Data Story

                   For our Data Story, Eric and I thought it would be interesting to investigate some of the statistics that we are surrounded by on an everyday basis—our peers.
                   It is easy to say that Vermont exists as a state that is not extremely ethnically diverse. In fact the United States Census Bureau for Vermont shows that as of 2013, Vermont’s population has consisted of approximately 95.2% white individuals and less than 2% of every other ethnic background.
                  That being said, Eric and I were not entirely surprised but still interested to see that the student body of Lyndon State College is made up of 90.8% white individuals, 2.2% African American individuals and less than 2% of every other ethnicity.
                  After investigating these statistics, we were left with the curiosity of what the ethnic makeup of other Vermont colleges consisted of.
                We decided to compare our Lyndon State to Johnson State College, seeing as the populations of these two schools are slightly similar. Our findings were not entirely what we expected as 83% of the students attending Johnson State had reported identifying as white, 7% as American Indian, 3% Native Hawaiian, and less than 2% of every other ethnicity.
                Because the numbers for both Vermont, as a state, and Lyndon, as a reflection of Vermont, had proved to be so dominantly White, we were surprised that the numbers for Johnson did not reflect that same pattern. However, what Johnson’s numbers included that neither Lyndon’s nor Vermont’s did, was a large number of unreported ethnicity. About 8.2% of students had never reported what background they identified as, which left a great deal of room for speculation.                 Continuing to search for interpretation behind the numbers, Eric and I sought out the admissions office of Lyndon State, to better understand what drew certain ethnic groups to particular places. The admissions office informed us, that while Lyndon may not be extremely diverse, the college is always working on programs and different ways to attract people from all over the country and even the world to its facilities. They also mentioned that despite the number of ethnically diverse students, Lyndon State does in fact have the largest amount of out of state students, then all other state colleges within Vermont.