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I started listening to Lo-Fi to figure out if
there's any causation behind that
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correlation. I tried to teach an AI to
generate the ideal study music.
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I feel like you could listen to it if the
volume was at like one,
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and then you walked away and you listened to
different music.
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Please don't release it.
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Let me explain. Thank you to The Great
Courses Plus for sponsoring this video.
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When it comes down to focus,
I have two modes.
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I either start a task,
blink, and suddenly it's six hours later and
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I skip two meals, or I surround myself with a
controlled level of distraction.
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many different audio playing What are you doing? I'm focusing.
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That was until I found lo-fi hip-hop chill
beats to study/relax to sparkle emoji.
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The titles are a bit much,
but you know what? I'm talking about,
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this girl. Anyway, I started listening to it
back in 2018 and I saw my GPA just explosion
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sound] and sure, there are several reasons as
to why that could have happened,
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but Lo-Fi music definitely makes me feel like
I'm better at focusing.
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Not every song, some slap a little too hard
and pull me right out of the zone,
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but there is a sweet spot.
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So today in this video,
you and I are going to figure out why Lo-Fi
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Hip Hop might help you focus.
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And if we can teach an AI to generate the
perfect mix.
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So I started my research by looking into the
history of Lo-Fi Hip hop.
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After that, I got a bit more familiar with
other experiments people have done with
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machine learning to generate new music,
and I've got two big takeaways from my
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initial readings. The first has to do with
the structure of Lo-Fi Hip Hop.
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Its iconic sound is composed of three parts.
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The first, a jazzy instrumental,
the second,
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a drum beat combo of bass and snares called
Boom BAP.
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It's played intentionally off kilter in a
style pioneered by the producer and rapper J
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Dilla. And finally, intentional environmental
noise that leans even further into the
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imperfections that define the genre.
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It usually plays at around 70 to 95 beats per
minute and falls within this range of
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frequencies. And that gives me a few key
characteristics to look into when trying to
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figure out why Lo-Fi can help people focus,
but it also leads to a second thing.
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It's an ingredient list and recipe for the
things I need to teach my machine.
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Here's the plan. Okay,
here's how I'm gonna make music with a
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machine. Step one I need a bunch of
instrumental and drum midis.
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These are basically files that contain
information about the note that's played, how
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long it's played, a bunch of other stuff.
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I don't know much about it.
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I'm an amateur. Step two.
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I'm gonna sacrifice it to the machine. I'm
going to be using an LSTM.
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So basically you have a sequence of notes.
And then the next step in the sequence you
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tell the machine, "hey,
get really good at guessing what the next
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step is going to be," and then it gets really
good at it.
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Finally, I'm going to smash that drum and
instrumental track together with some ambient
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music, and I put two step twos.
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This is step three. And then profit.
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Sounds easy right? It was not easy.
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I spent the next week swinging between
wanting to throw my computer out a window and
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wanting to throw myself out a window.
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Oh my God. Oh, jeez. Oh my God.
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Oh, Jesus. So it's been like three days.
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My code has run fully without error for the
first time.
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So as long as there's any sound,
I'm gonna be happy.
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Okay, let's just play this.
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I'm not happy. Okay, let's fix this.
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Okay, so I think I've stopped it from just
repeating the same note.
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Basically, we get caught up in this loop
where it was just like "the last note was a
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C. The next note probably going to be a C,"
but then if it thinks that the if the last
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note C, then the next,
it just gets caught up in this loop.
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Instead it has like this short list of likely
next notes.
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And then it randomly samples from that short
list.
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Anyway, here's how it sounds. Janky out of tune single notes
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That hurt my forehead.
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Isn't al.
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All right? That was headed to a dark place,
so I'm going on a walk to calm down.
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I'm also going to do a bit of reading as to
why,
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like, those specific characteristics of Lo-Fi
music might help with studying and focus.
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I'm also going to collect a bit of
environmental noise for the final track.
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The more I read, the more I realized that the
characteristics that make lo fi,
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lo fi, that steady drumbeat,
that frequency range,
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that faux vinyl crackle,
all those things work together to create a
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sonic environment tuned for focus.
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It's really interesting. I should warn you
that music's impact on your mind isn't
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universal. It depends on the task at hand and
the type of person you are.
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So if what you're doing requires a lot of
thinking,
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or you're currently in a place where you're
going to get easily distracted, you should
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probably hit mute. We have a limited capacity
for attention,
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and music uses up some of that essential
resource.
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In reality, if you want to focus,
silence is almost always the better option.
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However, background music can provide two key
benefits.
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So here's how Lo-Fi can help you focus.
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First, it can block out more intrusive noises
by forming an aural cocoon that tunes out or
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reduces distractions,
by anchoring them to a predictable rhythm.
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Second, it can serve as a stimulant.
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Songs that vibe in the fine line between
putting you to sleep and popping off can
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improve your productivity without being too
distracting.
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And that is where Lo-Fi Hip Hop comes in.
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The jazzy instrumentals and drum loops are
refreshing and fun,
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but slow and repetitive enough that they
become subconsciously predictable.
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In addition, the dampened frequencies and
environmental noise act as a blanket that
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blends the music together and pushes it into
the background using spatialization.
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This makes the music sound less like a
recording,
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playing directly in your ears,
and more like something in a physical space.
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Finally, the genre's obsession with
comfortable,
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nostalgic elements like vinyl crackle in
rainy days can help bring listeners peace and
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improve their mood. All of this combines to
make certain lo fi hip hop tracks easy to
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process and ideal for focus.
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And with all of that in mind,
I now think that I know which parts of lo fi
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I should lean into while making new tracks
and which ones I should avoid.
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Now I just need to get the steaming pile of
garbage I call my code to actually function.
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Let's do this. It took another two days and
just endless emotional turmoil,
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but I eventually was ready for my album
release.
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This might have been a bad idea.
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Do you all know why you're here?
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I have no idea what I'm doing here.
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Apparently, this is the listening party.
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Before we get to the songs,
I do have a question for you guys.
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Okay. You know me pretty well.
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On a scale of 1 to 10,
how musical do you think I am?
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Like a three.
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Which one's bad?
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Zero.
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Zero.
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On a scale of 1 to 10.
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Zero.
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You didn't know who Alicia Keys was?
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I was just gonna bring that up.
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So I would like to present to you the music.
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Which track would you guys like to listen to?
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The worst one.
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Yeah. Let's work our way up.
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This is an anxiety machine.
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This sounds like, Now,
I'm not going to compare it to any music.
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That would be a disrespect to music.
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So you're telling me that isn't the lo fi hip
hop beat to chill and relax to?
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A little far from that.
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The next one. Are you ready?
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Which one would you like?
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Wait. Maybe this is the worst one.
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Okay.
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Okay. Wait for this drop.
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There is no drop.
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No. Is this gonna be available in our
newsletter?
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It will be.
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Where can I subscribe to the newsletter?
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Sabrina.
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00:08:46,770 --> 00:08:50,890
You can go to
answerinprogress.com/newsletter.
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To sign up. All right. Let's go with the only
good track.
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So to set the expectations this is the best I
was able to do.
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Okay.
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I'm nervous again actually.
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Yeah that waveform is really aggressive. music of mostly kicks and occasional piano notes
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Kind of minecrafty. music continues
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Very elevator music. Like I'm waiting for my
floor just past the seventh floor.
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Yeah.
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Now we're at the 24th floor.
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That was really funny.
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Damn, that elevator's real fast.
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I'm gonna close my eyes.
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It's getting creepier. I think the more that
I listen to it,
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I'm like, I should not listen to this
anymore.
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It's unsettling.
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It is slightly unsettling.
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However, you know, it's just like,
I don't know if it's a chill,
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lo fi beat, but from listening to this,
compared to the first lo fi beat singular
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that you created, this is this is a lot.
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This is a lot of improvement here.
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Here's what it sounds like. If I just use
like an actual drum loop designed by a human
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being.
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This one's good. The big question,
Taha, could you study to this?
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I would definitely study to this.
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I feel like I have studied to this.
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How do you guys think I did?
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I think you did Badly.
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[Laughs]
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I think that the drum loop that you got did a
lot of the heavy lifting here.
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Melissa?
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[Laughs]
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Damn, dude. Speechless.
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In fairness, it's it's pretty impressive that
you got,
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like, some semblance of,
like, vibes.
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Yeah. We've created a new genre of music
beats to be anxious to.
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To beats to be anxious to.
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Okay, so while that wasn't the hardest video
I've ever had to make,
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I definitely felt like I bit off more than I
could chew.
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Way more than once. It was the first time in
a while that I truly didn't know how to even
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start. Every step I just felt out of my
element and I felt like there was just so
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much more I needed to learn.
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But even though it took way longer than
expected,
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it was really nice to go from this.
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To this.
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This one's good.
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Knowing all of the hard work that went behind
it,
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and by the end, we were able to figure out
why lofi hip hop and ambient music can help
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you study and also make a few decent beats of
our own.
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Kind of. Okay, I'll admit it was far from
perfect,
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but if we gave up because our first attempt
or our first dozen attempts weren't perfect,
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we wouldn't get very far.
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You know, that's just a lesson in lo fi and
in life.
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I know that was a bad one,
bye.
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00:11:46,390 --> 00:11:47,990
Hey there, I hope you liked that video.
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00:11:47,990 --> 00:11:51,870
If you did, please consider sharing it with a
few friends. It is easily the biggest way you
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00:11:51,870 --> 00:11:53,030
can help this channel grow.
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00:11:53,150 --> 00:11:57,350
Another way is to stick around as I thank the
Great Courses Plus for sponsoring this video
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00:11:57,390 --> 00:12:00,390
while I turn myself into a lo fi hip hop
girl.
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00:12:00,390 --> 00:12:03,550
So I found that learning things gets a lot
harder after you leave,
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00:12:03,550 --> 00:12:06,030
like the guided learning environment of
university.
199
00:12:06,150 --> 00:12:09,430
And unfortunately I don't have the time or
money to head back.
200
00:12:10,030 --> 00:12:12,270
Luckily I use the Great Courses Plus.
201
00:12:12,550 --> 00:12:16,310
It's a subscription on demand video learning
service with these amazing lectures and
202
00:12:16,310 --> 00:12:20,860
courses from top from top professors from Ivy
League universities and experts from major
203
00:12:20,860 --> 00:12:25,020
institutions. Your subscription gets you
access to over 11,000 videos covering
204
00:12:25,020 --> 00:12:27,580
everything from music theory to math and
more.
205
00:12:27,700 --> 00:12:29,300
I recommend music and the brain.
206
00:12:29,420 --> 00:12:33,740
It explores the neuroscience of music and
what happens when melody meets the mind.
207
00:12:33,780 --> 00:12:37,940
It helped me better understand the concepts
that tie Lo-Fi and focus together.
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00:12:38,100 --> 00:12:42,020
You can learn at your own pace,
at any time or any place without worrying
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00:12:42,020 --> 00:12:44,460
about tests, which is the greatest feeling in
the world.
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00:12:44,540 --> 00:12:47,420
You can get started with The Great Courses
Plus today if you head on over to
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00:12:47,420 --> 00:12:51,100
thegreatcoursesplus.com/answerinprogress.
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00:12:51,100 --> 00:12:53,980
Or you can click the first link in the
description. So get started with the Great
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00:12:53,980 --> 00:12:57,580
Courses Plus today. But either way,
have a lovely day.
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00:12:57,930 --> 00:12:59,390
It's done.