Thursday, January 27, 2011

Music Reflection #4 (26 January 2011)

Today we had a disscussion on classical music. We were given the homework to read the handout on classical music the previous day and I did read it but i didn't know that we were supposed to do our own research to be more prepared for this disscussion. If I were given a similar task next time, I will do my individual research even if I were already given some notes on the upcoming disscussion so I will have more knowledge on the topic. I learned a lot of new things from this disscussion and I think this disscussion is very usefull in understanding the history of the making of those classical music. Mr. Herry explained more details on the individual essays we are supposed to submit on the second week of February. He said that he's going to give us the guidance questions next week. I think he should have given it earlier so we have more time to prepare our essay. Yesterday, Mr. Herry told us that we will be having our singing rehearsal today. I came prepared with 2 songs. The first song is a chinese song entitled Tong Hua by Guang Liang and the second song is The Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston. Because Mr. Herry said songs that are not in English aren't allowed, I sang The Greatest Love of All. After the rehearsal, I think I have to do more practice in adjusting the pitch of my voice so I will be able to reach the high notes in the song. I will also start memorizing the lyrics of this song so I won't have to see the lyrics while singing next week.

We only have around 10 minutes for our instrument class. Mr. John tuned our guitar and checked the last week's assignment to those he had not check yet. But the time made it possible for only 1 student to be checked. I didn't do anything during the instrument class. I just played my guitar and relaxed a little bit.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Music Reflection #3 (25 January 2011)

Today the first checking of our resources by Mr. Herry is done. I forgot to bring my clear holder so I got a reminder. I should bring my music folder tomorrow so I won't get any more reminders and so I can also keep my handouts tidy and secure. We were also given the MYP Learning Plan and Task booklet that contains our final assesment dates and the criterions assesed in music class. It turns out that there are some changes to our assesment dates. I will start preparing more. Mr. Herry also gave us some notes on classical music that we were suppose to read through at home because we will be discussing about it tomorrow. From the booklet, I learned that there is another assesment called the 'Group Slides' assesment. We are supposed to make a powerpoint presentation in groups of five about the difference between classical and popular music and present it in front of our class. Mr. Herry divided us into our groups by asking us to count from 1 to 5.
These are my group mates:
1) Jacklin
2) Jesslyn
3) Ghiffi
4) Cindy Felicia (me)
5) Bella

Mr. Herry also told us that we will be having our rehearsal for the singing assessment tomorrow and that we are supposed to bring the instrumental version of the song we want to sing. I will be singing The Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston tomorrow. I've already copied the instrumental version of the song in a CD so I could just bring it tomorrow.

During instrument class, Mr. John checked the assignments he gave us last week but not all of us were checked due to the limited amount of time. Only Ynigo, Alden, Tatiana and myself were checked. I was able to play the song fluently and Mr. John told me the continuation of that song. I will practice it at home so I will be able to play it well.

Music Reflection #2 (19 January 2011)

Today it turns out that one of the students who wanted to join the guitar group at first but then move to other instrument group decided to move back to the guitar class because of his parents' disagreement. That student's name is Daniel. I was a little bit scared because I thought there was going to be an audition since there is more than 7 people interested to be in the guitar class, but thankfully Mr. Herry allows all of us to stay in the guitar class. For the theory lesson, we learned about the composition of major scales. I actually learned it before so it is easy for me to follow the lesson. Major scales are different from any other scales because of its interval. The interval for every major scale is 1-1-1/2-1-1-1-1/2
This is an example of the composition of a C major scale.

A homework is also given to us which is to write down the G, D, A, E, B and the F major scales. I managed to finish this homework during class because I learned it before. 
Mr. Herry gave us the dates for our upcoming assesments. I am now aware that the individual essay is due soon. I will start researching at home so I won't rush and do everything at the last minute. I will also start thingking for a song to sing for the singing assesment.

Today we had our very first instrument class. Mr John tuned our guitars and he taught us some basic lessons on plucking the guitar strings properly. He also told us about the p, i, m, a. 


It was easy for me to follow the lesson since I learned it before. Mr John also gave us something to practice at home. Today's instrument class' time is very limited because most of the time goes to the theory class, therefore we couldn't do so much things today.

Music Reflection #1 (18 January 2011)

Today was our first music class. I haven't had any music class since grade 7 and I am therefore excited about this semester's lessons. The task to be done today is to divide our class into our instrument groups. The choices are piano, violin, cello, saxophone, flute, or guitar. I use to play the piano when I was a little girl but I stopped playing since grade 5 onwards. After I quit my piano lesson, I started joining a guitar course in grade 6. So I chose to join the guitar class. I wasn't very confident that I will be in the guitar class since I have 10 other competitors while Mr. Herry only allow the maximum of 7 students in each instrument groups. It was a huge relieve that in the end of the session, 3 people moved to other instrument groups that make it no need for the audition to take place.
And these are the names of the students joining the guitar class:
1) Tatiana
2) Alden
3) Ynigo
4) Cindy Felicia (me)
5) Davin
6) Joshua
7) Ivan

Mr. Herry also informed us about one of our tasks for this term which is to write a 200 word essay answering some given questions on classical and popular music. We didn't have any instrument class today due to the limited amount of time left we had.