Minggu, 06 Desember 2009

2nd December 2009

Today we submitted the work we had to do yesterday. It was about music history, and I think we saw some of those problems before in Grade 9. Some people forgot to do it and things were really hectic with everyone trying to cram the time they had before class started to finish the exercise. We also learnt the rhythm of notes 1, 1/2, and 1/4. These notes were, respectively, pronounced "tan", "taka", and "tikitiki". We did exercises with them, and it was very hilarious, especially with Mr Herry tapping a pencil behind me. We also did some exercises on rests (hm). The rhythm we did sounded a lot like dangdut hahaha. There will be a quiz on this next week.

1st December 2009

Today we studied a brief (ok, not brief, it was back to back) history of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Afterward, we had to do a miniquiz on him. It was VERY HARD since we can't fit a back to back A4 page block of text to our mind in 15 minutes. Actually only the last few questions were hard, most others were easy and general knowledge. Then, Mr Herry and Mr John distributed us these handouts on music history... They were A3 size each and there were about 5 of them I think. Mr John and Mr Herry made us memorise the Kodaly hand signs, and most of us laughed at "si"

25th November 2009

Today we did our real quiz. This one is the one that gets recorded, so I was pretty nervous. I quickly reviewed my notes before the test, and that helped me feel better. I noticed that this is actually one of the papers in previous grades, but I did it anyway. I think I did much better in this one, since we had some space to write scales in. This is the assessment for music notation. After that, Mr John announced the scores of the singing assessment Gundul Gundul Pacul. I was quite shocked because my score was much higher than expected, I thought I was gonna get a bad score for my performance, but I'm grateful that I got quite okay marks.

24th November 2009

Today Mr John announced our scores for the last quiz. I got a very bad score, just like my hunch. It was only 50 something if i remember correctly, just barely passing. I was really ashamed of it, but I think it's a great chance to improve, since we'll be re-doing this quiz. I felt like I must really learn and work hard so the re-test would have a much better score, the one that will be recorded in our report. Mr John explained more, especially on the difference between major 7th and dominant 7th. Although I understood the concept of the triads, when I looked at my answer sheet it turns out that I made mistakes not in the triads but in the intervals. I once again forgot that B to C and E to F is only halftone and that reduced about half my marks. I also learnt that 2 sharps do not change a note's position, but adds an "x". This is done, (as I was answered by my friend), to keep the chord's basic structure (1st, 3rd, 5th, etc.) If I change the position, it wouldn't be 1st 3rd 5th but 1st 4th 5th. I didn't really understand it, but it seems like I should avoid it. Maybe I will understand once I learn more music theory. We also did the singing assessment of "Gundul Gundul Pacul" If I'm not mistaken

18th November 2009

Today Mr John taught us about diminished and augmented chords. I think I quite understood the concept. Then we did a surprise test. It was very surprising, and in the end I think I did lots of mistakes. I got confused at making the sharp and flat chords... like A#major for example. After we submitted the test, Mr John gave us the right answers. Although I forgot most of my answers (yeah I have horrible memory), I had a hunch right then that I got a bad score. Afterward, we saw Ian perform since he was absent last time. His breath in playing saxophone was quite long, and very impressive. Then we started the performance assessments for singing "Gundul Gundul Pacul". I didn't understand the lyrics at all but it wasn't so hard to memorize them, since it was a short song and the melody was really catchy. Since there wasn't enough time, only 2 pairs performed, Ade & Jayne and James & Budi. They performed very confidently and cheerfully, I still remember James' funny dance moves hahaha

17th November 2009

Today we continued the other performances. Aryo and Emir from guitar didn't perform last time, so this time they did. The woodwind class also performed. They were all really great. I fear for my performance grades.. must be really bad. We were also asked to do the reflections on our Finale compositions. I finished it quite quickly since I had quite a lot to write about.

11st November 2009

Today most of us played our compositions. However, the woodwind group didn't do it since there wasn't enough time. I saw everyone's performance and was very amazed, they all did very great. Their compositions were awesome, and I really enjoyed listening to them. When it was my turn, not only was I nervous, I also didn't practice enough. Thus I performed very poorly.

10th November 2009

Today we did final practice of our own compositions. I practiced by myself. However, I made a mistake and didn't really practice hard. This would result in a bad downfall.

4th November 2009

Today we completed our final drafts of our compositions. I didn't have much changes in my composition (I know it doesn't sound so good, I just don't have the inspiration) so I finished quite quickly. I added in the lyrics, took me quite a while to do so. Then I asked Mr John to give chords to the composition. He was very impressive, he did it quickly and then when I heard the new sound it's much better than without chords, Mr John's really good at it.

3rd November 2009

Today Mr John gave us the blank sheet music again. We had to copy our composition from the music book. I already had my composition, but it took me quite some time to copy it since I'm not so used to reading music notes yet. However, once i got the A and B done, i just copied and altered A for A'.

28th October 2009

Today we sung "what a wonderful world" assessment. Afterwards, Mr John gave us the reflection paper. Since he said it would be doing the same work twice, we just refer to that paper for today's reflection.

27th October 2009

Today we didn't learn so much. Mr Herry took a lot of our class time by scolding us to pay attention and tuck our shirts in. I think he's quite right about us lacking discipline, but the things about corruption was kinda out of topic. Then we got a test to check our understanding about the major scales, its 7th chords, and their inversions. The singing assessment of "What a wonderful world" is pushed back tomorrow so that we'll have instrument class today.

21st October 2009

Today Mr Herry checked who already did the midi project. He also checked whether or not our Finale functions are working well and if we know about them or not. Then, we sung what a wonderful world again. The song was slow but good. Then we reviewed on the C major scale, its major chords, and its inversions. Mr Herry asked several students to write the major scales of respective notes. We will learn the indonesian song "Gundul gundul pacul" and "what a wonderful world" for our assessment. The singing was ok since the whole class was singing together. I finished my AA'BA' composition, but i haven't done the lyrics and chords yet.

20th October 2009

Today we didn't do much. We just practiced singing La Bamba. However, we also got a blank music sheet to notate our composition in. It has a nifty line where we are supposed to put its lyrics.

14th October 2009

Today we continued singing La Bamba, but this time we did it by groups divided based on instrument. I think most of us are starting to remember the spanish lyrics. The spanish lyrics were getting easier to memorise. After that, we watched Mr Herry sing "What a wonderful world" to show us how to sing it.

13th October 2009

Today at school we got the sheet music for "La Bamba" and "What a wonderful world". We only sang La Bamba though. It was accompanied by Mr John's guitar and Mr Herry's piano. The notes were luckily in my range, but the rhythm is kinda hard, with triplets and whatnot. The song was very nice and it had a cheerful melody. The mexican style is very prominent and fits well with the song. Next week we have to sing it with its real spanish lyrics.

7th October 2009

Today we reviewed the musical forms we learned yesterday. We focused on the difference between A and A'. It turns out that the difference between no accent and accent is usually in the last bar. We also got a lot of work for the next session. We have to make a 32 bar AA'BA' composition (not limited to AA'BA' though, we are also allowed to use AA'BB' or ABB'A. For the time signature we can also use 4/4 or 2/4. This piece will get lyrics and chords), download and install Finale 2009, download 5 midi files from the internet, composed by a composer whose name has the same initials as us. After that, we have to transpose it into .mus file using Finale.

6th October 2009

Today is our first music lesson after the term break. At first we discussed about why we use clear folders. Then, we learned about the musical forms. Mr Herry composed a melody and we had to identify similar rows of bars. It turns out that the 1st, 2nd, and 4th row are very similar, with the 1st one being different by only a note at the end. The 1st row is called A, while the 2nd and 4th are called A' (A accent). The 3rd row, which is the one different from the rest, is called B. This is one of the many pop musical forms, and it's called AA'BA'. It is the most commonly used, so we discussed this more. We also did AA'BB' and ABB'A. Each of these have a different effect on the listener.