29th January 2010

Today we sang the song "Sway" for our assessment. At first i was pretty nervous, seeing how everyone was very confident. After Mr. Herry told us that the criteria "Expresses music in own way" can be fulfilled by several dance moves, some started to try to incorporate that in their performances. Most, however, were too shy to do so. At first I was kind of shy to dance, but after a while, I reconsidered my standing. Since my pitch and tonality aren't too good, I thought that the only way I could help raise my score was to dance. I thought that since I'm gonna be making a fool out of myself, I might as well go all the way and say "1,2,3,4" in the beginning like Michael Buble. I discussed this with my partner, Mark. At first he agreed to the 1,2,3,4 thing. But, when it was our turn, we missed the mark to say it. Instead, I danced in the intro. Although at first I felt embarrassed, it actually broke the ice and I felt much more comfortable afterwards. Because of that, I think I became calmer and thus became more confident. This gave me better tonality. I was quite surprised at my score, 8, it really exceeded my expectations. I still can't believe Andrew Sie only got 6.5 though. He was very confident, and his performance was very entertaining, and Mr. Herry even said that he improved a lot but his score was only added by 0.5

26th January 2010

Today we did our group slide presentations. The order of presentation was Ragtime>Swing>Bebop>Cool Jazz>Latin Jazz. Fusion Jazz opted to do the presentation at a later date, for lack of preparation. Ragtime's presentation had lots of detail and audio examples, thus enabling me to really grasp the concept of Ragtime. They really put a lot of detail into it. The bad side is that it's a bit too long. When we were presenting, I felt a bit nervous because I didn't see the final presentation and thus did not know when was my turn. When it did come, however, I wasn't so nervous anymore since I had some research. I did stutter and repeat "He's really famous" several times though. Bebop's presentation was quite colorful and had a good template. They sounded quite enthusiastic when presenting. I don't think they put in a bibliography though. Next, it was Cool Jazz. Their presentation was also pretty good, and there were some crowd interaction (Seems like Cool Jazz and Bebop competed during their time, and that conflict is carried on today). However, I think in this presentation the talking was more focused on one person. Lastly, there was Latin Jazz. Although it wasn't too bad, It seemed like it was only the work of one person, since the presentation flowed too well, and only one person seemed to fully understand the topic. The others seemed to kinda just read from the slides. This is also bolstered when one member, confronted with a bad font colour, said "I don't know about that", giving the impression he/she did not work with the others, or at all. For our next session, we will sing "Sway"

22nd January 2010

Today we are taught how to compose a melody with the chords. It's actually pretty easy, the hard part is the rhythm since Jazz has a lot of syncopation. It's hard to notate the rhythm, even though you have it in your head, it's not easy to notate it down, we're not walking metronomes. After we made the first 4 bars of our 12 bar blues, some representatives from the instrument groups sang "Sway" in front, their performances were amazing. Hasan, Emir, and Jessika were all awesome. I feel lucky for not being the representative. Lastly, we got together into the groups for the slide presentations and discussed a bit. We drew an outline of what we will present, as a sort of a guideline. Then each of the groups went in front and presented our outlines. Next week, we will have the slide presentations (Tuesday) and sing "Sway" (Thursday). These two activities will both be assessed for our GPA's.

19th January 2010

Today we learnt quite a lot. First, we saw the performance of "Sway" by Michael Buble. Then, we got the lyrics if that song. Afterwards, we sang the song in front of the class, divided by our instrument groups (Strings, Woodwind, Piano, and Guitar). We had fun since the song was nice and there was a part in which Buble did poses, some of us also did poses. Next, we learnt about the 12 bar blues, with the form and improvisations. We listened to an impressive, composed-on-the-spot performance by Mr. Herry. Last, we were organised into groups. These are the groups that we will do our presentations in. I got the topic "Swing Jazz", and had James, Tiffany, and Andri as my teammates. From what I've seen, they work quite well and I think we can do some pretty good work in the presentation. For the next lesson, I will start researching on Swing Jazz and the famous songs it has, so I can differentiate it from other Jazz.

15th January 2010

Today is our first music session since we re-started school after the semester break. Mr. Herry explained to us on what criterions we will be assessed (Knowledge, Application, Reflection, Personal Engagement, that sort of thing). He also told us that we will be studying Jazz this term. I am quite excited because I really like Jazz and Blues. He also asked us to write down on our Journals the assessment rubrics. I think for next week I will do some basic research about "What is Jazz". We also got 3 handouts from him. Since Eun Hye was going to move out of Binus (A shame really, she's one of our brightest students), Mr. Herry let her stay in class for a while.

8th December 2009

Last music session for this semester. Today, we reviewed the "tan-taka" and "tiki-tiki" rhythms. It was pretty hard. "Tan" is 1/4 beat, "taka" is 1/8 for each syllable, and "tiki-tiki" is 16 for each syllable. Individually and straightforwardly, they were very easy to pronounce. However, when mixed up, it was very hard. Next, we reviewed the Kodaly hand signs. We now know what they are used for, for conducting and angklung ensembles. We tried several songs in an angklung ensemble format, and it turns out to be pretty difficult. We didn't really have much coordination, sometimes we are too slow and we don't follow the song.