19th March 2010

Today was the last music class of this term. It was also the last day of school, so people were really excited about the holidays but not so much about the class. We had a review of the 7 chords, because next term we will be assessed on music theory. Most of us still had trouble with them. Mr Herry reviewed about 3 types (major, dominant, minor) of 7 chords, but I think there should be at least one more (minor major). I still remembered the note formula (1,3,5,7 for major, 1,3,5,7b for dominant, etc). However, this time Mr Herry asked us to do the chords with scales I am previously unfamiliar with. It came as a surprise as I have never tried doing the A flat major scale (among others). But, when I tried using the usual method (take root note, then 1 1 1/2 1 1 1 1/2), it worked out just fine. By the end of the class, I learnt how to do the other scales and became more comfortable with them. It turns out that even flat-scales like A-flat also use the same formula as the major scales. Once the scales were done, the chords were much easier since we have a reference. For the next term, we'll have group performances and also study about background music (like the jingles in advertisements/elevator music).

16th March 2010

Today is yet another holiday, the holiday of Nyepi... I wonder how many times music class has been removed because of holidays, approximately 3 times I think.

12th March 2010

Today Mr Herry came back, so we held the 12 bar blues assessment today. I felt better since I practiced more, but I was still quite unsure about the rhythm (maybe I shouldn't have used those triples and other tricky rhythm, it's not exactly cake walk). Turns out, it was Mr Herry's first time being absent in his whole career, must have been something very big to him. We had several minutes of practice since piano went first, and during that time I tried my best to visualize the rhythm in my head. It wasn't so easy since I'm quite new to music lessons. When it was our turn to play, turns out that guitar was going to try a new method of playing, that is playing in succession. Each of the students would play their piece, and the next student continues where the last one left off, effectively creating a continuous chain. This made me even more nervous as it means that I wasn't allowed to miss a single beat. I tried to get an earlier order so I can get it over with, but instead came up with the second to last order. I was very nervous when it was Mark's (the one before me) turn, that my legs were practically shaking. However, when I started playing, somehow adrenaline took over and I got through without any major mistakes. I was very relieved about that. After our turns, we got to watch the other instruments play. When I saw the violin group play, I thought of how hard it must be to play one, since everyone were missing beats. Everyone but Andri that is, she even played at C. Sometimes I feel that the division of instruments isn't fair, like how some of those in violin are actually good at something else but they are put into violin because there was no more room. Strangely, the instrument group received at least 2 more students afterwards.

9th March 2010

Today we were supposed to have our 12 bar blues playing assessment. I was very nervous since I didn't practice that much yet. However, it turns out that Mr Herry was absent, a very rare occurrence. Thus, instead of having the assessment itself, we had rehearsal practice. It was kind of like a "practice" but it was in front of everyone. I felt ashamed at my own unpreparedness, as it heavily affected my playing which in turn became crappy. I have to work harder for the real assessment, due when Mr Herry comes back.

5th March 2010

Today, once again we did not have class since it was a holiday. Weird, music classes are often skipped.

2nd March 2010

Today we did our "All of Me" assessments. Those whose blogs weren't updated had to do their reflections first in the library before they would be assessed. Luckily, I've already updated my blog. As usual, the piano group performed first, because the piano was already ready and it doesn't need to be tuned. After they are done, it was already recess time. Some of us from the guitar group opted to do the assessment at recess, so it made us less nervous since there was no audience. I've already practiced this song a lot and I was very confident I would do well, but suddenly at the last minute I somehow got nervous (even though there was no audience, maybe it was the camera) and messed up several notes at the beginning. I think that nervousness disappeared halfway and I did okay for the rest of the song.