Music Reflection Posts

17 Jan 2012
Today, we started studying Jazz, which was our main topic for the term. I found the Jazz topic very interesting and nice to enjoy, because the music itself is very relaxing to hear. I also saw some of the teachers from each instrument do an improvisation of a jazz song. One very great influence of jazz music is improvisation because it requires skill and is present in almost all of the Jazz works.

18 Jan 2012
Today, I saw some of the teachers teach us about Jazz. We were also taught the beginnning of jazz and its roots. The first week was basically getting familiar and know about a little bit of jazz music. It teaches us the basics of jazz and how it can easily be made using many techniques, such as improvisation. We also tried to play some jazz songs using only the chords in instrument class, but it was still difficult for me to do.

24 Jan 2012
Today, I was taught of some other forms of Jazz history. This included the different variations that Jazz music had and how each sub genre had a very close relation to each other. This was due to how these genre gradually evolved between each other, because they used similar instruments. The music itself is different in some ways, an example of this is between blues and bebop, in which blues is slow jazz and bebop is faster tempo jazz.

25 Jan 2012
Today, I learned about the roots and beginning of Jazz. We learned that Jazz was created by African Americans to express their sadness and feelings, due to the slavery going on at the time. They used music to channel all of their ideas and begin with very simple tools instead of instruments. They used these tools in the field during working and used instruments like saxophone later on.

1 Feb 2012
Today, we furthered our study on jazz beginnings. We also had to do a reflection on how we made our essay on the roots of Jazz. For my jazz essay, I compared the differences and similarities of Jazz genres in the past and the present. This included the different artists that they have in future and the past, such as Michael Buble and Louis Armstrong. These 2 artists have very different music but Jazz is one of their main genres. Their songs have different tunes and melody that make them unique and popular in Jazz music.

2 Feb 2012
Today, me and my friends from the instrument class learnt about playing Jazz on the violin. At first, Mr Herry gave us some songs in the theory class with only the chords so we can do an improvisation in the violin class. Because we are still new to jazz, it was very difficult to do. We decided to ask Mr Sadrakh to play the song so we can see him play and follow his technique. After watching Mr Sadrakh perform, I tried playing the song, however it was still hard to do because it needed skills and talent to do improvisation.

7 Feb 2012
Today, I rehearsed the song we had to sing for the assessment. Mr Herry told us that we can do it in partner and I chose Nico to be my partner. We were also given 2 songs to choose from, which is All of Me and What a Wonderful World. I decided to choose What a Wonderful World because it was nicer and my voice was better suited with it. We also saw some of my friends who rehearsed the songs. Most of the picked All of Me because it was shorter but some also chose What A Wonderful World. After rehearsing, Mr Herry suited us with the key and tone that would suit me and my partner best.

8 Feb 2012
Today was my assessment. At first, I was kind of nervous because I had a sore throat but in the end I managed to sing the song. The song was originally sung by Louis Armstrong because his voice perfectly matches the song. From this assessment, I learned that Jazz is a very unique and different genre from the others because you need to have a perfect pitch control if you want the song you sing to have a perfect and enjoyable sound.

14 Feb 2012
Today, Mr Herry taught us about making the 12 Bar Blues Improvisation for our assessment. He told us that in the song, we needed to make it upbeat or different from the chord beat that will go along with it. This is one of the most important factors of Jazz because it differentiates the music with the melody. Each bar also had to follow the same notes in the chord given as the melody to be played.

15 Feb 2012
Today, Mr Herry sent us the template of the 12 Bar Blues in the finale program. We needed to make our 12 bar blues composition in the Finale because it already had the chords and melody inside of it. Mr Herry made the template and told us to input our melody. My understanding of Jazz and Blues became better because I know so many more things, such as the upbeat tempo used to create a different rhythm from the chords that is played along the song.

28 Feb 2012
Today, our reflection booklet got reviewed by Mr Herry. He checked it and gave us feedback on the reflection points that we could improve, such as adding more detail and answering the reflection question. I got a B+ mark, meaning my reflection was already good but needed to be longer. I also had to get signature from Mr Herry in theory class and Mr Sadrakh in instrument class if I wanted it to be better. I will also continue practicing my 12 Bar blues and ask feedback from Mr Sadrakh to make it better, so I can improve my performance.

29 Feb 2012
Today, I continued rehearsing my 12 Bar Blues. My composition has been doing well but I needed to correct the tempo of my performance. Sometimes, the beat given in the background is too fast for my song, so I need to play better and make a good timing when playing the notes. Another improvement I can make is the positioning of my finger because I have trouble changing fingers from string A to string E. Other than that, my performance is already good.

6 March 2012
Today I saw some of my friends performing and rehearsing their 12 bar blues in front of the whole class. They made a variation of piano, violin and guitar, with each student playing different bars and sections of the song. In the end, they all played their song together and it sounded good. With the combination of melody, the song sounds better because it mixes a lot of notes together to create a better sound. I also continued practicing at home so I can improve my finger positioning and keeping up with the tempo.

7 March 2012
Today I continue watching some of my friends perform their songs. This time, it wasn't between instruments but only each instrument section playing their melodies together. I think the best one was piano because they didn't have many mistakes and most of them look prepared. Additionally, the guitar also had a melody that sounded very nice to hear. We also discussed the role of blues in Jazz in the reflection. According to me blues is very vital because it is part of the many developments that occur in Jazz. Blues music is a slower and sadder melody compared to jazz, with rhythmic tunes.

13 March 2012
Today I rehearsed my 12 bar blues again. This time I improved in the positioning of the fingers. I also learn about the improvisation sounds and how they were made. From what I see, they consist of 4 or 5 people playing different sections of the song, like the first, second and third bar. In the end, they played their songs section together to create a finishing melody. I need to rehearse at home today because tommorrow I will be performing my composition.

14 March 2012
Today, I performed my 12 Bar Blues composition. I did this with some people from guitar and also from violin. My song is very simple but creates a good melody fusion of Jazz and blues. During my performance itself, I could not do very well because I was confused with the tempo. I ended up only playing around half of my bar because the sound of the tempo was still confusing. I need to get used to the tempo in order to make my music sound better and more accurate.