Final Post

Reflection Question: How did my jazz ensemble assessment go?
Week 8
May 28-30
This is the final post of this school year. I felt that I learned a lot throughout this course. I believe that I could continue maturing and learning more about music and its effect and impact on society.
Today, I have finally performed my jazz ensemble assessment, before i dive into the details I must inform you, the readers that I have switched roles with  Sebastian Owen (one of my group mates), hence I am not doing the melody like in the previous videos. I felt nervous at first as I was scared that I might lose the rhythm. I continued to play with my team members, each did their job fantastically. Marisa had managed to keep the tempo and improvisation despite just learning it a few weeks ago. Evan Kam had managed to continuously surprise the audience with a little improv and his different style of musical instrument. Owen managed to make an amazing improvisation upon just making it a few minutes ago. This helped entertain the audience even more. I believed that I did well as I had to keep my tempo at the same speed as them, I might have slipped tempo for a brief second only. I think that even though my group had gotten a 8.5/10 through the experience, we all got a 10/10. This is what Binusians are al about, trying and learning through experience.

Week 7 Practical

Week 7
May 21-23
Today, i learned that my party has been changed into that of a solo. Mr. Harry, our coordinator said that i would need to bring an electric guitar to make it sound better. I feel very nervous when we performed, as a soloist, any mistake i made could be easily identified. I will practice till i have no mistakes!!!

Week 7 Theory

Week 7
21-23 May
Question: What do you think about your jingle creation?
In my opinion, my jingle is really good, it uses 4 instruments; piano, guitar, bass and drums to perform the jingle. These four instruments played a great role in enhancing our jingle. The slide show really helped the jingle to express our theme; Beautiful Indonesia. The twist and turns of melody was great and i think a lot of people could enjoy it. I would like to try putting a harmonic type of jingle like Owen's as i found it rather eccentric.

Week 6
May 14-16
Practical class:
today, we performed the song autumn leaves and practiced the song, though some of our timings are a little off. Practice makes perfect right? I will practice and i wont disappoint my group in playing the ensemble.

Week 6

Week 6
May 14-16
Question:How was my jazz ensemble groups progress
In my opinion, it went very well there is a lot of promise in our group as we all have great talents in playing music. Though there are still mistakes, but mistakes we could improve. through these mistakes, we found that our group did way better. Our progress was halted by lack of practice, as i said before practicing helps one get to new heights, all in all we did quite well. Of course we will try to do better.

Week 5 Guitar

I was given a task by Mr. Herry to make a song that shows how beautiful Indonesia could be. My partner Derrick will edit the song and will try to find beautiful pictures/sceneries of Indonesia. I think this song is a work in progress its far from perfect though.

Week 5

Week 5

May 9-12

Question: How did my singing assessment go?

In my opinion, i fared a better chance if i were to practice a bit more. Through the practicing, one could gain knowledge of one's own faults.This would then help one to improve and reach new heights. If i were to practice more, i bet i would do better than what i did with my group members.

Week 4 guitar

Today, I practiced the melody of Autumn Leaves again. This time I'm feeling good that I could finish the song with few mistakes as possible. Though I'm still far from perfecting it, I should practice harder.

Week 4

Week 4

April 30th- May 2

Reflection question: How does business and industries affect the music maker and users

The aim of an industry would be to gain profit and more profit, hence they needed to find a way to gain that amount of profit. The way they usually do is to find an artist and remodel their music in order to please or hope to please the fans and listeners. As the internet advances, listeners tend to want to save money, they then used the internet to find uploaded songs in the internet and download them. This makes industry's worst enemy; Piracy, but to us listeners, we find it whimsical and exciting to have free music. Thus, industries then tried to band and support acts against piracy, this would later annoy the listeners. The artists are also affected by the industry as when they edit the artist's music they may make changes to what the artist like. All in all listeners, artists and industries depend on each other for pleasure and money.

Week 3
Guitar post

What we did in the guitar class was sing the assigned song; "Close to you" by the carpneters. We did oke but we could have done better. At home i decided to practice the song by myself. It is a shame i couldnt video the group singing. I will try to record it with the whole group members.

Week 3
23-25 April
Question:How have developments in technology changed the ways in which we engage in music?
As the generation changes so does music, this is mostly because of technology. Before this generation, people have used several types of ways to recored and listen to music. In the old days, people used a machine named the round topped jukebox. a little ways down the road, people started making the big juke box, not later after that they made cd players. The cd players then evolved into smaller more compatible objects like the ipod or ipod nano. With these changes in technology, the people of this generation is able to listen to music anywhere and anytime they want only if there is sufficient battery left in the machine, this technology revolutionize the music industry.

Videos that were left out:
Week 2 Video #2

Videos that were left out:

Week 1 video #2

Entry 2:

Week 2: 16-17 April 2012

Reflection Question: What are the functions of music in society?

Music has been around for several years and has been helping our kind achieve enormous things as well as serving as our entertainment. Music has several functions in our society. This reflection question elates to the previous reflection entry, I stated that music entertains people, relates to their feelings and various other uses. Music also shows the culture of the singer/composer’s country, hardships and struggles that people could relate to. Music has also appeared in various everyday things such as advertisement as music could enlighten the mood of the customer, movies when they need to create tension and dramatic effects also to darken or enlighten the scenario. Sometimes it is possible to remember things through song!

Instrument Class

Date: 16-17

Autumn Leaves

As I continued to learn the fingering, I noticed that I have improved a lot in my speed and memory of the fingering. Though the second part was a bit harder I think I did fairly well in performing it. I will finish and master the song “Autumn Leaves.”

Term 4-Entry #1

Week 1: April 9-13 2012

Topic/Subject: Jazz Summary

Question: What is the role of music in your life?

Music is an essential thing for most people. I listen to it everyday, through alarms, phones, tv and other products. Music could be heard everywhere we go. It is used for people to relate to enjoy on several occasions. Though music is also shows the hardship that the musician had faced or the emotion the musician wants to express. This is very important to me as I am able to connect with the musicians. Throughout our everyday life, music is always important.

Date April 9-13

I learned the new chords of Autumn Leaves. The chords to Autumn Leaves is very simple and easy to remember. However the melody is not that simple. The melody is only simple in the first few parts then its started to get confusing. I need and will improve my skills in guitar and also my theory skills.

Me practicing again

Getting Better at Friends Lovers or Nothing

This is a video of me playing Friends lovers or Nothing

March part 2

Week 10: 19-21 March 2012
Question: HOw is my understanding of blues after the performance?
After the performance I understood further on blues. I have expirienced first hand how a band would play like, as i recalled the assessment day, it was very lively and entertaining. I liked the comfort of playing in a Blues bland it expresses everyone's emotions as they played.
Today, I played the 2 songs I learned last week I loved my progress as one of the songs is a blues song.

Jan-March

Week 9: 12-14 March 2012

Question: How is my understanding of improvisation especially on blues?

It is safe to say that i've been progressing and improving my knowledge and understanding on Blues. As far as I know, It is possible to do an improvisation as long as the improv matches the song. After the assessment on blues, Ive begun to use improvisations a lot more frequently. During instrument class, I learned 2 new songs. Both are very good to listen and play to. They are Sweet Home Alabama and Friends Lovers or Nothing. I also practiced on my 12 bar blues.

Week 8: 5-7 March 2012

Question: How does Blues influence Jazz in its early development?

From what i learned, I concluded that the 12 Bar Blues chorus was the single most popular template for early Jazz improvisations. Early Jazz players and singers used blues songs as the foundation for many of their important creations. Jazz also used some of the blues notes. Blues is an attitude of facing uncertainties with clear vision and Jazz is a process of answering meangful and spontaneous questions.

Today, I practiced harder and am able to do the second row of my 12 Bar bLues. My mistakes ae reduced by at least 20%. I still need to perfect it though.

Week 7: 27-29 Feb 2012

Question: HOw is my progress playing my own 12 bar Blues?

In my opinion, after practicing several times, I have made solid progress in playing my own composition. I made several mistakes, most of them as I have not perfected it. I require more practice in my playing composition. I will try to reduce at least 10% of my mistakes.

Today, I reflected on my many mistakes I made as I played the song. Most of them are finger placement.

Week 6 : 20-22 Feb 2012

Question: Challenges in making my 12 bar blues

I finished my 12 Bars a week before its due date. There are severl challenges that I have faced. One of which is when I moved my notes from my previous 12 bars to the template, the notes dropped. This is because the type is piano. To fix this problem, I had to change the type of instrument into Guitar.

IN this session, i asked Mr. John to help me in improvising the song. Im starting to understand more about the 12 Bar Blues.

Week 5: 13 and 15 Feb 2012

Question: How is my understanding in learning blues and applying it?

My understanding of Blues is clear, since now I know that the blues has a relation with Jazz Music. Thus, Blues is a part of Jazz. I am able to apply it by creating a composition of 12 Bar BLues

Mr. John started teaching us more about the blues. I still dont understand it yet. Now I am beginning to finish my 12 Bar Blues.

Week 4: 6- 8 Feb 2012

Question: HOw does my understanding of Jazz develop after previous assessments.

BAsed on the previous assessments, I accomplished a lot. It is certain that I have learned more about Jazz. THis is shown in my Essay. Thus, After the singing assesment, I was able to learn more.

I continued to improve in a rapid pace. I am leaning to switch the chords faster. I am also beginning to remember the chords.

Week 3: Jan 30-1 Feb

Question: How is my progress in learning Jazz?

I learned a lot more than the first week of Music class. I now know that the History of Jazz. I sang the song "What a Wonderful World". I will finish my essay. I will check my email for the chosen topics.

Im beginning to understand and play the chords better. After practicing last week I felt like IM getting better.

Week 2: Jan 25 2012

Question: How do I learn Jazz

I learned the beginning of Jazz through handouts, Internet and sometimes Mr. John. It contained several useful information about Jazz's history. I was intrigued in the 32 bars form and the beginning of Jazz.

Today, we learn more about the chords on Fly me to the moon. We learned different chords we have seen or use before. I tried applying it with the guitar. But it was not successful.

Week 1: Jan 16-18 2012

Question: Is music a Universal language?

I agree, music is a language. This is shown as a way to communicate through the songs and lyrics. In each song, it expresses feelings to deliver to the audience.

Our teachers gave us an introduction on Jazz by performing the ever popular Autumn leaves. I though the performance was very entertaining.

Notice! New Format!!

Starting now Mr. Herry gave us a knew format thus the posts of this blog will be a bit different. He gave us questions on certain things and we will have to answer these questions. An example of which is; "how did I improve my knowledge of Jazz?". That showed the question and students will have to answer these question.