08.09.09

September 8, 2009.

Last session.

We spent our very last session today reflecting on our performances last week. Mr. Herry set up the video of us performing in order to help us recall our memories of the dreaded performances from last week. We also had to fill in the reflection task booklets. Aside from that, today was also the due date for our investigation task report on our appointed topics from the group presentations, and in my case it was Jazz. After the group presentation on jazz, doing the investigation booklet wasn't hard since it's basically still about the same topic and all I need to do is put it in a booklet form instead of a presentation form, so it wasn't challenging.

I think we did very well for our last session today because we got to evaluate on our whole progress this term, which in my case wasn't a lot, if at all, but it was nice how we got to reflect.

02.09.09

September 2, 2009.

More performances and theory.

Due to the lack of time from the previous session, the woodwind wasn't able to finish their performances and thus their performance was delayed until today. Only three performed today, all from the woodwind group, which were Calista Pieters, Jean Claudia, and Ian Mestaka. Their performance was understandably not as good as Eun Hye Kam's, since they were new to their instruments. Afterwards, we resumed our theory lessons with more chords, this time of the 7th, 6th, the 69th, and dominant 7th. And not to mention enharmonic tones. Double yawn. During instruments class, we got to play all of those chords on all the white keys. How enchanting.

As usual, I didn't learn anything today even during the theory class because I already know the chords and enharmonic tones from before, and during instruments class it was just logic.

01.09.09

September 1, 2009.

Final performance!

Piano was first to perform for the final performance, which we all will be assessed on. There's a shocker. It was listed alphabetically, so I was the last of the piano group, which makes me the fifth to perform, but since Steven Jaya was absent, so I was the fourth. First of was Adeline Kodji, and she made a few minor mistakes playing the song You, so altogether I think she played wonderfully. Then it was Jessika Oktasya's turn. I can tell that she was really nervous thus allowing her performance to drop by making many mistakes. Next was Kezia Prihanggodo and I can tell that she made a few minor mistakes, but her performance was still very well.

Then it was my turn. I was very nervous, and when I'm nervous my fingers tend to turn cold and stiff, and this is one of the factors that enables me to make many mistakes during my performance. Unlike usual during my practise, I made many sloppy mistakes, for a reason beneath my knowledge. So altogether I think my performance today was very disappointing.

After the piano group was the guitar group. The standout was James Hadisurjo (as usual), but it was a duet from Bayu Tjandra and Mark Anggiansah that caught my attention. They played the song Start by Depapepe, where Bayu played the main part and Mark accompanied him. They made a very delightful duo. However, unlike how it's supposed to be, it was truly Mark, the accompaniment, who stood out outshining Bayu himself. His tunes were very clear and he looked like he really enjoyed playing the song, which makes his playing much more enjoyable than Bayu's. However, during his solo performance it was not as delightful as the previous duet. He played the song Lagrima, but I can see that he was too tensed and didn't enjoyed playing the piece as much as he enjoyed playing duet with Bayu.

Next group was the violin group. Andriani Weinardy was the only one who caught my attention. She played the song Salut d'Amour by Edward Edgar which is a very famous piece. She did well with the vibrato, although some notes was incorrect due to the change of positions during playing the piece. Altogether I think she played very well for a tenth grader, although she could improve by practising a lot more.

Then the last was Eun Hye Kam from woodwind playing the flute, performing the piece Over the Rainbow. Unlike usual, her performance was kind of disappointing because she usually impress all of us with her performances in the past, but this one was just good, maybe even great, but not wow. And as for the rest of the woodwind students, since we ran out of time, they were to play on the next session.

So today, even though I just played my worst performance ever to date, but class was good since most of the students got to perform their final assessment, although lots of them was still very nervous, and that includes me.

26.08.09

August 26, 2009.

All that Jazz!

Today was the group presentation, and my group's topic is Jazz. My group got to perform it second, right after James's group whom I am really pissed at for stealing the background for the powerpoint slides from me. Throughout all of the groups who have performed, I think our group was the best because we actually prepared for this presentation properly and each of us have been familiarized with the topics, thus enabling every member of our group to answer the questions. As to say, amongst all of the groups, I'm assured that our group is the most well-prepared one, thus our results is also the best if compared to the others.

Our group includes information taken from the sources but not directly taken from the source, or also known with the term "copy and paste". We take the information and paraphrase it, and also crosschecking the accuracy of the information with other sources. Aside from facts, we also put visual and audial evidence such as the video of Michael Buble singing a jazz song and me playing a jazz song live in order to demonstrate the example of the specific style of jazz.

These are our teachers' feedbacks:

Mr. Herry - They included many informations, which made the content almost perfect. Aside from that, I also enjoyed some of the animations they have included. However, the postures of some of the group members were not firm. They were trying to point on the pictures when they could have just used the mouse to do that.

Mr. John - Everybody were so collaborative, doing their research with their own role, and they have been able to co-operate well together and together they make a great group. The visual illustration was great, there were videos, songs and even one of the group member played a song. I like seeing that some members of this group uses palm cards, and they also have direct eye contact, demonstrating confidence. The sources were also given, completing one of the best presentations I have ever seen.

Thus in conclusion, I think our group presented really well, but next time perhaps we could improve by using a pointer or a mouse to do the pointing job instead of pointing it directly with our fingers and body movements, which can be distracting. Today, we finished our group presentation assessment and I'm very relieved to know that our group did very well.

25.08.09

August 25, 2009.

Rehearsals.

So there was a rehearsal for the final assessment today, where a few people from each instrument was appointed to play in front of the whole class. From guitar, there were Bayu Tjandra, Emir Mirza, Ismail Melvin, and James Hadisurjo. James was first, and he played two songs, and one of them is Adelita. I think he played well and he succeeded in emphasizing the important parts of the piece. Then Emir played the song Remembering Sunday, while also singing it as usual. Then last but not least Bayu and Melvin had a guitar duet where Bayu played the melodies and Melvin played the supporting bass.

From piano I was the only one who played. I played the song Arabesque, which was really screwed up, and Revolutionary Etude. I played both badly maybe due to lack of practise. From woodwind, Eun Hye Kam played Amazing Grace, and from violin, there was Andriani Weinardy who played Canon in D, and me who tagged along playing the second violin for the song. We didn't rehearse so it was a mess, especially Andri didn't play the rhythm well for the fourth bar and mistook the quavers as semi-quavers. So that was all that we did today, no theory class nor instrument class, only rehearsals for the appointed people from each instruments.

Altogether, today was only significant for those who performed, and as for the ones who don't all they did was watch their peers perform, which makes today insignificant for them. As for me, today was so-so since I did get to perform and practised but learnt nothing.

19.08.09

August 19, 2009.

And yet more intervals.

Mr. John was absent today, and Mr. Herry was held up at the assembly, so Ms. Melvina substitued them to teach our theory session. We learnt more about intervals, something we have learnt since our middle school years, along with the 7th triads and so on, which I find mundane. We also sang Hari Merdeka, an Indonesian national song.

Aside from that, we also actually did something benefiting today. We had a group meeting to discuss the roles of each of the members of the group. We decided that my job would be to define the term "jazz music" and to put all of the powerpoint slides together after the rest of the members are done with theirs, and to decorate it to make it eye-catching. Adeline Kodji got to search for the examples of jazz singers and bands, Andriani Weinardy and Eun Hye Kam got to research on the styles of jazz music, while Jayne Imelda gets to research on the instruments used to play jazz music. I think this is fair since everyone gets to work equally.

So today we did pretty well although nothing crucial was done, but we got to divide the roles of each member of the group for the presentation, which is something.

12.08.09

August 12, 2009.

Wednesdays.

In this new timetable, our music sessions have been transferred from Fridays, to Wednesdays. I honestly doesn't like this new arrangement because now we have music sessions on two consecutive days of the week, instead of having a few days between. Those few days could be very helpful for us, students, since it gives us more time to complete the given assignments before its' due on the next music session. So anyways, today we learnt about the intervals. Yawn.

Aside from that, we also got the lyrics to the songs 'Hari Merdeka' and 'Berkibarlah Merah Putih', two national Indonesian songs. We got to sing those songs together as a class. During instrument class, we got to play harmonic minor scales in all the white keys for two octaves, and the song for the assessment, Arabesque for me, as usual.

Overall, today we had a slow progress but still better than none at all, since we only got to learn about the Indonesian songs, while the rest are just the same ol' thing.

11.08.09

August 11, 2009.

Jazz!

I'm a fast-learner, so honestly I have only listened to 'Heal the World' in Youtube a couple of times, and learnt the rest during class, including the long lyrics. Some diligent pupils such as Eun Hye, studied and memorized the lyrics at home, and some lazy fast-learner pupils just got to learn the lyrics during class, like me, while the rest of the lazy pupils don't remember the lyrics and all thus when they sing in front of the class, they make mistakes involving the lyrics, and perhaps also the melody. So I'm lucky that I'm a fast-learner, because otherwise, I'd be just like them and fail music class. Altogether for the assessment of singing Heal the World today, I think Jessika Oktasya and I did well.

Aside from that, we also finished our groupings today. We are the jazz group, consisting me, Tiffany Soebijantoro, as the leader, Adeline Kodji, Andriani Weinardy, Eun Hye Kam, and Jayne Imelda. I am very excited because from the very first time I have wanted to do the presentation on jazz music. The other groups includes James's Pop Rock group, Hasan's Country group, and Calista's Latin America's group. During instruments class, we practised the song we are going to be assessed on, which in my case was Arabesque. I think I played quite well today, since I've been making less mistakes.

Today, we did several significant progress, such as the assessment for singing a Western song, dividing and choosing the topics for our group presentations, and practising our songs on our chosen instruments.

07.08.09

August 7, 2009.

Music groups!

So Mr. Herry told us to choose a group leader from each instruments, and I was one of them. So we have me, Tiffany Soebijantoro from piano, James Hadisurjo from guitar, Muhammad Hasan from strings, and Calista Pieters from woodwind. Then we chose our group members, for my group, so far I only have Adeline Kodji and Kam Eun Hye. So it could be concluded that the groupings are not finished, since there's also some people left out who have not been included in any of the groups. The available topics for us is Jazz, Pop Rock, Country, and Folk music.

Aside from that, we also practised singing 'Heal the World' since the assessment is only next session. Mr. Herry first wanted us to sing by ourselves but then I assured him that he mentioned on the previous session that we were to sing with our pairs, which in my case was Jessika Oktasya, and he finally agreed. I think I sang pretty well today. And during our instruments class, I played Arabesque again, as the others also played the songs of their choice for the final assessments.

There was a visible progress today since we chose the leaders for the groups and also practised singing 'Heal the World'.

04.08.09

August 4, 2009.

More chords.

So we learnt the 7th triad today. Again. Anyways, there's only two sessions left until the assessment for singing the song Heal the World, so today we practised singing it with our pairs, which in my case happened to be Jessika Oktasya. Thanks to Youtube, I now have been familiarized with the song Heal the World and know the melodies, although not all of the lyrics. Although the high notes were pretty out of my range, but altogether I think it was pretty well and with practise, I'll be able to sing the song perfectly for the assessment.

During the instrument session, Mr. Herry told us to pick a song for the final assessment, and today I have decided to go with Arabesque by Claude Debussy. Originally wasn't one of my choices, but this is personally my favourite song, and I just love this song, so I decided to go with this song instead. Since it's my favourite song, I played it a lot at home which means that my playing is almost perfect, but of course I still occasionally makes some irrevocable mistakes.

Today, I think we made excellent progress, well at least for me in my case, since today we practised our singing for Heal the World and I decided on the song I'm going to play for the final assessment.

31.07.09

July 31, 2009.

Triads.

As we have learnt from our previous sessions of music class throughout our middle school years, we learnt (again) the C major scales, triads, and the 7th triads. This is all very basic stuffs which we have learnt ever since our middle school years, and when learning this, I feel that throughout the years our music class's subjects doesn't change and develop over time and becomes harder and more complex, like how it's supposed to be, but instead it just repeats itself over and over again, which I find very disappointing.

Afterwards, we sung the song Heal the World with our chosen pairs, which in my case was Jessika Oktasya. Jessika is a very excellent singer and it was an honor for me to sing with her. Then, during the instruments class, Mr. Herry told us to play a piece for the final assessment. I found myself torn apart between two choices, thus I played both of the pieces, which were Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Etude Op.10 No.12, or also known as the Revolutionary Etude, by Frederic Chopin.

Overall, I think the progress today is good, because although we didn't learn anything during the theory class since what the teachers thought us was something all of us, the students, already knew, but today we got to sing Heal the World in pairs and during the instruments class we got to practise our song for the final assessment.

28.07.09

July 28, 2009.

Heal the World.

Mr. John Legoh, the guitar teacher, distributed to us the lyrics to the song Heal the World, a song of Michael Jackson's. Firstly, we started off singing the song as a class to get to know how the song goes at first. Then, when we were already catching up with the tunes we were divided into two groups: boys and girls. A lot of us was still shy for singing in front of an audience, even if the audience currently is only the rest of the class and the teachers. And so that is what we did for the 40-minutes session of music theory.

After that, we moved on to our instrument classes. I can see that a lot of us was really eager since it was our very first instrumental class. In piano, Mr. Herry Rajasa, our teacher, asked for us to play the major scales in all the white keys for two octaves. When we're done, he asked each of us to play a piece from Hanon, which he chose for us. The song he chose for me was short and I played it pretty well, in my opinion, since it was the first time I played that piece, nor was I familiar with the composition, and it was sight reading. And I have got to say that sight reading is one of my strength in music.

So today, the progress was okay, I guess, since we did get to learn the song Heal the World and we got to practice our instruments so that our teacher can further assess our capabilities in the specific instruments.

24.07.09

July 24, 2009.

Guitar auditions!

It was originally supposed to be from the last session, but since we ran out of time last time, so it was held back 'til today. From last session, they were told to play a classic song, and to prepare it for the audition today. Before they were grouped, they were firstly asked whether or not they can play the instruments or not, and whether or not they have the instrument, especially for the popular instruments: guitar and piano.

So anyways, the one who joined the guitar audition were Andrew Budiarta, Bayu Tjandra, Carlo Santiago, Emir Mirza, James Hadisurjo, Jayne Imelda, Kevin Himawan, Mark Anggiansah, and Aryo Wongsokusumo. Out of the nine, three had to be eliminated, and it was Bayu, Carlo and Kevin. Bayu and Kevin later rejoined the guitar instrument, and Carlo joined the Drama class instead.

In the end of the session today, we managed to finish our groupings for the specific instruments we chose and play.

21.07.09

July 21, 2009.

Our very first music class.

I was very eager and excited to have music class for a whole school year this year, my very first year wearing the grey uniform as a high school student in Bina Nusantara Simprug. During my very first encounter with Mr. Herry this year, who has taught music in Binus since I was still in grade 5, he divided our class into our chosen instruments.

What's different this year, is that this year there is no more vocal, or singing. Instead, it has been changed with woodwind, still taught by Mr. Hary, which would be instruments such as flutes and saxophones. This year, I joined piano with Mr. Herry, along with Adeline Kodji, Jessika Oktasya, Kezia Prihanggodo, and Steven Jaya.

Originally, there were too many students for piano and guitar, so Mr. Herry held an audition to filter out the students with the talent, and the ones without. For guitar, everyone had to play a piece, and for piano everyone needed to audition with the exception of me and Adeline Kodji.

Overall, today, besides of the students picking their instruments, we did nothing really significant towards our progress in music class.