Today was the last music session ever in Binus. Unlike my overemotional friends who got upset at the end of the session, I didn't get carried away. In the session, Mr. Herry preached about the jingle's description and the students who haven't submitted it yet. Afterwards, we had a group performance. I think our group did fine this time round.
21.05.10
May 21, 2010.
Although my listening skills is not the best, however the exercise today based on the student's listening skills was very simple, and thus allowing me to do it perfectly. Then the students who were able to listen perfectly were called up to repeat after the melodies. Afterwards, we played more scales during the instruments session.
18.05.10
May 18, 2010.
Today we were given a simple assignment to transpose the song "Alice in Wonderland", which I found to be a very enjoyable song, from the key of C major into G major. The simplicity of the task itself amuses me as a tenth grader in music class. Not only did I transpose the melodies, I also transposed the chords unlike any of my classmates due to the lengthy time. During instruments class, we continued practising the harmonic minor. I still haven't practise it and still could improve it.
14.05.10
May 14, 2010.
Today during music class we listened to some more jingles. We also saw some of the blogs instead of studying music theory or anything that should be educative. Afterwards, during instruments class, we played harmonic scales. Mine was flawed due to lack of practise.
11.05.10
May 11, 2010.
Today, we listened to some more jingles. Afterwards, Mr. Herry somewhat explained the clefs and then we had a quiz to notate the melody an octave lower from treble clef to the bass clef. I found it very easy because it's very basic. However, I don't think my classmates might have found it as unchallenging as I did.
07.05.10
May 07, 2010.
Our group performance was today! So today we came in earlier to practise before. Luckily, before the due performance we were also given some more time to practise. Overall, I think we did fine today although we still could by far improve. For example, I still made some minor mistakes, Jeok's voice wasn't loud enough, and Andri's violin wasn't heard through. But still, I think our group did fine and this is the best performance by far.
04.05.10
May 04, 2010.
We practised our group performance today. Before that during theory, Mr. Herry also checked our blogs. Afterwards, we practised for our group performance. I think our group still could use a lot of practise before the performance next session.
We practised our group performance today. Before that during theory, Mr. Herry also checked our blogs. Afterwards, we practised for our group performance. I think our group still could use a lot of practise before the performance next session.
30.04.10
April 30, 2010.
Apparently, we were supposed to submit our jingle drafts today. However, only several of my classmates remembered and submitted their drafts while the rest didn't. There was only about six to seven people who did submit it. Then, Mr. Herry also played the jingle in front of the whole class and so we listened to it. I didn't submit because I forgot to submit it. Afterwards, we had our usual group practise. I think our group is becoming better and better as we get to rehearse more and more.
27.04.10
April 27, 2010.
Today, first of all, the blogs were checked and the students who haven't updated their blogs were sent down to the library to update their blogs asap. I wasn't one of the students cause I have already update my blog. Afterwards, Mr. Herry asked for several groups to perform to see how far they've gotten with their songs, my group wasn't one of the groups that performed because two of our members were sent down to the library, which were Ian and Inski. Then, we had an instrument session so that our instrument teachers could help us in playing our parts of the song. However, I didn't have any difficulties on playing my part so I was already fine. Then, we also had some time to rehearse the song with our group. Today, we already rehearsed all of the parts and the chords. Next rehearsal, we just need to play the song altogether.
23.04.10
April 23, 2010.
We started composing our jingle for the commercial which is a joint assessment for business and music. My jingle is going to have four different instruments: violin, piano, guitar, and vocal. It's durations won't be too long and it will be in a minor key, ending in a major key. Afterwards, we had another group performance. My group performance has definitely improved than the one last session, however I'm still not satisfied with it and it still needs to be improved. Luckily, we still have sufficient amount of time to do that improvement before the assessment.
20.04.10
April 20, 2010.
This session, we watched commercials since we have to make a commercial jingle for later. So Mr. Herry was showing us some commercials so that we'd get the idea of what commercials should be like, and also the music that affects the overall mood of the commercial itself. Thus, music plays a big role in the commercial's atmosphere. Afterwards, we performed in our groups our songs as much as we've gotten into them. This Love by Maroon 5 for us. It wasn't the best performance and we still have much to improve. Luckily, today wasn't the assessment day. Our group will be much better for the assessment.
16.04.10
April 16, 2010.
Today was our assessment. Our assessment took up the whole 2 music sessions. The assessment itself consist of the history of jazz and basic notations. I, myself, did not find the quiz hard. For the history, there was questions regarding the time and the types of jazz, and also focusing on our own styles of jazz, which in my case was swing, like its' instruments and its' characteristics. For the history part it also asks us to write a short biography of a well-known musician from our style of jazz, in which I wrote about Count Basie. For the notations part, there's two parts. The first part asks us to write the scale and it's major and minor chords. The second part asks us to write the 7th, 9th, and 11th chords of the given keys. Overall I did well on the quiz although I'm not sure I did perfectly. I had some doubts while answering the history questions, but I think I still did well. Next time, I'll study harder for the history parts though, just in case.
Below is my practise video. In the video, I'm playing the song "Arabesque" by Claude Debussy. It is not a complicated song but it is one of my favourite songs. I think I played pretty well below.
13.04.10
April 13, 2010.
Today, we had our singing assessment. We sing the song "I Got Rhythm". Unlike the other singing assessments in the previous terms, in this term, our singing assessment is done individually and not paired like the previous ones. Meaning, that instead of doing a duet, this time, it was a solo. Once the announcement was made, panic roamed around the classroom and was displayed in most of my peers' faces. However, I was not one of them because I think that I'd be able to do this song well. We have had several practises before on the previous sessions and I've gotten to know the song pretty well, and thus I believe that I'd be able to perform the song well, and I did. Everything was in tune and I used gestures, and in the end, I got one of the highest scores in my class for it. Next time though, I'm going to make sure that I get the highest score and not just one of the highest scores in my class.
Below is my practise video. In this video, I'm playing the scales a third apart, legato, hands together one octave apart for four octaves in the key of C, D, E, F#, Bb, Ab major and harmonic minor scales. As you can see, it's still not perfect and I still have to practise some more in order to make it perfect. I think I also need to play it faster.
09.04.10
April 9, 2010.
All we did today was summarize the Q&As we did from the last music session. At the start of the session, Mr. Herry handed us a big white paper to write the Q&As on and markers. Then he started distributing the Q&As written by the swing jazz members from 10C and 10D to us (we were grouped according to the styles of jazz group from last term). From the questions handed out to us, we were to write the Q&As down on the piece of paper. Our group wrote down ten Q&As, which was a fair amount compared to the other teams. Then, the other teams would ask three of the total number of questions each team makes to the team who made it. Our team answered every question asked to us with the correct answers. As for the group performance, I have already gotten the scores from an online site and so now all we need to do is practise it.
Below is a video of my practise today. In the video, I'm playing Chopin's Etude Op. 10 No. 5, or also known as Chopin's Black Keys. However, my performance here is not my best since I made lots of mistakes, the tempo is not stable and also not fast enough, as the real tempo is supposed to be 116/beat.
06.04.10
April 6, 2010.
First of term 4.
Today is the first music class for term 4. This term is the last term we are ever going to have music class since the music in Binus is not qualified for IB. However, today must be one of the fun-nest music classes we've ever had during the past 6 years of music classes with Mr. Herry. We started by reviewing the 7th, 9th, and 11th chords. We also got our individual booklet report on the style of jazz, which in my case was swing, back, and were told to make five Q&As from it. Afterwards, our groups for the group performance later on this term was decided by fate. My group consists of me, Jessika Oktasya, Kevin Himawan, Andriani Weinardy, Bayu & Ian with Mr. Sadrakh as our supervisor. Our song to be performed is 'This Love' by Maroon 5. I am very excited and is looking forward to the performance because this should be fun. After this, the first thing I'm going to do is look for the scores online. I honestly love the song.
So that concludes today's progress on music class, which in my opinion is very significant since we get to review, make the Q&As, and also decide our groups, supervisors, and our songs.
Below is my practise tape from today because Mr. Herry told us to record it. Recorded, I'm playing the major and minor scales of C, D, E, F#, Ab, and Bb both hands, four octaves. This has not been my best yet because, as can be heard, I have made several mistakes and the tempo is quite slow too.
12.03.10
March 12, 2010.
On the 12th, the 12-bars blues composition performance assessment was held. I have finished the new 12-bars blues composition and I am very satisfied with this new one. Piano went first, as usual. The assessment was held consecutively and was some sort of a medley of all the piano's 12-bars blues composition. I was the fifth to play because I played in the piano and I needed to share the piano with Adeline Kodji, who went first and then we switched. It was fun. Before the assessment, we rehearsed first so that we know how it's going to be and we won't be confused. I think I played wonderfully because this time, I played perfectly and didn't make any mistakes.
09.03.10
March 9, 2010.
Today was supposedly our 12-bars blues composition performance for the assessment. However, the assessment was delayed due to the absence of Mr. Herry. So instead of the assessment, today we had the rehearsals for the 12-bars blues composition performance this Friday. I played well, but I'm still not satisfied of my composition. I think it's too usual and doesn't fit very well, so I have decided to compose a new one for the assessment this Friday. I will also be sure to practise it beforehand so that my performance this time will be perfect unlike the performance last week upon playing All of Me.
02.03.10
March 2, 2010.
Today was our All of Me assessment. As usual, piano went first. So what we needed to do is first, play the melody with both of our hands, and then we play the melody with our right hand and our left hand plays the walking base. For me, I played the song in G and not C because I sang the song too while playing it and my voice cannot reach the high notes in C, so I transposed the piece into G. However, I lack practise and so I didn't play my best during the assessment. But I still think that I did well. Next time, I'll be sure to practise more so that my performance will be perfect.
23.02.10
February 23, 2010.
Today, we got our 12-bars blues back. And to my surprise, I got a very low score on it, which was 8 out of 10. Apparently it was because I got the wrong chord again, who knows how. But I am very upset by that. Aside from that, Ian also finally had his assessment on singing and dancing the song "Sway" since he was absent on the assessment date. Some more students from each instruments also performed All of Me who have not performed it during the last session. The electricity was also off for a few seconds during the music session.
19.02.10
February 19, 2010.
Today, two performers from each instruments performed All of Me. From piano, there was me and Kodji. Followed by guitar's James and Budi. Andri and Hasan came up next representing strings. And last but not least, woodwind's very own Calista and Jean. Andri played wonderfully although some improvements could still be made. As for me, I think I played just fine although the minor mistakes I made due to no practise and my playing out of memory since I have misplaced my All of Me music score. But with some practise I'd be able to master the song in no time I'm sure. Then, during instruments class I was asked to tutor Vilhel to play the walking base. As she's a very fast learner she did fine. And that concluded today's music session.
16.02.10
February 16, 2010.
We didn't do a lot today. All we did was submit the 12-bars blues, this time on the given handout. But no worries, this time I've already fixed my chords. And during instruments class, we practised the walking base which I find very easy to play since this is really simple, all it is actually is the usual chords, except that it's the first, second, third, and fifth note. It sounds more complicated than it really is, and to my friends they might be confused by this at first, but once they get the hang of it, it'll be a piece of cake. So that was all for today and there wasn't any significant progress to my seeing.
12.02.10
February 12, 2010.
Nothing important happened today. All we did during music class was that Mr. Herry played our 12-bars blues composition we submitted last session to show us an approximation of how it is going to sound like when it's finished. He also checked mine, but apparently my chords are wrong because I didn't know that there was a specific order of chords to be followed, so I only made the chords up by myself. Then, during instrument class, Mr. Herry taught us about the walking base which I found very easy to play since it resembles a simple scale, except that we only take the first, second, third, and the fifth notes.
09.02.10
February 09, 2010.
Dues!
Today two things were due for our music class; our individual music booklet and our 12-bars blues composition homework. The individual music booklet was part of our assessment. It is about the jazz style that we presented a few weeks ago in music class, which in my case would be Swing Jazz, with an addition of a biography of a famous musician from the era. My famous musician was Count Basie who is a very talented musician of the time. The second thing that was due was our 12-bars blues composition homework. I submitted it on time and although it was just a quick composition I think I did pretty well on it. And then, during instruments class we played All of Me again as we have been playing it during the last few weeks.
Altogether, we didn't really do anything important today since during theory Mr. Herry only showed us some of the blogs that have not been updated yet, and during instruments class we played All of Me again for the umpteenth time this term. However, we did get to submit a part of our assessment, making today not a complete waste after all.
02.02.10
February 2, 2010.
Steven's Fusion group did their presentation today and I think it wasn't good because it is very obvious that they copied their whole information from a website. They were also not prepared, from my point of view I think it was Steven alone who made the whole presentation by himself, but he himself was too lazy to make the presentation at least decent enough so he just copied the whole thing from the net. It was very disappointing. And then Bayu did his presentation since he was absent on the day we presented our presentation. He did normally, nothing new. Aside from that, we were also told to compose a 12-bar blues composition and during instrument class we played All of Me again, just like how we've been playing it since 3 weeks ago. Yawn.
29.01.10
January 29, 2010.
Today we sang the song Sway after practising it several times last week. My partner was Vilhelmina Kwee, she's new to music because she just transferred to music this semester from art and she joined piano too. I think I did well even though my partner's voice wasn't really heard. However, I was very disappointed upon hearing my results which is only a bare 8 out of 10 when James and Hasan got 9. It was very disappointing because I think I did just as well as they did and deserves a 9 as well.
26.01.10
January 26, 2010.
Today was the group presentation, in which my group presented the Swing Jazz presentation. Even though some of my team members weren't able to present their slides finely, such as Andriani who were stiff and were only reading the text from the slides, and some other members, but I think we did good. Amongst all of the teams, I think we did best because for example, Adeline Kodji's Ragtime Group's theme was too bright and there wasn't that many pictures. The team members also delivered the presentation in a monotone way and the audio files weren't managed properly. They weren't very well-rehearsed. Another group is Kezia's group in which they didn't have the examples, lack of audio files and pictures, and they also failed to include the bibliography. Next group was Jessika's which also lacks in several aspects such as pictures and audio files. They also presented it in a monotone, making it not very interesting. The last group was Vilhel's group, and I think they did even worse because it is very obvious that they didn't rehearse at all, they lack audio files, pictures, and their information was too detailed and looked like it has been copy pasted. They also presented their presentation in a monotone. So overall, I think our team was the best because not only did we have video files, we also performed a swing jazz song live.
22.01.10
January 22, 2010.
All we did today was see Michael Buble performed the song "Sway", which is a very popular jazz song and its' melodies sound very familiar to me. After that, we also had a group meeting deciding on what will be done and who's going to do the job. Frankly, we have all decided on this via msn but it doesn't hurt to re-confirm, seeing the other groups have not been as responsible as us. We even have start researching on our topics. Then we present our group ideas in front of the whole class. We're the only group who will perform live playing a Swing Jazz song, "All of Me", a song that has been distributed to our class by Mr. Herry last week and has been played during my instrument class, which is why it's an easy song. This makes me even more confident that my group will, once again, be the best throughout the whole class albeit some of the members are not very good speakers.
19.01.10
January 19, 2010.
Today we got divided for our jazz presentation group. The system is to choose one person from each instrument, starting from the piano. And then the piano students will choose one student from each instrument whom they want to be teammates with. Since I didn't choose anyone from the woodwind group, I ended up with Andriani Weinardy from the violin, Kevin Himawan and James Hadisurjo from guitar. Our topic is Swing Jazz, which is going to be very easy because I know that Swing Jazz is very popular. I am very much looking forward for this presentation because I think our group is going to be the best.
15.01.10
January 15, 2010.
Today is the first class for semester 2 and we reviewed on what we are going to do for this semester. This semester we are going to focus on jazz music and its' different types. I am very excited about this since we're also going to compose a jazz composition, kind of like last semester except that this one would be jazz instead of pop.
04.11.09
November 4, 2009.
Final Draft.
We submitted our final draft today, and in my case it's still my quick composition. I'll work on it this weekend so that my song will be finished before its' due performance. So I submitted my quick composition for my final draft as it is still part of the draft and not the final composition just yet. It didn't take a long time for my to copy my composition since it's still the exact same one as the one I submitted as my draft. And then during instrument we just played our compositions along with its' chords etcetera.
Concluding today into an okay day since I really haven't make my composition and all I did was just copy the draft into the final draft because I have had everything figured out whilst composing the quick composition so while the others had their chords being made by their better classmates or teachers, I was finished.
03.11.09
November 3, 2009.
Draft.
Draft.
Today we were to write the draft for our final 32-bars long composition. I, of course, have finished my composition albeit being the effortless one. I made it without any consideration and thus, the result is also bad and very unsatisfying. But since this is just a quick one and I'm not really going to use it for my final composition I have no worries. I will have to make my real composition soon though. But for now, for my quick composition, I have finished everything, all 32-bars of it along with its' lyrics and chords. Aside from that I also get to help my other classmates who are still not done with their compositions or are still confused about what to do.
So not much progress was made today, but today was fine since today is Adeline Kodji's birthday and I'm really looking forward to her surprise. Progress was okay because we get to jot down our draft composition.
28.10.09
October 28, 2009.
I see words of green, red letters too.
Another singing assessment today, making this two singing assessments in a row in two consecutive days. Today, we're singing What a Wonderful World. My partner today is no longer Jessika Oktasya, it's now Kam Eun Hye because she just got back from a forum in China so she wasn't available in the previous 3 sessions. I think we sang the song well, even though this is Eunhye's first time. But since it isn't a hard song at all and we have practised it several times before, we did fine. Everyone else also sang the song pretty well.
Today, we conclude all of our Western singing assessments so that there would be only one singing assessment left for this term. So there's a good progress.
27.10.09
October 27, 2009.
Notations.
We didn't do much today, we were just given a simple test on music notations and the intervals. The singing assessment for What a Wonderful World is also going to be hold on the next session, which would be tomorrow. The test was really simple and I am pretty sure that I would ace it. Aside from that, there wasn't really anything else that happened during music class today.
So today I still didn't learn anything new since nothing much happened today, we just had the short quiz.
21.10.09
October 21, 2009.
Inversions.
Today we learnt about inversions, which I naturally find very easy. Mr. Herry gave us several keys to work with, starting with C major. Then, we also sang the song What a Wonderful World again. We're also to sing the song Gundul-Gundul Pacul for the Indonesian song for our singing assessment. We received the lyrics via email and I have memorized some parts of the lyrics. I already know the song's melodies because this traditional song is very famous, however I still need to memorize the Javanese lyrics, which although aren't hard to pronounce, but are hard to memorize.
Today, we didn't really do anything significant in music class cause I didn't learn anything new. The lyrics to Gundul-Gundul Pacul itself I learnt it via email and not during class.
20.10.09
October 20, 2009.
La Assessment.
Today is our singing assessment for La Bamba. As we were to sing the song with our partners, I partnered up with Jessika Oktasya for this assessment. I think we did very well singing the song. However, not all performed today. For example, Adeline Kodji and Kezia Prihanggodo didn't perform due to the shortage of time. But rather than that, everything went well today. Everyone sang well in my opinion, nothing new. Aside from that, while the others sing, we also get a blank music paper to write the draft of our composition. We're also going to have another singing assessment next session, this time singing What a Wonderful World.
Our singing assessments today made a huge progress for our music lesson.
14.10.09
October 14, 2009.
What a Wonderful Bamba.
Naturally, we sing La Bamba again, this time in our respective instruments group. I find it very easy, since the lyrics itself, although in Spanish, but isn't that hard to pronounce since it's pretty much the same as the pronunciation of English mixed with Bahasa Indonesia, so there's nothing new there. The assessment for singing the song is going to be held next session, and the song is to be sung individually or in pairs. Aside from that, we also get to sing the song What a Wonderful World, a classic I've learnt in the fifth grade. Even though it's an old song, it's still very popular nowadays. I, myself, find the song calming. The lyrics are also very touching and beautiful, making it one of my favourite songs.
Polishing La Bamba and learning What a Wonderful World was a significant progress to note, making today's music progress alright although still nothing new was learnt.
13.10.09
October 13, 2009.
La Bamba.
Para bailar La Bamba, se necessita una poca de gracia, or if translated into English means "in order to dance the Bamba, you need a little bit of grace" was what we learnt during music class today. This Spanish song is very familiar to me because this song is very famous and I have been hearing the melodies over and over again, so it wasn't a challenge at all for me to sing it. Aside from that, today our midi files and Finale was also due. I printed out the Finale file because I thought we were supposed to submit the scores in hard copy as well but apparently I was wrong, but I submitted it anyways.
Concluding today's progress into a fair amount, we got to learn a new song we're going to have to sing later on to be assessed on. So that's something.
07.10.09
October 7, 2009.
Tiffany & Tchaikovsky.
Our simple ABBA composition was due, which I have actually finished during the previous class. Now we were told to expand it unto 32 bars long. Done! Then we were given another assignment which is to look for 5 midis from classical composers having the same initial as you do, Tchaikovsky, in my case, one of my favourite composers of all time, and then transpose one of the five midi files into scores using Finale. I have the Finale programme, but unfortunately mine is the 2006 version since I purchased it on 2006 when Mr. Herry first taught my class on how to use it. And up until this moment on, he's still teaching my class on how to use the programme. So now I'll have to tell my brother to do it because he owns the Finale 2009 programme.
So, today, I didn't learn anything new since Mr. Herry was just teaching our class on how to use the Finale programme for the umpteenth time, so nothing was new and nothing new was learnt.
06.10.09
October 6, 2009.
Term 2.
First music lesson after the term break. We reviewed about our activities for this upcoming term. Unlike last term, this term we are going to perform our own pop composition. I felt so eager upon hearing this since I have always loved composing songs just like last year in year 9. As always, we are going to be using the Finale software to jot down our compositions, and we're going to be singing two songs; one Western and the other Indonesian. Afterwards, we were also told to practise our composing skills by composing a simple ABBA song, which I finished without hesitation.
Altogether, today was fine. Having an overview and all, but we didn't get to actually learn any new skills today. We only got to learn about our future activities.
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