Claude's Blog

This is my oral form of my assessment.

Thank you

Claude Ohashi 7A

During this unit we have done our solos and practiced for them, and also we have practiced our all together and music. Through the unit I developed the ability to keep up to pace or in beat with the whole group/band. When playing with the whole group I just used my usual way of just playing what is on the music sheet paper and at the same time trying to find out what the actual music is like. For the solo performance, I prepared myself by practicing the music over and over again. I also had to make sure that I was playing at the correct volume for my song so I had to try a few different things.

I think that I am doing quite well as a musician because I know how to play my instrument, I know how to play most of the notes and I can identify what each note is. I think that is was very challenging to play my song in front of everyone at the time because I could not warm up enough and I also had a fairly long song to play on the trumpet. I think that it was challenging to not make a mistake in the solo assignment. I think that I have not improved so much during this year so far just because we hardly ever have music class. But I do think that I am definitely improving outside of music class. I really liked the new challenge to pick a song for the solo and play it. I think that it was a really fun way of playing any song that you like. My future goals are to be able to go more smoothly in music and also to get better at adjusting my lip structure.

This is my trumpet song recording Solo. The song is Rudolph. Enjoy!!!

I think that my current schedule is well balanced and I can do most of the things that I want to do. The extra time that I have , I would be doing different things. Such as sleeping, reading and other things that you can do without much effort.

I want to be an effective learner and use my time effectively.

Sorry that it is a screen shot. I couldn’t upload the entire thing.

What did you earn as you created your tutorial?

I think that what I learned is how to make a tutorial/commentary from now on and that it is actually not super easy to commentate as I thought. I thought that it was harder than I thought because you know that anyone can view your video and if you make a mistake, you could actually end up with a bunch of horrible comments saying that you should just stop making videos and take the video off the internet. I also learned how to use IMovie which could be very helpful when using IMovie in the future.

Are you happy with your finished tutorial?

Yes, I am. Although the comments were later than the actual drawing, It worked out well. The end was also cut off but that was OK as well because it was only on word that was cut off. I think that the dragon I picked was probably the most suitable to show on the internet because it is a type of dragon that most people know. I liked the length of my video. Because it was not too long but enough time to explain everything.

How to draw a dragon from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

Was it difficult/ easy to create? Why?

I think that it was kind of hard but some things were easy. For example things that were hard are: Placing the computer in a good position so that I could show my drawing clearly and make sure I don’t get off track while commentating. Easy things were that I was/am familiar with drawing many, many types of dragons so I could draw anything without having to put any thought into the design. Those were the easy and hard things about the tutorial.

Which criteria (from our class list) does your tutorial meet? Why do you think it meets those criteria?

The criteria that I think that my tutorial meets is these 3: Good view, Interesting, and Length. So first of all I think it meets the first criteria because the camera had a good view on the dragon and you could clearly see where my pencil was going. I think that my tutorial meets the second tutorial because I think that this would be interesting for most people to view because it is a rather unique thing to draw. So the last criteria. I think so because the length was short enough to keep anyone’s attention but long enough to explain everything.

What do you need to create even better tutorials?

Maybe it could have been a little longer so that I could add some extra stuff to the dragon and how to do it. Such as drawing a cave or saddle if you wanted to make it look like the ones in the movies. And I think that I could have made the timing better and make sure the end was not cut off.

Gene Kelly made the dancing and singing really interesting because of how realistic everything looked. By that I mean that it seems like it could easily happen in real life. It was really fun to think what would happen if you met someone like that on the streets. Would you be scared? Would you be laughing? Would you be angry? I thought that the video of Gene Kelly singing in the rain was also very fun and interesting for other reasons. The song was actually kind of funny because it does not have any real meaning apart from “singing in the rain”. The ending was also quite funny when Gene gives another man his umbrella. Use of props was also very cool. It was funny that he did not care about water getting into his umbrella. The dancing obviously showed that he was very happy. Gene Kelly was really good at using space as much as possible but at the same time making the performance entertaining. The rhythm with his shoes really matched the singing and the music too. Overall I thought that this was a very unique and fun.

When the earthquake struck, there was no reception for the cell phones and no electricity for the house phones. Me and my mom had no way to contact my dad, grand parents and the rest of the family and tell them that we were O.K. We took our dog with us in the car in search for a public phone that we could use to call our family members. We went to a country club near our house called YCAC. From there we were able to call our family members and keep warm and rest. Everyone was alright but, my dad coudn’t come home because the trains stopped. That was alright because he had somewhere to sleep at the place he works. Everyone there did. My dog was alright too. Everyone was safe and secure but not very happy. Me and my mom did not have any electricity at home. Sleeping wasn’t hard at all though. I mean besides the fear of another big earthquake happening. Anyways that is how I got contact with my family members.