Instrumental Music Performance – Self Reflection

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Keigo

First of all, above is my solo recording. This song was originally designed and was composed for clarinets. The name is, Klarinet Konzert Nr.3 2, 3 by Carl Stamitz.

In this unit, we have practiced several songs, as Pirate’s Cave and Two Bridges March. Perhaps some of the band players do recognize Two Bridges March because we have played this song last year, in 6th Grade. For the notes, I basically had no problems. In this unit, I have learned how to keep the tone balanced. When the key signature was “forte” meaning loud, I did blow loud. I think that was right, but I am now making the sound softer when my instrument is not playing the melody. I think I was prepared. Although I did “peep” some notes, I have kept my tone clear and balanced. I also changed the speed, when it was supposed to be slow, or normal (faster) speed, because my solo music is broken into parts.

In the solo performance assessment, I played a music that was originally composed for clarinets, so I think most of the people do not know this song. This song contains a variety of high notes, mixed with some low notes, as well as flats and sharps. Recently, I have been practicing the same song but Nr.3 1, and this part was pretty long. Although this piece didn’t have any sharps or flats unless it was indicated on the note (meaning the sharp or flat continues on the same note only for the measure). It means, it was quite challenging. I like the first part of my solo, because the tempo is slow, and I have time to play accurate notes. I also learned how to read ahead the measure I am playing. I become confident if I do that, and I would be able to play the right note. I think I am improving and improving on my clarinet performance and playing on the clarinet. I do have private lessons, and I practiced the solo here. In my private lessons, my teacher encourages me to play more and more, so I can improve faster. Plus, my teacher is really nice, so I can play in my style, and not what I was told. She also encourages me to do my own music. I also attend in the after school activity on Wednesday, which is Symphonic Band – Wind Ensemble. However, my friends Claude and Yong Won has joined, and they each play trumpet and trombone, so now it is not a wind ensemble. This activity is now forming a little band. My teacher is Ms. Boden, and she is also my Music teacher. She is a really good teacher. Here, unlike private lessons, I get the opportunity to play with other people, and I know how marvelous it is making a music with you friends/other people. Ms. Boden teaches us really important thing about music, and that’s why I think Ms. Boden is a really good teacher. Although I have more reasons. I am really shocked that Ms. Boden is leaving YIS, so I would like to play my best and do my best performance in the concert. Also, I want to be chosen as one of the people who perform their solos in the concert. I REALLY want to be chosen. It is because I want to spread the music I have, and make the people happy or comfort them. Well I don’t know I have the power to do that now. I need to get better. My future goal, is to improve on my clarinet, and become a really good player that can spread happiness to the world with my music.

Field Studies Reflection On Journal “FSROJ”

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Keigo

Open publication – Free publishing – More cool

What was easy?

When I go back and see the pages, I found nothing really easy. It is a valuable experience, so most of this, journaling was not easy. Although, everything was really enjoyable, and everyday in Field Studies it was exciting to write a journal entry. When I kept writing and writing, experiences from the day popped up, and it made me have fun in my mind. Overall, nothing was easy. (basically)

What was difficult?

Honestly, everything. I haven’t written/drawn/made a proper journal before, and the task for this year’s field studies was to make your own “JOURNAL”. If I say specifically, shortening entries and drawing pictures were really challenging. Well actually, for Day 4, the entry was pretty (actually enormously) long because I made a little tutorial on how to make/how we made the soba. I do think I put a good effort on the drawings I did in the soba-activity pages. I think making backgrounds wasn’t challenging although it was just difficult making backgrounds match the pen/pencil color.

What should’ve been done differently?

In some pages, as pages 32, 33, I have used cartoons. In the ‘Prompts and Expectations” paper, it does say “(optional) create a page using cartoons” but now I am regretting on what I did. I should have drawn something more artistic that can replace my cartoon. If I did this project again, I am pretty confident that I will have a more artistic journal. I also think I can improve on some of my drawings. I would neatly draw it. I think I was rushing too much when I drew, I would make sure when I drew, I would draw neatly as possible, and do not rush. I also needed to be careful on contrasting. Some pages, I couldn’t see my pencil writings, so I should’ve made my background more bright.

What was fun?

Again, when I drew and wrote in my journal, it reminded me of the magnificent experiences from the activities, and that was fun for me in this project. Making drawings as close as the real picture was really fun. It is because when I put good effort into drawings, when the drawing is complete, I feel a lot of achievement. For me, the harder the drawing could be, I feel more accomplishment in my mind. Writing in different expressions was also really fun because it linked to different words and then my sentences grew and grew.

Overall, I was able to learn and experience about journaling, and now understand different techniques in making a journal. Not also journaling, but I learned a lot in writing, also learned a lot artistically.

Unit 1 Mime Drama Reflection

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Keigo

Describe the progress have you made so far. (You may need to review the skills and knowledge area for the unit, either on your cover sheet or at the top of this wiki)
I think I did make a good progress on the skills shown in the unit. In the mime scene, I communicated well non-verbally with my group mates, Daniel and Amanda, with using actions that looked obvious. If the actions were obvious, it would be easy to understand, and the other people would know what reactions they would have/what would they do after. This way, we didn’t any problems as the scene progressed. I also did well portraying the character attitude. If I watch the scene video again, I can see I am expressing my character attitude. I was supposed to be an acrophobic businessman, who always creates various problems. I think I did well on that. I am also satisfied on how I created situations, and manipulated imaginary objects. Although imaginary objects weren’t the main idea on our scene, but creating situations were fit to my character attitude, so it was quite simple. In the first part, there was a situation where I couldn’t find my airplane ticket. I think I showed how I was rushing when I realized I dropped my ticket. Also when the plane was about to take off, there was a situation where I couldn’t put my seatbelt on. I actually didn’t make it a big problem, because it may catch more attention if I was the only one who did something different. I know that it is funny if someone is concerned alone in a scene, because of previous experiences in Drama classes. For knowledge, I did understand some. I think I know how non-verbal communication is powerful. I think that if there is verbal communication, you wouldn’t have to express ideas so much because you can use words and we can talk. If it was non-verbal, you would not be able to use words and talk, so you would have to communicate differently. Here, gesture and facial expressions will start to be important. In non-verbal communication, you would have to show your gesture and your facial expressions to tell what you want to say to the audience or the other characters. It means, in non-verbal communication, the style of communication starts to change. Also, if you don’t concentrate in what you are doing, the actions might tell a different thing; it would be confusing to the audience if it looks like you are not doing something you are supposed to. If you do concentrate and if you are confident on what you are doing, the actions would be right and it would lead to a better conclusion than in a situation where you are not concentrating.
What are the strengths and weaknesses in your summative piece of work?
I am sure that in the scene I did explain well on what I wanted to tell the audience. One strength is that we communicated well by using actions as a sign. For example, when I sat on the seat after my head bumped the suitcase, Daniel had a gesture of “Are you okay?” and tapped me. It was a sign, and if Amanda saw that, she had to start announcing about the safety guidance. Also, when we started eating, when my third sip of the soup was almost starting, it was a sign of the beginning of turbulence. One more strength, is that I did well on showing concerns and reactions clearly. The last strength was as a group, but this one is individually. If you see the video above, you would see the preferences (Our group is the very first one, and I am the guy who wearing glasses) (the last explanation was for people who don’t know us) in the scene. I am confident with that, because I heard little giggles and laughs when I was acting. I was just happy because it means my actions were funny and interesting, but I was also happy because I noticed that my actions were understood by the audience. Some weaknesses. I think I needed to keep the same pace when I acted. Sometimes I was fast, some were slow, some were good. I need to keep the pace “good”. I also need to keep facing the audience and let the audience constantly see our facial expressions.
Is your scene successful? Why or why not?
My scene is successful, from my perspective. I think I improved and fixed problems Mr. Curkovic mentioned when we showed our scene (practice). I am satisfied with what a did, I just need to wait for a good score. (I don’t know if I am, but I hope…) When we practiced, we planned a lot of stuff, as mentioned before, for example taking actions from signs. Our scene progressed well, I think, but I am satisfied myself. I don’t know if Amanda and Daniel are happy with what we did, but I guess they are.
What could you do to further improve your artistic process?
If I would work on the same scene, I can improve by researching various problems in an air flight. If I do, I can create further situations and make the scene more realistic. I can also research what happens if an acrophobic person looks out the window and sees cloud below. I can create various reaction and different conclusion from a single situation. I also can improve what wrote above on the section where we had to write about our strengths and weaknesses. I can fix the weaknesses, practice more, and learn how to be more confident on stage.
Overall, I am satisfied with my progress throughout the unit and what I have learned about mime, although I had some missing parts that I could cure from now on.

Empires Unit Reflection

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Keigo

Leo and Keigo England and Hong Kong

How do historical empires effect us today?

Empires effect us in lots of ways including language, religion of countries, cultures, land, rule and nationalism.

For instance, in Hong Kong, they use British spellings. (English) This is because, as shown above in the presentation Leo and I made, when the British took over Hong Kong, the british type of English was used, so Hong Kong learned it.

One effect is trade. In different countries, you find different types of restaurants. For example, in Japan, in Motomachi, there is a China Town. Also, in Japan, dishes as noodles and gyoza are really famous. These food all came from China. Special fact: The first person who ate Ramen in Japan is Mitsukuni Mito, who was the leader of the Mito clan. Currently, food from different countries are eaten in Japan. This an example of trade and culture exchange.