In humanities class, we made short “want to know” presentations about global warming. Here is the link to mine.
On the last slide of the presentation, we wrote a short speech that I have recorded below:
Last week we had a visitor come to our school and perform for us during music class. He played the shakuhachi, which is a wooden Japanese vertical flute. The koto teacher and another koto player came as well, and they performed a few songs together. We had to think about the question ‘What makes music sound like it belongs to a particular part of the world?’, as we are starting a new unit.
Other than the koto and shakuhachi, we also got to hear the shamisen, a three-string instrument that resembles a banjo without frets. During the class, the three people performed a few songs, one of which was modern, one old, and one originally written by the visitor. The songs were quite long, but it was interesting to hear the style of music, and to try to find out what made them sound Japanese. Part of the answer to that was the pitch and scale of the notes the instruments play, and also the fact that the sound vibrates as the instrument is played.
I think that out of the three the instrument I liked the most was the shakuhachi, because I had never heard it before, and it had an interesting history in both Japanese and Chinese culture. The visitor also brought various sizes of the flute, with the larger ones having a deeper sound, and the smaller ones are higher. It was also interesting because it is in many ways both similar and different to western music. For example, it is a type of flute and is played similarly, but it has a more natural sound, and it obviously looks different, being vertical. It was really nice to learn more about Japanese music, and it was great to meet the talented visitor. I hope we do more things like this in music in the future!
In humanities class, Layna and I made a Wordle about Child Labor:
Made on Wordle
The bigger words are things that we thought of with Child Labor, such as ‘industrialrevolution’ and ‘dangerous’. The smaller words that are harder to read are all the products made from Child Labor nowadays, the bigger of those in the top 25 products. Also if you noticed the continents, the size of the words depended on how many countries of that continent have Child Labor. We got this data from a website called Products of Slavery, created by the human rights organization, Anti-Slavery International. They are a charity that is working to end all forms of modern slavery around the world, including Child Labor. We made this Wordle to try to make people aware of modern Child Labor and how it is affecting the world.
In art class, we have just finished a unit on line drawing called “Make Your Mark”. The unit question was “How can we communicate visually?” and the significant concepts were “What are the big ideas?” and “What do we want our students to retain for years into the future?”. We started by copying some line drawings by artists such as Van Gogh, then we practiced different line techniques to use in our final drawings. When we started working on them, the first thing we did was take a few pictures and put them together in different ways, experimenting with the layout and placement of everything until we found something we were pleased with.
I think that my first line drawings were not bad, but I didn’t really understand the fact that you use different line techniques, and it isn’t good to outline things completely. When I was originally drawing I was literally looking at one part and trying to duplicate it perfectly, and that can be harder than just taking the basic idea and trying to use a similar technique. I think that practicing the line techniques separately really helped me to improve the skills that I had and learn many new ones. By the time I got to my final drawing, I had a much greater understanding of how to portray different tones and textures, especially when using the techniques of scumble and stipple. I also think that the texture of my shed looked better than I imagined when I looked back at it.
My first line drawing.
My final line drawing.
I think one of the things that really helped me improve was my confidence in the drawing. At first I was really afraid that I would mess up everything, which made it harder to finish anything. This is why I didn’t get even close to finishing my practice drawings. I do admit that the first time I put the marker down on the page of the final drawing I still had that terrified feeling, but once I got used to it and knew what I was doing, there was so much more space for my own creativity to come in. I think that one of the things I did best in my line drawing was the mountains behind the shed; I did a good job of showing the light source. I also think that I drew the tree on the left quite well, but it was a very challenging thing to draw, as there were little opportunities to use tone.
Obviously I still feel that there are many areas for improvement in my drawing. I think that my drawing is too dark in some places, for example when the grass on the left below the mountains nearly blends in with the tree and in a way, ruins the effect. I feel like the grass is almost a bit too mechanical as well, in quite straight lines following the exact same pattern over and over. I also feel like the technique in the sky is good, but I didn’t draw carefully enough and was a bit careless, because the lines get very crooked and the spaces between quickly change from being too small to too big. Instead of this I should have taken more time to check back on the proportions. I also think I could have improved on different aspects of the stairs, because the line technique of the wood changes after a few steps. Also, the proportions of the stairs get a bit strange towards the middle, with some of them being longer than the ones at the front, which contradicts the composition of my drawing.
Overall, I am quite proud of myself, even with all the areas I could have improved in. Considering that this was the first real line drawing I’ve done, I think that I did a good job. No matter what your skills are, everyone can create something so simple and still wonderful. In my opinion, the most amazing thing about this is how much one person can do with a simple black marker.
This is a blues song I wrote:
If you can’t hear it very well, here are the lyrics:
Losing everyone I’ve got
They’re all moving away
Losing everyone I’ve got
They’re all moving away
One by one my friends are gone but
Every time I stay
Brand new faces every day but
Too many goodbyes
Brand new faces every day but
Too many goodbyes
Pages turning day by day
Until this chapter dies
Memories come pushing through just
Wanting to be free
Memories come pushing through just
Wanting to be free
Out of darkness, left the heartless
Come to visit me
In our unit we have been learning about three different types of blues: Delta blues, Memphis blues and Chicago blues. There are many similarities and differences between the three, even though they are all part of the same genre.
The Delta blues is one of the earliest forms of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, which is where it gets its name from. The main instruments used for this genre are the guitar and the harmonica, and the vocal style has a large variety, anything between soulful and passionate. Delt9a blues has probably been around for quite a while, but it was first recorded in the 1920s. Earlier recordings were mainly only one person both singing and playing an instrument, but later bands started becoming more popular, especially for live performances.
The Memphis blues is a genre that was created between the 1910s and 1920s in the Memphis area of Tennessee. There are more instruments used typically than the Delta blues, including the electric guitar, the drums, the piano, the harmonica and obviously vocals. The lyrics generally describe a depressed or sad mood, but it has been a big influence on electric blues, rock and roll, blues rock and heavy metal music. Memphis blues also used many simple and homemade instruments, which help to create the danceable, syncopated rhythm. There were many famous Memphis blues performers, including B. B. King and Howlin’ Wolf.
The Chicago blues originated in Chicago, Illinois in the first half of the twentieth century as a result of the Great Migration. It was made by taking the Delta blues and increasing the volume or amplifying different instruments. Because of this, the main instruments in Chicago blues are the electric guitar, the harmonica, the drums, the piano, the bass guitar and sometimes the saxophone. One of the things Chicago blues is known for is its heavy rolling bass. It started out as music that was mainly played just on streets, but as its popularity grew, it became an actual business. The style of music spread towards Europe, becoming the inspiration of several English rock bands. The scale of Chicago blues is longer than the original blues scale, using notes from other genres to make it similar to jazz, but still blues. Some famous Chicago blues artists are Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy.
As you can see there are many similarities between these three music styles, especially between the instruments used in each one. Several performers were famous for more than one style, for example Howlin’ Wolf, who played all three genres. There are also differences, for example how each blues style originated. From learning about the Delta, Memphis and Chicago blues, I discovered that the styles influenced each other and used things from different genres to create a new one. I think that that is quite an interesting thing, because it proves how important inspiration can be.
In conclusion, I think that blues is a very complicated but still interesting genre, considering its history. It has had an extremely important influence in modern music, and it should not be overlooked by other genres just because it has become less popular. It made a big difference, and it needs to take credit for that.
One of the first things we needed to learn in our blues unit of music class was a standard blues scale:
La Rotonde Montparnasse
1. Historical background of your café
In Drama, our unit is currently about speech-making, similar to one of our units last year. For our first speech, we had to talk between one and two minutes about something we are passionate about, or something we can easily talk about for that amount of time. Unlike other speeches, we were not allowed to use cue cards, so we had to memorize it, or at least memorize the basic idea of the speech. I decided to make my speech about books, because I love reading, and I didn’t think it would be very hard to make a speech on them. We also made a second speech on a given topic (either my neighborhood, the best day of my life, fashion, holidays or celebrities). For that one I chose to do holidays, although I think that my first speech was the best. Here is the video:
7C Drama: 1 Min Speeches from YIS Arts on Vimeo.
Out of the six modulation devices, volume, projection, pitch, pace, pause, emphasis and inflection, I think that my best one in this speech was pause. I am actually quite surprised about this, because last year I think that one of the things I always needed to work on was pause, I would always rush and run everything together to finish as fast as possible. I think that maybe this time I was more conscious of the length of my speech, because I had been worried that it would be too short. In this speech I used pause for several different reasons, for example listing things and leaving a break between different topics.
Of course I still have a lot of things to work on, and I think the main thing I need to improve on from this speech is volume. For some of the speech it was good, but sometimes I got too loud or too quiet. When I was speaking I tended to start a sentence loud and well, but then towards the end the energy would just die down and my voice would become little more than an undecipherable mumble. When that happened I started speaking faster as well as quieter, making it even harder to understand what I was saying. I think this is because I would forget what I was about to say, and then try to quickly get through what I did remember.
If you would like to see this one as well, here is a video of my second speech:
7C Drama: Given Topic Speech from YIS Arts on Vimeo.
Another speech which was captivating in my opinion was Layna’s given topic speech. It was obviously very well prepared, and she had a lot of points to talk about while she was presenting. I liked the way that she sounded quite confident, but still not too confident while she was talking, because it gave the impression that she was relaxed but still focused. It was also quite an interesting speech for me to watch, because she chose the same topic as me, but interpreted it in a completely different way and talked about her favorite holiday instead of just the general subject. Here is her speech:
7C Drama: Given Topic Speech from YIS Arts on Vimeo.
For me our first speech was both easy and difficult, because it was easy to talk about, but we didn’t get anything to help us while we were making the speech. I think that even though speech making is hard, it is a skill that everyone needs to learn to use in the future, so I hope that I improve throughout the rest of the unit and as I get older and have more practice with it.
In humanities class, we just finished an assignment where we had to show the changes in a town from before the Industrial Revolution to after the Industrial Revolution:
Before the Industrial Revolution
After the Industrial Revolution
