Month: December 2018

This week, I will talk about the monthly concerts mommy and I go to. Last month, we went to a pretty bland concert that wasn’t as memorable as this one. The December was Christmas themed instead of art themed.

During the day of the concert, I asked if anyone wanted to take my place for the concert. Honestly, I didn’t really want to go. I rather play games or read a book than listen to a concert. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a replacement and had to go. When we got to the concert hall we couldn’t get to our seats. Mommy and I left early for the pre-show like we did for the last concert. However this time, there wasn’t a pre-show and we spent 30 minutes waiting for the show to start. Fortunately, while we were waiting, there was an a cappella group to entertain us.

When we were finally allowed in, I immediately fell asleep. The first act was a song that had multiple parts and wasn’t that interesting in my opinion. By the time intermission rolled around, I had a sore neck, and because of that, I stayed awake for the rest of the concert. Fortunately for me, the rest of the songs in the second half were way more iconic. They played songs like jingle bells, Santa Claus comes to town, and many other famous Christmas carols. The a cappella group from earlier even joined in and sang a few songs. To end of the concert, they performed one of those stories. I found it very interesting, there would be a storyteller to tell a story. In between lines, the orchestra and a cappella group would perform a song. It was a weird combination that worked.

Overall, I found this concert to be more enjoyable than the last one. If I had to rank all the concerts from best to worst, this one would be in first place. If I could change one thing, it would be staying awake for the first part. I was honestly was really tired when we got to the concert hall and couldn’t stay awake. In the end, this was probably the best and festive concert so far.

This week, I will be talking about a concert called winter on the green. In my previous blogs, I have always talked about concerts from the audience’s perspective. However, this time I was one of the performers. So instead of talking about how I felt about the music, I will be explaining the pieces we played and the process of how we got ready.

First, I will be talking about the pieces. The first piece we played was a song called pieces of eight. Although the name doesn’t suggest it, it’s a pirate song. It’s a very fast pace piece, and I will admit, I messed up the most on this one. Pieces of eight, was also the shortest song at one page long. The second piece we played was a song called avalanche. Out of all the pieces, I probably played this one the best, as I spent more time on it. Unfortunately, there are these two bars near the end of the piece that I keep messing up. During the concert, I messed up on the two bars but luckily no one noticed. The avalanche piece was the second longest piece we played at around two pages. Finally, the longest piece we played was the meledy composition. Unlike the other pieces, this piece was created by our grade 12 classmates. The piece was basically a big mishmash of different music. There were parts from songs like canon, despacito, flower dance, and others. Out of all the songs that were a part of this composition, I liked flower dance the most. It was a shame that right after flower dance we were playing despacito because the genres are so different.

Now, I will talk about the process of how the concert worked. Unlike the rest of my family, I had to arrive earlier. The teacher made it clear she wanted all of us at school by 6 o’clock. The reason for this was so we could tune, practice, etc. After arriving, I went to the music room to tune and practice. I will admit it was quite boring and noisy. After around 30 minutes, I just read until the concert began. At around the same time, I saw a friend who was also participating in the concert. We said hello but didn’t have a deep conversation because she was in another room. The teachers decided to split the band and the string instrument between the two music rooms. The reason for this was because there were too many students. However, there were a few exceptions, seeing as a flute group ended up practicing in the same room as us. When it was our turn, I was really nervous. Which made my hand sweat a lot. As we made our way to our seats, the cellos blocked the way to my seat. This required my stand partner and me, to go around the cellos, which was not something we practice during rehearsal. The actual performance went well for the most part. After we left the stage, some members of the performance left to go see the rest of the concert. While others left the school entirely to go home. I ended up just waiting in the music room reading. The room also had a live feed, so I could always see who was on. Near the end, I got bored and decided to watch the remaining performances.

Overall, I had a very fun time. However, this isn’t something I would do again, one time was enough. After this experience, I think I prefer being in the audience than the performer. In the end, I enjoyed the experience and I found the concert entertaining.

This week I will be talking about the plane I created in construction tech. I am quite proud of my work and I will explain the process of making it and how I feel about the final project. When I first started the project I initially started with pine wood. However, since our teacher had some stored away, he let us use a variety of other woods to create our toys. Unfortunately, I already constructed the base of my toy plane and I didn’t want to remake it. Instead, I asked the teacher for some maple and oak (I think) to make the wings and other parts that would be glued to the plane. Unlike other projects, I knew I probably wouldn’t have time to stain the plane due to time. The actual process of making the plane was quite enjoyable and easier than I would have thought. The hardest and most annoying part would probably be the circle at the front. The reason for this is because cutting a perfect circle on the band saw is harder than it looks. I ended up with a weird oval shape instead of a circle. But it was made from a hardwood which is more valuable and looks better than pine, so I didn’t want to remake it. However, the most concerning process to me was the gluing. By this point using the power tools and sanding was easy but gluing was still a challenge. Every time I use the glue, there would always be some overspill ruining the project in my opinion. Fortunately, that didn’t happen and I added the polyurethane. However, before I could finish disaster struck when I dropped the plane and its wings came apart. This little mistake probably added one or two days of work. Thankfully I still managed to finish and I’m quite proud of my plane.

Although I’m proud of my plane, I’ll admit its not perfect. Due to all the drops, there are a lot of dent marks. I also would have like to poly the wheels but time wouldn’t allow. I could also probably list a whole bunch of things that I wish I could have done/improve on for this project. But I realize these mistakes are important lessons that I should incorporate into my next project. As for what I want to do with the plane I don’t really know. I initially intended to give it as a Christmas gift, but it turned out way better than I imagined it to. In the end, I’m stuck between whether I should keep it or give it away but I’ll probably come up with an answer soon.

Overall, I like my plane very much and I enjoyed the process of making it. During its creation, I have learned many important lessons I wish to incorporate into my later project. In the end, I happy how the plane turned out and I can’t wait for the next project.

This week, I will be talking about the instrument I have been playing in music class up till now, the viola. First, I will explain what a viola is because it is one of the lesser known instruments in the string family. In terms of look, it’s very similar to the violin. The reason for this is because they have similar sizes, with the viola being slightly larger. Another reason people mistake the two is that a viola are also held in the same way as a violin. However, I believe that the viola is more akin to the cello. I think this because the two instruments share the same strings the only diffrence is they are an octave apart. Meaning a viola can play a cello song, but it would sound high. The two instruments also share a similar role having to support the orchestra. Both of them are in the background supporting the violins and occasionally come out to carry the melody as well. There is one thing that makes the viola different from the other two instruments, and that is alto clef. Which can be kind of troublesome because there is no other instrument in the orchestra that uses alto clef.

I actually don’t mind fading into the background, because if I screw up, it’s not very likely people will hear it. Playing the bass line most of the time also means I have easier sheet music. Which makes the music easier to play, but its also very frustrating. For example, if I practice a song, it might not even sound similar to the actual song. Since it doesn’t sound like a song and just a bunch of notes, it’s hard to tell if I’m improving. However, when I play in class it feels like I’m actually doing something which feels very satisfying.

At the beginning of music, I didn’t really care about what instrument I got. A week into music and I began to regret choosing viola because it was a pain learning alto clef. However, after I got a hang of alto clef and the viola, it’s quite a fun instrument to play. Unfortunately, I don’t think this knowledge will be useful for me in the future because I don’t plan on taking music again.