After the Music and Literacy lesson, Ms Susanne taught us a new song orally. It was called "And This Shall Be For Music". The song was a bit high, too high for my liking. I tried singing it and couldn't reach a few high notes. Ms Susanne also let us try out a new singing method when we think we are like straws, or something like that. We imagined that our voices came out of our foreheads. I drew a diagram to explain that. (To see the diagram, please go to the sister website. The diagram is under "Date: 15-1-16 Singing Diagram".)
The song had quite a wide range and was moderately fast. The rhythm was easy to pick up and the piece was in quadruple time.
Then, Ms Susanne gave us the sheet music and arranged us in a semi-circle sort of formation. Half of that formation was allotted the soprano part, while the other half was allotted the alto part. I was originally in the soprano section, and as mentioned before, some notes were too high. Therefore, I switched parts to alto and the range was slightly lower.
Then we practiced the song until the time was up. It was difficult to concentrate on my part as the sopranos and the piano were quite loud. In the end, however, we still managed to do, okay, ish.
Ms Susanne released us early.
Thursday, 28 January 2016
Saturday, 23 January 2016
Date: 15-1-16 Music and Literacy Lesson with Ms Susanne
For our music and literacy lesson, we started out by stretching and shaking out the "stress and tension" from our muscles. Then, we each hummed a note or tone of which we were more comfortable to hum, and did some sort of jumping exercise. When we jumped or stood taller, the pitch that we hummed at rose, and when we crouched down, the pitch that we hummed at became lower.
After that, the whole class sang a few warm-up exercise. Ms Susanne wrote out a list of words on the whiteboard, with the lowest note being "so" and progressing to "do", 10 notes above the lowest note. She let us sing from the lowest "do" to "fa" and back to "do", then from "do" to "so" and so on so forth, till we would sing a full octave and back. I have learnt from Ms Susanne that we cannot stress our vocal cords. If we stress them, we can do them quite a bit of harm! (Gasp!) So, she told us that when the pitch became too high for us, we had to stop singing to avoid us doing harm to our vocal cords.
After that, Ms Susanne let us sing "All Things Shall Perish from Under the Sky". As the people from Percussion had not heard of that song before, she let the whole class start from scratch. In the beginning, I thought that I would actually not need this "revision", yet to be frank, I had forgotten most of the tune of this song. Thanks Ms Susanne!
Then, she let us sing that song in canon form, and this time it was more confusing as there was more people. I had to concentrate harder.
After singing that, Ms Susanne let us do dictation. She clapped out a rhythm and we had to say it out loud in the "ta ti-ti" pattern. She then let us write down a selected tune and we had to make up our own rhythm using only four notes: "do", "mi", "so" and the high "do". We could only use "ta" and "ta-a".
Since there was a shortage of time, Ms Susanne only chose one tune to showcase. She picked Shiroy's rhythm and chose Yau Wai to play the xylophone to keep time. The whole class had to sing out the tune and it was rather difficult!
I have learnt from this lesson that music students have to be spontaneous too. We have to learn to improvise to, for example, cover up mistakes. Also, we cannot stretch our limits as it may harm us. This is what I've learnt!
After that, the whole class sang a few warm-up exercise. Ms Susanne wrote out a list of words on the whiteboard, with the lowest note being "so" and progressing to "do", 10 notes above the lowest note. She let us sing from the lowest "do" to "fa" and back to "do", then from "do" to "so" and so on so forth, till we would sing a full octave and back. I have learnt from Ms Susanne that we cannot stress our vocal cords. If we stress them, we can do them quite a bit of harm! (Gasp!) So, she told us that when the pitch became too high for us, we had to stop singing to avoid us doing harm to our vocal cords.
After that, Ms Susanne let us sing "All Things Shall Perish from Under the Sky". As the people from Percussion had not heard of that song before, she let the whole class start from scratch. In the beginning, I thought that I would actually not need this "revision", yet to be frank, I had forgotten most of the tune of this song. Thanks Ms Susanne!
Then, she let us sing that song in canon form, and this time it was more confusing as there was more people. I had to concentrate harder.
After singing that, Ms Susanne let us do dictation. She clapped out a rhythm and we had to say it out loud in the "ta ti-ti" pattern. She then let us write down a selected tune and we had to make up our own rhythm using only four notes: "do", "mi", "so" and the high "do". We could only use "ta" and "ta-a".
Since there was a shortage of time, Ms Susanne only chose one tune to showcase. She picked Shiroy's rhythm and chose Yau Wai to play the xylophone to keep time. The whole class had to sing out the tune and it was rather difficult!
I have learnt from this lesson that music students have to be spontaneous too. We have to learn to improvise to, for example, cover up mistakes. Also, we cannot stretch our limits as it may harm us. This is what I've learnt!
Thursday, 21 January 2016
Date: 13-1-16 Music Lesson with Dr Manhart
Today, we summarised what we have learnt for folk songs. We also notated folk songs and explained why we thought they were folk songs. This will help us complete our assignment about folk songs that I have heard many rumours about.
Folk songs are simple in tune because their melodies generally have small intervals or scales. This is so that the song is easier to memorise and easy for everyone to sing. Most folk songs also have unknown composers as the songs are so old or popular that the composer is ignored. I personally think that this is very sad for the composer. After all, it was his work and he was forgotten.
Folk songs have simple lyrics and repetition in the lyrics. For example, in "London Bridge", the phrase "falling down" is used multiple times. The lyrics are mostly rhyming, as seen in "Row Row Row", when the words "stream" and "dream" are used as a rhyming couplet. These folk tunes also have insignificant content. Would the events of Mary bringing a lamb to school have a profound impact on us anyway?
Folk songs are meant to identify specific groups, such as your cultural, racial, national groups etc.
After we went over these points, Mr Manhart split us up into the groups we were in yesterday and let us choose a song to notate and elaborate on why it was considered a folk song. Our group, oddly enough, chose the same song as another group. I expected Mr Manhart to skip our group's presentation, however he let us present. This gave the whole class a small but valuable insight as to why some songs are more effective when written in one time signature as opposed to another.
Additionally, we cleared up a few misconceptions, such as rhythm vs speed. How are they different? Well, rhythm is either simple or difficult, while speed is the tempo of the music.
In conclusion, during this music lesson, I have learnt a lot and I hope that it is useful!
Folk songs are simple in tune because their melodies generally have small intervals or scales. This is so that the song is easier to memorise and easy for everyone to sing. Most folk songs also have unknown composers as the songs are so old or popular that the composer is ignored. I personally think that this is very sad for the composer. After all, it was his work and he was forgotten.
Folk songs have simple lyrics and repetition in the lyrics. For example, in "London Bridge", the phrase "falling down" is used multiple times. The lyrics are mostly rhyming, as seen in "Row Row Row", when the words "stream" and "dream" are used as a rhyming couplet. These folk tunes also have insignificant content. Would the events of Mary bringing a lamb to school have a profound impact on us anyway?
Folk songs are meant to identify specific groups, such as your cultural, racial, national groups etc.
After we went over these points, Mr Manhart split us up into the groups we were in yesterday and let us choose a song to notate and elaborate on why it was considered a folk song. Our group, oddly enough, chose the same song as another group. I expected Mr Manhart to skip our group's presentation, however he let us present. This gave the whole class a small but valuable insight as to why some songs are more effective when written in one time signature as opposed to another.
Additionally, we cleared up a few misconceptions, such as rhythm vs speed. How are they different? Well, rhythm is either simple or difficult, while speed is the tempo of the music.
In conclusion, during this music lesson, I have learnt a lot and I hope that it is useful!
Sunday, 17 January 2016
Date: 12-1-16 Music Lesson with Dr Manhart
Today we learnt some basic information about folk music.
Firstly, Dr Manhart let us try to name a few tunes or songs that we think everyone should know. Our answers included "Star Wars' Main Theme", "Twinkle Twinkle", "Row Row Row the Boat" and many others. Afterwards, he moved on to the subject of oral history.
Oral history is when we pass down something oral in nature to the next generation, for example a folk tale, a folk song or a poem. However, nowadays people prefer to use written history instead as it is more reliable than oral history. Dr Manhart told us a story of when he went to Indonesia to study a particular tribe. He wrote down the tribe's songs which were passed down trough oral history. A year (I think?) after he had left, the tribe was wiped out because of a hurricane. Therefore, both oral and written history have their pros and cons.
After that came the fun part! Dr Manhart split us into groups and instructed us to choose two of what we deemed "folk songs" to perform. My group consisted of Yau Wai, Callista, Irena and me. We chose "Row Row Row the Boat" and London Bridge is Falling Down", which oddly enough were the same songs that one of the other groups chose.
After the performances, we concluded that tradition selects the necessary. It whittles down a magnitude of songs until the best remain. The definition that Dr Manhart has given us for "traditional" is that it has been forwarded for more than two generations and it does not have a composer's name attached to it, because the song is so well-known that the composer is forgotten.
We also tried to identify the various aspects of folk music.
First of all, a folk song is meant to identify a particular political nationality, religion, race, culture, dialect, etc. For example, a Chinese folk song is taught orally to Chinese children, not Caribbean children or something.
Folk music is characterised by its simple, catchy tunes of which everyone can sing (inclusive of me. I have a terrible singing voice.) and memorise, easy lyrics, repetition, and its short length.
This is what we've learnt today.
Firstly, Dr Manhart let us try to name a few tunes or songs that we think everyone should know. Our answers included "Star Wars' Main Theme", "Twinkle Twinkle", "Row Row Row the Boat" and many others. Afterwards, he moved on to the subject of oral history.
Oral history is when we pass down something oral in nature to the next generation, for example a folk tale, a folk song or a poem. However, nowadays people prefer to use written history instead as it is more reliable than oral history. Dr Manhart told us a story of when he went to Indonesia to study a particular tribe. He wrote down the tribe's songs which were passed down trough oral history. A year (I think?) after he had left, the tribe was wiped out because of a hurricane. Therefore, both oral and written history have their pros and cons.
After that came the fun part! Dr Manhart split us into groups and instructed us to choose two of what we deemed "folk songs" to perform. My group consisted of Yau Wai, Callista, Irena and me. We chose "Row Row Row the Boat" and London Bridge is Falling Down", which oddly enough were the same songs that one of the other groups chose.
After the performances, we concluded that tradition selects the necessary. It whittles down a magnitude of songs until the best remain. The definition that Dr Manhart has given us for "traditional" is that it has been forwarded for more than two generations and it does not have a composer's name attached to it, because the song is so well-known that the composer is forgotten.
We also tried to identify the various aspects of folk music.
First of all, a folk song is meant to identify a particular political nationality, religion, race, culture, dialect, etc. For example, a Chinese folk song is taught orally to Chinese children, not Caribbean children or something.
Folk music is characterised by its simple, catchy tunes of which everyone can sing (inclusive of me. I have a terrible singing voice.) and memorise, easy lyrics, repetition, and its short length.
This is what we've learnt today.
Saturday, 16 January 2016
Date: 8-1-16 Chamber Music Lesson with Miss Susanne
Today we had our first lesson with Miss Susanne.
When we started our lesson, Miss Susanne let us try out an exercise that let us breathe, and to make our rib-cages bigger, something like that. After trying out the exercises, not only did my lungs and rib-cages feel more "used" in a sense, I also felt as is a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Miss Susanne mentioned that while playing a musical instrument, in order to connect with the piece of music we are playing, we have to breathe in time and at the right places. I myself had made the mistake of trying not to breathe at all when I play, so this exercise has been very beneficial to me. I have tried this exercise before playing my cello and it made me feel much more relaxed.
The next exercise that she let us try was to improve our posture. I agree with her thinking that nowadays, people feel more stress as we are living in a fast-paced society. Thus, amongst many things, their posture is affected. The exercise involved us bending down with our bodies relaxed, and slowly moving up and eventually standing up straight. While following Miss Susanne's instructions, I felt slightly curious as to where she learnt these methods or exercises. I think this exercise is important for me to learn, as many people say that my posture is bad. I think that I have to practice this exercise more often to combat my worsening posture.
Miss Susanne then asked us to sing songs such as "Blue jeans etc.", "All things shall perish from under the sky etc.", and "Springtime etc.". She fired off the lyrics and the tunes at a fast pace, so fast that we (the class) were very confused. She also explained the structure of each song while she was teaching them. I think her purpose for teaching these songs in such a short time was to test our brains' rhythmical and work memory.
She also let us sing these songs in canon form, and this was really confusing to me and possibly my friends, because the song was picked up by us in such a short time ad concentrating on my part when the others are singing differently is really difficult. I think Ms Susanne's purpose was to let us learn how to concentrate.
Next, she let us walk according to the meter of the song while singing it. For example, when we sang "All things shall perish from under the sky, etc", we had to walk in triple meter as the piece of music was written in triple meter. Although this may sound easy to people who have not done this, I assure you, it is not. Walking in meter is difficult because while singing it, you may want to walk according to the melody, not the meter.
The last thing Ms Susanne did was telling us to take our notebooks out and to practice dictation. She would clap out a rhythm and we would imitate the rhythm while she started a new rhythm. We had to listen very carefully in order to get the rhythm right.
Lastly, Ms Susanne clapped out a rhythm and we had to note it down.
When we started our lesson, Miss Susanne let us try out an exercise that let us breathe, and to make our rib-cages bigger, something like that. After trying out the exercises, not only did my lungs and rib-cages feel more "used" in a sense, I also felt as is a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Miss Susanne mentioned that while playing a musical instrument, in order to connect with the piece of music we are playing, we have to breathe in time and at the right places. I myself had made the mistake of trying not to breathe at all when I play, so this exercise has been very beneficial to me. I have tried this exercise before playing my cello and it made me feel much more relaxed.
The next exercise that she let us try was to improve our posture. I agree with her thinking that nowadays, people feel more stress as we are living in a fast-paced society. Thus, amongst many things, their posture is affected. The exercise involved us bending down with our bodies relaxed, and slowly moving up and eventually standing up straight. While following Miss Susanne's instructions, I felt slightly curious as to where she learnt these methods or exercises. I think this exercise is important for me to learn, as many people say that my posture is bad. I think that I have to practice this exercise more often to combat my worsening posture.
Miss Susanne then asked us to sing songs such as "Blue jeans etc.", "All things shall perish from under the sky etc.", and "Springtime etc.". She fired off the lyrics and the tunes at a fast pace, so fast that we (the class) were very confused. She also explained the structure of each song while she was teaching them. I think her purpose for teaching these songs in such a short time was to test our brains' rhythmical and work memory.
She also let us sing these songs in canon form, and this was really confusing to me and possibly my friends, because the song was picked up by us in such a short time ad concentrating on my part when the others are singing differently is really difficult. I think Ms Susanne's purpose was to let us learn how to concentrate.
Next, she let us walk according to the meter of the song while singing it. For example, when we sang "All things shall perish from under the sky, etc", we had to walk in triple meter as the piece of music was written in triple meter. Although this may sound easy to people who have not done this, I assure you, it is not. Walking in meter is difficult because while singing it, you may want to walk according to the melody, not the meter.
The last thing Ms Susanne did was telling us to take our notebooks out and to practice dictation. She would clap out a rhythm and we would imitate the rhythm while she started a new rhythm. We had to listen very carefully in order to get the rhythm right.
Lastly, Ms Susanne clapped out a rhythm and we had to note it down.
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