Music
What do I like about music?
I like playing it, more so than listening to it. I play guitar a little bit. I've made a few of my own songs, but nothing that interesting. I like how, when someone is playing an instrument (such as taiko drums, my favorite instrument), you can feel it in your chest as well as hear it. I like when a song is full of different emotions that feed and blend into each other at the edges (kind of like the picture at left, which is from About.com's entry on paint blending).
What do I want from this class?
I want an environment that forces me to play music, a lot. I've picked up my guitar exactly twice since the end of the last school year, and I want to be playing more. I don't usually make time for music, and I want to.
What previous experience do I have?
I took a yearlong guitar class last year. I'm lousy at bar chords, but I like to play. It takes me a long while, but I can pretty much read music (in treble, for guitar notes). I can also read tablature (tab). I have trouble figuring out strum patterns by ear, but once I learn them I'm okay. Please don't make me sing. I really don't like singing, and I'm terrible at it, especially in public.
What are my favorite genres of music?
I like some folk, some rock, and some folk rock :) Three of my favorites: Mumford and Sons, Regina Spektor, and Owl City.
I like playing it, more so than listening to it. I play guitar a little bit. I've made a few of my own songs, but nothing that interesting. I like how, when someone is playing an instrument (such as taiko drums, my favorite instrument), you can feel it in your chest as well as hear it. I like when a song is full of different emotions that feed and blend into each other at the edges (kind of like the picture at left, which is from About.com's entry on paint blending).
What do I want from this class?
I want an environment that forces me to play music, a lot. I've picked up my guitar exactly twice since the end of the last school year, and I want to be playing more. I don't usually make time for music, and I want to.
What previous experience do I have?
I took a yearlong guitar class last year. I'm lousy at bar chords, but I like to play. It takes me a long while, but I can pretty much read music (in treble, for guitar notes). I can also read tablature (tab). I have trouble figuring out strum patterns by ear, but once I learn them I'm okay. Please don't make me sing. I really don't like singing, and I'm terrible at it, especially in public.
What are my favorite genres of music?
I like some folk, some rock, and some folk rock :) Three of my favorites: Mumford and Sons, Regina Spektor, and Owl City.
Quarter Update!
We're almost half way through the semester, so I thought I'd write a little bit about what I've been doing in class. Everyone practiced a designated instrument on a given song (mine was guitar, playing the song "Shake Me Down"). Then we formed bands of 3-4 members. My band is called The Flying Pennies. It is made up of Raphael, Maritza, Arian, and, of course, yours truly. Here they are:
Band Update, End of the Year
The Flying Pennies have done stuff! We've played a bunch of songs (including Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer and Scar Tissue by the Red Hot Chili Peppers). We've even WROTE a few songs, including Twisted Broken Earth (which we performed at an outdoor mini-conference attended by parents, teachers, and classmates), an unnamed yet awesome song wherein all four of us played bongo drums (TAIKO, I WILL GET TO YOU EVENTUALLY), and several other mostly instrumental songs. Our final song of the year, the song we played at the end-of-year Exhibition, focused on the international social issue of human trafficking. Arian played piano, Maritza sang, and Raphael and I both played guitar and sang.