Reflections

5 April 2011
For today, this was the first day of term 4. We learned about our next assessments, which are the essay and survey and also making a jingle for a business product. We also looked at the assessment book for the dates of each assignment. Later on, we will practice for the group jazz assessment which we could not do last term. My group's song is Summertime.

12 April 2011
For today, I submitted my report about the survey of the impact of music on society, along with some of my classmates. Also, there was a discussion about the Finale draft for the jingle music. I am planning to make a jingle for either arts and crafts or a preschool. Next, I will practice for the group performance of the jazz song, since my group didn't really synchronize the timing well with each other. I also need more practice to create the improvisation.

28 April 2011
Group 1: Too quiet at the start. Backup (second voice) is not that easy to hear. A lot of variety in the vocal range of the song.

Group 2: Pitch didn't sound right, there was something a little bit wrong with it. The volume isn't equal throughout the group.

Group 4: Good song for the vocal range. The tempo needs some work towards the end, since it starts to fall apart a little.

Group 5: Te lyrics were used. The pitch sounds a little bit off at some times. The timing is also okay, but could use some practice.

Group 6: The volume isn't the same (one singer cannot be heard very well) but used 2 voices, which sounded nice.

Group 7: The pitch is good but the distribution is not even. One person was doing a lot more singing than the other.

Group 8: (not yet)

Today, we  had an assessment for group singing. We had to sing a song as either a duet or a group. My partner was Yovita and we sung a song called Just Be Friends. The performance wasn't that bad but we think we could use some improvement, but I don't know if we will be able to increase our score if we sing again in two weeks. Maybe we will try again later once we have practiced more.

3 May 2011
Today, we had some time to comment on a classmate's finale jingle. I will have to download finale again because my file cannot be opened. Then, after that, we listened to the final singing group who couldn't perform before. Also, the last assessment is scheduled for the next two weeks. I will have to practice my part in Summertime because we changed the improvisation part a little bit.

5 May 2011
Group 1: The singing is good but the timing isn't consistent and the violin is too quiet.

Group 3: The improv is good and the tempo is mostly good, but the intro wasn't done at the same time and the pitch is a little bit strange. A little more coordination and practice is needed but it is already very good.

Today, we did a rehearsal for our jazz group performance. I think that our group had some improvement since the last time, and I think that once we have practiced more, we could do better. I have to work more on the improvisation and practice with the group more but I think it was good since we haven't got a chance to fully practice together. I will be working with Yovita to help improve the improvisation.

10 May 2011
Today, we watched a video of ourselves in our jazz group rehearsal. I think that from watching my performance again, I could have changed some things to make it better. Then, I also got some advice on my jingle so I can improve the final version. I also listened to my classmates' jingles. Next, I will go rehearse with my group to improve our jazz performance so we can achieve a better score for the final assessment.

12 May 2011
Today, we listened to the songs of the classmates who wanted to redo their group singing assessment. There were not that many students who wanted to redo their singing. Today was also the date for the final submission of the finale jingle. The thing that I felt was the most stand out would be the practice for jazz performance, which we had afterwards.

19 May 2011
For today, I received my scores for the third term assessments. I am mostly satisfied with them, but my score for the blog reflection wasn't as good as the other scores for other assessments. The next thing that we did was to have a new rehearsal. It didn't go quite well since the arrangement of the song was changed again and we didn't get that much practice as a group. The main problem we had was with tempo and collaboration.

24 May 2011
The jazz group assessment was today. We had a lot to practice on before the time for my group to perform. The other part was listening to the other groups perform their songs. I think they were quite good, though the I Got Rhythm group could have done better on their performance. Then, I finished the reflection paper for the assessment and received the music developmental workbook. I felt that this performance was quite good since we managed to use the new improvisation to fix our performance. We could have done better but I am somewhat satisfied with the product of our practice.