Amber's+music+DW

=Unit 1= =Week 1- A story through music= === We listen to a few music pieces and try to guess what the story or picture is through music. My favourite peice is "Comic Duet", as it was hilarious to hear to woman try to sound like cats. The picture is two cats drinking milk. === === We also did something called Silent Drama. We were divided into groups: Ruoming, Jeeyeoun, Jake and Michel; David, Jaehee, Jiwoo and Ellen; Bradley, Yejin and I. We listened to a music piece and we had to make a story, and then act it out. We decided the story to be a theif (Amber) who steals the person's(Bradley) scarf. The guy panics, and let goes of the scarf, making the theif fall down. The guy started running away and trips, injuring himself. He calls out for help, and a passer-by (Yejin) helps him up. The guy tells her about the stolen scarf, and the theif comes out, angry and afraid of being reported to the Police. The Passer-by gets angry, and grabs back the scarf, and hits the theif. The Passer-by then helps the guy stand up, and they run away. After that, Mr.Tompkins told us that they had to be a reason for what happens. So we decided it was in winter, and the thrif was cold, so when she saw the guy's scarf, she wanted it. When we acted it out, we realized it was too short. So we tried to make the story longer. We decided that the Passer-by and theif will argue, and start fighting, and the guy tries to break it out, and we freeze. I enjoyed it alot, but Yejin and I had a hard time trying not to laugh. ===  =Week 2- Acting it out= === We made a website on Weebly to put our thoughts and reflection, so it'll be easier for anyone to read the things we do in Music class on a website then in a workbook. But we then decided to put it on Wikispaces instead as it'll be easier to put pictures and type out our reflections on Wikispaces. === ===The setting is in winter. The story we made was about two people who went out for a walk. The person (Bradley) walked out from his home, when he found it a bit cold. He went back in and got a scarf, the other friend gets slightly annoyed with him, as he only took one for himself, and the friend was slightly cold herself. After a few minutes of walking, she ask if she could borrow his scarf. He don't want to, and she gets annoyed. They starts arguing, and then the friend grabs his scarf. they start pulling the scarf and the guy lets go of it, leading both of them to fall down. The friend then hides behind a wall when a concern passer-by comes and help him, and ask what happened. The guy tells her and the friend goes up to them. The guy points to the friend, telling the passer-by that thats the person that stolen his scarf. The passer-by gets mad and grab the scarf and threw it away. The friend gets mad and starts fighting with the passer-by. The guy then tries to break them up, and then the story ends. When we acted it out, many had wonder why it had just ended like that. We did that as since the music is repetitive and it ends by just fading out, we thought the story should also be like that. We also wanted it to be a cliffhanger, and make the audience think about it. === ===Ruoming, Jeeyeoun, Jake and Micheal's story was about a person (Micheal) who was late for work. He quickly ate his egg (egg shaker) and drove to work. His friend called and Micheal answered the phone. He didn't look at where he was going and knocked down a old man (Jake). Someone (Ruoming) comes and tries to help him, but the old man passed away. The person is sent to court and the Judge (Jeeyeoun) says he's guilty. In the background, the old man had turned into a ghost and floats behind the person who had caused his death. The story was interesting and fun to watch. But I didn't understand that the old man was a ghost at first; I thought he was just injured, and brought to court so he can tell his side of the story. I enjoyed the part when the person knocks down the old man, as they did that scene very well. === ===David, Ellen, Jaehee and Jiwoo's story was about a conflict in school. A person (David) was at school, and he puts his iPad and bag on a chair. A student (Jaehee) come up and steals the iPad, hiding it between his folders. The person comes up and finds out that his iPad was stolen. He goes and tells the principal (Ellen), making frantic hand gestures. The principal finds out that the student stoled it, and calls him and his mother (Jiwoo). The student then gives back the iPad to the person and the student forgives him. They shake hands and then they freeze. I think they acted the story out very well, but I didn't know Jiwoo was the theif's mother. I thought she had witness the scene and told the principal about it. I enjoyed the part where the person tells the principal about his stolen iPad, as David did look very worry. === 

=Week 3- Playing new tunes= ===We learned how to play to new melodies on the xylophone: 'Fireflies' and 'Popcorn'. It was fun playing them, but I found it hard for me to memorize 'Fireflies'. There were three parts in the song: The base, the melody, and the lead. The lead was played by David while Yejin played the bass. The rest of us played the melody. I couldn't really concentrate on playing two different notes at the same time. It was easier when I know the pattern of the song. I like the melody of 'Popcorn' as it seems to sound happier and was easier to play. I also found it hard to play the 'spicy' rhythm as it's faster. ===

=Week 4- 'Popcorn'= ===This week we changed the parts in 'Popcorn'. Now, Jeeyeoun and David will play the Alto xylophone part. In my opinion, it's the hardest part, as it's really fast as there's no pauses between the notes. Ye Jin will now play the keyboards, while Michel play the base xylophone. We also added a glockenspiel part to make it more interesting, which will be played by Bradley, Jiwoo and Jake. The rest of us will play the melody. I got used to playing the 'spicy' rhythm, but sometimes get confuse. I couldn't hear the glockenspiel as the keyboards and xylophone were too loud. I think Bradley, Ji Woo and Jake should play the glockenspiel part on the soprano xylophone, as it is higher and louder, making it easier to hear. The song first starts with only Ye Jin and David playing for 8 beats, and then Jeeyeoun comes in, playing the first part of the song twice, and then everyone comes in. After playing the first part twice, the glockenspiel will get a solo, with the keyboards and alto xylophone in the background. After they play it two times, we the move to the 'spicy rhythm', and it ends, as we don't have a coda yet. === 

=Week 5- Finishing the song= ===This week we finished fitting the whole song into place. Now, Jeeyeoun will first play the alto xylophone part for 8 beats, and then Ruoming and I will join in, playing the first part of the melody 2 times, and then everyone will join in, We'll play both parts of the melody, and then the guitar, bass and keyboards will keep playing, while everyone else stop. David will then play the melody, while the keyboards play the accompaniment; then they'll switch. After that, everyone else will come in, playing both parts again, but now playing the syncopated rhythm. The glockenspiel (Bradley, JIwoo, Jake) will then be featured, with the accompaniments playing in the background. After that, we play the first part of the melody again, but this time in the syncopated rhythm, and then we move the coda, where Jeeyeoun plays the accompaniment (8 beats), and then Jaehee and Ellen joins in, and plays D and F (8 beats), then Ruoming and I come in, playing A and F (16 beats) and everyone plays both Ds. The form of 'Popcorn' was very different from last week's. It was slightly confusing as now the song was longer and we had more parts to memorize, but it sounds better then last week's, and we collaborated better. I think 'Popcorn' is a good song as it uses a lot of electronic instruments, making it sound jazzy, and cool. There is something a melody that gets stuck to your head, like 'XOX'. ===

=Homework: Making a music piece= ===At first, I chose a picture of a scary forest and a enchanted forest, as I wanted to make a connection between both pictures. The story would be about a person who goes to a old village. A person (FX_Roboter2_RobotVoice.wav) warns the person that the forest is filled with dangerous creatures, but the person chose not to listen, and goes inside. A bass plays as the person walks into it. There are bass instruments playing, and animals can be heard. The person reaches the end of the forest, and finds a beautiful place. The music turns sweeter, and then ends. But I chose not to do it, as there are too little bass tunes on Soundation. So, I decided to just use the second image. I mostly use electronic music, as there are many tunes which sound as though it's from another world. ===

=Week 6- Making a story through music/ Practising 'Popcorn'= ===This week we listened to another music piece and thought of a story to act out. Jeeyeoun, Jiwoo, Ellen and Jaehee were in one group; Bradley, Ruoming and Jake in another group; David, Micheal and I in the last group. The music piece sound to me as though it was in winter or at a funeral, so we decided that the story would be about a rich person (Amber) who got stab in the back by a theif (MIcheal), while the police (David) saw the scene. Since the police was going home at that time, he did not bring anything (gun, bat, handcuffs etc. ) that can help him catch the murderer, he could only watch. The next day, both murderer and Police attended the funeral. The murderer also attended it, feeling guilty for what happened. After placing flowers onto the rich person's head, the police accused the murderer for murdering the person and brought him to the police station. The murderer kept denying, but at last confessed. ===

=Collaboration and Transfer= ===We had transfer what we learned from about counting the number of beats and the pattern from math to music. We collaborated by working together to play in harmony. ===

=Unit 2= =Week 1-Twinkle Twinkle Little Star= ===This week we listened to different versions of Happy Birthday. It was astonishing how such a simple song sung at a birthday party can turn into a tune for a tango, waltz etc. dance. I enjoyed listening to these songs as it was amazing that the main melody of the song was actually a song we heard of since a child, yet just by changing the rhythm, tempo, melody, dynamics and tonality, it could change our mood, and feelings. We learned how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars using different rhythms, and playing around with the tempo and tonality. We moved around counter-clockwise around the room, playing different parts of a version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars. I think I enjoyed the melody and bass part of the song the most as it is the easiest to keep up with. Some suggestions of the different versions we could do for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star were rock, and dubstep. It's harder to make new versions of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as since we're a small school, it's harder to find someone who knows how to play harmonica, banjo (for country music), saxophone (jazz) etc. ===

=Week 2- playing the drums= ===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This week we played the drums. We each had a drum with a different pitch, and had to arrange it in an order of lowest to highest. After arranging it in the correct order, one person would stand without a drum, and we had to arrange the drums around her/him in a semicircle. That person could play any beat or rhythm, as long as it follows the music Mr. Tompkins play. It was really fun and interesting as each drum makes a pitch higher or lower than the others. We started assigning parts to each other for the xylophone piece, and kept practicing. ===

=Week 3- Putting it together= ===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> This week, Mr. Tompkins told us that our performance would be call 'Star Wars'. He left the classroom so he could ask James to fix his iTunes, and left us to brainstorm for more ideas. We couldn't really think of any ideas, but thought that maybe Jake could die again as he did in one of our acts last unit. Mr.Tompkins also showed us a song called Big Yellow Taxi, which talks about how paradise was turned into a hotel. I like this song as it's very catchy and is trying to tell us humans what we are doing to the world and the animals. We didn't do much this week since we had our exams. ===

=Week 4- Star Wars= ===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> This week, we decided that at the starting of our performance, the Star Wars theme will play, and Jake would walk out as Darth Vader, waving his arms at everyone. He would than take two mallots, and show it to the audience. The song would stop playing, and Jake starts playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The audience would laugh (hopefully), and David would come up behind him as Yoda, striking him with a lightsaber from behind. Jake would fall down, and David goes to another xylophone, this time playing a spiced up version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. YeJin would than come out with the rest of the class (stormtroopers?) and banish David to the glockenspiel. Jake would stand up again, showing that he wasn't killed but stunned. We would than play a different version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. After we're done, we would take a bow, pretending it's the end of the performance. When the audience's cheers die down, Jake would than start playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star again. Yejin would then strike him down, and walks to a xylophone. This time playing a much quicker version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in anger, and we would all look at her in amazement. She would gesture us to join her, and we would play along softly with her. When the song starts to end, David and Ryan would start playing the rock version. We would then move to dub-step, though right now we don't really have a music piece for that. We would then all take a bow, and leave. Jake sneaks back to the xylophone, and as he raise his arm to start playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Yejin, or maybe Michael would strike him. Some of us were thinking that Jake could come back as an angel and then leave the stage. We also listened to a song called 'School's Out', === =Week 5-= ===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This week, we showed our performance to the M4-5 students. Sadly. they didn't have a really big reaction, which may be because of the fact that our performance might of been a little out of their target audience. We still have problems with getting costumes for the class, what we have searched for and looked on taobao fro are way too expensive fro what we need and nothing seems to be reasonable. On Thursday we also performed for P5 and that seemed to go a lot better than the MYP performance, i think they got the whole idea of Darth Vader being a evil villain playing a kids song, those where the actual words P5 used to express it. They found it funny, i could hear laughing, almost at every stage there was some kind of laughter involved. What remains to be done is still tidy and polish it out is the overall expression we are doing, so basically acting it out needs to be improved and our movements need to be much large for the audience to see with three hundred odd people watching. ===

=== This unit is about “themes and variations”. We are also doing a xylophone number called “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, as it applies to our unit, since we changed the simple song’s tempo, melody, dynamics, tonality and rhythm. In the end, we managed to create a whole new version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and managed to assign parts to everyone. ===

=== First, the Stars Wars theme song will play, indicating the starting of our performance. Next, Jake would come out wearing a Darth Vader mask and a black cape. Everyone will cheer or boo, as Jake will wave his arms above his head. He will then play the melody of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, and as everyone laugh, David would come up behind him and watch him play it, rolling his eyes and indicating to the audience that Jake is crazy. He would then pull out a lightsaber, and strike him from behind. David will then play a ‘spiced-up’ version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Yejin would then come out with the rest of the M2-3 students dressed as stormtroopers, and banish David to the guitar. We will then play a xylophone piece based on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We would bow, and as the audience claps, Jake would wave his arms as if he was the star. After the audience finish clapping, Jake would then start playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star again. Yejin would be furious, grab a lightsaber and strike him again. She will start to play a extremely quick tune of one of the xylophone pieces. We will all be amazed by it, and bow down to her. She will then play a quick tune on the xylophone, and we’ll all straighten up. She’ll then play the piece again, but this time with us playing a quicker version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as backup. Jeeyeoun would then go to the bass xylophone, and we would play a slower version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, as Yejin plays a new melody. As it ends, David and Ryan would then play a ‘rock’ version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, as we dance around, though we still are unsure of what dance we’ll be doing. At the end, as we danced out of the stage (in most likely a conga line), Jake will sneak away from us and as he raises his arm to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star again, Jaehee will strike him down for the last time, indicating the end to our performance. === === I enjoyed listening to the different versions of ‘Happy Birthday’ at the start of the unit as I truly found it astonishing how a simple song sung at birthday parties could turn into a tune for a tango, waltz, etc. dance. ===