Memorial Day Weekend

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.  Hope everybody has been enjoying the 4 day weekend.  All the students in the Freshman Orchestra have presented their stories, including myself.  I thought it would be fair to write my own story and present it to the class with my own matching sound effects.  Everybody seemed to enjoy it.  Right now I am continuing to work with them by playing bass.  Playing bass is pretty fun with 7 bassists.  It never gets boring. 

The first thing I did during break was actually on thursday night.  The youth orchestra I play with played at Alice Tully Hall.  I thought it was a great concert.  We played with assurance and a lot of musicality.  I myself had a lot of laughs with all of my friends.  There should be a review in the times in a couple of days about the concert.  I am confident there was a good review.  Well that's all I got for today.
Happy Memorial Day

Story Time Continued

The Freshman Orchestra made some pretty great stories.  As a surprise I thought it was fair to share the story I made up on my own with matching sound effects.  Surprisingly, they all liked the story.  They all made stories within less than a week.  The biggest challenge is teaching students who are only three years younger than me, but it's a lot of fun too.  Everyday is a new adventure with them.  All of the chaos makes me laugh after the class is over I just can't stop laughing as I'm writing about it. 

Story Time

The Freshman Orchestra is ready for some stories. They are going to be making up some stories in groups using their instruments. They are going to learn certain embellishments to use in their stories. I've made a list of a bunch of embellishments for the students to use. I've been looking forward to this project for a semester now. I can't wait believe this will start tomorrow

Telephone Livin On a Prayer!

The Freshman Orchestra sightread the arrangements of Telephone and Livin On a Prayer for String Orchestra.  I have to admitt I could not stop laughing.  Everybody got so excited when they played these classic pop tunes, especially the bassists.  They went a little overboard by rushing and playing so forte.  Three bassists and I laughed so hard, that I thought our laughs were louder than the rest of the orchestra playing.  We had a great time!   It was a great way to end my stressful week of 5 tests.  Good ole bassists. 

Music as a Universal Language

Yesterday, I realized music isn't necessarily a universal language.   Yes, everybody around the world has music in their culture.  But, your ear can cringe at sounds you have never heard before.  Yesterday, on Itunes I listened to some Classical Indian music, both (Northern and Southern).  At first I thought it was odd and I asked myself: "This is classical music?  Surprisingly the same country can have different music in two different regions as well.  Northern Indian Classical music is completely different from Southern Indian Classical Music.   But as I kept listening to it I heard embellishments from the Classical European music I play.  Indians probably cringe at European music, because their ears aren't use to the sounds.  I have started to research the different types of classical music all around the world and not just the typical European music I listen to.  Today I heard some samples of Chinese Classical music and enjoyed it.