February 27 - March 2

Reflection Question: How do I practice and apply my 12 bar blues at home?

Subject/Topic: 12 Bar Blues

At the moment, I have a lot of homework from other subjects which makes it hard for me to play piano even to practice this jazz piece. Its really hard to keep up with all the work and assessments because most of the works are going in the report card so I have to do my best with them first then finish the rest of the homework. I will do my work faster so I can practice my song and update my blog even if its once a week.

Instrument Class:

Topic/What I learnt in instrument class: 12 Bar Blues

We all practiced our 12 bar blues. We also played our song in an order. So whenever someone is playing their solo, the others will play the chord. It is quiet confusing because there's four of us and we did not know what bar we have to play. 

February 20 - February 24

Reflection Question: Did you face any challenges working on your 12 bar blues?

Subject/Topic: 12 Bar Blues

I dont really have a problem with creating the 12 bar blues but I do have a problem with the application used, Finale. I can't crack the application so I have to do it on my friend's laptop. And because I was doing it in school, I have to bring the file home and print it. I tried downloading Finale Reader but its not read-able because my friend's Finale's version is 2011 and I can only download the 2008 Finale Reader version. So I have to screen shots the whole thing and paste it on word. It makes the notes hard to see but I'll work with it. 

Instrument Class:

Topic/What I learnt in instrument class: 12 Bar Blues

I practiced my 12 bar blues with the help of Mr Herry. Its quiet hard to play the left hand because the right hand itself is hard to play so its very difficult to concentrate on both hand to play the right notes, especially with the flat, dotted notes and rests added to the song.

February 13 - February 17

Reflection Question: How is my understanding of blues and applying 12 bar blues?

Subject/Topic: 12 Bar Blues

I still don't get the blues because Mr Herry only showed us blues in piano and its quiet hard to understand. The blues is also hard to play because there's a lot of rests and dotted notes involved which changes the whole melody of the song. I think the song is played pretty well even though we can only three different scale (C, G and F) to make the whole song.

Instrument Class:

Topic/What I learnt in instrument class: 12 Bar Blues

I practiced my left hand part of my 12 bar blues while Mr Herry played the right hand part. I think my song sounds pretty good. I definitely need more practice on my left hand though. 

February 6 - February 10

Reflection Question: How do you understand the learning of jazz through your assessment tasks done until now?

Subject/Topic: Singing Assessment (I Got Rhythm or What A Wonderful World)

I think I learn a lot about jazz with all the assessments I have done now. I didn't even know "What A Wonderful World" is a jazz song until I have to sing a jazz song and Mr Herry let us choose between "What A Wonderful World" and "I Got Rhythm". I definitely am more interesting in jazz after doing all the assessments and researches. 

Instrument Class:

Topic/What I learnt in instrument class: The Blues

Mr Herry showed us how to play the chords and introduced to us Blues. Its really difficult to play it. 

January 30 - February 3

Reflection Question: How did I do my essay and how did it affect me when learning and applying jazz?

Subject/Topic: (Introduction of) Jazz

By doing more research about jazz for my essay, I know more about jazz. I was doing the essay in a hurry so its only about 250 words. It is still difficult to apply jazz in real life and because of that, I am still learning how to play it better.

Instrument Class:

Topic/What I learnt in instrument class: Singing Assessment Practice

We practiced singing the songs "I Got Rhythm" and "What A Wonderful World" for the upcoming assessment. 

January 23 - January 27

Reflection Question: How is my progress in learning the roots of jazz?

Subject/Topic: (Introduction of) Jazz

I think I learn more about jazz after being given handouts about jazz. Before this discussion, I didn't really know anything about jazz. After learning the introduction of jazz, I now know the history of jazz, the big band era etc.

Instrument Class:

Topic/What I learnt in instrument class: Music Piece: All of Me

We all learned about the chord progression last week from the song 'All of Me' and we also learned about the 7th chord. After practicing along with mr Herry, I write my reflection. 

January 16 - January 20

Reflection Question: How did you find the topic of jazz and how did the teacher do it?
Subject/Topic: (Introduction of) Jazz

At first, Im not a really big fan of jazz but since my teacher showed all of us different kinds of jazz, it sounds pretty good. I think the teacher explains it well and with the teacher giving the students handouts about jazz helps us even more to appreciate jazz.

Instrument Class:
Topic/What I learnt in instrument class: Chord Progression

All the piano students learned the music piece "All of Me" with the chords. All of us did not try to play the piece along with Mr Herry because we ran out of time.