Week 1 - July 23rd~27th 2012

Topic: Major Sharp, Major Flat & Indonesian song, 'Rayuan Pulau Kelapa'

Reflection Questions: 1. What have I learned?
                                 2. What kind of challenges did I face?
                                 3. How can I improve it next time?

• Theory Class:

1. July 24th = It was the first day of music from the whole 9th grade year. Our theory teacher is supposed to be Mr.John, however he was out of town for 2 weeks, so Mr.Herry substituted us from today. He told us about what we are going to learn during the term, such as the singing assessment, booklet assessment and presentation assessment. He also mentioned that we are going to have an assessment on playing our instruments after the Lebaran holiday. I was half excited and half nervous with the assessments and the topics we are going to learn, and knew how many challenges I have to face for each one of them. After the explanation about the assessments, my classmates were divided into 3 different instrument classes, which are the strings, guitars, and the pianos. I was included in sting class, since I learned violin from when I was in grade 4.

2. July 25th = It was the second day of our music theory class. Mr.Herry taught us the major sharps including the natural scale. The natural scale is C major, where there are c,d,e,f,g,a,b,c notes in its scale. We also learned from 1 to 5 major sharps, which are the  G major, D major, A major, E major and the B major scales.I had to challenge with the sharps, because it was the first time for me to learn scales.

3. July 26th = We reviewed about the major sharps, and learned the Major flats too. I learned that the sequence of the flats are B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat and G flat. I had to challenge myself again with the flats for the next scale, because it has different sequence from the sharps, and different place to put the flats. Therefore I think I need to study more at home to be prepared for the test we're going to have after the Lebaran holiday. Mr.Herry also distributed the Indonesian song called 'Rayuan Pulau Kelapa', and informed that our first assessment is going to be singing assessment on the Indonesian traditional song.

• Instrument Class:

1. July 24th = It was the first day of our instrument class. I chose to be in string class, because played violin since the 4th grade. We didn't do much today because it was our first day, so Mr.Sadrakh asked us to just prepare a scale and a song from the Suzuki book.

2. July 25th = Since it was still the 1st week of the term, I think I was not really careful with my instrument, so I forgot to bring my violin. I was not able to play both the scale and my song. However Mr.Sadrakh  let me borrow one of his violin, so I played the A major scale with others.

3. July 26th = I had to play the first song of my Suzuki book #5. Since the song was long, Mr.Sadrakh divided into two different parts and asked me to practice the first part without the legato, because i I use the legato, it will be more confusing for me to get the right notes, and I'll be less concentrated with the melody of the song.