Halloween Disco Reflection

Halloween Disco was amazing!(Thursday 31. October) yr. 13 with the help of some of the yr.12 students had made a great contributions for the Halloween disco. During our CAS time on that day, the whole yr. 13 was craving pumpkins.

Also during last two lessons in school, we were allowed to set up the hall where the disco was going to take place. We went and took the schools big speakers and brought them to the hall. We wanted to use 2 speakers and 2 additional subboofers, however we only managed to set up the 2 speakers which luckily were also able to produce the bass of quite ok quality , so the fact of not having two subboofers didn't deteriorate the disco's quality. We also encountered problems with the mixer because suddenly the fuse of it broke and there was only 40 min. time until the disco started. Luckily we found a reserve fuse in the carrying box of the mixer, and the disco was ready to start!

As additional service and creativity, me and Elvijs both were the disco's DJs and provided the students with newest and retro dance hits. We had had a song wish list given out to year groups so that they could make wishes for the songs that we were going to play in the Disco. Of course we werent able to play all of the songs from the list however we managed to play quite many of them. Some songs in the list were anyway not appropriate for  a dicso as to some of them, people wouldnt have been able to dance. At some points, students came to ask us to play a song and we did the best as we could to find the song that they wished. most of the times we managed to make the wishes come true. Over all, me and Elvijs had super fun and would definitely be DJs once again , perhaps we will get a chance to do so in the Valentine's Day disco in February.
Me and Elvijs covered also some creative aspects in addition to providing service, as we had to learn how to use one DJing program called 'Virtual DJ'. At first I actually wanted to give up using the program, however when I learned how to use it, I couldnt get off from my computer and go to sleep as it was so much fun to mix songs and add funny sounds and effects to the songs.

When we will do this again, we should make sure how to use all the equipment (connecting speakers properly, and making sure how the microphones work because we didnt know how to use them, so we werent able to make announcements). Also we could have a bigger playlist.

Me and Elvijs fascinated about the DJ program

International Day Reflection

The International day was a success as usual! Tasty food from different cultures, interesting activities for the kids and as a grand finale, a great concert as a cherry on the top.

My contribution for the International day regarding organisation was to set up the school hall for the concert with other students and staff. We were planning the way how should the performing stage be set; set the stage; and brought the drums and the piano on it. We were also carrying things essential for the concert to the hall e.g. speakers and drums. Doing this could count up as service - as we were collaboratively working together as a team to make sure that The International day can be made possible.

From a creative perspective of cas, me, Ho Geon and Yarubbi performed a modified version of Emeli Sande's 'Breaking The Law' in the concert. Our frequent and intense practice sessions allowed us to be well prepared for the performance so that we could minimise the amount of mistakes. However as mentioned in the plan post, we weren't sure if the quality of the performance would deteriorate when we are plugged in to speaker. This wasnt the case aftyer all as everything went better than expected. Thanks to the practice sessions, we were able to make a nice show. We wanted to create a peaceful and united atmosphere by sitting on chairs instead of standing while performing :-)

If we were to perform again, we could have more instruments to be played in the band such as the piano, bass, or even a xylophone. So that the performance could be filled with even more melodious harmony.

International day performance planning!

Me, Yarubbi and Ho Geun have planned to perform a cover of Emeli Sande´s ´Breaking The Law´ on Friday in the International day´s ´talent show´. We have started to practice the song and the practice sessions have so far went better than expected! Ho Geun is playing the guitar (whether he´ll play the acoustic or electric one we still haven´t decided); Yarubbi will be singing; and I will do beatbox. 

Originally the song we are planning to perform doesn´t have a precaussion in the background but has only singing and guitar, so we have made a slight change to the song´s structure and sound. The cover will sound more vigorous than the original version. 

We have also planned to use microphones while performing which could be a risk to the outcome of the sound quality. We will very likely try out our performance in the music room with microphones and see what will happen. Though we´ll need to consider the fact that the music system used in the actual concert will be more controllable and from much better quality. In the music room we will be only using regular amps. If Ho Geun will be using an acoustic guitar in the show we will need to make sure that the sound can be recorded well by the microphone. The sound of the acoustic guitar would make a more harmonious contribution to the performance however an electric guitar played on a clean distortion would work as well as the acoustic one.

This week we have planned to use our this week´s lunch times wisely and start our practice everyday from 13:40 on wards as long as we are content of the day´s session. Hopefully this week will be enough for us to be able to make an enjoyable and entertaining performance for us and the audience. If performing with microphones doesn´t sound tolerable we will most likely need to perform without them which will require us to perform much more loudly than we would with microphones. However, it is much better to perform without microphones than with them if the outcome will be better :)

Riffing!

Today I decided to make a video of me playing one of my most recent riffs which could be made into a song if refined a bit and if other instruments are involved. Recently i have been putting time into figuring out riffs and also some short melodies which most likely will someday end up on a video as well. I still need to practice this riff so that it will sound 100 % clean. Recently I have also been very much into improvising ´solos´ and Í´ll be trying to figure out a solo part for this so called start of a song.

Me and Francesco have been planning to start seriously attending the school´s music room starting after the autumn break. We have a plan that we will be figuring out new riffs and also lyrics for them so that they could become songs eventually. As we are so far only two members in our small ´band´ we will be playing only the drums and guitar. We will be taking turns on who plays which instrument. As I have a tiny background of also playing the drums, Francesco wished me to show him how to play the basic beats on drums. I know maximum 4 different drumming combinations so I will be showing Francesco some tips and tricks meanwhile we practice and later on Francesco will most likely start figuring out own drum fills. Would be great if we manage to get other members to join us so that we could make music filled with harmony ;) .

To improve from now on; as mentioned before I will need to slightly refine the riff, figure out a solo and write some lyrics. Perhaps Francesco will be helping me out with that. Also I´m looking forward to play together with Francesco. It will be challenging as playing in a simultaneous manner can sometimes be hard, especially if we play newly invented riffs and beats.

I will definitely continue making new riffs and melodies as much as possible as playing the guitar has become one of favorite hobbies!

CAS PLAN!

ACTION - I will continue playing basketball in the school gym on wednesdays after school time. I improved a lot during last year however there is a lot more to learn! I need to improve my defencing skills as my positioning is emphasised to under the basket. Also I should become better in making scores as my accuracy rate is quite low approximately 1/7... The club involves a short warm up session where we practice scoring through different exercises. Mainly though we play full court games for the rest of the time.

I also go to the school gym on lunch breaks from monday to thursday.
Monday- Chest muscle training
Tuesday- Shoulder muscle training
Wednesday- Back muscle training
Thursday- Leg muscle training

I'm aiming to increase my physical strength and stability. Regular attendance to the gym also should improve my organisational skills in the daily life. As a target I'll try to maintain the regular gym sessions without misses so that I can have a balanced week. Also I'll aim by the end of december to do sets on bench press with 50 kg as now i'mm doing with 35 kg.

CREATIVITY- As mentioned in the summer cas plan, I have recently started to play more the guitar. Though I didnt manage to fully complete the summer cas plan as i didnt learn the songs completely, I have started to play other songs and am willing to learn them throughoutly. By playing covers I'll gradually learn new tips and tricks that i can use while thinking of own riffs and melodies. I already have a few own riffs. Though I wish that I could extend these riffs to full songs with lyrics etc. This however, is very hard. But I'll see what I can do... Now i am practising to play Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and I'm nearly able to play it throughoutly. Though in order to be able to record me playing it I'll need to practise a lot more so that I'll be able toplay it clean and accurately. I'll aim to learn a new song every second week by the end of december.

I also take piano lessons twice a week (sometimes once). At the moment I'm practising the theme song of Romeo and Julia by Nino Rota. Though this is a classical song I'm aiming to be able to play improvisational Jazz by the end of December as my teacher has been showing me some basic methods for how to form Jazz chords.

SERVICE - On this part I still have a huge question sign..????? I haven't figured out anything yet however I'll try to brainstorm something as soon as possible.

Summer CAS Plan!

Recently I have started to play the guitar more enthusiastically than I used to. I have decided to learn to play at least two songs on the guitar and they are the acoustic versions of 'No Woman No Cry' and 'Hey Jude'. I have already started practising  both of them but there is still a lot to do in order for me to play them clean and properly. While playing these songs I'm practising my abilities to play without using the pick, which is one of my goals. I will very likely start practising more songs as well throughout the summer. It has been a long time since I learned to play a new song so I decided that I should do it .

Basketball - Students vs. Teachers

Last Wednesday, the students and the teachers were competing against each other in basketball. Students were composed of two teams and teachers of 1. Teachers were playing very hard as they had to be on the court for the whole time. They only had a break after their 4th game against students, from which after the two teams of students played against each other. The students won with a high score against the teachers. The games were all tense. Everybody was running around and doing their best for their team to succeed. All the tricks and techniques learned during the winter were used in this tournament. Everybody has been improving a lot since their first attending to the club. Including me. Frankly, I think that my performance on last Wednesday was my personal best so far at the basketball club. I managed to score around four baskets and I managed to keep up with the team play which was a great success from all of the members of our team (Måns, Daniel, Francesco and Elvijs). I was playing in the front right. Next week we will have a rematch against the teachers. For this Wednesday our team should have a clear strategy what to follow, however the one that we improvised last week wasn't bad at all.