When Are You Ever Going To See?

A few weeks ago I heard about an art and music contest that was part of an event called EdRev 2016. EdRev(education revolution) is all about improving education by exploring different ways of learning. The event has speakers and workshops, some taught by kids demonstrating something they discovered that helps improve learning and recall. There are a lot of educational tech companies demonstrating new products to improve teaching reading and math. It's held at AT&T park in San Francisco.

I decided to make a video for the contest. I wrote about 20 verses of the lyrics and kept eliminating ones that didn't work until I was down to about a dozen. I worked out the melody on the piano and recorded it and then added a drum beat, and drew storyboards for how I wanted to shoot each verse. I cut the verses down to 8 that worked together and fit what I wanted to say about not letting other people define who you are by things like race, gender or by things we don't do well. We all have something that we struggle with and sometimes that struggle is the only thing other people see. It can become a box that keeps us from getting to try things that we are good at.

The judges at EdRev called the video "powerful and uplifting". It won first place and I got a letter from one of the judges telling me each of the things that she liked about the video. I have the award sitting on my desk as a constant reminder to myself to try to look beyond superficial lables when I work with people, and to not allow other people's biases define who I am and what I can do.

Ms. Hughes put a link to the video on the community choir Facebook page. It is also here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky3tkezQTiE

As a happy ending to my time at PCS, the San Francisco Art Institute accepted my application for a summer film program, with a scholarship. After 5 1/2 years of being defined by grades and test scores, I am really looking forward to setting my own goals and defining success by what I can create and inspire.

Music Taste

One of the hardest questions for me to answer continues to be “What’s your favorite band?” (or singer or song). For someone with an eclectic music taste it can be nigh impossible to pick a singular favorite. I could tell you that the Arctic Monkeys AM album is one of my indie albums, but at the same time Supertramp’s The Autobiography of Supertramp is a personal classic. For someone with a music taste that even I can never quite pin down, music streaming and playlists are my go-to. I’m sure I’ve already made a blog post about 8tracks.com, but in this case the qualities I’m praising include the quantity of playlists, and the diversity of playlists available. The way 8tracks works is that its users are the ones to compile and upload the playlists, which results in huge amounts of difference in quality and composition of playlists. This makes each one a little more human. It’s also easy to search for genres, artists, even what sort of mood you want to get from your music, from chill vibes to glam to epic. This variety is a huge plus for someone who can never settle on one type of music. I even found a studying playlist that includes a variety of genres, because the user who made it gets bored with one genre for too long while studying. I guess I’m just telling you all to check it out. If you like easy to use, free, and legal music streaming, this is for you.

Lyrical or Nah

So recently I have been listening to a lot of electronic and alternative music without lyrics and I find that it has a different effect on me. Music with lyrics I realize can deeply affects ones mood and depending on the song it can make you mad,sad,happy etc. So with this new found love for music with just beats I am able to have my own interpretation of it, and I'm able to influence my own feelings. One song that I LOVE is I Have No Fear by the Tourist and damn I love this song because I can lay in my bed and just listen to it non-stop, its one of those song that relaxes you and takes you to another place. I think that lyrically songs are chill but I have found that I don't like how they have so much power over have you feel, whereas with non-lyrical music they have some sick beats and they honestly are something everybody should have in their playlist because they are the BEST!

Mentorship Program with the Choral Project

As some of you may know, I was an 'intern' with the Choral Project for the past month. I sang with them on only four songs but I got to listen in on their other pieces and experience their rehearsal process actively as part of the choir, and passively from the audience. While they are a very professional, extremely talented group, I was surprised to learn that, as a group, they were still working on correcting things that high school choirs work on. Like us, they had some trouble matching vowel shape. The director Daniel Hughes said that they needed to be more unified on their German pronunciation and even for some of their songs in english.

They also had a reoccurring problem of not watching the conductor for cut offs and entrances. I have to admit, I sometimes missed cues too because the positions of the sections had the basses standing behind the sopranos and the tenors standing behind the altos. That meant that we not only had to watch for cutoffs to our side of the choir, but we also had to watch for when he was cueing to the front section(women) or the back section(men) of the choir. But also, people were buried in their music a lot of the time. When the singers were watching their music, they wouldn't sing at the correct tempo and they would miss cues and the entire piece felt rhythmically off.

Working with this choir in the mentorship program, it really put things into perspective for me how important our technique in our high school choir is. This just shows that even when you get to the big leagues, there are lots of problems that still occur in a higher-level choir.

Cool Acapella Song

I picked this song because it reminded me of our (Bella Voce) Shi’r Halaq which is like this piece but our song is not acapella and the clapping in both pieces makes me personally want to get up and dance. This that also reminded me of Africa because of the many animal sounds at the end unlike Africa where the rain and animal sounds are at the beginning. From the cool noises to the stomping on the risers this piece was beautiful, but some of the singers at the end pulled back to much to the point where you could not even hear the clapping but only the animal sounds. Also I couldn’t understand the words is in another language so that might be the problem, what I’m saying is that they could use more vowels. I loved how the sound faded in the background and then the animal sounds start as they were still clapping. All I can say is that it was AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL anD PRETTY. This song was fun and cool piece and I wish we could do it sometime for our next world music performance, Maybe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnZq27-H_uE

Accapella

This is a acapella app videos compilation in which singers create acapella using an app. I found this to be hilarious to watch because its very interesting and funny to watch. In these videos, the singers use their voices to make a instrument sound like a beat or a techno vibe. They record a different panel at each time with a different sound or beat. In this app not only voices are used but also instruments. This app also make it feel and sound as if in a recording studio with a bunch of people making different parts but its usually one person. I saw this as a fun thing to work on and listen to because they can be funny or pretty. I’m so happy i got to see this and there are many more i'm going to discover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr-aPwk4e6I

Advice for those of you seeking to pursue performing arts

I don’t know how many of you are going to go into the arts for college. but here’s some advice I’ve put together based upon what I've been going through this year. We’ll go chronologically.

• Start looking and thinking about schools as early as you can stand. I didn't know what I wanted to do until the first week of Senior year, which is TOTALLY fine, but if you can reduce your deadline stress do it.

• Keep an eye out for schools with good music programs, it doesn't have to be a conservatory. You will find opportunities all over the place.

• When you apply to schools, please apply to many. If only for my peace of mind. I applied to six, and at this end of the process I wish I had applied to more.

• Some schools have their applications on a platform called DecisionDesk. It’s essentially a less user friendly CommonApp.

• A lot of the larger schools will ask you to send in a pre-screen recording. This is an audition to see if the school wants to see you for an audition. Put effort into it, and dress nice. Santa Cruz fancy =/= Professional. Don’t worry if you get rejected from this, from what I've heard it’s a common occurrence. Three out of my six declined to invite me for audition based upon my recordings (this is why I say you should apply to lots of schools).

• Please, Please, PLEASE! Look at your application deadlines as early as possible. Early Action for music schools and programs tends to be different than non-arts schools.

• There will be a short reprieve between first and second semester, but not for you. Now it’s time to practice practice practice. Work with your teacher, and for the love of god memorize your material as early as you can. Using a piece you memorized two years ago? Perfect, make it better.

• Put planning into your audition calendar, all that travel is not forgiving. Print out blank calendars, work on rough drafts, talk to your parents. Anything helps.

• Around this time, you should hear back from schools. Nothing so relieving as an admission decision, but you’ll find out if you've been invited to audition. Make your travel arrangements at this point. No Sooner.

• There are days when you open your email and see “Thank you for your application, regrettably you have not been selected to audition,” in some variation or another. Those days suck, but if you applied to plenty of schools (the opposite of what I did) these emails won’t be so worrying (think you're stressed now? Imagine what happens when there’s only three schools in the country that you might be accepted to).

• When it comes time for in person auditions, be sure to rest as much as you can (haha I know), and drink tons of water. Wear comfy clothes when you travel, and make sure you have one good audition outfit (think East coast business casual). Pack snacks, and relax. You've done all your work (you should have at least), the rest is out of your hands.

These are just some tips I have from my experience. I’m going for vocal performance, so I don't know how this applies across the board. But if you're going the same way I have, Good Luck!

Music in College and Beyond

Like so many of my fellow juniors, I’ve been college hunting as of late. Though everyone takes different paths through college, I’ve been doing some thinking on how I will proceed as a musician. Obviously, a pretty straightforward way to continue to grow as a musician is to go to a conservatory of some sort or study music as a major at a college or university, but let’s be honest: not all of us are really that invested. However, our presence in choir should at the very least indicate that we have some interest in music. Personally, I’m mostly interested in maintaining it as a hobby, but striking that balance can be trickier than it may seem at first glance.

Obviously, vocal music is important to me, but perhaps more importantly I would like to continue to play cello, which I have played for almost nine years now. Once I’ve overcome the hurdle that is transporting a child-sized instrument (seriously, you have to buy a separate airplane seat for this thing), I hope to be able to not only take private lessons at the college of my choice but also join in ensembles and groups. This is where it gets a little complicated, because different colleges have different rules regarding who can and can’t join certain groups, and some will be much more difficult to participate in if you’re not a major or minor. Generally speaking, you can find a lot of schools that are enthusiastic to have non-major or minor students, but it’s a good question to ask during college tours and the like.

Something I’ve found that’s pretty interesting is that at some small liberal arts colleges that also have conservatories, you can take very cheap lessons from conservatory students and have a lot of access to ensembles and the like, simply because the campus culture is so steeped in music. Some random example of schools like this are Oberlin (Ohio), Bard (New York), and Lawrence University (Wisconsin). These just happen to be some of the schools I'm looking at, but there are lots more!

Africa by TOTO

    I saw that Sasha did a blog on a song we were going to sing in our classic rock concert so I thought I would do my blog post on a song as well. I looked the background and history to the song Africa by the band Toto. First a brief background on the band.
    The band Toto was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1977. Throughout the years they have had many changes to their lineup but the original members were Steve Lukather (vocals, guitar, piano), David Paich (keyboard, vocals), Jeff Porcaro (drums, percussion), Steve Porcaro (synthesizers, vocal), David Hungate (bass guitar, guitar), and Bobby Kimball (vocals, keyboard). In the late 70's and throughout the 80's they enjoyed great commercial success. They are best known for the Top 3 hits: "Hold the Line", "Rosanna", and "Africa".
     Africa is a song about a man who has to chose between the country (Africa) watching a late-night documentary about the what horrible deaths and sufferings going on with the people in Africa at that time. He had never been to Africa before writing the song.
     Toto did not expect the song to become as popular as it did. It was just a song written to close off the album "TotoIV".
     The music video for Africa is very conceptual with interesting imagery and an abstract storyline. The video is very much open to interpretation. I have attached a link of the music video below.
https://youtu.be/FTQbiNvZqaY


Source:

 "Africa by Toto." Song Facts. Songfacts. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3009>. 

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Music is a universal language. Our brains are able to jump into action while enhancing our ability to be able to memorize simple music techniques. If you don't know, the term “Mozart Effect” was created by researchers that studied how listening to Mozart’s “Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major” could affect the listener’s reasoning. It turned out that people performed much better on tests after hearing the music compared to when they were sitting in silence. The researchers found out that this effect only lasted for a short amount of time and didn’t go beyond the test’s 15-minute period. Unfortunately, the theory has been described as "myth-like." It’s not Mozart that makes you more suitable to solve visual problems. Any music you like can have this effect though. The experiment has since been copied using a wide range of different recordings. Every time, those who preferred a type of music, whether it’s classical, pop or jazz; performed better on cognitive tests after hearing that type. The tempo of a song also had an effect on how happy and alert listeners felt, which later influenced their performance.

posted for Faith

California Dreamin

So there was a possibility we might do a song called California Dreamin' for our next concert. So I decided to do some research on it since I love the song.

History:
California Dreamin' is a song written by songwriter John Phillips and Michelle Phillips and was first recorded by Barry McGuire. The lyrics of the song express the narrator's longing for the warmth of Los Angeles during a cold winter in New York City. However The Mamas & the Papas, who sang backup on the original version decided to release their own version  in 1965. So the best known version is by The Mamas & the Papas and released as a single. The song is #89 in the Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. 

The Story of California Dreamin':

In 1963, Fifty years ago, a man named John Phillips was a struggling songwriter and musician. He was living in New York at the time when he wrote the song California Dreamin'. He was also one-forth of the Mamas and the Papas, along with his wife Michelle,  and two musicians named Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot. Then two years later, the band was living in Los Angeles, and barely getting by. They'd cut one single, but it went nowhere, so John Phillips was pitching songs to other artists, and he managed to get California Dreamin' to a guy named Barry McGuire. Barry suggested the Mamas and Papas do the back up vocals to this song when he would sing the main part. According to Dayton Howe, the engineer on the recording, Lou Adler was so impressed with the Mamas and Papas group, that he gave them a $100 bill as down payment on a contract. Then, he took the backing track and replaced Barry's vocals with Denny Doherty, one of the Mamas and Papas and he went up an octave, and it was a hit.

This song has much more meaning to it now and every time anyone sings it they should think of the feeling of longing for a better future as the Mamas and Papas had.

Lynyrd Skynyrd--Free Bird (and a little extra on the side)

The other day my mom and I were talking about the classic rock concert. We were trying to figure out if I were to sing a song what song should I do? This is my mom's favorite genre of music, so she definitely had a lot of suggestions. We went through the usual-- "I love Rock N' Roll", "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", "Satisfaction", etc. We almost landed on a Spanish version of the Steve Miller Band's song "Serenade" (I'll post a link to that song below it's actually one of my favorite songs), but then my mom kept playing around on the computer and sort of jumped up and down in her seat saying "FREE BIRD, FREE BIRD!" As I  mentioned before, this is her favorite genre of music (she grew up with a lot of it), and she said that a classic rock concert wouldn't be complete without Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird". We listened to the lyrics, and it is actually very fitting for me to sing this year. It starts off with "If I leave here tomorrow.." which essentially I am, along with all the seniors. I wanted to do a song that was sort of saying goodbye, but still a rock song and this song hits the hammer right on the head. It is a ten minute song, and more than five minutes of that song is a guitar solo so that will have to get figured out, but my uncle in Spain who writes his own music and is low key a celebrity in Burgos (the town where he lives) can most likely do a cut and transpose it for me. When you all get a chance you should really listen to this song because it is beautiful, and it's true-- a classic rock concert wouldn't be complete with out some Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Free Bird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGopskR5jSM

Llamando a la tierra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIZxLJbAxTI