December 15: Blog Wrap-up

Playing on my violin again has no doubt reminded me of the frustration I once faced. Prior to the practicing that came with this project, I was looking into this project full of ideas, thinking of doing multiple songs and maybe even present something in class. At the beginning I was excited about getting back into an instrument that I liked the sound of. But, as I said, towards the climax of this project I began to have my doubts about whether or not I truly enjoyed playing violin.

All in all, I enjoyed playing violin again for the sake of going back to something that had gotten the better of me. But at the same time, this project in a way, tied up loose ends of thought as my desires to return to the violin are diminishing.

-Kyle Chang

December 15

Today was presentation...I didn't get to present everything though, since class time was crammed with stuff.
Besides just the performance we gave today, I've worked with my brother on the violin Viva la Vida piece. I actually learned more out of that than I expected--I downloaded a program (different than the last one I posted about, that one's free version is fairly wimpy) called Audacity and was able to combine three wav files into one mp3. It was cool to be able to cut, paste, shorten, lengthen, or adjust the volume of just one line of music while the other two were still playing. It also helped me in that I was able to give advice to my brother on how to play. He hadn't picked up his violin for years before this project, so it took a while to get back into things. I was able to help him with overall sound quality and the like.

My other (and main!) Google Project was learning the piano! I've always loved piano and its versatility, but I have never learned the thing... So it was the perfect chance. I'm sad that I didn't get to perform the piece that I had been practicing forever, but there's always next time. (And by then, hopefully I can do it memorized and with singing!--okay maybe not the singing part). The piece is Apologize by OneRepublic. It isn't a basic piano piece either; the hands are doing completely different things. It's not like the left hand is on half notes the whole time -- there are many syncopations on the left hand. It's hard! But I was able to learn how to line up and count two lines at the same time (kind of). It is so cool! The melody would be going and there's a base line with it! I'm a flute player, so I never get that low base sound, always just the melody or a really repetitive harmony.

My other pieces that I'm starting to work on on the piano are River Flows in You (Yiruma), and Love Story (Taylor Swift). Also, when I randomly bang on my keyboard, sometimes I would run into groups of notes that sound familiar, as if from songs that I listen to. I write the notes down and work out a type of "play-by-ear" system. Currently in my notebook I have maybe six of these random notes that sound like familiar songs. One of them was Somewhere in Brooklyn (Bruno Mars). Of course, my play by ear isn't great, so that means that the only part I can make out is the chorus. But at least it sounds right, and I'm doing it without any sheet music!

I'm really motivated to do more on the piano. I really prefer its versatility. Recently, I've found many people on Youtube who play piano (original pieces or covers), and I suppose you could call them inspiration: Ray Mak, Keudae, Marasy8, and Sherah, among others.

^^Katie

Down to business December 4th..

Its a little late to start working on the presentation, but ive been going back and forth on the whole plan I intended to go with. After thinking for a while, i decided to only play violin and go with the idea of 'going back to what I started music on.' To do that, I will play all three parts to Coldplay's Viva la Vida on the violin...that is to the best of my ability.... I did get a rough copy of sheet music online, but there were many corrections I made in order for it to match the song.

When I began to put my idea into a recording, I was once again reminded of the frustration that came with playing the violin. No doubt, I feel it is more difficult than the trumpet. Not only in terms of playing the notes, but also in making the sound (buzzing vs. moving arm/wrist steadily back and forth).
After almost 2 hours of playing violin today (thanks to procrastination) I managed to record a decent playthrough that still has a few mistakes here and there. But when my presentation comes, Id like to remind everyone that I have not played this instrument since 7th grade.

(I cant post the recording because its not a video file and Katie or I cant find a way to get it to work)

-Kyle

December 4

Working out Viva with Kyle.Kyle found this program so that we can combine all the parts together. We've never done this before, so it's really all touch and go.
Anyway, the program is http://www.multitrackstudio.com/. Kinda nice, the free version can combine up to three parts.
I'm going to be doing the computer/techie parts, since I have the better computer. haha, Kyle. :D

^^Katie

November 30

I GOT A KEYBOARD yay.

Already noticing an improvement; since the thing is in my room, I just start banging on it whenever I'm bored and dont want to do homework.
:D

^^Katie

November 14

Stole the keyboard for most of class period today, so I got to work on my Apologize. I like keyboards better--my fingers are too short to reach the bigger keys of the normal piano.

There are three-ish parts that I'm having problems with. One is only a measure long, so it should be an easy fix. The other is the chorus, and I probably played it so much today that I made others sick of the song. (I had earphones for most of it, so I guess it wasn't too bad.) The last troublesome part is the instrumental part right before the final ending chorus. It's completely different from the rest of the song, so... I'll work on it.

^^Katie!

Halloween wasnt the only scary thing

Its been so long since i played violin, that i forgot why I was constantly frustrated with it. This past week I realized that for this project I needed to start actually getting to work and getting somewhere in terms of material. But when i recorded a violin part and played it back, I realized that i need more work for specifically intonation. Rhythm isn't difficult considering I listened to Viva La Vida over 100 times last year, but keeping my fingers in the right place at the right time is hard especially since I haven't played my violin for over two years.

Google day on Halloween turned out a little better, so I'm thinking I can get a good recording of the third part over the weekend....only that the third part is the same 4 bars repeated over, and over, and over, and over again.

As for the project in its entirety, I think this song will be the only song I play violin on. For the sake of time, and my finger tips, any other song I do will be on trumpet.

October 31--Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Google Day #..4 now? Something like that.

First thing I did today was played Grace (Park)'s composition... If she'll let me, maybe I can post it on here too. :D
Second thing was playing through the chunk of the song that Grace (Jeong) and I are playing. We got through it with minor mistakes!! Yay.

Since all of the above were recorded with the same camera, and the files are too big to email, the memory card is being passed among the three of us for uploading. Therefore, I don't have the videos now. They'll be up by the end of the week.

^^Katie

October 17 (repost from other blog)

Because of weird technical difficulties, this is a new blog. In case you want to see our previous blog posts, go herehttp://lohsband.blogspot.com/
and click on the one boringly titled as "Google Project".
I may go back sooner or later and just repost them all from there onto here. Maybe I'll play around with backdating them?




Alright on with the show!
I worked on this over the weekend, forgot to post it.
OH right and our piano is HORRENDOUSLY out of tune. Just warning you all~

Since I recorded it on my phone, it cuts off. :(
Apologize--OneRepublic.
Just an intro, started messing up playing around at the end. :D
As of now, I can play the beginning, first verse, chorus, second verse with minor occurences, and second chorus (basically same as the first). It's the last bit that's really weird with the two hands going different ways. . .

Another little video, for fun:

Love Story--Taylor Swift
first time reading it for real, so it was fun. And a mess. Well, at least it's recognizable. (what do you think...? :D )

^^Katie
Edit: We'll continue posting on to this blog, the other will be deleted. 

Google Day October 5

The second and third part are starting to get really boring. Still working on intonation (really hard to keep constant), but other than that i think i could record the final version very soon. But besides keeping every note in tune, rhythm and counting (My life-long musical flaw) could always use some work.

Besides this song though, I was thinking of playing others by Coldplay like Paradise or perhaps barge in on Katie's Apologize piece...No matter what, I for sure want to do more and do it with my violin and trumpet.

October 6

Meant to post yesterday, but midnight didn't seem like a nice time to be on the computer so...
It's already October and the Google Project is moving fast. Let's see how getting a video on here works...

Viva la Vida, first recorded go at it. Terrible at recording myself, always scare myself or something. :)
After listening to it, its easier to tell what to work on. Not too familiar with the song, so I'll listen to it more.
I also worked with Grace on the Spirited Away song. Sounding good! I have some recordings of that, but I'll save them. I also want to record my piano playing of Apologize. I'm almost through the whole thing, so it should be easy enough.

edit: I still haven't figured out why this blog is titled "Google Project" on the LO Band's main page. I've changed every title and searched through it all... Somehow this blog's been tagged that name already. I wonder if I have to make a new blog altogether?
^^Katie

Week of September 25

Working hard on the violin, gonna take time to get back into it and have it sound nice. But during the time i was working between listening to the song and looking at the music. I listened to another Coldplay song and tried playing it...I really need to work on playing by ear.

-Kyle

September 21, 2011 (For 9/19 and 9/20)

First off, I listened through the song three times, following along with a different part each time to make sure the sheet music we got was accurate in terms of rhythm. I did not get the chance to play through it, so I am not yet entirely sure if the notes are musically correct.

Besides listening to the actual song, I chose the ideal instrument we would use for the three different parts: 1st: Flute (maybe trumpet) 2nd: Violin 3rd: Violin. In addition, I began transposing the 1st part into the key of B flat in case I would have to play any of it on my trumpet.

-Kyle Chang

September 21

Update.

So we're playing around with the design of blogger. Gadgets and gizmos, a plenty. haha.

Hopefully the next time I post I'll have some sort of video/photo to post. Most likely on Viva. Otherwise I'd just feel like a slacker.. :D

^^Katie

September 19

In-class Day 1:

Figured out more or less what we are going to do.

So with my brother, we'll be doing the Viva la Vida mix up. The three parts will be split between four (?) instruments. Piano on the third, Violin on the second, and splitting the first part between our respective Trumpet and Flute.

That's project one.

Project two.

I was talking to Grace J in class, and she and I decided to do a piano/flute duet. The song? Always With Me (Itsumo Nando Demo) from Spirited Away! Exciting. Here is where I got the sheet music: Ichigo's Music

Or a direct link to the file: http://ichigos.com/res/getfile.php?id=859&type=gif

I've got so much other stuff that I want to play... We'll see if we have time!

^^Katie

September 18, 2011

As part of Lake Oswego High School Band's new project, here goes nothing:

Google Project 2011!

Google Project: So the Google employees are the most happy in the world. Now that's because they get to spend 20% of their work time (paid) to do their own project. Whatever they want. Sounds good. Now if only I get paid... :)

After hearing about this idea last year before summer break, I immediately wanted to learn the piano. I've never actually learned it, and playing the piano is such a useful tool. Oh well.

But it's hard to find sheet music for popular songs online that are (and this is important) free. I didn't really want to fork over any money. But I know that other musicians' hard work shouldn't be just passed out.

Still, I want to learn the piano. I'll keep at it, because this is what I really want to play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePh44YQjdFQ From a favorite musical of mine. :)

In the end, my brother and I decided to do this together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsUAxG6c3Ws. Not on violin only, but also on flute and trumpet, each on one of the three parts. Hopefully it will turn out alright!

I've also some other ideas solely for me. I'll keep working on Apologize (OneRepublic) on the piano, since that is something that I've been working on for some time now.

So that's the idea. We'll see how it goes!

^^Katie