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.