Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all the mothers out there have had an absolutely fantastic Mother's Day!

We went to church in the morning,  with my brother's girlfriend. Then off to the shops to organize lunch. We bought bacon & cheese rolls and hot chickens. After we arrived home, cut up and had some of a marble cake that my sister had made the night before. It was beautifully tasty.

After a couple hours of rest and sleeping, we headed off to Coffs Harbour. Deciding to go to Kmart, we went a little further to Toorimina. I acquired a Tumbling Tower game.

Tumbling Towers

On the way home, we dropped off my bro's girlfriend. We then bought chips to have with the remaining hot chicken from lunch, and we're now home.

It was a generally nice day, and I hope my Mum enjoyed it!

Happy Mother's Day!

Concerts!

Over the past weekend, I had two concerts over two days. One in Grafton, and one in Bellingen. These concerts were with the orchestra that I am a part of: The North Coast Performing Art's Association.

The program was:
G.F. Handel - Ouverture from 'An Occasional Oratorio'
J.S. Bach - Keyboard Concerto in DM, BWV 1052 - Soloist: Jenessa Mok
G.F. Handel - "Be Wise", "Ye Sons of Israel", "From the East unto the West"
Antonio Vivaldi - 'Autumn' from The Four Seasons - Soloist: Lachlan Wilkins
Vaughan Williams - 'Toward The Unknown Region'
Benjamin Britten - 'Matinees Musicales', an orchestral suite, after Rossini

Clarinets were only playing in the last two items on the program (The ones by Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten). They were both thoroughly enjoying to play, and my part was interesting! The second clarinet part (which is what I played) had quite a few key parts, and a couple of solo / soli with other instruments bits.

It was heaps of fun, and I can hardly wait for the next set of concerts, in the second half of the year!

For now.. time to concentrate on preparing for my Grade 8 AMEB practical exam!

Easter Holidays

Because we are now a week into term two, I think I should post about the happenings over the holidays, before it's way too late to comfortably do so!

The holidays started a little hectic - mad cleaning and preparations. But for what?
My two eldest sisters were coming home for Easter!

That Sunday, they arrived. The next day was spent preparing their combined birthday party (which was also combined with my 14-year-old sister's birthday).

You could say the party was a flop.. only a couple of people turned up, and everyone was too tired to do anything. We played guitar hero and ate some food, and then watched television.

My brother's girlfriend had also turned up to stay a couple of days. That was also a great deal of fun!


Holy Thursday and Good Friday came around, and we went off to Church. Afterward the Good Friday mass I got to see a couple of my good friends who are currently at university, but were back up for the holidays.

On Holy Saturday we went to the Easter Vigil mass. I love the Easter vigil.. it's one of my favourite masses of the year.. it's beautiful.
I also went to Mass on Sunday morning, which was also beautiful.

That afternoon, on Easter Sunday, we went to the beach.

While we were there, my Mother and my 21-year-old sister organised family photos:

A nice one!

The 'crazy' shot

Yeah, we got really sandy after this one

Also, while there, I went off and decided to make an attempt at sand sculpture. At the beginning, my sculptures kept falling apart, much to my dismay. Eventually, however, I managed to sculpt this, in honour of Easter Sunday:

Also during my sisters' visit, we went to Coffs Harbour to play mini-golf (putt-putt).

My 21-year-old sister's boyfriend enjoyed the fact that we live on the river, by fishing. A lot. He even went fishing at 2am one night. I was glad to know he was enjoying himself.

One day Mum and my sister went to BigW, and came home with a basketball hoop, bicycle, scooter, some Frisbees, and I managed to get a deal on a basketball and volleyball. Yay for outside toys.

Then, one day, it came to be that it was my sisters' last day. They were packing  the car, and left early in the morning. It was rather nice to see them again, and will hopefully see them again soon!

The whole family! (Except from the cats..)

What did you do over the Easter break?

Glasses!

 Hey everyone.



So.. at the beginning of the year I went to the optometrist. By the time I had left I had organized and ordered glasses.









My lenses aren't strong, as people tend to point out.. but the reason I got them was because I find it difficult to keep my eyes focused on things. It takes quite a bit of concentration without my glasses. Since receiving my glasses, however, it has been a lot easier to focus! Now I can read music and books easier.

Thoughts on Fully Diminished 7ths..

It's amazing what one realises late at night.

I was thinking about diminished 7ths. I don't know what it is about them, but I love them. This is probably because you can shift key with them, or just modulate to a different key, but a dominant 7th chord has become more popular to do so. As a result, fully diminished 7ths have become less popular in modern music. In fact, I also like them because there are more ways that a diminished seventh can lead to various keys than a dominant seventh.


I have a piano program on my computer - so pretty much an interactive piano keyboard on my screen.

I began by playing a C fully diminished 7th. I then played an F# fully diminished 7th.

I frowned. And played them again. I double and triple checked that I was playing the right notes.

My discovery? When you play the C fully diminished seventh in it's 2nd inversion, you are playing the exact same keys as an F# fully diminished 7th. Call me crazy, but I never realised this before. Maybe it's because I haven't really played around with diminished sevenths.

But then I thought: What makes the difference between an F# fully diminished 7th, and a C fully diminished 7th in it's second inversion? The answer was rather obvious to me, but I have heard people complain about this sort of thing
.
'There isn't a difference!', they cry out, as they rack their brains trying to figure it out. Their souls weary of the complexity of music, they just want it to be simple. So they say the easiest answer. 'There isn't one.'

But in reality, there is. It's the spelling of the chord.

I mean, as an analogy: 'joyful

F# fully diminished 7 has these notes:

F#, A, C, F double flat

C fully diminished 7 has these notes:

C, Eb, Gb, B double flat (the second inversion has the notes in this order: Gb, B double flat, Eb, Gb )

If you look at them - on a keyboard, F# has the same pitch as Gb, A has the same pitch as B double flat, C has the same pitching as C, and F double flat has the same pitching as Eb.

But it's the way the notes are written on the page that make a difference.

B double flat and A may have the same pitching on a piano, but by no means does that make them the same note. They are two different notes. Same pitching. Different notes. That's why we have keys like C# major and Db major. When you play them, they sound exactly the same - the technique is the same. But the way they are written on paper is what makes a difference between the two.

Types of triads..

This post is pretty much a sum-up of the triads that I have learnt so far through TAFE and my other musical studies, so I can quickly refer to this if I need to. The descriptions I've given are the ones that I learnt in TAFE.



Major triad
1, 3, 5 from it's major scale.






Minor triad
1, flat 3, 5 from the root note's major scale (or 1, 3, 5 from the root note's natural minor scale (ie., in the example, 1, 3, 5 from C Minor).
In chords, you can generally look at the third of the chord to determine whether it's a primarily major or minor - the third kind of voices it. If it's a regular third from the major scale, it's a major chord. If it's a flattened third (from the major scale), or a regular third from the natural minor: it's primarily a minor chord.

Diminished triad
1, flat 3, flat 5, from the root note's major scale
'Diminish' means 'make or become less', and that is what we're doing with this chord. We are taking the minor chord, and making it even smaller by flattening the 5th.

Augmented triad
1, 3, sharp 5 from the root note's  major scale
The definiton of 'augment' is 'make (something) greater by adding to it; increase'.
That's is literally what we're doing, we're making the chord 'bigger' by sharpening the fifth.
(Your fingers stretch further on the keyboard).


Ok so I don't actually know if these two Suspended Chords are counted as triads or not.. I was told they were at TAFE but I'm not entirely sure if it's right. I've read some places that they are and other places don't say that they are. If anyone knows, please comment and let me know if they are or not! :)

Sus2

1, 2, 5 from the root note's  major scale
A Sus chord (suspended chord) is where the third is 'suspended' from it's usual place. In a Sus2, the third is 'suspended' and moved down to the second.




Sus4

1, 4, 5 from the root note's major scale
The same concept as a Sus2 chord is used, except the third is 'suspended' to the fourth place.

Happy New Year!!!

Hello, Blogger land! I have returned from a very long absense!

Since we are not long in to the new year of 2014, I think I might give a brief review of the many things that has happened this year!

JANUARY
I began lessons again at the conservatorium, preparing for my 6th Grade Clarinet exam. I also joined the Chamber Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Stage band, and Clarinza (a clarinet ensemble)
I enrolled and began to prepare for TAFE

FEBRUARY
I began my TAFE course! Met some pretty amazing people there, too!

MARCH
I think it was March when I auditioned for my first ever play Rockin' Robin, and received a chorus part.

APRIL
Headed back to South Australia for a holiday! Got to catch and meet a heap of the awesome people down there! We had my sister's 21st birthday party, and a homescooling camp.

MAY
I competed, with a clarinet ensemble, in my first ever eisteddfod, and, I'm proud to say, we won our section!
It was also in May that Rockin' Robin had it's performances. I ended up with a few small lines, nothing much, but it was heaps of fun doing it! Unfortunately, the last night of the play clashed with the eisteddfod, and so I couldn't be there for that one, but my sister filled in for me, so it was all good.

JUNE
I continued TAFE and preparing for my exam.

JULY
In July, I once again headed back to South Australia for South Australian Music Camp. I enjoyed it so much, and I really loved catching up with my friends again!

AUGUST
In August, I sat my grade 6 AMEB practical clarinet exam, which I received an A for.
I also helped backstage for the next theatre performance: Wyrd Sisters. On one night, I ended up being an understudy, as one of the actresses was ill, so I had to take her part! Fortunately, I had been prompt, so I knew all her lines already, and I just whacked on a costume and did it. I enjoyed it, too!

SEPTEMBER
In September, I went to the Lennox Head Catholic Homeschooling camp, and I had a blast, as always!
I also performed with the North Coast Performing Arts Association, at the Bellingen Music Festival. We played The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky, and The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins. I played second clarinet, with my teacher beside me on first.
I was also roped in to another play: The Boyfriend. They needed someone to play the character 'Dulcie' for them, so I did. I enjoyed working with my friends that I had made in Rockin Robin, again, and I made a heap more friends! One of them happens to be my favourite person at the moment. :)

OCTOBER
In October, I, once again, performed with the North Coast Performing Arts Association, in two concerts at Nambucca Heads and Grafton. I enjoyed both concerts, as this was my first experience playing in an orchestra.

NOVEMBER
I prepared nonstop for The Boyfriend, and also for the celebration concerts at The Clarence Valley Conservatorium. On the second last weekend of November, I played in the celebration concerts. On the last weekend of November, I performed in The Boyfriend.
I also passed my Tafe course: Cert IV Music Performance

DECEMBER
The first weekend of December held the final performances of The Boyfriend. I loved this play so much!
Later in the month, I turned 18! I held myself a party, which turned out to be an absolute cracker! It was brilliant!
I went to a homeschooler's Christmas Party, which was great fun! My oldest sister came to visit, as well.
Then, on New Years Eve, we went party hopping. We went to a homeschooler's party, and then to a party with our friends from The Criterion.


I want to thank all of my buddies who helped me out this year! And the thing is, a heap of you didn't even know you helped me. All you may have done is a little thing that people would consider "normal", but I remember and appreciate every single moment.

This year has been a year full of firsts for me... first time in an orchestra, first time on a plane, first proper educational course, first play, first boyfriend, first esteiddfod, and, on a much deeper level, it's the first time I've considered a place as 'home'. Yeah, I'm weird, but I never considered where I used to live as home.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY! Last year was great, let's make this one absolutely fan-tas-tic! Allons-y!
GERONIMOOOOOOOOOO!!!