Mandolin Reflection #9

I was invited to play a small show at the Guyer Barn on February 11th, and so I took this as an opportunity to play the mandolin to an audience. I did a few guitar songs, but I played a ditty which I composed myself, a bluegrass tune that I learned from my uncle, and song that involves picking which I made up myself.

At the show, I played a song on the guitar that I hadn't played in a while called "Sleeping Dead" by Emily Jane White. It's uses a pick, which I generally don't use on guitar, but I noticed that I definitely used some mandolin strum patterns that I used. The guitar strum for this song is very rhythmical, and that is a hallmark of mandolin pieces - because they are used as backup in bluegrass songs (and other songs) mandolin picking frequently takes the place of percussion. It's interesting to note that mandolin has made me a better guitarist.

Ballet Reflection #12

The most recent intermediate class I went to was noticeably easier than the first time. I have been practicing at home, actually, and noticed that I am much more flexible than I used to be: I use my oven as a ballet bar for balance and do things like degegees ("to disengage", in which you essentially have to kick in a way that look like your leg is independent of your body -- my teacher can reach her leg over her head). Doing this at home, I noticed that I am now able to get my leg at about shoulder level while doing side-degegees, so I think that was helpful for this week. We worked on splits again, but in a new way. First, we practiced them against the wall, using the barre to keep us close. The idea is that you should be able to get your legs parallel to the wall, completely flat against it. I am not quite there, but neither of the other girls, and I noticed that practicing at home has definitely helped my flexibility. Again, we did a number of waltz steps and turns, and we practiced one that I did not know before but picked up on well. I do not recall the name, but it involves a shastee, a kick, leap, and landing in arabesque, all while constantly changing arm positions. I didn't do the arms right at first, but once I had corrected that I noticed that it was much easier to keep my balance and land properly. The right arm movements are really a huge part of what propels you, so i need to practice that a lot. I found it much easier to keep up with the beginning plie-barre stretches this week, although I still find double frappes difficult. However, I've realized that it isn't so much the physical coordination that is the problem as remembering where you are supposed to put your foot, because it changes every time you do them and you move at a rapid speed. I think that I need to practice some of the movements because I am not quite fast enough yet to do the moves in a way that isn't sloppy. However, overall I saw improvement this class, and I was not nearly as exhausted this time although I was still pretty worn out at the end. I never felt exhausted to the point of sickness at all this class, which I take as proof of improvement and greater physical fitness. I am going to continue practicing at home.

DI Reflection #2

having come up with a concept for our script, we went to Home Depot to get our supplies. We are on a tight budget, so we have to be selective about what we buy. Our materials we got today are the equipment to create the puppet's movement mechanism. It is essentially a pole with a wheel attached to the puppet so that it can slide up and down (and thus look like it is moving), and then a hinge so that the puppet can be flipped upside down to reveal a new puppet. The puppet is going to be quite heavy and take some maneuvering, so I am thankful for the fact that I have a lot more arm strength now due to constantly holding my arms stiffly away from my body in ballet class. We are going to begin work on our scrim next week, along with the puppet.

DI Reflection #1

Mandolin Reflection #8

I have noticed that mandolin techniques as well as guitar techniques have helped me in other instruments as well. I got a ukulele over vacation, and I found it extremely easy to start although it has different chords from mandolin and guitar. What I noticed most was that I was really able to apply a lot of skills that I learned for mandolin to my strumming and picking on the ukulele. When I play guitar I mostly do finger picking of varied sorts, so my ability to create coherent and rhythmical strum patterns definitely is borne of my mandolin practicing. I composed a song based in the ukulele, which I was then able to layer vocals, guitar and the mandolin over. The mandolin is the smallest part, but I think that I used it as the instrument is meant to be used -- a very good backup instrument. Mandolin is rarely a solo instrument, and in this case I used it to provide a plunking background noise using an underlying melody I composed mostly by using scales. I also know that what I have learned on the mandolin really shows through in the ukulele part, which is the base for the song. I cannot find a way to post this song to the blog, so I will email it to Mr. Hyer as evidence that it actually exists.

Ballet Reflection #11

I started my ballet class with the intermediate level today, and it was absolutely exhausting -- one of the most rigorous workouts that I have had in years, literally. It involved a lot of jumping around and near constant movement, so by the end I almost felt nauseous because my heart was pounding so hard. The class is now longer -- from 4:00 to 5:30, so there is a lot of extra activity that is squeezed in to that half hour. Depsite the exhaustion of it, though, I feel good about how prepared I was. The other girls in the class have been taking ballet for about two years, and for the most part aren't especially better than me, though more experienced. Some of the things we did in class were grand jetees (essentially a flying leap where you run and then jump and do a split in the air), a number of waltz steps involving arm movements and arabesques and plies and being on demi (tip-toe), as well as more turns and barre stretches. The beginning stretches where we practice our plies went much faster than I was used to, and there were more complicated steps thrown in. The first half of the stretches I was a bit perplexed by, but the other half I had caught on to pretty well -- it was just a matter of adjustment. I was happy about the waltz steps and turns, because I seem to be on the same level as the other girls. I know that i need to improve my arm movements for the spins, but I am not alone in that, and I have been practicing at home. The waltz steps are still difficult because they involve a great number of ballet moves in about 2 seconds (arm changes, leg sweeps, arabesques, demis, turns, etc.) but again I am on the same level as most of the class. We practiced doing splits this class, something that I am not used to doing, and I did notice that I am not as flexible as some of the other girls. I have a lot of natural flexibility, but they have been doing this for years and so they are much more used to stretching and moving their bodies that way. I am also happy that my grand jetees seem to be as good as most of the other girls'. It was a difficult first class because of the pace and sheer volume of rigorous work, but I think that I held up well.

DI Reflection #1

Our first DI meeting was more creativity than action in this case, since we have yet to start working on our set. This metting was an excercise in teamwork and practical thinking. We have decided that for our art piece in our skit, we are going to use a scrim -- a theatre tool used to essentially show shadows. It's the equivalent of watching somebody's shadow behind a white sheet that is lit from behind so that you can watch their movements. OUr skit is meant to be a story exposing a dual reality, so we thought that we would base it on a murder investigation -- the scrim would be used to reenact what had actually happened, versus the story being told on the witness stand. Our main character is a puppet, which we worked on a design for, which also conveys a dual nature: it is going to flip upside down on a hinge, and when it is flipped become a different character. We have yet to decide, but we think that we are going to say that the puppet character is schizophrenic. We have to build our scrim, which is a heavy physical task, and we also have to build the mechanism that the puppet hangs from. It involves creativity, physical labor, and technical skills. As I am likely the one who will be operating the puppet, I am glad that ballet has helped build up strength in my arms -- we will see if the benefits of another CAS activity extend to this one.

Mandolin Reflection #7

I have been practicing scales on the mandolin, which really comes in handy for quicker finger movements. Learning by practice where notes are makes it automatic, as well as easier to read sheet music and makes my fingers move faster with less mistakes. Reading sheet music is a pain, but I realized that I have really managed to get the hang of finger placement when my friend left a violin at my house this weekend. The violin is a notoriously difficult instrument to play, but the finger positions are the same as the mandolin, so I thought I would test my skills on the mandolin by trying to play violin. It's different, because you use a bow and hold the violin under your chin, so that was hard to get used to, but I managed to play some scales and then "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". It's not exactly a difficult song, but it showed me that I have gotten better at the mandolin recently since my skills in that area were transferrable to another. I also tried to play a bluegrass ditty I had learned on the mandolin on violin, with some success -- it is harder to play the violin because there aren't frets. After a few tries I was able to get it right and play the correct notes without having frets to guide me, so I consider that a success as well. I also found that cello finger positionings are the same as mandolin ones. Again, it's a different technique of playing, but I was able to play scales and a couple mandolin songs that i know from sheet music. I think that this shows progression in my mandolin talents.

Ballet Reflection #10

After another week of class in the beginner's level, I had a class to myself again. Sheena has asked me in the class previously if I were still interested in taking the intermediate class, which of course I said yes to, and I was the only one who showed up to class that week. We took the hour to practice the things the girls in the intermediate class had already learned, so I was introduced to several new steps: (excuse the spelling) double frappes, pat du cheval, and pirouette are a few of them. I was able to catch on pretty quickly to most of them, but they certainly don't look as polished as the things I learned at the easier level. The new steps are much more complex, and they are done quicker, so it requires extreme focus -- now I see the necessity of really tensing one's abdominal and thigh muscles to stay balanced while also focusing on arm movements and while actually doing the steps: without all of these factors, the moves don't work as well and it is hard to keep balanced. I really get the interconnectivity of all that now, which before I had been aware of but hadn't regarded. I know that I am naturally good at ballet, but it is going to require that I put a lot of concentration into the class to excel in the intermediate level.