Music, Music and More Music!
Hello there!
So I think I wrote for you guys (whoever you are) last week, and it's about time to back on track with this blog. Last week I wrote about something personal, and hopefully, if any of you have read it, you felt just a bit better and a bit more confident once you'd been through it.
This week, I've decided to brighten up the scene a bit, and I'm going to talk about something that I think everyone loves...Music!
I've always loved music, ever since I was little girl. One of my favourite pictures of myself is from when I was about three, and I was banging on my sister's keyboard. One of my older sisters has been playing the piano for years, starting off with a regular keyboard, and progressing to an upright piano, which will actually be featured later on in this video.
Anyway, moving off my sister's musical talent, I'd like to talk about how I've been involved with music.
When I entered the third grade (or at my old school, what was known as Year 3), I found out that my school was offering music tuition for kids my age. I was extremely excited and begged my parents to get me started with an instrument.
The lessons were divided into categories: Strings, Woodwind (Flutes, oboes, etc.), Piano (I think) and Brass. I'd known by then that the most common categories were Strings and Piano, strings for the guitar, piano for well, the piano. I'd thought both instruments were great, but I wanted to play something, a bit less common.
I opted for the Brass group, and a couple of weeks later, I had gained possession of my own Tenor/Alto Horn. You might be wondering, "what in the heavens is that?", and unless you're a huge music freak, you'd likely not know. I looks a bit like a trumpet mixed with a tuba. It's about in between in size, in between in sound, sits upright like a tuba, has the same shaped tubing as a trumpet, and like both, has a bell. I loved the instrument and I felt as if it really suited me.
I began taking lessons at my school, once every week, with another girl in my year group, who was also playing the Tenor Horn. Since there were only two of us Tenor Horn players in our school, it made sense. I really enjoyed my weekly lesson, and began to love to play.
After about 2 years of playing, towards the beginning of Grade/Year 5, I was offered the chance to "trade" in my Tenor Horn for a French Horn, an instrument that was, and still is, much more commonly known throughout the world. I was unsure, but my parents persuaded me that I should give it a go, and that if I didn't like it, I would always have the option of going back. I thought that might be a good idea so I went ahead.
I think I played the French Horn for about a month before going back. It wasn't right for me, I wasn't accustomed to holding an instrument in that position, and it just confused to have to learn different notes. My friend on the other hand, decided that the French Horn was for her, and I while she continued on, I went back to having Tenor Horn lessons, however this time, individually.
I do admit, it was quite cool to be the only Tenor Horn player at my school, but at the same time it was quite sad. I was told that at the end of the year, I would be leaving my school and moving on to where I am now, and it was sad knowing that there would be no one to play the Tenor Horn any longer.
I continued on with my lessons for the rest of the year, and felt as if I'd steadily improved up until the end of the year. I passed my Grade 3 Tenor Horn exam with a distinction.
Between Grade 3, when I'd first started, and Grade 5, when I'd stopped, I'd also joined a Brass Group in my school, where I'd practice every week with most of the Brass players at my school, and my school Orchestra, where I had practice (I believe) once or twice a week.
Today, although I do own a Tenor Horn, I find myself less involved with the Tenor Horn, and more involved with "my sister's instrument", the piano. I love the Tenor Horn, don't get me wrong, but I haven't played for a long time, and I need to start getting back into the flow of, ultimately playing four times a week.
The piano is a rather odd instrument for me. I honestly never thought I'd be able to play the piano. I knew I'd never take piano lessons, which I don't want to now either.
I first got into piano when I fell in love with the song "Rock Me" by One Direction. It's weird to say that because I'm definitely not a Directioner, but I really did love that song, and still do. The morning I first began to play, I'd just put my sister's old keyboard (the one I was banging on in the picture) in my room. I opened my laptop, went onto YouTube (which is like my favourite website ever now), and searched up "rock me piano tutorial one direction". I don't know exactly where I got the tutorial from, but I know it was either the YouTube account "Todd Downing" or "oysterlovers".
Anyway, I listened for about two minutes, and figured out a tiny portion of the song, however, for me, I just could not learn by listening to someone show me what to play. I decided to take to myself and put the notes together alone, and within the next hour, I'd figured out how to play my very first song.
In the next few days alone, I had played the song possibly over 100 times, to the point where one of my sisters had to kindly ask me to stop. I responded that I didn't know any other songs, to which she said "Then learn one" or something along those lines.
I'm not sure exactly what song I learned next, but I think it may have been the song "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People. This song has been one of my favourites for a long time, and after I heard Taylor Swift and Zac Efron do a guitar duet on Ellen, I knew I had to learn it on the piano. I decided to try and wing it, and once again by the end of the day, I'd learned another song.
I know learn songs on a regular basis, and I just love music. Today, I decided to film myself playing the song "Sweater Weather" by The Neighbourhood. Once we'd come back from summer break, someone randomly started singing it, and they all started raving about how they'd loved it when it first came out, and how they still did. It pushed me to go listen to it, and let's just say, I love it now, so much that I just had to learn it...
Sorry about the bad quality, by the way :P
Okay, well that's it for now.
BlogsWithSarah xxx
Twitter (NEW):@SarTheBear22
So I think I wrote for you guys (whoever you are) last week, and it's about time to back on track with this blog. Last week I wrote about something personal, and hopefully, if any of you have read it, you felt just a bit better and a bit more confident once you'd been through it.
This week, I've decided to brighten up the scene a bit, and I'm going to talk about something that I think everyone loves...Music!
I've always loved music, ever since I was little girl. One of my favourite pictures of myself is from when I was about three, and I was banging on my sister's keyboard. One of my older sisters has been playing the piano for years, starting off with a regular keyboard, and progressing to an upright piano, which will actually be featured later on in this video.
Anyway, moving off my sister's musical talent, I'd like to talk about how I've been involved with music.
When I entered the third grade (or at my old school, what was known as Year 3), I found out that my school was offering music tuition for kids my age. I was extremely excited and begged my parents to get me started with an instrument.
The lessons were divided into categories: Strings, Woodwind (Flutes, oboes, etc.), Piano (I think) and Brass. I'd known by then that the most common categories were Strings and Piano, strings for the guitar, piano for well, the piano. I'd thought both instruments were great, but I wanted to play something, a bit less common.
I opted for the Brass group, and a couple of weeks later, I had gained possession of my own Tenor/Alto Horn. You might be wondering, "what in the heavens is that?", and unless you're a huge music freak, you'd likely not know. I looks a bit like a trumpet mixed with a tuba. It's about in between in size, in between in sound, sits upright like a tuba, has the same shaped tubing as a trumpet, and like both, has a bell. I loved the instrument and I felt as if it really suited me.
I began taking lessons at my school, once every week, with another girl in my year group, who was also playing the Tenor Horn. Since there were only two of us Tenor Horn players in our school, it made sense. I really enjoyed my weekly lesson, and began to love to play.
After about 2 years of playing, towards the beginning of Grade/Year 5, I was offered the chance to "trade" in my Tenor Horn for a French Horn, an instrument that was, and still is, much more commonly known throughout the world. I was unsure, but my parents persuaded me that I should give it a go, and that if I didn't like it, I would always have the option of going back. I thought that might be a good idea so I went ahead.
I think I played the French Horn for about a month before going back. It wasn't right for me, I wasn't accustomed to holding an instrument in that position, and it just confused to have to learn different notes. My friend on the other hand, decided that the French Horn was for her, and I while she continued on, I went back to having Tenor Horn lessons, however this time, individually.
I do admit, it was quite cool to be the only Tenor Horn player at my school, but at the same time it was quite sad. I was told that at the end of the year, I would be leaving my school and moving on to where I am now, and it was sad knowing that there would be no one to play the Tenor Horn any longer.
I continued on with my lessons for the rest of the year, and felt as if I'd steadily improved up until the end of the year. I passed my Grade 3 Tenor Horn exam with a distinction.
Between Grade 3, when I'd first started, and Grade 5, when I'd stopped, I'd also joined a Brass Group in my school, where I'd practice every week with most of the Brass players at my school, and my school Orchestra, where I had practice (I believe) once or twice a week.
Today, although I do own a Tenor Horn, I find myself less involved with the Tenor Horn, and more involved with "my sister's instrument", the piano. I love the Tenor Horn, don't get me wrong, but I haven't played for a long time, and I need to start getting back into the flow of, ultimately playing four times a week.
The piano is a rather odd instrument for me. I honestly never thought I'd be able to play the piano. I knew I'd never take piano lessons, which I don't want to now either.
I first got into piano when I fell in love with the song "Rock Me" by One Direction. It's weird to say that because I'm definitely not a Directioner, but I really did love that song, and still do. The morning I first began to play, I'd just put my sister's old keyboard (the one I was banging on in the picture) in my room. I opened my laptop, went onto YouTube (which is like my favourite website ever now), and searched up "rock me piano tutorial one direction". I don't know exactly where I got the tutorial from, but I know it was either the YouTube account "Todd Downing" or "oysterlovers".
Anyway, I listened for about two minutes, and figured out a tiny portion of the song, however, for me, I just could not learn by listening to someone show me what to play. I decided to take to myself and put the notes together alone, and within the next hour, I'd figured out how to play my very first song.
In the next few days alone, I had played the song possibly over 100 times, to the point where one of my sisters had to kindly ask me to stop. I responded that I didn't know any other songs, to which she said "Then learn one" or something along those lines.
I'm not sure exactly what song I learned next, but I think it may have been the song "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People. This song has been one of my favourites for a long time, and after I heard Taylor Swift and Zac Efron do a guitar duet on Ellen, I knew I had to learn it on the piano. I decided to try and wing it, and once again by the end of the day, I'd learned another song.
I know learn songs on a regular basis, and I just love music. Today, I decided to film myself playing the song "Sweater Weather" by The Neighbourhood. Once we'd come back from summer break, someone randomly started singing it, and they all started raving about how they'd loved it when it first came out, and how they still did. It pushed me to go listen to it, and let's just say, I love it now, so much that I just had to learn it...
Sorry about the bad quality, by the way :P
Okay, well that's it for now.
BlogsWithSarah xxx
Twitter (NEW):
