Japanese Music Class

Japanese Music Class

So when i started attending school here, there is a subject called 芸演 (geien?) on our timetable. And here you can either chose to take Art Class (美術 bijutsu?) or Music Class (音楽 ongaku).

Well, i chose Music class (hence the post name :D LOL), because i somehow chose Art back in Denmark and it was way too unnecessarily free-time consuming and frustrating, basically a pain...

Sorry to my art class back home!

But i guess it's because i ain't really aiming to be a hardcore artist (as of yet) and as an extra subject it just took too much of my time and effort with the workload.

But then again what if art class here is different n fun?! Z(O_O")

But yeah

Well so starting in Music class, we're actually a really small class, around 12 student or so (i guess the others are taking Art then). And it's a part of B-course which i am taking, so it's a mix of students from class 2-1(my class) and 2-2.

I was lent the textbooks by the teacher when the classes started.

The first lessons

The first many lessons were basically singing/chorus lessons. So there teacher would tell us about how to probably breath and stuff like that and explain the different symbols used for music/lyric sheets.

The first song we practiced was "With You Smile" 

I thought it was a really nice song, i especially really liked the piano which is really nice n bright and soothing. This song made me Smile when i first heard it, made be think of my happy memories as a child.

I really looked forward to go to music class to practice this song, because it was really nice listening to with all the light and girly voices :D

The next song

So when we were getting the hang of this song we started on a new song too called "Best Friend" (i don't know why this title too is english even though the songs Japanese)

This too was a really nice n sweet song.

It kind of gave me the same feeling as the other song. My host mother told me that she really likes this song :D

Recorder Practice Begins!

Actually when the teacher was talking about that we'd begin using recorders after we finish the singing, i mistakenly thought that she meant we'd do some recording (like in a studio?).

But i found out that it was really about the flute that she was talking about.

So we were told that we either had to buy one of those or lend one (from some of the 3rd years who didn't need them anymore) if we didn't already own one.

I was lend one, but i'm kinda considering buying one so that i can bring it back home. Or at least if i can actually get the hang of playing it.

So even though some of the other student already had some experience playing the recorder, the teacher taught us everything from the basic, but we get to practice at our own pace when we get time for that.

 

We started out with a piece called 旅立ちの日に (Tabidachi no hi ni)

But we just played a recorder arrangement for it, and our teachers played the piano along with us.

It's supposed to be a song all of the student know from middle school, we'll i don't, obviously since i didn't attend middle school in Japan :P But i guess it is kind of fitting as a graduation song or the like :D 

Bach! (n.n)

Next awesome piece is "Etude 3, メヌエット (menuetto)" by Johann Sebastian Bach? I really like quite a few of his pieces :D 

I couldn't actually find a video for this piece, don't know if it's because of the names hard to search, or because it's a beginners song and really too easy for people to want to listen to.

But with this piece we actually had to do individual tests. We were told that we could just tell the teacher when we'd like to take it, then she would listen to us playing it and give us a score (or maybe she's just writing some comment in her book, i dunno?), well, we had until before the beginning of summer vacation, so we had quite a few months and the students who had finished and had taken the test could begin on the new piece.

I actually waited to around the last lesson or so before the start of vacation, i think i was the last person to take it, *so embarrassing (=.=")*.

There were some tricky parts which i kept succeeding and them failing and i would just keep on practicing over and over only to get it right and wrong and right...

I think i was one of the only one to bring home my recorder and textbooks after every lesson in case i'd get time to practice at home, while all the others would just leave theirs  in the music room. 

I guess i was trying to hard. And then ended up getting mediocre result at during the test... (=.=)

Well i started on the new piece a bit before the summer vacation.

it's actually a piece i really liked around the time when i took piano lessons around 4th grade, so it was kind of nostalgic~.

next up " グラウンドによるグリーンスリーヴス(ground ni yoru greensleeves?) or just Greensleeves"?

Half done!

So that was kinda it for the first half of Japanese Music Class!

I might still update with some pictures n stuff, so check back if you're interested.

Did you like some of the Japanese songs? Let me know :D