Class, August 18, 2010

Today in class we played our instruments. Mr. Tomassi gave us new music for us ti play in the Welcome Back BBQ, such as the Saxophone Rag and Animaniacs. He also gave us a chromatic scale warm up, a chorale warm up, and rythm studies for band, which is a series of songs, of different styles of music, where the time signature changes a lot. In this class we also worked on the first pages of the book, because we just got the new book, and we went through pages 1,2,3 and our homework was to review all of the exercises and some of the following pages. This class, was not very different from the ones last year, where we unpacked, set up, played the warm ups, some exercises in the book, and then review the songs for the concert. I hope that we can play Saxophone Rag next class, because we really have to practice it, because most people say that it is a very hard piece of music, when it really inst. 

Class, August 16, 2010

Today August 16, 2010, we had a band class, the homework of the scales. So the first thing we did was review the homework, all of us, went to the board and did one problem and explained to the class why it was that way, and why we had added the flats or sharps to make the formula match the scale. We did that for about three quarters of the class, then Mr. Tomassi told us to get our instruments and we played for the rest of the class. We are now playing a new book called Essential Techniques, which for now has been about the same level as the end of our last book. But flipping through the book, I saw that things got harder. But with a lot of practice and effort it shouldnt be that hard. For Homework we had to open up this blog, and write the entries for the classes, also that we had to correct the scales that we had wrong, and to do the Gb scale.

Class, August 12, 2010

On August 12, 2010 we had our first official 1 hour and 30 minutes Band class. In this class Mr. Tomassi handed us a worksheet that was kind of a review of what we already had learned last year about scale construction. In this worksheet we reviewed all sorts of things, such as what were whole steps, half steps, the notes in the staff, and the notes in the piano. He also reminded us about the notes in the black keys of the piano could be a # (sharp) and a b (flat) in the same key, because a # rises the note half step up, and the b lowers it half step down. After reviewing all of that, we reviewed how to construct Major Scales, with the formula WWHWWWH (Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half). Based on this formula and the notes in the piano, the scales should match the formula, like if you need a whole step, but you have its just a half step, you add a sharp to the note. Based on what we learned on that class, Mr. Tomassi sent us to do about 14 Major scales for homework. In my opinion I was able to do them quicker than when I did them last year. I think its because now I understand the concept better, and I have reviewed it a lot.

Class, August 10, 2010

On August 10, 2010 we started school, and so we had our first Band class. On this first band class Mr. Tomassi handed us the rules for the class and the guidelines and grading systems, for playing tests, and rehersals. When he gaves us the rules and guidelines, we discussed them with him, and he made sure we understood what we were doing this year in band. This was the shortes class of the three we've had so far, so we didnt have much time to learn anything new, we just discussed the rules, and what he was expecting from us this year.