Reflective Essay: All-State Music Class

When I was in fifth grade, I was caught between two worlds, playing a woodwind or string instrument. If I played a woodwind instrument I would have to blow in it to make music, but string instruments are played with a bow to make music. After much thought, I decided that the violin was the best instrument for me, because it has a beautiful, unique sound, plus the possibilities are never-ending. I could receive a compliment from a teacher, or even get accepted to the symphony.

Initially, a writer should do an outline before starting any essay. An outline can help to organize his or her main points in order to build an introduction, body and conclusion. This method of pre writing was something that I had never been exposed to prior to receiving an example outline from Professor Vilceus. By studying the example, I went from zero knowledge about an outline to creating ones that made arranging essay material uncomplicated.

Many schools around the country are cutting their music program because of budget cuts in their counties. The arts for some reason are always the first to be cut; apparently the school doesn’t think they are essential to their students learning. Schools try to focus on the more important academic classes because of the high testing standards they must now meet. (Nesoff 2003) This is not just happening in poor school districts it is happening in large districts across the country including magnet schools for the arts: “When Albert Margolis and his wife attended the final music program for their son's kindergarten class in May, they were shocked when a teacher stood up after the performance and

December. Ask most students, and this is the best month of the first half of school. The semester is coming to a close, and holiday season is near. On the other end of the spectrum, when a band nerd hears the word, they are overcome with a mix of emotions: fear, anxiety, and excitement. The cause for this: District Honor Band.

Collaboration. The use of online websites, blogs and digital audio software for musicians to collaborate on projects and disseminate new ideas throughout online communities. In this section, I will draw on the work of Jones (2011) and Lysloff (2003) to discuss how much easier it is for musicians to find others in similar genre’s to collaborate with, particularly in more obscure genres of music.

The Musical Composition that has changed my life to how I see music is the song The Stroke from Billy Squier. I did not really know the meaning of the song, but it really Widened my Horizon in terms of music from only before listening to The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Monkeys. Then later being able to listen to Rush, AC/DC, Aerosmith And Other Really good rock bands that I still love today. Then I started collecting Records then I started collecting CDs, the first album I bought for myself is the majestic Black Sabbath Album “Paranoid” The album with the musical compositions Paranoid, Iron Man, War Pigs/Luke’s Wall, Planet Caravan, Rat Salad, Electric Funeral, And Fairies Wear Boots. This album was such an amazing introduction to Black

I was not nervous about writing this time. I looked at my paper and racked my brain trying to figure out how to cut my essay down from seven pages to three. It was a challenge, my essay was very detailed and filled with rich dialogue. The thought of cutting it, caused me near physical pain. I had poured my heart into that essay and now I had to cut up my work to meet length requirements. Saying that it was a challenge was an understatement. Despite this, I felt confident that I could do it, and I started revising my essay. The first thing I tried was cutting out portions of it. But after reading it, it felt flat, so I had to try another approach. I decided paraphrasing would be the better choice. I cut out everything that didn’t follow the main idea, and paraphrased nearly every piece of dialogue in my story. When I was finished, I had three and half pages. I made a decision, the essay couldn’t be cut down anymore without my story suffering for it, so I left it as it was. The next week I received a nearly perfect grade. Had I been faced with this decision in the beginning of the course, I would not have made the same choice. I would have second guessed myself, tried to shorten my essay even more, and weakened my story. My writing confidence had definitely improved. Now it was time to face my last obstacle, and write the final draft of my persuasive

Volunteering for the St. Vincent DePaul Community Meals program, since the age of ten, has given me the ability to assist others while simultaneously sparking my desire to help people. Preparing and serving healthy, hot meals provides people in need with a nutritional alternative to an empty stomach. I am a member of various clubs such as National Honor Society, Future Business Leaders of America, International Club, Gender Equality Club, and Global Issues Club. Holding several positions from President to Secretary, these roles offer me responsibilities which allow me to learn balance. I am also heavily involved with the music program. Music has given me the courage to do things such as perform at

Music is a big part of many peoples day to day lives, from blasting music on long car rides, to attending concerts with thousands of other people, music is a pretty big deal to the population. Although, many of those people do not know how much the music they listen to affects the development and presentation of their personality. Around the world, kids are taught about music from the second they are born, whether it is their mother singing them a lullaby or the alphabet song. Music is used as way for people to express themselves and their emotions. Music has an effect on a person’s personality development and presentation, because it can be used to teach and build necessary information during childhood, link receptors for memory, predict a personality based on musical interests, and represent underlying psychological issues.

Two hundred individuals stand at attention, each more determined than next to ignore the drop of sweat rolling down their back, or the itch that seems to only appear during these crucial moments. “Band ten-hut!” a voice echoes from afar. “Right slide sixteen, back eight,” and so on. These are basic marching band directives. The commands are simple until you pair them with having to roll your feet, keep your upper body steady and take even steps. To maintain each of these elements simultaneously is often a daunting task, though practice and the support from my peers helped me improve each of my performances on the field.

As this semester and writing class is coming to an end, I feel more confident in my writing skills. At The beginning of the semester I would still use my high school ways of writing. That was waiting until the night before or the day of to write my paper. By doing that I would leave out many things out of my paper. One of them was details. I would start talking about something and not go into depth about it. In the rough draft of the learning narrative project, there was a paragraph that was very vague. “At first I was hesitant to talk to other people so for a couple of days I just sat by myself. Then one day

An outline guides the writer so that they will not lose track of what they are writing about. I always used the same outline when writing counseling statements for my Soldiers. This outline was arranged from the most important to the least

Few would argue against the idea that we educate ourselves and our society so that we have adequate means with which to understand and interact with elements of the world around us. Subjects such as mathematics, language, history, and the hard sciences are granted immediate and unquestioned legitimacy in our schools, and with good reason. We encounter each of these elements of our lives on a daily basis. We need to have an understanding of these disciplines in order to interact with them, otherwise they are meaningless to us. I submit that the same can be said for the fundamental concepts of music. Music is something that we encounter in our society every day. It surrounds us. Indeed

Seussical the Musical was not my first choice, but the show quickly grew on me. My primary goal in this project for me was to complete anything asked of me as well as learn all I could about the entire design process. Working on my drafting skills and learning how to collaborate with another designer were additional goals I wanted to work on.

One thing that over the years I’ve become very good at is learning how to play many musical instruments. The different factors and components of this learning process include learning music theory, learning the basics of an instrument and how to apply different skills to various types of instruments such as string, brass, percussion and wind. Some of the instruments that I have learned are piano, organ, harpsichord, keyboard, guitar, bass, mandolin, trombone, cello, banjo, harmonica and soon the fiddle. Each of these different types of instruments required a different basic skill set.