Last Journal Entry - Summative Assessment

 Sumative Assessment Reflective Journal Entry

In this Journal Entry, I will reflect upon the whole period of ~5 weeks where we learnt about an instrument of our choice. As mentioned previously, I have chosen the drumset. My memory isn't honestly that good, so I can't really mention my progress in an organized way. I will try my best though.

           In the first class, we really didn't know what to do. I remember it was mostly having fun with the instrument and playing around with all the different drums that we were allowed to use. I mentioned that we had a limited amount of drums to use because we were just beginning. We only needed the kick, snare and the hi-hat. I'm also saying "we" because there were 3 of us in the drumset. Danna, Hanna and I had to take turns between each other to play, although Danna switched to singing a few classes later. I was horrible at the drums, and I couldn't even move my legs to play the pedals properly. 

 

               In the next classes, we were introduced to this little guide book which had the basic knowledge we needed to play the drumset as beginners (A photo of the excercises I did is listed above). I tried practicing the reading of notes in the first two classes, but I wasn't really interested. It was complicated and easy at the same time, but of course, since I was beginning, it was really hard to play the drum I wanted to play. I went to practice the limb independization excercises, with me doing a kick or a snare in ostinato in each. I believe it took me either 2 classes or 3, so I managed to learn it rather quickly, and I have a few videos recorded of me doing the excercises in the photo which I will upload to classroom. In those videos, I kind of struggle, which is expected, but I still did them. By this point I had also learned how to assemble the drumset in the gymnastics class, something that I was also bad at in the beginning. We were doing the drums and singing there because those instruments did a lot of noise.             

                At this point, Hanna also wasn't taking up her turns for some reason (I can't remember why, I think she was doing something else or she just didn't come those days) so I had a lot of time. After doing the independization excercises, I moved on to some basic rythms that were displayed with notes. I didn't have much problem reading the actual notes, but I did have issues with doing the accents on the Hi-Hat. (talk about song, which problems i had or what i did, how i wasnt able to finish it because we began loosing a lot of classes and conclusion) After that, I chose to begin playing a song, which is what I spent the rest classes in. Sadly, I wasn't able to practice much, because we started loosing a ton of classes to practice the christmas carol, but I can reflect upon some of the experience I had. I chose The Sweater Song by weezer.

               It isn't much, as it was just a few classes of me doing mostly the first minute and figuring out the introduction. I had to transcribe the somg, which meant I was playing it as I heard it, but I also saw a video of someone playing the drums to the song so I could guide myself. The introduction was, again, something that I improved in over time, but it was still inconsistent. I barely did the rest of the song, and I wasn't able to do much progress or improve before the year ended.