My Musical Biography

     I had a very upsetting experience two weeks ago at an orchestra audition when I got nervous and messed up. I was really angry at myself afterwards because of that. I ended up crying for 2 hours even though I knew this was high school senior level music, and I was a lot less experienced than that. I think God knew what he was doing when he had me get nervous and mess up like that, though. Like when I moved to Texas.

     When I was eight, my mom's job had us need to move to Dallas. I didn't want to go at the time, because I didn't want to not have any friends in a new school. The education is better here, though, and there's more opportunities. I think God knew what he was doing when he introduced me to music since I moved to Texas. I went to the orchestra right after I moved, and I heard the flutes, and I thought they sounded really really cool. When I was at the band drive in fifth grade, which is where we try out all of the instruments, I was determined to do well on the flute test. I ended up being one of the about 4/60ish that passed that test. In the summer I started taking lessons, and played in the band in sixth grade, seventh grade, and I'm now in eighth grade, playing flute for every opportunity I can get.

     Two Septembers ago, I got into rock music. Not just regular rock music– Coldplay rock music. A friend and I made a video and he put their 2008 hit 'Viva la Vida,' to the video. I instantly downloaded the song. My brother decided to download the rest of the album, then I downloaded 'X&Y,' 'Mylo Xyloto,' 'Parachutes,' and 'A Rush of Blood to the Head.' I pretty much fell in love with Coldplay's music, since I can relate to a lot of it. I bought the 'Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends,' song book and saw that most of the songs had guitar and piano chords written on them. I asked my dad if he could teach me how to play the guitar so I could play some of the songs in there on the guitar I got when I was six (since my dad already had 4 guitars and he got it for free, he gave it to me). He taught me how to read the chord charts and how to put my fingers on the neck. I picked it up within ten minutes and began playing guitar solos like 'Every Teardrop is a Waterfall,' and 'Shiver,' by ear.

     A few months after that (last September), I got bored one day when my mom finished playing the piano, so I sat down and started playing a few random chords that I messed around with. About two weeks afterwards I listened to 'Clocks,' and 'Amsterdam,' and started playing those by ear, and discovered that I have perfect pitch.

     Two months ago, in February, a friend came up to me during lunch in school, and asked me if I could play the drums for the middle school's praise band. I agreed. Not have played the drums before, I was a bit anxious, especially the awkwardness of my flute teacher being the coordinator for the praise band. My brother plays the drums for band, though, and I've seen him practice. I played the standard rock drum beat, and it actually went pretty well. I told my brother that I 'Will Championed.' Will Champion is Coldplay's drummer who just happened to be there when his roommate became absent, and they didn't have a drummer. I thought he was a bit jealous, since Will Champion is his 'idol.'

     Another friend and I were talking about writing songs together before, and he showed me some of the lyrics that he wrote a few years back. We're currently working on writing a (few) song(s) with lyrics that he wrote and the instrumental sounds that I'm still trying to figure out. Next step is just to get a bass player, drummer, and another guitarist (I'm not even sure what I'd be playing, probably rhythm guitar).

     That is pretty much my musical biography. Music has been one of the most important things in my life, and I'm hoping to make it big in a band sometime in the future.

20% Time #2

I have accomplished a lot with turning Mother 3 into a novel. I've gotten all the way up to chapter four. Now that I think about it, it's probably going to be five or six chapters instead of eight chapters, since the main characters isn't in three. The chapter I'm working on now is the longest one in the whole thing, so it's going to take awhile for me to complete that one. So I'm 90% sure I'll be done with it by the end of the school year.

20% Time

In english class we decided to do this thing called '20% Time.' We're basically taking every Friday to work on some other productive thing that we want to accomplish. I decided that I wanted to turn one of my favorite video games, 'Mother 3,' into a read form. I'm probably going to make 5 chapters unlike the actual game is divided into 8, and I'm going to try to do one chapter/2-3 weeks. I'll do some of it at home, though. I've completely written everything in the first chapter off of what the game actually provided for me, since I'm going from the first person point of view of the main character, who is barely involved in the first two. I'll probably post each chapter on here after it's edited to what I want it to be like. When I put the first one up here, it is completely improvised, by the way. I am only following material that the game has provided, and is absolutely nessecary to understand the story. So Chapter #1, I needed to get a bit creative with the story.

Here's the link to a fanmade, very accurate wiki site. http://earthbound.wikia.com/wiki/Mother_3

If I Could Change Anything

     Well, in english class we had a very interesting question brought to us today. The question was "If you could change anything in the world, what would it be?" It took me a few moments to think about this. I thought about personal desires, then I decided to go to friend's desires, but in the end, I would've changed what God would've enjoyed. My answer is, "If I could change anything the world, I would have everyone believe that it was Jesus who died to pay for our sins, and everyone would do what God commands."

     I think that it would be a very positive thing, first of all, if everyone followed God's commands. There would be kindness showing everywhere. God commands us to love one another, in the second half of the Ten Commandments. If everyone were to love one another, then no one would envy anyone, hate anyone, or do anything to harm anyone. The Tenth Commandment, first of all, says that we shouldn't covet anything that our neighbor has. This doesn't mean just our neighbor, like across the street. It means everyone. Everyone is our neighbor, and I believe it says this somewhere in the bible. If no one wanted anything from their neighbor, then no one would get upset for not having it. People would be kind to each other without being asked or forced to, as well.

     Another thing that would happen is that everyone would put God first. In the first half of the Ten Commandments, God says to put him first. If everyone put God first, then following his Commandments would be a top priority to everyone, and people would in turn, as stated above, be kind to one another. There would be pretty much no other religions, though. I couldn't imagine how many more Christian songs there would be, though. I really would enjoy the songs that there would be. I would honestly like to see that my favorite band, Coldplay, wrote a Christian song. It would probably end up being my favorite song. The world would be practically sinless, if everyone followed God's commands, since the only way to sin is by breaking one of those commands. Like it is classified as breaking 'Thou shalt not murder,' if you think bad things about someone. If you get jealous of someone, it would be breaking the command that talks about coveting your neighbors ox, donkey, wife, manservant, maidservant etc..

     I now wonder how someone would actually get everyone on earth to follow God's Commandments. I'm not exactly sure how other people of other religions would react to leaving their religion. I'm sure, though that at one point everyone will follow God. Maybe not soon, or in anyone who is currently alive's life. At one point, though, I am confident that everyone will follow God's commandments. Yeah, I just wanted to make that clear by saying it twice, but not consecutively.

     There's a picture of the Ten Commandments at the bottom in case you need to reference to one of them or you just want to read them. Thank you for reading and I will probably make another post soon.

Picture found at www.keepthetencommandments.com 

Meeting One of My 'Idols'

     On Tuesday, I went to the airport right after 6th period. I was going to Indianapolis to go to a concert where Sir James Galway would be. Sir James Galway is the most famous flute player alive right now. When I got to my aunt's house, which is where I would stay for two nights, I learned that my aunt's roommate's brother's friend got me in line to meet Sir James, because she worked there. I was so excited to meet him when I found out. On Wednesday November sixth, I went to the Palladium in Indianapolis. I met one of the ladies who worked there. She showed me around the building, and I got a VIP pass. About an hour before the concert, I went into a room, and I went to meet Sir James Galway. I was so excited. I got my flute case autographed by him, and I got pictures with him. I got a 5 minute private lesson with him. Then a few minutes later, the concert started. The first act was awesome. Sir James stood up at the front and played his music with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. He made jokes before every song, and one of them was something about Obama (lol). He came out with his wife, Lady Jeanne Galway, and they played duets. During intermission, I met Lady Jeanne Galway and took a picture with her. Right before the end of intermission, I got a picture with Lady Jeanne and Sir James Galway. The last part was good, and we in the audience got the orchestra an encore. It was probably one of the best days of my life. I came back to school on the seventh with an earache and a small sinus infection.. It was worth it, even though I can't really hear out of my right ear. Pictures are below, hope you like them.

Me having a 5 minute private lesson with Sir James Galway!! He taught me how to properly put my flute together without potentially harming it, how to stand to improve my tone, and an easier way to hold my flute!!!

This is a picture of Sir James, Lady Jeanne, my dad and me.

Yes, I am a Coldplayer, thank you.

October 28, 2013

     Well, I honestly couldn't think about a very good topic to write my blog about this week, so I just came up with something that I'm gonna throw out there. Here we go...
     I love listening to music. You probably already knew that from my other blog posts about music. My favorite kind of music is rock, with a tiny bit of more mellow, pop feel. Which in result, makes my favorite band Coldplay. I honestly have liked every single Coldplay song I have ever listened to. Even their more slow songs that are like really really mellow, for example, Parachutes.
     Their first album named after the priorly mentioned song, Parachutes, has a more hard rock feel. I know I just said that Parachutes had a mellow tone, but stuff like Shiver, Yellow, and Spies, have a bit of harder rock. It won two Grammy Awards for Yellow and Don't Panic. The second album is called A Rush of Blood to the Head, which is named for another one of their that is in the album. This album features a lot of falsetto singing, like the chorus of Clocks, In My Place, and Daylight, and the bridge of Politik. In total, it has a few Grammy Award nominations, and one Grammy Award for Clocks.
     X & Y, the third album was the last of what they like to call a 'trilogy.' The top rated song from the album, and the second most successful one of their songs, Fix You, is in this album. The song was dedicated to the lead singer, Chris Martin's, wife, the famous actor Gwyneth Paltrow when her dad died. The album was a very alternative album, with not much rock at all. The album appears to be inspired by love. For example; Swallowed in the Sea, has a line that states 'I could write a song/100 miles long/and that's where I belong/and you belong with me..' And the song Fix You, previously stated up there states 'And I will try to fix you..' The album won two Grammy Awards. One for Speed of Sound for the Best British Live Act, and one for Fix You, because I don't know.
     They had another album, called Prospekt's March, that I don't know a lot about because they collaborated with Jay-Z, and there is a bit of language in there, and I can't just download part of the album. Their fifth album, was by far their most successful.
     Viva la Vida and Death and All His Friends was the name of it. It was uniquely named after two of the songs in the album. Viva la Vida is their most successful song. They actually went through a lot to get that song. They were sued by Joe Satriani because it sounded a lot like his song called If I Could Fly, which is much worse than Viva la Vida. I honestly wouldn't have ever heard of Joe Satriani if I didn't read about the lawsuit. Viva la Vida is my favorite song, which I stated in previous blog posts. The album has a lot of more orchestral stuff going on in it. Other than Viva la Vida, the song Yes, has a violin melody along with higher bass clef vocal melody. The other song which this album is named for, Death and All His Friends, actually has a bit of hard rock in it. The beginning part makes you think it is a slow, soft, piano, love song. Though, after the first three verses, it drastically picks up tempo, going to a resonant, low, electric guitar sound, going into the bridge with 'No I don't wanna battle from beginning to end/ I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge/ I don't wanna follow Death and all of his friends..'  They even did something amazing in this song. One of the first songs they ever started working on was in this album. (Don't even get me started on their first song, Ode to Deodorant). Violet Hill was one of the first songs they ever started working on, and it is probably one of their best. It has a quarter note piano chord melody, underneath Chris Martin's vocals at the beginning. Then it suddenly bursts into a chromatically descending guitar chord, and it gets exciting. On the bridge, lead guitarist, Jonny Buckland, plays an amazing guitar solo, which I can't even describe. This album in all won one Grammy Award for Viva la Vida, which was Song of the Year in 2009, and reached #1 on a majority of the boards at it's peak position, the lowest being #4 in Portugal.
     Between 2008 and 2011, Coldplay made one EP, Life in Technicolor ii, which was going to be in Viva la Vida, but didn't make the cut. It features a hammered dulcimer playing a melody in the key of A major. The two other songs in the album are a live performance of the prior song at the O2 in London. The other one is called The Goldrush, and it is very different. The drummer and lead backing vocalist, Will Champion, is singing the melody with the rest of the band playing things like the mandolin and singing backing vocals and making a bunch of laughter in the background. They also did a Christmas song in 2010 called Christmas Lights. It has a violin background with a piano melody.
     Their most recent album, released in 2011 has a rather odd name. Mylo Xyloto, (the to is a short sounding 'toe' sound. Sorry, it just really annoys me when people say the name incorrectly :P). There are three songs in the album that don't have a really a whole song within them, they just make perfect leads into the song following them and are performed live with both combined. One being Mylo Xyloto, which is a perfect lead into Hurts Like Heaven, M.M.I.X, leading into Every Teardrop is a Waterfall, and A Hopeful Transmission leading into Don't Let It Break Your Heart, which leads into Up With the Birds. This album definitely has a more pop feel to it. The song Paradise, was #1 in Australia at it's peak position. It won a grammy, and is the most popular song in the album. The albums inspiration came from the song Charlie Brown, which I am arranging for a small band to play. The bassist, Guy Berryman, said that the inspiration for the entire album came from the image of a bright red rose bursting through concrete; which is a line in Charlie Brown "In my scarecrow dreams/ When they smashed my heart into smithereens/ be a bright red rose come bustin' the concrete." The album won I think 2 Grammys, one for Paradise and one for Charlie Brown, but I'm not sure about the latter.
     Their most recent song is featured in the new Hunger Games movie, specifically written for it. It is called Atlas. Many people say it is a combination of all of their albums' styles in one song. Chris Martin, the singer, like most other songs, wrote this song. He said in an interview last week (posted this on the 28/10/13), that he pretended he was a woman whose dress kept catching on fire to write the lyrics for this song. And this song really is a masterpiece, like all the others.
     So, main point is, I really like Coldplay, and all of their songs are very good, in my opinion. So, I would suggest you listen to a few of their songs. Just try it for me, and you'll probably like it too, if you're into limestone rock music. Also, sorry for the really long post.

Are video games bad for you?

     A lot of people say that video games are bad for kids. I would like to disagree with that. Video games do many positive things for children of today. I actually want to make this blog post about it.
     First, the top thing on the list that people complain about is the money. People say that video games are a waste of time and money. They are not a waste of time, first of all. They function as entertainment for kids. They keep them occupied. Money, however, depends. Video games themselves aren't very expensive, but the console can cost up to $500. That is insane, to be honest. But if you have the money to do it, why not?
     There are actually a few benefits to playing video games, too. First, they help with reflexes in real life. Imagine playing a sport or something, and then a ball comes at you. Video games have been proven to increase the speed of those reflexes that allow you to grab the ball before it hits you. Another benefit is that video games can improve your decision making in life. I read on several web pages, including a few people who posted it on twitter, that playing video games actually do improve decision making capabilities. Another thing that might shock you, is that around 30 minutes to an hour of video games per day can improve your vision. I know that sounds strange, because people blame computers and games for ruining vision, which they do if used for extended periods.
     What are your thoughts on video games? Do you enjoy them? What are your favorite video games? Give me your thoughts on this, please. Thank you!

Here is my top four list of video games, if you want to see...: (4 is just a random number.....)

1. Pokémon (Includes all)
2. Kingsisle Games (Wizard101, Pirate101)
3. Minecraft
4. Earthbound/Mother Series