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

Yay Procrastination!!

     So, I started working on a new project at home. I am trying to come up with an arrangement of 'Charlie Brown' for next year's Gong Show. I know it is a bit early, but why not get ahead, right? Another thing I'm working on is writing an arrangement of a song for the school band's End of Year Concert. The difficult part of that is: Finale 2013 is EXTREMELY confusing to use!! I got the music writing software for my birthday last month, and I started working on some music. I have sorta procrastinated, though. Not really procrastinating, because I am brainstorming for the music, I just haven't written anything down, because I can be lazy at times.
     What makes it increasingly difficult to work on the Gong Show piece is that I need to find people to help me. I have the rhythm guitar part written, but I can't find anyone to play it. I also need to find someone who can sing. I am so glad, however, that my little brother volunteered to play the percussion part. I wouldn't have been able to find anyone for that if he didn't volunteer. So I'll be trying to find teammates, if you want to call it that, in the next few months.
     I want to know if any of you reading this have had a task that you wanted to fulfill so badly, but you just couldn't. It could be because of technical difficulties, ADD, laziness, procrastinating just in general, or whatever. Has that ever happened to you? How did you get around that problem? I'd like to know you dealt with it, because I am having a rather difficult time with this.

A few Saturdays ago at the Gong Show

October 3, 2013

     Well, hello, this is my first blog post. Mostly, I'm just going to talk about music on this blog, so for my first post, I am going to talk about what I did a few Saturday nights ago at the Gong Show. Music has been a great thing in my life. I use it to pass time, and to have fun. I have played flute and guitar for many different performances, and it made me realize what career I want to have as an adult.
     The Gong Show is like a talent show that held every year at my school. There is a three minute time limit, the audience watches the performance while you are being judged. The audience cheers, boos, or shouts "Gong!" If the audience shouts gong, then there are people in chicken suits that bang the gong, and you are forced to stop your performance.
     I was the first act that night, which wasn't very convenient for my first time performing in that sort of environment. The song I played was my favorite song in the whole world: Viva La Vida by Coldplay. I went on stage without an introduction because the person who took my intro card lost it.. somehow. In the first few seconds, I almost puked because I was so nervous, but then after I started playing, I wouldn't rather be anywhere else in the world for any reason. It was just a great feeling, playing for all of those people.
     After I played the first verse, the second verse, and the first chorus, it was time for the fun part. On that next part, I planned to ask the audience to sing. There was a backing vocal part. I said something along the lines of "Okay everybody, you know this part, I want you to sing it for me," then the audience cheered loudly, I said "Ready? One! Two! Three!" then it was going, the audience sang the backing vocal part, I played the melody. It ended up being AWESOME. It was probably one of the most fun moments of my life.
     On the following Monday, I had to endure several compliments, and they are still continuing to the day of this writing. In the remainder of this blog post, I would like the readers to see a video of that performance. I hope you enjoy it! But first, I have a question:
     I would like to ask how music has been a positive influence in your life. What great things has it done for you? Anyway, thanks for reading!

Here's the video link: http://youtu.be/hflJsajuC6k