I served the church by singing for the first Sunday mass of every month. My choir also gives the youth an opportunity to be engaged in the church. I felt like I was a part of the church and felt included. Singing in a choir helps hold the mass together and allow the attendees to fully immerse themselves in the religious experience. Sharing music connects the community with their religion. I felt satisfied with the outcome of my service.
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I served my friend Andrew who was in need of some music lessons. We worked on learning all the major scales and did some exercises in a practice book. I taught him the foundation for playing piano. Andrew was sad in the beginning that he couldn't remember all of the major scales and their order. I helped him expand his knowledge of piano and him learning the scales will allow for the understanding of music he will learn in the future.
I served my neighbor by giving him a counting lesson and getting into the basics of how to play the violin. I really enjoyed this project because I got to work with my younger neighbor, Dimitri. He already knew the basics of the violin so we went over counting and how to count beats, (1e+a) and trying to get him to count certain rhythms. He already knew how to play twinkle but he said he wanted to learn how to play baby shark so we learned how to play that together. This made an impact on my importance of sharing music because I spend a lot of time with this kid and we were able to have a really fun time learning to play music together. He is probably going to start playing music in his school orchestra soon so it was fun to teach him something fun before he starts actual orchestra.
For this first semester, I taught Northside Junior Mila Trivanovic foundational aspects of violin playing, such as re-learning notes and the treble clef, proper posture and positions, finger positions, and bow strokes. Over the course of the year, I plan on helping her play through an introductory violin piece from a Suzuki book. When I first spoke to Mila, she expressed an interest in rekindling an interest in music after some limited experience with the guitar. Working with her has not only allowed me to help spark an interest in music within her, but also help me gain a more fundamental understanding of all the aspects of what makes a good musician, whether it be understanding music theory, pitch, and even small things such as posture or positioning. As someone who has had a music teacher before, I was really excited to pass down some of my own knowledge to someone else who may not have an opportunity to work with a classically trained teacher, and I felt a great sense of pride seeing her pick up notes quickly, move her bow fluidly, and other small signs of progress. It soon became evident that given the resources and commitment, anyone, even someone who has not picked up a violin in their lives, can develop musical skills and share them with their community. I hope that by sharing my love of music with Mila, she can use the skills we have gone over and strengthened to create a foundational understanding of music, which she can then apply when learning how to play simple performance pieces: something I plan on helping her into the second semester. In sum, I found this experience a very culminating moment in my journey as a musician, as it allowed me to share some of my own experiences with a peer interested in music, but somewhat lacking the means of achieving it via guidance or material; it reveals that music is truly for everybody, regardless of experience or financial status and that at any moment in your life you can come back to music and enjoy it just as fulfilling and enriching, if not more so.
My project was to play music for elderly people and generally to spread music to the community. We chose to play music to elderly people because they can't really come to attend concerts so it is nice when we come to them and play some music. I went and played at an organization in Northbrook which includes a retirement home. A friend of mine has had a long time partnership with this organization and had done projects like mine for years, so I and other individuals have started projects like this. The audience were many very old people who probably haven't seen live music very often but enjoyed it very much. I feel that the service I did has had a very important impact on the audience. They of course are very old and can't do much when it comes to going places, so they rely on people like us to provide them with things they don't usually have. The elderly people in the audience really enjoyed the music I played, after I had talked with some of them after. It probably reminded them of their youth and helped them feel more young and less lonely. Playing in this service project made me feel really great for having the ability to spread music to the community and to people who don't get to experience it very often. It also informed me on the importance of music as service. I understand a lot more about how people really don't have the privilege of being surrounded by music as we are and it is super powerful to share music like we are. Since it had such a great impact on the people there, I believe it is something to keep doing.
Since January 13 I have and will continue to go to rehearsals for the musical at Wildwood elementary school. At these rehearsals I watch, help lead, and offer musical advice and additional instruction to the students on vocal and performance techniques to help these students widen their vocal capabilities and achieve their highest potential as they prepare for their show in April. This service project has been a very valuable experience for me. Wildwood was the school I had gone to when I was an elementary student. I have many special memories of musical activities that I have done in that place in the past and how they have all contributed to my passion for music. It's a very surreal and nostalgic experience to have the opportunity to go back to Wildwood, the place where many of my first musical experiences had taken place, with more musical experience and knowledge and reach out to younger students who had the same passion for music I had when I was their age and are eager to keep building on that passion but aren't sure where to start. Through my visits to the musical rehearsals, I've been able to now give those passionate students the resources and knowledge they need to build on that passion and take the knowledge they have from Wildwood one step further. I've been able to introduce them to a whole new world of vocal and performance techniques and provide additional one-on-one help on how they can reach their own individual goals in performance achievement. Personally, it made me feel happy to be helping these younger students receive the additional guidance I would've wanted when I was their age. Additionally, I just loved watching these younger kids perform and seeing how at such a young age they already have so much passion to sing and act and how they express their own love and connection with music in such a unique and individual way. This whole experience has helped me understand the value in sharing music because music had promoted easily enthusiasm, connection, effective expression, and celebration amongst the students. I saw how music and the opportunity to sing made the younger students feel happier and closer with each other when they would sing familiar songs together. Additionally, they were more eager to learn because they were learning about something they were passionate about. Furthermore, they would take musical knowledge they had learned from me and use it in a way that helped them achieve their individual performance goals and help them best perform their piece in a way that was unique.
I worked with the Salvation Army to tutor my friend through piano lessons. The Salvation Army has a music school program and that was where I first learned how to play the flute. This place was where I first touched the flute and learned how to make music with it. I became a two instrument musician and I was proud. Now my friend Lindsey and I have been friends since I was in first grade and she was in Kindergarten. We were already friends at school but we both attended this music program at the Salvation Army because we both wanted to learn another instrument. We both learned flute but I felt I did not have enough knowledge of the flute to tutor her about it but I have been playing piano since preschool so I felt comfortable about tutoring her for that instrument. I definitely felt the importance of sharing music because I was sharing my experience with the piano to a friend that I cared about. It was amazing to look at songbook pages through the eyes of someone who was seeing them for the first time. It was like I was going back to when I first tried the piano. When Lindsey played to the end of the song we were working on I could see how happy and satisfied she was like she just completed a major accomplishment and she did. I am grateful for the opportunity to help my friend learn about an instrument I care so much about and I definitely hope to get this chance again with more kids.
I helped a choir student with their sight reading skills at least once a month. For choir, we often have sight reading tests, and this student wanted to improve his skills through the various sight reading tests Mrs. Martinez provides. We went over basic note reading skills, such as key signatures and rhythms, as well as notes in relation to others, such as intervals. This project helped me become a better teacher and more understanding of those who wish to learn more about music. Seeing the student become excited when they understood something correctly, or hearing his progress was very rewarding and made me hopeful that he would continue to learn more about music. The student was very thankful and not only improved their sight reading skills for the test, but helped them sight read during class. It gave me hope that people can become even more intrigued by music and singing by learning the technicalities of music. In general, I hope to be able to teach more choir students, especially those in my sections, more skills. I remember struggling more with sight reading in the past, without any help, and I hope I can alleviate some students' fears with my help. Sharing music through teaching is important to both people involved, and only fosters a stronger, smarter Northside music community.
Over winter break, I gathered a group of friends and family and collaborated with the Salvation Army to raise money with our musical skills. Although we repeated this every year, the experience was still very rewarding and insightful. I witnessed the power that music has in forming a community. Our group only grew since I started working with the Salvation Army. We were all different in so many ways, but came together as musicians. We attracted many people as a large group of musicians and raised over $250 by doing what we love. Through the years, this statistic has increased along with our overall size. I hope to continue this trend for years to come.
Mary and I are currently working with Wildwood Elementary to help the students with their musical performance at the end of May. We will be giving them vocal help and perhaps choreograph a dance to one of their songs through the course of the rehearsals. I realized early on that it would be a lot hard to work with kids that aren't my age with musical related stuff, but it will be really rewarding in the end because we'll be able to watch the performance in May and be able to think, "We helped them with this, and look at how well they're doing." At the same time it'll be a hard process once we get fully into working with the kids, but it'll help me learn how to handle kids better for the future, whether it's for family purposes or for another career opportunity. They have a lot more energy than teenagers do, so it'll be hard to control and maintain the energy of the kids, but it'll be fun at the end of the day.
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