LA Task 2 T2W10

1. Point of View
--> “…children in the darknessWho someone will teach to fight”

- The poet is trying to say that the children will be “led into the darkness”, learning something sinister which is fighting.

--> “Chalk and blackboards will not be, To this door there is no key”; “Could we give them half a chance,Could we teach them how to read,Could we teach them how to dance”

- Children are supposed to be educated academically. However, in this case, the poet is trying to say that they do not even have the freedom to choose what they want to do. Nobody is able to give them the chance to learn how to read. Their only way is to fight in a war

--> “Will their life and blood be pouredDown some endless thirsty hole”

-The poet is trying to say that, in a war the children will lose their lives easily, when they could have spent their lives picking up new skills instead.


2. Situation and setting

--> “endless thirsty hole”

- The use of the word “thirsty” shows that people fighting in a war are all desperate for survival, and in order to survive, they have to “quench their thirst” by killing others, if not they may get killed. The use of the word “endless” shows that it’s everyone who has this thought. Everyone wants to live on, and will thus fight with all theirs might, and therefore the competition on a battlefield is very tough. If children were to join in, it would be quite apparent that they will die.-

--> “Or will a war consume them,Their body and their soul”

- The poet portrays war as a cruel and merciless environment that will “consume them (the children), their body and soul”, showing that the enemy will not only simply kill them, but totally destroy them physically.


3. Language/ Diction


--> “Could we simply light a candle, Could we give them half a chance, Could we teach them how to read, Could we teach them how to dance”

- “simply light a candle” is trying to say that could adults show them what is the right path in life that they should head. The poet also used “half a chance” instead of just saying “a chance”. He is trying to say that nobody could even give the children the most minute opportunity to learn to read or write, and their fate has been decided, that is, to go to war.
- The rhetorical question also emphasizes the helplessness of adults. They want to prevent the children from fighting in a war, risking their lives, but they can’t stop it.

--> “Back into the darkness,From which there is no flight,Back into the darkness,Into which there shines no light”

- In both the first and last stanza the poet used “darkness” and “light”, which are two contrasting terms. The repetition used is trying to emphasise that going into war will turn children evil, and they will not have any chance to be able to “see the light” to do what a normal child should learn, and also risking their lives. The poet used “Back into the darkness”. The use of the word “back” shows that after thinking through, the poet realises that the only way for children is to head “back into the darkness” and fight in a war.

4. Personal response

- I feel that children should not be involved in war in any ways, or exposed to the cruelty of it. Imagine yourself as a young kid in a battlefield, who has killed another innocent man for survival, and has inevitably turned into a murderer, a monster. This will be marred in the children’s mind forever. Even if a child doesn’t kill, he or she will inevitably witness death, or how cruel one can be when he or she is desperate.

LA Task 1 T2W10

Background info: Henry M Bechtold was in, sitting in his hotel room in Saigon, trying to write a poem about the girls who work in the park and how badly men treat them. He looked at news on TV. In the background was a photo of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle.

Poem:
There are children in the darkness
Who have not seen the light
There are children in the darkness
Who someone will teach to fight

Chalk and blackboards will not be
To this door there is no key
From this life they can not flee
And these children are not free

Could we simply light a candle
Could we give them half a chance
Could we teach them how to read
Could we teach them how to dance

Or will a war consume them
Their body and their soul
Will their life and blood be poured
Down some endless thirsty hole

Back into the darkness
From which there is no flight
Back into the darkness
Into which there shines no light

Henry M Bechtold

In any war, the children will be pure as they will not be at the battlefield to kill nor witness death of others. However, in this poem, the poet says that “children (are) in the darkness, who someone will teach them how to fight”. He is trying to say that in a war, there is actually no one that is innocent, as everyone will witness death and even kill. Children are supposed to school and learn to read and dance, but they are only able to fight in a war, which will not only pollute their minds, it might also take their lives away. War is a cruel environment that innocent children should not try to get involved in it.

Noise or music?

How do you differentiate between noise and music? Scientifically speaking, both music and noise are created by vibration, and thus produce a sound. However similar they might seem, many always feel that these two things are actually very contrasting.


To me, the most obvious difference between these two is that music sounds more pleasing to the ear, more satisfying for the mind. When sounds that are created sound nice, they will be classified under music. If they do not, they will be classified under noise. It is all about our perception, I believe. If you perceive something as nice sounding, others might not necessarily feel the same way. While a piece of music may be literally music to some, it might be considered noise for others. However, I believe that with in-depth thought about any sound produced, it definitely can be defined as music.

Usually, noise is very high-pitch, or very nasal sounds. To me, these may be considered as music, even though not as nice as others... Nice music, to all of us, is a clean and smooth sound that seems to ring eternally in our mind. This is why music could allow us to focus more, and noise will just distract us inevitably.

Thus, to me, actually there is no such thing considered as noise. If you put in effort and try to understand these sounds produced, you would surely be able to enjoy that piece of music. This is exactly like analysing a poem: on the surface, it might be just plain words that talk about an incident, but actually, each and every phrase has a 'chord' to it. ♪♫

Chinese songs

I usually listen to chinese songs, but most of my friends listen to english songs, or even korean and japanese songs. We constantly argue which one is better.
Comparing English songs with Chinese songs, I feel that there are few differences, and yet these differences creates a big difference. To me, the words in chinese songs are usually more meaningful and yet rhyming, or sometimes even poetic. For English songs, I usually don't understand what the whole song is trying to say, especially in fast-rythm songs. To put it in simpler words, to me, english songs is like a beautiful beach, seemingly flawless. But chinese songs, on the other hand, is similar to a wonderful beach, with a vivid image of a setting sun, so romantic...
I feel that Chinese songs have a wider variety of music. In english songs, we usually hear the lyrics accompanied by a drumset and a few electic cuitars, ocassionally keyboards. However, in chinese songs, each and very one seem so unique and different. There are melodious sounds of the piano, sometimes the violin or cello in fast paced songs, and even flute sounds appearing constantly. This, to me, gives chinese songs a lot more style and originality.
My Favourite Singer
Actually, my favourite singer is jay chou. Many say that he can't pronounce words properly, and you totally cannot make out what he is mumbling, but actually all his songs have a very special style and are very meaningful. Anyway, his inability to pronounce properly can be considered "a special singing style" of his, I guess.
There are many of his songs that I really love. One is 珊瑚海(direct translation: coral sea). It is a duet. It is a love song about how 2 people that are in love are just not meant for each other. Try listening to it, you will definitely like it:"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxpx1rNjlPI" . The MV (music video) also tells a very nice story.
This blog post has a very good translation of the song: http://bibitan.blogspot.com/2006/03/shan-hu-hai-coral-sea.html

Another song that i like is 千里之外（direct translation: Thousands of miles away）. This song has a music of the traditional china style, and yet, it is so beautiful. It is also about love and it is also a duet. If you watch the MV, you will know that the story is about how a guy is in love with a very good singer, but the singer has to leave overseas.
music( with translation): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIhLHMhIGGU

I hope you enjoyed my post. Please feel free to comment, as i believe that many of you would hape very different opinions.

Whistle

This post is very unique, because is about a very special topic, which is whistling.
I always thought that whistling was just blowing air through your lips. But, actually, after checking websites i found out that "whistling is the production of sound by means of carefully controlling a stream of air flowing through a small hole. Whistling can be achieved by creating a small opening with one's lips and then blowing air out of the hole or sucking air into the hole."(www.wikipedia.org) The sound can also be altered by changing the positions of your tongue and lips, and even your teeth.
Whistling can actually be considered music. I guess not many of us actually realised that. The sound of whistling is actually the vibration of your lips. It creates different pitches when you control the size of the opening of your mouth. Thus, with experience and practice, i guess you can whistle many unique sounds.
Whistling can be musical. There are performers on who were professional whistlers, having some notable songs featuring whistling.
Whistling is definitely not merely a method of calling or gaining someone's attention. But, how do we actually whistle? (I can't whistle also...)

From: "http://www.ehow.com/how_4839_whistle.html"
Step 1) Purse your lips into a tiny O shape, leaving a small opening for air.

Step 2) Place the tip of your tongue behind your bottom teeth or against your inside bottom gums.

Step 3) Gently blow air through your mouth.

Step 4) Adjust your tongue position and the small O opening formed by your lips until you hear a pitch.

Step 5) Once you can sound one note, experiment with your tongue position and the strength of your breath to produce different notes. Isn't it interesting?

Step 6) Practice makes perfect, so, i guess we just have to keep on practising

Well having a better understanding of how to whistle, I hope that I can learn to whislte soon, so that I can finally find an insturument that is a part of me, like an organ:D Wish you all the best!

Jazz ♪

Jazz is a music genre that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities. Jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music.

The word "jazz" began as a West Coast slang term and was first used to refer to music in Chicago in about 1915. In early accounts, jazz is sometimes spelled "jass," and is said to be a variation of the word "jism," because it was originally performed by horn players to entertain johns in the whorehouses of Storyville, the notorious red-light district of New Orleans.

Prohibition in the United States (from 1920 to 1933) banned the sale of alcoholic drinks, resulting in illicit speakeasies becoming lively venues of the "Jazz Age", an era when popular music included current dance songs, novelty songs, and show tunes. Jazz started to get a reputation as being immoral and many members of the older generations saw it as threatening the old values in culture and promoting the new decadent values of the Roaring 20s.

Even the media began to degrade jazz. For instance, villagers used pots and pans in Siberia to scare off bears, and the newspaper stated that it was Jazz that scared the bears away. Another story claims that Jazz caused the death of a celebrated conductor.There was also a larger market for jazzy dance music played by white orchestras.

When electric guitar first showed up in the jazz world, most fans treated it as a novelty effect. But after the impact of Chicago blues, rock-and-roll and other related styles, the plugged-in guitar has become the defining sound of contemporary music.

Swing

The 1930s belonged to popular swing big bands, in which some virtuoso soloists became as famous as the band leaders. Key figures in developing the "big" jazz band included bandleaders and arrangers Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Glenn Miller, and Artie Shaw.

Trumpeter, bandleader and singer Louis Armstrong was a much-imitated innovator of early jazz. Swing was also dance music. It was broadcast on the radio 'live' nightly across America for many years especially by Hines and his Grand Terrace Cafe Orchestra broadcasting coast-to-coast from Chicago, well placed for 'live' time-zones.

• Louis Armstrong >

Beginnings of European jazz

Outside of the United States the beginnings of a distinct European style of jazz emerged in France with the Quintette du Hot Club de France which began in 1934. Belgian guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt popularized gypsy jazz, a mix of 1930s American swing, French dance hall "musette" and Eastern European folk with a languid, seductive feel. The main instruments are steel stringed guitar, violin, and double bass. Solos pass from one player to another as the guitar and bass play the role of the rhythm section.
*reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz; http://www.allaboutjazz.com/; http://www.jazz.com/

My favourite

My favourite would be the Soul jazz. Soul jazz was a development of hard bop which incorporated strong influences from blues, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often the organ trio, which partnered a Hammond organ player with a drummer and a tenor saxophonist. Soul jazz generally emphasized repetitive grooves and melodic hooks, and improvisations were often less complex than in other jazz styles. One nice composition, that I really like, is Cannonball Adderley's Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (1966).
Try listening to it : http://www.google.com.sg/url?q=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DpRrFWp4DUho&ei=B_7kS82LDMyxrAeIqKSQAw&sa=X&oi=video_result&resnum=1&ct=thumbnail&cad=11897038358641332762&ved=0CBYQuAIwAA&usg=AFQjCNHiq8r_9nu9OutKEmIczn1RwnEnRA

The Guitar

The guitar is a stringed instrument. The guitar consists of a body with a neck to the strings, generally six in number. There are two primary families of guitars: acoustic and electric.

Acoustic guitars : Hollow bodies, have been in use for over a 1000 years. There are three main types of modern acoustic guitar:
1. The classical guitar (nylon-string guitar)
2. The steel-string acoustic guitar
3. The archtop guitar -->
The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the vibration of the strings, which is amplified by the body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber.

Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, rely on an amplifier that can electronically manipulate tone. Electric guitars have had a continuing profound influence on popular culture. Guitars are recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues,jazz etc. and many forms of pop.

History

Before the development of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar was defined as an instrument having "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides". These instruments are descended from ones that existed in ancient central Asia and India. For this reason guitars are distantly related to modern instruments from these regions, including the tanbur, the setar, and the sitar. The oldest known iconographic representation of an instrument displaying the essential features of a guitar is a 3,300 year old stone carving of a Hittite bard.

The modern word "guitar" and its predecessors applied to a wide variety of cordophones since ancient times and as such is a cause of confusion. The English word "guitar", the German "gitarre", and the French "guitare", were adopted from the Spanish word guitarra.

The guitar is brought by the Romans to Hispania around 40 AD, and further adapted and developed with the arrival of the four-string oud, brought by the Moors after their conquest of Iberia in the 8th century. By 1200 AD, the four-string "guitar" had evolved into two types:
1) the guitarra moresca (Moorish guitar), which had a rounded back, wide fingerboard, and several soundholes and
2) the guitarra latina (Latin guitar), which resembled the modern guitar with one soundhole and a narrower neck.
(moorish guitar)

Accessories

Though a guitar may be played on its own, there are a variety of common accessories used for holding and playing the guitar.

Capotasto

A capo (short for capotasto) is used to change the pitch of open strings. Capos are clipped onto the fret board with the aid of spring tension, or in some models, elastic tension. To raise the guitar's pitch by one semitone, the player would clip the capo onto the fret board just below the first fret.

Slides

A slide, (neck of a bottle, knife blade or round metal bar) used in blues and rock to create a glissando or 'Hawaiian' effect. The necks of bottles were often used in blues and country music. Modern slides are constructed of glass, plastic, ceramic, chrome, brass or steel, depending on the weight and tone desired.
*reference:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar


Well, I personally do not play the guitar, but my sibling does(its her CCA). I ocssionally learn to play a bit of it from her, but will soon get irritated as it is way too hard for me to play it... However, I actually really want to play a guitar, because it makes such a melodious sound, and it will not, I guess, be difficult to play it after some practice. I hope that I will be able to learn how to play it soon...

If you are interested to learn it, it is not neccessary for you to go to music schools to learn it. Try learning it yourself!
These are some websites i found that might be useful:
- http://www.guitarlessonssingapore.com/
- http://www.guitar.com/

Hawaii part (IV)

Day 6:
After breakfast, we had the rest of the morning free to spend on our own! We further explored the rest of the area, digging out places we had never been before. After lunch, we were brought to an island of shopping outlets. We burned our pockets at the many outlets, especially in the Converse shop( I bought shoes for my siblings). We had much fun there, but this happiness was short-lived. All of us were moaning as we board the bus back to the hotel.
Before dinner, me and my section went shopping, again, at the nearby International Market. One thing that caught out eyes was a shirt that lights up when it detects sound: the louder the sound, the more it lights up. It was so cool, but when we realised that it cause about US$40, only a few of us managed to buy it. At the market, we also bought some souvenirs and snacks for our relatives and friends, and more importantly, ourselves :D.

Day 7:
Day 7 was the last day. We had so much fun the day before, that we woke up about 45 minutes late! We still had to pack our luggage, and clear the whole room, and therefore, we did not have sufficient time for breakfast... The whole trip to the airport, my tummy was moaning and groaning... Me and my other roommates bought ice-cream as our breakfast. We then board the plane, very disappointed.
Arriving at the Changi airport, I saw my parents waiting paitiently at the waiting area for me, so were other parents.
It was such a memorble experience i will never be able to forget. I am just hoping that there will be another chance for me to go there again... Worst of all, school was about to start in 2 days...
THE END ♪♫

Hawaii (III)

Day 4:All of us had butterflies in our stomach- we would be performing only moments later. We had out warm-up and we did some tuning in a small room located on the second level. However, nobody was really focusing on the warm-ups. We were just too nervous.
Before the concert began, me and some other flutist and clarinetist had to help the percussion section move their instruments on the stage. We had to move swiftly as we had limited time.
Then the performance began. The first song we played was 'Spring March' a lively and cheerful piece, followed by 'Machu Pichu' a piece about war, telling a wonderful story. Lastly, we played 'Shenandoah' a solemn piece, created in commeration of a deceased student. We were all very anxious and we were definitely unable to deliver our 100%. However, the encouragement and sheers from the crowd was more than sufficient to put our minds at ease. We certainly performed well.

Day 5: We went to the University of Hawaii for the festival luau(in hawaii, its a Hawaiin feast). All the schools that participated in the event were invited to join the celebration. There were many performances and dances, and there were also fun activities like dance competitions. We also had a fun time taking photos with people we didn't know. It was a nice experience.
Finally, before the day ended, we proceeded to the Hawaii Theatre. We were relaxed, listening to other performances, at the same time, nervous that our results would be announced. It seemed like almost an eternity before our results were announced. Worst of all, the emcee made a deliberate pause before saying our results. "Hwa Chong Band... GOLD!!" we stood up and clapped, roaring and cheering. It was a wonderful moment. Not every band had gotten gold. However, everyone were elated to have this golden oppotunity to participate in such a fun-filled events, and the process was really great.