Week Four - Percussion

Since changing our classroom to the keyboard lab, I’ve had to rely on the sounds of the gamelan to find my way to the new classroom.

The gamelan is the indigenous percussion orchestra of Java and Bali. I told a friend [waves frantically at that friend from this side of the laptop] that its sounds fall somewhere between the light rain falling on rooftop and the smile of a sun…. So you can imagine how much I have been waiting for this lesson on percussions :)

Ironically for this lesson we moved classrooms again and had it in a grand room filled with percussion instruments…. It was awesome! The feeling was like a kid standing in a toy store.

There were so many percussion instruments. I’m not sure there is one in particular I could speak about but after listening to a number of excerpts of different percussion instruments, it was our turn to compose a melody using any percussion instrument in the room. I chose the vibraphone which is like a xylophone but has a whirl to it because it is run by a motor.

I really enjoyed composing on it. I think the tone of this instrument lends itself to a particular tune and I found composing a melody for it very easy.

It’s no secret that I’ve been pretty worried about this course. Originally there were 8 students in the class and today there were only 4 of us. Honestly, the class is demanding and very hard. The pace is fast and there’s quite a bit of homework and additional reading to do. Still, it’s moments of finding things simple and unexpected rewards that catch me by surprise… and I remember why I’m so lucky to be here.

I love my class. I love it dearly.

Oh – and my teacher paid me a compliment today :)