Hey guys!! :]

Here’s my first assignment for the ds106.

The Assignment:

This assignment is a writing assignment under the ds106 Assignments page and I chose it because we had to use images to convey our story. I’ve read the example the presenter Takeru Terajima wrote and it seemed fun to write so I chose this one :] So here are the directions he gave:

Everything has a story. So, find an item that you have an extreme emotional attachment to, take a picture of it, and tell the story! Convey all the emotion and feeling, and let us know why the item is important to you!

Although he same “find an item”, I chose to change it up a little and make it “people”. There’s a reason to this, and you’ll see when you see my picture and read the discription :]

The Process:

When I started thinking of what I should use. Various things came to my mind. My good luck charm, my teddy bear, my high school letter jacket, my saxophone…but these things were’t as important as the image I chose to use.

So when I chose the picture I wanted to use, memories came back and my story just had a flow to it; since that one picture represents a lot. So I got my story going and was able to represent what the picture truely represents on my frist ds106 assignment :]

Here it is :]

Making a combo of my own was a long time dream of my friend (she is the girl on the very right and I will refer to her as Maya in this post) and mine (I’m the one wearing the purple jeans!!). This was because we were inspired by other combos in other international schools who performed at the annual jazz festival we would attend every year.

I’ve been playing the alto saxophone since 4th grade in elementary school; so it will be my 10th year this year In my junior year, my friends and I made a promise to actually activate the combo during our senior year. We made a group of 10 people with 10 different instruments. From the left, the clarinet, electric guitar, saxophone, trumpet, tuba/piano, flute, trombone, drum set, trombone/piano and the electric bass (although she was absent when we took this picture).

We performed at the Seisen Festival of Nations for our first performance. We played a piece called Conga (I’ve linked a youtube clip of a high school band playing the song!! Sorry it’s not us…I don’t have a recording of it ) and a jazz arrangement of the main theme song of Detective Conan which Maya arranged just for us!! This was a huge success and we had so many positive feed back that it made us want to play more.

However, considering the fact that we were senior students in high school taking the IB courses, we didin’t have the time to practice and perform for the Seisen and St.Mary’s combined Christmas Concert and the Annual Jazz Festival like we dreamed of. This was a really hard decision to make; whether to play in front of the whole Seisen and St.Mary’s and to play in front of t he whole Kanto plains international school jazz bands sounding rusty, or to give up on our long time dream and to not perform at the Christmas concert and the jazz festival.

Although we had to give out dream up, we were able to perform at our Seisen Spring Concert. For this concert, we decided to play a famous jazz tune, Moon Light Serenade and a jazz arrangement I arranged, The Studio Ghibli Medley. In the Studio Ghibli Medley, I arranged 3 songs, Umino Mieru Machi from Kiki’s Delivery Service, Sanpo from Tonarino Totoro and Yasashisani Tsutsumaretanara from Kiki’s Delivery Service. This was also a great success and so many people suggested us to perform at our graduation as well. However, this did not happen due to massive studying for our IB Exams…again…

Another big even we played at was our music teacher’s wedding!! Although we were technically not “Seisen students” at that time, our music teacher wanted us to perform at her wedding. For this even, Maya and I arranged a jazz arrangement of the famous song, L.O.V.E. For this performance, we invited another girl from our grade who is a great singer and asked her to sing the lyrics for us. This was also a big success and we were able to make our teacher cry!! :’)

Through out this whole experience, from chosing members of the Senior Combo to arranging songs for the performances, we’ve gained so much. I’ve became a lot closer to my friends in band and from girls one year below (since our drummer and our bassist were both in their Junior year when we were in our Seinior year). Although we did have ups and downs, when I see this picutre, it always gives me a big smile and shows how much fun I had during the year.

Although we are all in different countries right now, I really hope we can get back together and jam or even have another performance for another friend or teacher who is getting married or for any other occasion available!!

Hey guys!! :]

Here’s my first assignment for the ds106.

The Assignment:

This assignment is a writing assignment under the ds106 Assignments page and I chose it because we had to use images to convey our story. I’ve read the example the presenter Takeru Terajima wrote and it seemed fun to write so I chose this one :] So here are the directions he gave:

Everything has a story. So, find an item that you have an extreme emotional attachment to, take a picture of it, and tell the story! Convey all the emotion and feeling, and let us know why the item is important to you!

Although he same “find an item”, I chose to change it up a little and make it “people”. There’s a reason to this, and you’ll see when you see my picture and read the discription :]

The Process:

When I started thinking of what I should use. Various things came to my mind. My good luck charm, my teddy bear, my high school letter jacket, my saxophone…but these things were’t as important as the image I chose to use.

So when I chose the picture I wanted to use, memories came back and my story just had a flow to it; since that one picture represents a lot. So I got my story going and was able to represent what the picture truely represents on my frist ds106 assignment :]

Here it is :]

Making a combo of my own was a long time dream of my friend (she is the girl on the very right and I will refer to her as Maya in this post) and mine (I’m the one wearing the purple jeans!!). This was because we were inspired by other combos in other international schools who performed at the annual jazz festival we would attend every year.

I’ve been playing the alto saxophone since 4th grade in elementary school; so it will be my 10th year this year In my junior year, my friends and I made a promise to actually activate the combo during our senior year. We made a group of 10 people with 10 different instruments. From the left, the clarinet, electric guitar, saxophone, trumpet, tuba/piano, flute, trombone, drum set, trombone/piano and the electric bass (although she was absent when we took this picture).

We performed at the Seisen Festival of Nations for our first performance. We played a piece called Conga (I’ve linked a youtube clip of a high school band playing the song!! Sorry it’s not us…I don’t have a recording of it ) and a jazz arrangement of the main theme song of Detective Conan which Maya arranged just for us!! This was a huge success and we had so many positive feed back that it made us want to play more.

However, considering the fact that we were senior students in high school taking the IB courses, we didin’t have the time to practice and perform for the Seisen and St.Mary’s combined Christmas Concert and the Annual Jazz Festival like we dreamed of. This was a really hard decision to make; whether to play in front of the whole Seisen and St.Mary’s and to play in front of t he whole Kanto plains international school jazz bands sounding rusty, or to give up on our long time dream and to not perform at the Christmas concert and the jazz festival.

Although we had to give out dream up, we were able to perform at our Seisen Spring Concert. For this concert, we decided to play a famous jazz tune, Moon Light Serenade and a jazz arrangement I arranged, The Studio Ghibli Medley. In the Studio Ghibli Medley, I arranged 3 songs, Umino Mieru Machi from Kiki’s Delivery Service, Sanpo from Tonarino Totoro and Yasashisani Tsutsumaretanara from Kiki’s Delivery Service. This was also a great success and so many people suggested us to perform at our graduation as well. However, this did not happen due to massive studying for our IB Exams…again…

Another big even we played at was our music teacher’s wedding!! Although we were technically not “Seisen students” at that time, our music teacher wanted us to perform at her wedding. For this even, Maya and I arranged a jazz arrangement of the famous song, L.O.V.E. For this performance, we invited another girl from our grade who is a great singer and asked her to sing the lyrics for us. This was also a big success and we were able to make our teacher cry!! :’)

Through out this whole experience, from chosing members of the Senior Combo to arranging songs for the performances, we’ve gained so much. I’ve became a lot closer to my friends in band and from girls one year below (since our drummer and our bassist were both in their Junior year when we were in our Seinior year). Although we did have ups and downs, when I see this picutre, it always gives me a big smile and shows how much fun I had during the year.

Although we are all in different countries right now, I really hope we can get back together and jam or even have another performance for another friend or teacher who is getting married or for any other occasion available!!