The End!!

We finally presented our presentation today!! I felt so proud of our piece. We had worked on for so long that it seems a bit empty knowing that it's the end :(
But overall, through this project, I really got to appreciate music once more. Listening to a piece is so different from playing because when you actually play it, you are the one who is in charge of the emotion, the flow, and the feelings that you pour in. And the possibilities that music offers was definitely an important idea that I relearned.
I'm so glad that I had the chance to work with the oh-so-talented Yixin. It's so unfortunate that we can't work on another Google project together next year because she's going to be in college by next winter, but I know for sure that this year's medley piece will stay in my heart forever!

End~~

So this is it.... 

Our Google project has been rehearsed, recorded, and presented. 

In reflection, I think one of our most valuable lessons was how to collaborate. Working alone last year, I learned how to play together with Grace and make decisions together. We also learned how to write transitions between songs of different key signatures and moods. Actually, being able to co-compose the small transition sections has inspired an ambition in me to create maybe one of my own songs....(Google project, take 2?)

In any case, after much editing, in the end our medley is:

"Lake Louise 2"-- Yuhki Kuramoto

"Wait There"-- Yiruma

"Passing By"-- Yiruma

"Clementine"-- OST Spring Waltz

and a long transition inspired by Joe Hisaishi's "Summer"

Some of the transitions are rather obvious; some less so. I won't say where they are though—guess :)

sooo here it is... After much time and practice, Grace and Yixin's piano medley~~~~

~~\(ㅅㅁㅅ)

Yixin

FINALhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA5_It-qUMc&feature=youtu.be

Google Day----last??

I definitely did not expect the last Google day to come so quickly... Grace and I are definitely not done yet! We'll meet up this weekend to finish our transitions between songs, and rehearse a bit before our project is ready to be presented.

So yuup, basically what Grace said, we came up with some pretty smooth transitions to go between the short sections that we will use in our final piece. Finding some way to move between keys will be slightly more difficult, but I'm confident that we'll figure it out :) We were also talking maybe having to transpose parts of pieces, but since that would take a while, we'll be spending some quality time with the piano this weekend.

~(=o=~_)))
Yixin

Last Google Day :(

I don't know about the rest of the people in our class but I feel like this year's Google project went by really fast. It's a bit saddening...
Well, anyway.. today Yixin and I actually got some work done. Before we spent a lot of our time just playing the music that we loved. I don't know about you, Yixin, but I think we sounded a lot better when the two of us played together (you or me playing either the right or left hand).
But now that the final Google presentation day is set, I think it sort of jerked us into action :)
We went through all the music that we chose and, considering that it's a medley, we tried to find some transitions that could help mesh all the songs into one. It was actually a lot more difficult than I thought. But luckily for us, a lot of the songs were in the same key so it definitely eased up the process for both of us - being rather inexperienced musicians/composers/medliers (?).
We're definitely not quite at the point to share our project, but I know with effort and time, it'll get there :)

Google Day 3..4?

Grace brought her binder full of music today! So after we went through the four pieces we'll probably use, Grace and I played through pretty much all of her music.

Yuup, so like Grace said below, we attempted to mashup flute and piano parts for Yiruma's "Wait There" today too. Needless to say... it did not work out as well as I thought...

On a happier note, Grace introduced me to this song today:

 

"Clementine" from the Korean drama "Spring Waltz"
I think this is the most beautiful version I have ever heard <3

~(=o=)~
Yixin

GOOGLE DAY

Today Yixin and I worked on our project again. We still didnt get the chance to work with a real REAL piano but the keyboard was sufficient. We initially wanted to do a medley of just piano but Yixin discovered the song Wait There by Yiruma which would work great with a flute and piano. So we attempted to work on that today. Both of our flutes were completely out of tune so it was a bit difficult toget through without cringing everytime we peaked to the high notes but it was overall a very productive day. So productive, as a matter of fact, that we completely lost track of time and went up to the bell :)

Google Day #3

No piano once again... :( Well, we did have the opportunity to use the keyboard that Mr. Matthys let us borrow for the period, yet without a pedal, the piano does no justice to the pieces that we played. Yixin and I have been so obsessed with gathering our favorite songs that it was only today that we sat down to eliminate a couple songs from our collection (might I add... that was EXTREMELY difficult for both of us). Yet, as Yixin posted below, we were able to choose our ultimate favorites from our ridiculously long list of songs that we're planning to use for our final project. Hopefully on the next Google day, Yixin and I can call dibs on an actually, authentic piano that has a pedal.

Day 3!

Third Google day!

Unfortunately, Grace and I were unable to find a piano again today, but we played around with tones on the keyboard. I think on the next day we might need to come to band before break even ends..?
Buuut we did get a lot done today! We sampled and rehearsed the pieces we had on Mr. Matthys's keyboard again, and we managed to narrow it done to four pieces so far:

"Chaconne"-- Yiruma

"Passing By"-- Yiruma

 

"Love is not all around"-- Hins Cheung

"Lake Louise 2"-- Yuhki Kuramoto

Our final medley will probably contain 5-7 pieces?


(\(=o=(\))))
Yixin

Day 2~~ Yixin

Soooooo day 2!

 

Like Grace said, we spent most of the period crying uncontrollably over Yiruma on Mr. Matthys's keyboard... (well, not really.......)

I hope we can play on an actual piano next time. We're having so much fun playing with tones on the keyboard, but I really miss the damper pedal </3

 

buuut the list has narrowed down :3

buuuuut not really, because Youtube introduced me to this song a few days ago--

 

 

I found the sheet music for piano a while ago and I can't stop playing it..... Graceeee we are including this right? ;)

 

(\(^.^)/)

Yixin

Google Day #2!

Finally! Yixin and I got our hands on a piano/keyboard that we could use for the day. It was unfortunate last time because there was no piano available for us to try our the music. :( But today, we managed to steal Mr. Matthys's keyboard to start on our project. Yixin brought her whole folder of piano music and we played through most of the songs together. We literally fell in love with all the songs, especially because we experimented with different tunes that were available on the keyboard.
I think we've come to a conclusion that most of our songs that are going to be incorporated into our medley are by the composer Yiruma. All of his songs that we chose are really slow paced, romantic, and soothing. And we hope to express that same feeling through our medley :)

Day 1

Google project, year two!
This year, Grace and I are thinking of making a medley or mash-up of our favorite piano songs, possibly as a duet for flute or just piano.

To start, today I brought the mountain of sheet music I've collected over years to revisit the piano music we love and to see which songs we might include in our medley. Yiruma is currently dominating the pile, so maybe our medley will end up being just his compositions - but we also have other songs, such Joe Hisaishi and his soundtracks for Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," to consider too... so many choices!

(^o^)/)~~
Yixin