Piano Pieces I learned Over the Summer

Over the summer, I learned many pieces that are composed in different periods, of music. The first piece is called Bourree II from French Overture by Bach. Bach is a German composer from the Baroque Period (1685-1750). To read more about Bach, you can visit my sister Miriam's two earlier posts. One post describes counterpoint, which is when you can hear two melodies in one piece. The other post is about Bach's life.

The piece that I am playing is a bourrée, which is a French dance from the 1600's. It is very slow for a dance, but it has a very beautiful melody.

My next piece is called Fur Elise by Beethoven. Beethoven was born in the Classical period (1770-1827). Nobody knew who Elise was, but they believe her name was Therese whom Beethoven loved.  Beethoven wrote this piece in the year 1810 when he was almost deaf, and in 1817 he became deaf. It is sad that Fur Elise was not published until 1865 when he was already dead. Miriam also played Fur Elise.

My final piece is called Valse Melancolique by Vladimir Rebikov. Vladimir Rebikov was born in the late Romantic period (1815-1910). He learned how to play the piano from his mother. This piece has a beautiful melody with a lot of feeling.

Which is your favorite period of music?

Tide Pools at Leo Carillo State Beach

Sarah on top of a huge rock

On Sunday morning, we went to Leo Carillo State Beach. This is special beach that has tide pools. Tide pools are rocky pools of ocean water.  The only time you could see the tide poles is when it is low tide. Tide pools usually have star fish, mussels, and clams. When we arrived to Leo Carrillo State Beach, it was high tide, and we couldn't see any tide pools. Then, we played and swam in the ocean and I climbed a big rock all the way to the top.

Low tide

A couple of hours later, it became low tide and we were able to see the tide pools.  We found many interesting shaped and colored rocks. On the sand, we also found a long piece of kelp which is a type of seaweed. Kelp grow in shallow oceans. Kelp can grow up to 110 feet tall. That is as tall as a 10 story building! The leaves are called blades and they have gas-filled bladders growing next to them. The air bladders make the kelp float to the top of the ocean so it could get sunlight. My sister and I were jumping rope with the kelp. When it was low tide, we still couldn't find any animals, but we still had a great time at the beach.

Kelp

Gas-filled bladders

Miriam jumping rope with kelp

beautiful rocks

Have you visited tide pools?

What did you see?

Trying Something New

At the meet with my best friend Ellie

All year I have been practicing gymnastics so I decided to try a new sport, swimming. I joined my brother and sisters' swim team. I practiced 1 hour 5 days a week. We began our workout with my favorite part, 2 dives in the big pool. We then started our swim workout with six laps freestyle to warm up. In the middle of the work out, we put our fins on and took out our boards. We did 4 laps kicking freestyle and 4 laps kicking butterfly. Finally, at then end of our work out, we did 2 laps freestyle, two laps breaststroke, and two laps backstroke for the cool down.

Miriam and Hannah

After a month of swimming with the team, I had my first swim meet, and I was very excited. I competed four events, Individual Medley (I.M.), 50 yards (2 laps) freestyle, 25 yards breaststroke, and 25 yards butterfly. I.M. is 4 laps with all the strokes in the following order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. My time on this event was 1:58.49. On the 50 yards freestyle my time was 49.10 secnds and on my 25 yards breaststroke my time was 27.07 seconds. Finally I had 25 yards butterfly and my time was 28.00 seconds.

I practiced gymnastics in the morning and did swimming in the late afternoon. Now that school is starting, I need to make a choice, continue with gymnastics or switch to swimming. I enjoyed swimming a lot, because it was so hot, and it felt good to jump into the pool, but I think I am going to stick with gymnastics. I would miss it too much if I quit. Next summer, I want to go back to swimming and maybe, I will try make it to Junior guards, a beach life guard program.

Below is the video from our swim meet.

Have you ever tried anything new?

Did you stick with it?

Summer Music Fun

Every summer the city puts on a couple of outdoor music concerts near a lake where we live.  My parents, siblings, grandparents, great aunt, and friends all get together and go to the concert. Everyone brings a picnic dinner and desert and we sit on the grass, eat and listen to music.My great aunt and Grandma brought the most food. My great aunt made chocolate cake especially for me, because I like chocolate cake.  While the music is playing, all of the kids run around,  play tag, ball, Frisbee, and have a good time together.

There is a large band on stage and usually someone singing. One of the bands played music by Elton John. The singer looked and dressed up just like like Elton John.

 

Have you ever been to an outdoor concert? 

Did  you like the music they played?

Final Days of Summer

It is not really the last day of summer, but it feels like it because school is starting soon. The past few days, it has been so hot (over 100 F), that we have been going to the beach almost every weekend and some days during the week. The beach is usually about 20 F degrees cooler than where we live.  At the beach, we play in the sand, make sand castles, pick shells and look for sand dollars, and best of all go swimming on our boogie boards. The water is very refreshing from the hot summer days. After playing, we get hungry and our mom packs us lunch.



Sand dollars, also called sea biscuits or sea cookies, are flattened shells that are found in shallow waters right under the sand. Each sand dollar has a five petal design on the top and they look very pretty. At the beach we found them in many different sizes, was 4 cm in diameter, and the smallest was 0.5 cm in diameter

















Starting a new year is very exciting. We already bought school supplies, and new clothes since most of the clothes from last year are small. We also have to wait to find out which teacher we will have in the fall.  Every year, we have a new teacher and new students in our class. It is hard not knowing who will be in my class, and whether I will have friends from last year in the same class with me. However, it also gives me an opportunity to make new friends every year.

What have you been doing during your vacation?
How do you prepare for a new school year?

Movie Night at the Park

Over the weekend, my family and I went to a movie night in our neighborhood park. The park is located high on top of a mountain. From the park, I could see the beautiful view of the mountains, homes, and best of all the sunset.

When we first came, we ran around and played in the park. Two friends from school live close by, and they also came to watch the movie. We all sat on the grass and had a picnic with pizza, cookies, and red vine licorice.



















The movie started when the sun began to set. There was a huge blow up screen on which the movie was shown. This was my first time viewing a movie outside. It was extremely hot in the day, but at night it got chilly. Thankfully, my mom packed pants and sweaters for us to wear. When the sun set, we saw numerous stars shinning above.

The movie was called Daddy Daycare. This was my first time seeing this movie,  and I thought it was hilarious. The movie was about two fathers who try to start a daycare at there house. At first, the kids go out of control and don't listen. Finally the kids really like the daycare, and the two fathers learn to take care of the children and even teach them many new things.

Have you ever seen a movie outside? 

Did you like it?

What is your favorite movie?

The Gala Finale Orchestra Concert

At the end of May, I had my final orchestra concert of the year. We have a total of three concerts every year. On the day of the concert, we had to come early because we had a dress rehearsal in a gorgeous hall. When we got of stage after our dress rehearsal, we brought our lunches and our games and played for an hour until it was time for us to go on stage.
 

Here are the songs we played: The first song we played sounded slow and sad.Some violins had a solo part, and they played the high notes which usually is the melody and the rest of the violins played the lower notes. The second song sounded very fast and happy, but it wasn't my favorite.  The next song we played was also very slow, but I thought sounded the most beautiful. It was my favorite.   The final song was also very fast and loud. The cellos started playing first and carried the melody, but then the violins took over and we all played together. Which was your favorite?

In front of the concert hall

• Recuerdos De La Alhambra By Francisco Tarrega
• David and Michael By Carrie Lane Gruselle
• Along the River By Elena Roussanova
• Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest By Hans Zimmer

Once we finished our part, the older children in the philharmonic played their pieces. They sounded amazing, and they even had a soloist sing some opera pieces.  Since it was our last orchestra concert, we had a reception for everyone that performed that day.  It was also a chance for me to see up close some large percussion instruments. Do you know their names?

At the reception we had cookies, cupcakes, and drinks.  We were all tired and hungry and it was the perfect ending to a long day.  Next year I am going to try out for first violin and see if I make it. I hope I do!

Which is your favorite instrument in an orchestra?