During our stay in Maui, we went to a luau, a popular Hawaiian event. The luau was located in the Grand Wailea Resort, a huge and beautiful resort right on the beach. A luau is a feastofHawaiianfood,usuallyheldoutdoorsandaccompaniedbyHawaiianentertainment.At a luau, there were hula dancers, fire dances, and Hawaiian singers. Right before the show began, they had activities for children such as a hula dance lesson, face painting, and bracelet making out of taro leaves.
When we arrived, they started with a tradition of roasting a pig. They also kept us refreshed with numerous drinks, and the dinner was delicious. After everyone had eaten, and felt refreshed, they started the show. There was a narrator telling stories about the Hawaiians and their culture while the hula dancers danced on the stage. The hula dancers shook there hips and turned around very fast. Their costumes were made up of taro leaves, a special plan that grows in Hawaii. The best part of the entertainment was the fire dance. It was very exciting to watch the male dancers spin, touch, and even eat the fire without getting burnt. They were also able to put out the fire with there skirts. I really enjoyed watching the show, and look forward to the next time we go to a luau.
I recently learned another famous piece by Beethoven called Fur Elise. This is not my first time playing a piece by Beethoven; last time I played Sonata Opus No 2 Part 1.
Beethoven wrote Fur Elise on April 27, 1810. however, this piece was only published in 1867, long after he died. No one knows for sure who the song was written for, but historians think that maybe he wrote the song for his friend and student named Therese Malfatti. I think this piece is beautiful because the melody is soft and pretty. It was an easy piece to learn, but it is not always easy to make it sound beautiful.
A few days ago, my mom recorded me playing Sonatina in C major by Mozart. All Sonata's have three movements, and the second movement was the longest. It took me about a month to learn the whole piece. Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 in Salisbury, Austria, and was a very famous Austrian composer. He started composing music at the age of 5. Mozart's father, Leopold, took Mozart on many concert tours. He married in 1782, and had a happy family. This piece was difficult for me to learn because it was fast, and very long. I really like this song because the melody sounds beautiful.
I recently recorded a piece called Wedding Day at the Troldhaugen by Grieg. Edvard Grieg was born on June 15,1843 in Bergen, Norway and died in September 4,1907. He composed numerous amount of Norwegian folk music, and performed these folk songs in front of large audiences on the piano. He composed in the Romantic period, and is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers. He composed 66 short pieces, published in ten different books, one of them is the Wedding day at the Troldhaugen.
This piece was a very difficult piece as there were many chords that were fast, and there were numerous octaves that were hard to reach. It was also difficult to memorize as only one part repeated itself during the entire piece. Although it was difficult, it was a beautiful piece and I really enjoyed playing it.
This past month, I have been working on a piece called Invention 14 by Bach. I worked very hard to learn all the right notes, and playing parts loud and quiet. Many of Bach's pieces have two voices/melodies, the right hand has one melody, and the left hand has a different melody. When I play, I am supposed to show both melodies. Bach wrote these Inventions, as exercises for his students to play. He wrote one invention for all of the scales. These pieces weren't meant to be performed, however they are beautiful, so we decided to record them anyway. I hope you enjoy listening!
I recently attended a a gymnastics state meet competition in San Diego. In order to compete at States, a gymnasts needs to receive a 32.00 all around score or higher during a previous meet. This was my first year being an optional. An optional gymnast is allowed to choose her own music and choreography for the floor and beam routine. There are four events, floor, beam, vault, bars, and my highest scores were on beam and vault. My scores were 9.550 on beam, 9.20 on bars, 9.275 on floor, and 9.475 on vault. I got 6th place on all around with a score of 37.50.
On vault, the only difficult part is to stick the landing. I stuck my first vault, however took a small step on my second. On floor, the difficult part is also the landing, however you also have to make the tumbling passes powerful. The higher the flips, the more points you receive. On beam, the hardest element for me is the full turn, as I get nervous on that and wobble. I wobbled a little bit on the turn, so I didn't get many points off. Another difficult skill is the back walk over back walk over. To get full credit, you have to stick the landing, and connect both of the back walkovers. The last skill of the routine is the dismount. The dismount is a front pike off the beam, and you have to stick the landing to not get any deductions. Bars is the hardest event for me because it is easy to fall. The hardest part is the cast handstand. It is hard to get the cast exactly at handstand, as you could cast a little to hard and go over, or not cast hard, and not make it to hand stand. I luckily made my cast handstand on both the low bar and the high bar. My dad couldn't video my bars, as it was too far away from where he was sitting, however he got all of my other events. Next year, I will be a level 7, and my routines will get even more challenging. I hope you enjoy watching!
In the previous competition, I got first place on floor with a 9.600. Here is the video of the floor routine from that competition.
Hannah
In the video below, I played two pieces, one is a Sonata by Beethoven and the second is an Invention by Bach.
Beethoven composed during the Classical and Romantic period. .He was born on December 16,1770 in Germany and was gifted in music as a child. He played both piano and violin which he learned from his father. A few years later he started losing his hearing. And then they noticed he was completely deaf, but he still was able to compose music.
Bach was a German composer and was born in Eisenach, Germany on March 21, 1685. Bach's parents died before Bach was 10. Then he went to live with his older brother. His older brother taught Bach to play the clavichord and harpsichord. He wrote music during the baroque period. Bach studied music. Bach wrote 30 inventions which are exercises for students. In the video below, I played Invention No 13. I really like pieces by Bach and Beethoven
Michael
I played 2 songs Musette in D Major by Bach and and Etude by Nikolayev. Bach wrote Musette as a gift for his second wife, Anna Magdalena. In 1722 and 1725, he gave his wife two notebooks, and this piece was part of the second notebook as a gift to celebrate a special occasion like a birthday.
Etude is usually a short piece that is written as an exercise for the piano.This is a fun exercise to help my fingers play faster.
During our stay in Maui, we went to a luau, a popular Hawaiian event. The luau was located in the Grand Wailea Resort, a huge and beautiful resort right on the beach. A luau is a feast of Hawaiian food, usually held outdoors and accompanied by Hawaiian entertainment.At a luau, there were hula dancers, fire dances, and Hawaiian singers. Right before the show began, they had activities for children such as a hula dance lesson, face painting, and bracelet making out of taro leaves.
On vault, the only difficult part is to stick the landing. I stuck my first vault, however took a small step on my second. On floor, the difficult part is also the landing, however you also have to make the tumbling passes powerful. The higher the flips, the more points you receive. On beam, the hardest element for me is the full turn, as I get nervous on that and wobble. I wobbled a little bit on the turn, so I didn't get many points off. Another difficult skill is the back walk over back walk over. To get full credit, you have to stick the landing, and connect both of the back walkovers. The last skill of the routine is the dismount. The dismount is a front pike off the beam, and you have to stick the landing to not get any deductions. Bars is the hardest event for me because it is easy to fall. The hardest part is the cast handstand. It is hard to get the cast exactly at handstand, as you could cast a little to hard and go over, or not cast hard, and not make it to hand stand. I luckily made my cast handstand on both the low bar and the high bar. My dad couldn't video my bars, as it was too far away from where he was sitting, however he got all of my other events. 