Our performance.

I think we did some great in the performance. It is a first time to enjoy the improvised performance to me. I did a lot of new things in this class. Especially adding voices with instruments following my feelings. Also I was impressed by the improvised dance. Their performance is also the expression of their feeling and response to music. 

Another harvest for this semester to me is the cooperation of Chinese group. Even though there are many and various parts of global culture in our school and class, Chinese is more prevalent. I appreciate the effort of other members of the class from China. I hope we can have  more times to join together expanding music.

At the last, I really appreciate what Professor Gilbert did for us. He made a relaxing environment for class, it is good for students join in together and create some great things. I've never experienced the teaching method and content of expanded music class, such as warm up and blogger. I really learned a lot in this class and I think maybe I will think more about this class. Thank you John!

A new performing form to me!

In China, I had seen some shows which connect another stage showing performances on screen at the same time. I know it is a good method to show various performance in a small stage. In this improvised performance, Tromso and Belfast joined with NYU by Skype. It is exciting and interesting. The new tech of music really makes the performance having the bigger potential to show. 

Making the program.

Professor Gilbert asked the help before the performing day and I wanted to be the one who can make efforts. That was the first time I try to make a program and assist my group to search information for the program. I and Jun, Shanshan made this program by the help of Pro. Gilbert and joined in the Chinese title of the poster. It was a great chance for me to try new things and I really appreciate the cooperation of my classmates Jun and Shandhan.

Technicians' effort!

At the preparing day of our performance, the most impressive thing for me is the effort of technicians. They checked sound and adjusted for a whole day. I admired their attitude of seriousness and professional quality. The most I learned from them is their specialty literacy. In return, I really love to respect the effort of them and learn from them.

Expand music in concert.

It is the first time I join in the choral performance in church. It is a new try for me to sing religious songs in church, the traditional and religious place of performance. I am also one audience who enjoyed the whole performance of NYU's choral. I found there are many different area's people there enjoying the singing, even though they are not the Christian. So I think that is an important way to expand music by letting more people singing religious and specific songs together rather than just let them listening music as an audience.

Enjoy the diversity.

Our class is so diverse. The classmates come from different places. I enjoy this class because I can get different information and knowledge from different people who has different culture and backgrounds. This is the first time we translate what Mr. Zhou talked to us in Chinese to English. We got some new knowledges about Chinese music teacher's pursuit and a new chance to practice English at the same time. That exactly is a method to expand music as people usually did.

The method of using colors in performance.

I figured about the different ways showing  color in the stage. We can wear colorful clothes to play bright and lively music and wear dark color playing gloomy and serious music. However, there are some restrictions in the performance. We can only express one mood of music if we wear designated color. Or we can show some conflicts in performance. If we use dark color to show vivid music and use bright and colorful elements to show largo and blue music, we can see some changes and interesting inflections.

Also we can use the screen of background to change different colors and let performers to play different music following colors. That would be interesting to audience and performers,

The color of music.

We said about using different color to express our music in the performance. I thought that was a good idea. We can use bright color to show lively music and use dark color to express the gloomy and  blue mood of music. Even though we can express the music with the same color in background and let audience to feel music by their own way, we still need to show the color of our music clearly in performance. Because that was a show. People want to know something by their eyes and get a direct visual stimulation in the concert. If we can not satisfy the basic need of audience we don't have to make a performance. We can make an album which only offers the acoustic stimulation maybe. So I think using colors in background and clothes is good to express the mood of our music in performance.

Reactions！

In the last special Expaned Music class of last Tuedsay, we watched the video made by Professor John Gilbert. I post some photos about the reactions of audience when they watched this video. The reaction of audience is always an interesting part of a show. It is a direct and timely feedback of a work and I think that it should be recorded.

Thinking of "Zen in the Art of Archery"

Recently I read some content in the book "Zen in the Art of Archery" and I have some similar ideas with the author.
The author found that most art of eastern country is not for the purpose of usability, such as archery. I believe it is true. Many art of China is for the purpose of cultivating the mind and being calm, such as Tea Ceremony, Chinese Calligraphy, Traditional Chinese Painting. Many artists of these art forms are not majoring in that, but they can find some common principles from art to use in their work.
The author thinks that the zen of art is ignoring the rule and being spiritual, following people's inner mind without distractions. I think it is true but hard to do. Most modern music is for public. Music is not just itself now, but more about the favor of audiences and acceptability. Also in many music classes, students need to learn many theories and rules of music. Although we need to learn the rule, but I think the more important thing is creativity, even breaking the rules. Ignoring the rules may be more difficult to students who learn music major. So I think following inner mind and being spiritual need our more attention to do than the knowledge and study of most regular music classes.
That's a part of my thinking now because I just read a little of this book, I can add more my thoughts in the following time.

Music in documentary!

In last expanded music class, Professor showed us a video about the memory with his student, who took the picture and sang songs in that video. It is very impressive. Because of the part of music in video, I even felt the romance in that and also the music is very suitable to the video. It's about her own memories however I can find some common feelings and emotion when I watched that. 

The music connects us even though we have different experiences. Because music is created by emotion and moods which are a little common and general in different people. So I think that's why people love music and the origin of music'a creation is the memory and record from life!

Acapella for 90's dance music.

Acapella is one of my favorite form and style of song's performance. I think this form can make singers to be coorperative and enjoyable as well as make listeners be more relaxed! Also this video's song has a beautiful melody and rhythm. I like it very much!