Review of “Days go by” by The offspring

I rented the newest album of the band “The Offspring” called: Days go by. To my surprise the album is really good and it's been on replay on my i-pod. There is only one song “OC guns” on the album that I don't like and it's the one most different from the others. It is kind of slow, it uses spanish words (+the whole song has a spanish vibe to it) and the instrumentation is cut down to half compared to other songs. All in all I think the piece is very boring and doesn't have anything to do with the other songs of the album. Their style is punk rock which is what I like to listen most of all now-a-days. My favourite songs on the album are the first one “The future is now” and the last one “Slim Pickens does the right thing and rides the bomb to hell”. The second song I mentioned has the most bizarre name I've ever heard and they say those words not in the chorus but in the verse. It is more unusual to have the name of the song that refers to words in the verse. What I like about the songs of the album is that the singing is pleasant to listen to but the instruments still play loud music that doesn't make you sleepy at all, one wants to stay and listen to the rest of the album after hearing the first song. The lyrics are also not very usual and common, but they have their own twist to it. All in all I would give a 9,5/10 to this album as it is very catchy and interesting.

  

Classical concert in Finland

I went to a very interesting in Rovaniemi of Laplands chamber orchestra. It took place in a new concert hall which is very nice and modern. As a visiting star there was “Piers Adams” who is a recorder virtuoso. I usually don't really enjoy the recorder but he was more like a rockstar than an orchestra member. He was wearing leather pants and like bright colored shirt. He played on many different recorders: from a very tiny one with a very high pitched sound to a big one with a very deep sound. All in all they played 5 pieces and one of them was his solo. My favourite piece was the third one: Vetrarmyndir (Winter Pictures-1990) by Sunleif Rasmussen (born in 1961). It was very fairytale like and it was very powerful even if it wasn't vey loud as a piece. It builds up slowly and I think the title fits the piece very well. It describes a wintery landscape which reminded me of the first Narnia. I'm usually not that into classical concerts so my expectations weren't very high, but in the end the concert was very good.

Review of album “Wake up world” by Isac Elliot

Isac Elliot is a finnish 12-year-old singer who has released his first album a few weeks ago. I found out about this artist through facebook and I heard his first single on the radio in Finland during the easter holidays. Being only that young and having an album out, is quite an achievement. He is still in school but sometimes he has to miss out because of his new career as a singer. Isac has already a fan base that follow him where ever he goes. In school he is asked for autographs and he already has shows and even sold out ones. He is often compared to Justin Bieber but he doesn't mind because Justin is his inspiration and role-model. Isac used to sing in a boy choir and that's where he has learned to sing, he says.

http://www.isacelliot.com

The album has 10 songs all very different to one another and they are all in english. The first song on the album is the first single “New way home” and thanks to that he has become popular because people liked it. I think that song is very catchy and I heard the song before knowing who this new singer was, and I went immediately to look for it on the internet. That song has a video on Youtube which was filmed in Florida and it has more than a million views and the number is growing all the time. The video reminds me of Justin Bieber's video: Boyfriend as they are both filmed on a roof and there are dancers behind the singer making a nice choreography. The song was on replay for a long time on my computer, I really enjoy the beat, it makes you want to dance and I like the build up from the bridge to the chorus. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Ykor-8MAM

The second song is “First Kiss” and it's the second single which has a video coming up very soon, and this time it was filmed in New York. When he recorded the he had a crush on a girl and he wanted to sing about it. There is a funny noise in the beginning which makes the beginning of the song very interesting. That noise was made by the producer. The lyrics fit well the singer as he is young but this not one of my favourite songs as it's half way through being rhythmic/catchy and slow/emotional. There are parts of the song that I really like and others that I don't. For example I don't like in the beginning where there are barely instruments and he sings in a kind of rap style. Compared to toward the end there is a part where he sings with only a piano and one can here well his very good voice.

The third song is called “Let's lie” and it's one of my two favourites and it is also Isac's one of his absolute favourites in his album. He enjoys singing the melody in the chorus and I think the chorus is the best part of the song. He sang the song in Florida and for him it brings back memories of warm summer nights. It starts off with a just singing and piano and it slowly builds up until the chorus.

The fourth song is “Are you gonna be my girl” and it really makes you want to dance. Isac said it took quite some time to get it right as it has a lot of harmonies especially in the end. That what make the song very professional.

The fifth song “No 1” has very strong lyrics, they are about even if one is young one can sing about love. I must agree, because he is young and he sings about love very affectively. It has an R&B feel to it and there is a rapper in the song called “Johnel”. Isac has said that he listens to a lot of R&B and this is a very typical R&B song which fits him very well.

The sixth song “Party Alarm” is about when school is over and it's time to have fun. In this song there are a bunch of his friends singing with him which makes the song very youthful.

The seventh song is “Sweet talk” and it's my favourite, me and Isac have the same favourite's, it's quite rare to like most the same songs as the artist. He likes dubstep and this song has some dubstep in it, that is something different to the other songs. I really like the chorus when he uses his falsetto but in a very talented way as it doesn't sound weird or out of tune like very ofter. Apparently he has learned to use falsetto when he was younger and sang in a choir. It was more of a classical choir and that's why he changed into solo singing. But he still says that he has learned basically to sing in that choir as they had practice three times a week.

The eighth song is “Can't give up on love” and it was the last song that was recorded. In the bridge there is a cool heavy metal solo while he sings “gotta go, gotta go” which is not expected at all in this kind of song. He worked on the last harmonies just before a show in his hotel room. The ending of the song is very cool as it uses synthetic sounds and his voice is mixed to a great tune.

The ninth song “Paper plane” is the slow and calm song of the album. It has the sweetest lyrics ever: “I build a paper plane so I can fly over the skyline...”. They are not straight forward love song lyrics. They had to change studio to record this song because there were too many screaming girls outside the studio. Imagine then later on when he is older and is not just a cute boy but a attractive teenager. He'll maybe end up like Justin Bieber.

The last song on the album “A.N.G.E.L” is a ballad and as the singer says it: “Every good record has a ballad”. It uses a lot of instruments for example strings and it has something very unusual: gospel singers. It builds up slowly from a calm beginning and a very full ending.

All in all I think this album is very good and has a lot of different parts in the songs. I would give a 9/10 for this album.

Best Day Ever :)

I think this was one of the best days of my life as I got accepted into the conservatory of Antwerp in the classical department for the percussions. It is such a relief as I've wanted it so much and for so long. It's like a dream come true for sure. At a young I wanted to later study music and I've always been really into it one way or another. There are a lot of people that I have to thank, because without them I wouldn't be here. The first ones are my parents and my sister (always having to listen to me playing must be really annoying), then the two great percussion teachers I've had and all the other great music academy teachers that have always believed in me and had faith in me. Now I can be more relaxed and open a new page in my life. In 2012 I had visited the conservatory at an open day and I really had enjoyed it. It is one of my favourite conservatories and I've visited quite a few. I still can't believe I got accepted because in the past year I've been vey unsure wether my level in percussions was high enough for the conservatory, I guess now I have my answer.

One of the coolest female singers

That's what I call girl power, RIHANNA! She is one strong woman on stage that can actually wear a short skirt and not look bitchy at all and actually look good unlike Britney Spears. The supporting act was Calvin Harris. I'm not very much into DJ music when it comes to choosing what to listen on the ipod but when it's played live I enjoy it. He is actually of my favourite Djs and he made everyone jump up and down and dance. But I was so happy when Rihanna came on stage even though she was an hour late because she was just so awesome. The best part was when she rocked some percussions on a smaller stage. She banged them like she really knew what she was doing and I really liked it because the percussions are my biggest love. 

I've heard say around that she is not a good singer live, this point was proved wrong. People say you can't really hear her voice because of the loud music that is played when her singing so we can't really tell if it's playback. But she sang some acoustic songs and you could here her very unique voice perfectly. She is so energetic on stage and she is so sure about herself on stage. She knows what she is doing and she is doing it ever so right. Something I don't like about her that much is her vulgar lyrics, I don't think they are necessary because she has other songs that don't send a weird message and that are generally clean. These songs are just as effective and powerful, and actually even more than the songs that are about sex.

I've been a big fan since a long time

With the singer of Vienna

I look up to Avril Lavigne so much because I just think she is just so cool. Her style is awesome and she doesn't try to be like everyone else, I've got some inspiration from how I dress by her. She was one of the first artists I started to be a big fan of along to Enrique Iglesias. The supporting band was a Belgian band called Vienna which was not bad. We met all the member after the show and asked for autographs. Their style was rock and my favourite song was a cover of the great song: Baby by Justin Bieber. People often pretend that they don't like Justin Bieber but then they know all the lyrics and sing along to his songs. They made a cool cover of it as it had more of a rock sound to it. But they weren't at all as good as the stunning Avril Lavigne.

I think she is very talented and the songs come really from the bottom of her heart as she herself has been a part in the making of the songs. She has just improved and since she started she hasn't forgotten who she is. She has never copied anyone and she improved from being a 16-year-old skater girl to be a 20ish rock star. She played some of her old songs aswell as her new songs from the latest album. Avril Lavigne is down to earth and she had a dream that she persued. She doesn't only sing but plays the guitar and the piano too. This was the second time I saw her live and I wasn't disappointed at all. Last time I saw her she had her black and pink fase but now it was darker. I only have one critique and that is that she should interact more with the audience for example ask more questions so that the audience feels really a part of the show, last time she jumped more on stage and seemed more cheerful. Actually her previous album (The best damn thing) was more positive in general than this album (Goodbye Lullaby). This time it was more about her voice which of course is very special.

One of my favourite male voices

I was so happy when I got the news that Joe Jonas was going to be a supporting act for Britney Spears in some of the tourdates in Europe. We bought the tickets right away to the concert in London which was during the halloween holidays. We arrived at the Wembley Arena around two o'clock because we wanted to make sure to have places as near as possible to the stage. We did get second row because we didn't push ourselves through to the first row. There were two girls singing even before Joe Jonas. Joe is one of three brothers in the Jonas Brothers. He did a solo album called: Fastlife which is different compared to the Jonas Brothers album. His style is electro pop but the Jonas Brothers is more pop. His performance was absolutely amazing. His drummer was epic, he had a large drumset which he played with speed and variety. What I like about Joe is his wonderful voice. He can hit very high notes but with still having a very strong voice not only on the album but also live. The songs from his album are very catchy and the music is more “grown up” than with the Jonas Brothers. What I mean is that he has more an adult sound to it, lyrics and music. His performance was very powerful even though on stage there was nothing but him and the musicians. He is so talented he doesn't need anything else to make his show memorable.

A few words about Britney Spears. I've never really been her fan because I don't like her voice, I think it's not natural and isn't nice to listen to. I really sometimes think why has she ever become such a popular and successful singer. I have to say live she didn't sing very well either. Wha t was good about her show though was the staging. She had a real show, with things such as an Egyptian style boat, big colourful speakers and much more. Her show was about the special effects, about the dancers and about her jumping in not many inches of clothing. In my opinion it is better when the biggest focus goes on the music and not in all the things that are built around it. I defenetly enjoyed more Joe Jonas' show. 

Maybe better luck next time

I had my entrance exam at the Conservatory of Ghent. We got stuck in the traffic so we arrived late. My dad was very stressed about it. The first part in the entrance exam was something that didn't have anything to do with music. You had to write a philosophical essay and write the explanation of words that didn't have anything to with music like parliament and city hall.

The second part was divided into two and it was the written part of the theory exam. First there was a part where you had to write down melodies, chords, intervals, scales or rhythms the teacher played. The second half was just general music knowledge.

The third part was the singing a capella and prima vista of a piece. As I am not a singer, I did my best and the teaches saw it very well, they don't expect you to be as good as a singer as my instruments are the percussions.

The fourth part was then when I had to play infront of teachers and other members of the conservatory. I was asked to play the timpani piece, the marimba piece, the snare-drum piece and the set-up piece. I played really well the marimba piece and the timpani piece. As for the set-up I started off too quickly and I was stressed so I couldn't keep it up. The snare-drum was fine. I then had to talk with the jury and they asked me a few questions about my musical career and so on and I handed in a motivation paper. They said to me that I was very talented, musical and that I had a sense of rhythm.

I got the bad news the following day. They announced all the ones that got throgh and I wasn't one of them. I was quite sad of not being taken but on the other hand I understand that I need to improve a lot in my snare-drumming. What I mean by this is that I have the academy level in playing but not like conservatory level, could be improved. I've heard now from quite a few conservatories that I have the talent and that I should maybe change teacher because he is not good enough (I have to agree with this).

Impress the jury at the academy might still not be enough to get into a conservatory

I had my percussion exam at my academy. As I'm the one with the highest level in the academy, I played last. I tried to be as calm as possible but my knees were shacking when I played the vibraphone and the marimba. I played the six pieces I had played in the class concert few months ago. This time I played them very much better than then. I tried to calm down and I barely made any mistaked. There is something I don't like about the academy's marimba, it has small bars and so I think it's easier to hit the wrong notes. I think the best piece was probably the piece I played on the drums even though at one point I played the wrong thing but I managed not to make it seem like a mistake. There were two headmasters and the teacher giving points of the exam and I scored 94% which is a pretty high mark. The jury was apparently impressed of what I played and susprided of my high level. This was nice to hear but this might still not be enough to get into a conservatory and I'm very stressed about that.

I have my accordion exam in the middle of my exam week and my harpsichord exam in between the written and the oral exams.

Composing using different styles and performances using different instruments

I created a SoundCloud account to put in my compositions of this school year and the ones from last year. All in all there are 5 compositions (two from last year and three from this year).

https://soundcloud.com/serafina95

I also created a myspace account to put in my performances. One of the performances wouldn't load onto myspace so I put into SoundCloud. There are all in all 2 performances from last year and 4 from this year. As instruments I've used the accordion, the drums, the marimba and the Vibraphone.

https://new.myspace.com/adamariash

Going to the “Médiathèque” and Review of The Killers album Hot Fuss

http://www.lamediatheque.be

As I got a card for the “Médiathèque” here in Belgium, I could rent old and new Cds and different genres to then eventually download on my computer. I rented a bunch of albums of different styles from reggae (eg. Musical Youth, Bob Marley, UB40) to rock (eg. The Killers, The Offspring, Sex Pistol, Biffy Clyro), DJ music (eg. Swedish House Mafia, Example)and pop (eg. Noah and the Whale, Carly Ray Jepsen).

I came across this 2004 album “Hot Fuss” by The Killers which I remember listening to a few songs from that album when I was younger: “Somebody Told Me” and “Mr. Brightside”. I used to really like them, and I still really enjoy them but having listened to the album for quite a few times, I now have a new favourite: “Jenny was a friend of mine”. I has just the catchiest bass riff ever that really stays on your mind. I like the fact that for ones the bass plays a big role in the piece as very often the bass is just something that is important but is usually one doesn't really pay a lot of attention to it. The keyboards add an interesting layer to this piece as it has an “outer space” sound to it. What I mean by this it's that it uses high notes and keeps them held. Also the use of the syntetic sound makes me thinks this way. I really like the voice of the singer in general and I especially like the use of his voice in this song, it's very pleasent to listen to and makes you want to sing along. About the drumming, I like the fast snare-drum hits he does and how he uses his hi-hat is very cool. All in all the whole piece is great and actually the whole album is great as I never get bored my it, honestly I think I've listened to it about 50 times. I would give a 10/10 for this wonderful art-work. Everyone should listen to this album because every song is special in its own way.

Christmas church event

On the 23^rd of December I went to an event organised by the church. All people gather in church to sing together the prettiest Christmas songs. So I went there to sing along with the others both because it's a finnish tradition and because I wanted to go and sing. It's a very popular event all around Finland and throughout this event money is collected for charity. Last year 600 000 € were made thanks to this nice and pleasant event. Doing music to gain money for charity is also a very good reason to go to this happening. It was a nice event as all people gathered to celebrate together an important time of the year, Christmas, to do something that a lot of people enjoy, singing! About 18 songs were sang. Some of the songs were very familiar as I've sang them since a young age others were a positive discovery. The women playing the organ wasn't one of my favourites. I think she played oddly, using different registers in a weird way, and I noticed quite a few mistakes.

You always learn a lot in music camps

I took part in a music summer camp in Finland. I have been there before and I love it. It's a pop/rock course where for one week one practices songs in different bands and at the end perform them like real rock stars. The teachers that teach at this course are themselves professional musicians that have played for a number of famous singers/bands such as Kirka. In total this year there were five bands, I was in four of them. In three I played the keyboards and in one I played the drums. 

On the drums I played Supermassive black hole by Muse and Show must go on by Queen. That band was called: Sensuroitu (Finnish word that means cencored). Both songs were fun to play even though they weren't very difficult. It's not always about how difficult a piece is but also how the whole band makes it sound. In that band there were all the ones that had most experience in music. In one of the bands (Riikosen Juusonaksut that mean the cheese balls of Riikonen, might soung wierd as a band name but it was kind of a joke during the music camp) I was the only keyboard player and we played Over you by Honor Society, This Love by Maroon 5 and It's my life by Bon Jovi. In the third band (Fengot) I was a second keyboard and we played White Shadows by Coldplay, Home by Micheal Bublé and Resistance by Muse. I joined the last band last minute because it seemed that the keyboard player wasn't playing enough so I helped her out. This band called Banaanit which mean Bananas, played 21 Guns by Greenday and Pahalta Piilossa by Suvi Teräsniska.

I had a week to learn all those songs well so that they could be performed in a funny place. It was a wooden building kind of in the middle of nowhere. I managed to learn all of them very well as one played hours and hours a day.

Improvising is always fun

I missed one earlier performance at the Flagey of my improvisation group. This time the concert took place at the Music Academy of Auderghem. So it was the two schools performing together. It was an interesting experience as it's improvisation one doesn't need to practice and not having seen the other musicians before doesn't matter at all. There were a wide range of instruments but even though I play a lot of instruments I decided to play the piano, because it's the instrument on which I like most to improvise. As it is a large group playing and for about 15 minutes one is not supposed to play the whole time but maybe only on tenth of the whole duration. A recording of the concert was made.

My first harpsichord performance

In the same week I had to perform my harpsichord teacher asked me to take part in the class concert. She asked me to play the french piece Musette en Rondeau and so I did. Since this is only my first year, I had to go first. I had practiced a lot at home and I had played the piece almost without mistakes. I hadn't had a good day and when I started off, I started too fast. I tried to keep in the tempo though. I talked to the teacher after the concert and she said that it was not bad for a first performance. She also explained to me that any sign of anger or stress or anything negative shows clearly when playing the harpsichord. The sound is different as the hand doesn't play as smoothly. When one plays the harpsichord the hand has to be relaxed otherwise the ornaments (which are a big part in harpsichord music) aren't as fluent and don't sound good.

One of the most stressful days of my life

I had my first auditions in Antwerp and I think it was one of the most stressful days of my life. First there was a music theory which was divided into two parts. There was a listening part where you had to write melodies that were played, recognise intervals, say wether a chord or scale is major/minor (+form). The second part was singing one of the pieces one was supposed to prepare at home. I had gotten the pieces only two days earlier and I wasn't ready at all. That is why I couldn't get a single note of my throat. It might have been one of the worst moments of my life.

The second part was where I played infront if a jury, pieces I prepared on the percussions. In total I played 4 pieces: Whoopie (B. Quartier) on the marimba, the first etude of the 'Douze études pour Caisse-Claire' (J. Delécluse) on the snare drum, etude number 15 (R. Hochrainer) on the timpani and Solo #7 (R. Latham) on the drums. Two pieces I played practically without mistakes (marimba and drum piece) and the first two I played my hands were literally shacking so I made small mistakes here and there. Also when I'm stressed I put too much pressure on the sticks and the sounds isn't as good as it should be. The jury was expressionless so it was hard to know wether what I was playing was good or not. I'll just have to wait for the results and maybe do the theory part eventually again.

Feeling almost like a rock star

https://new.myspace.com/adamariash

For some conservatories one is required to send recordings of songs for the selections to the auditions. So that's what I did. A professional guitarist who teaches is the conservatory of Ghent came with his recording stuff, consisting of like studio mics and his computer. After the recording, he made some changes in the sound so that it sounds best but he didn't change anything I had done. I felt like a real musicians doing this recording because that's what I see myself doing in the future. The two recordings are on my myspace page. They are two drum solos.

Second time I go to a musical

London has a large variety of musicals, so I decided to go and see one and I chose: We will rock you. It was based on the songs of the rock legends, Queen. What I liked about the musical was the singing as they were amazing singers with stunning voices. Also as I like the Queen, it was fun to hear musical versions of rock classics such as 'We are the Champions'. What I didn't like though was the storyline of the musical. It was about the future of music but showed in a very wierd way. I agreed on one point though, that in the future there will be less and less instruments as everything is beginning to be controled by computers. All in all the musical was funny but some of the jokes didn't seem natural. For example they called our planet in the future: Planet Gaga.  

The Finnish country star

So after a Mojito, we hit the road to go and see a finnish country singer. She is called Paula Koivuniemi. Her show took place at a festival called “Tangomarkkinat”, which is a a festival of finnish tango. There are singers who fight to be the so called king or queen of tango, and on top of that there are other performances and stands which sell gadgets and so on. My first feeling about this concert was: “Oh no, this is going to be terrible”. By expectations were proved wrong because this country star is actually not that bad. She seemed to have never ending energy even though she is well over her sixties. She jumped up and down even though the audience was even older than her and wasn't being as crazy as the audience at a Justin Bieber concert. I was by far the youngest, I was actually a bit embarrased to be honest. The crowd started to sing along when they got really into it, it was fun to watch middle-age people or older dancing and singing with the music. I prefered Paula Koivuniemi's newer songs more than her old ones, I guess this is because they are more modern and have more of a beat to them.

My Percussion Concert

So I had a percussion concert at my music academy where all students who play the percussions played their pieces. I played all the pieces I've practiced this year which means 6 pieces. I played a piece on the marimba, Whoopie, one on the vibraphone, Cross, one on the set-up, one on the snare-drum 1. etude from the 'Douze études pour Caisse-Claire', one on the timpani 15. etude of R. Hochrainer and one on the drumset Solo #7. These are the pieces I've also prepared for the entrance exams of the conservatories next year. My favourite piece to play was defenitly the drum piece because the drums is my favourite instrument out of all instruments ever. I noticed a few mistakes here and there. But it's good that this concert took place because now I know what are the things I have to work on. Infact the next percussion lesson we went through half of the pieces to check the things that i need to improve. I was meant to play last but I asked to go first because I had school work to do. Playing infront of an audience is always a good experience and everytime you learn something more. At this stage, I've done so many performances that I don't get nervous anymore, it's becoming more and more a routine. Obviously it depends in what situation one is, but most of the times the most important thing is to enjoy the music and concentrate on what you are doing without thinking about the size of the audience.