Literacy Narrative - Grade: n/a PDF

Preview

Summary

For Professor Joshua's writing 110 class!...

Description

---------------------Stacey Joshua Writing 1 7 December 2018

Literacy Narrative: Finding the Right Note Being literate in a certain community is something that can benefit you along the way throughout your journey called life. In my case, I would say one of the things I am literate in is music. My mom was, and still is, in the music team in my church and alternates between singing lead or back up every couple of weeks. I didn’t necessarily think of my mom as being one of my sponsorships at first when it came to singing but instead, I saw her as someone who had sung passionately at my church. As I became more interested, I started to observe how the music team worked within my church and learned more about how important singing truly was to my mom. By discovering how my mom was able to speak in tongues and seeing how much she enjoyed praising and worshipping the Lord, I began to realize how much music was surrounding my life. Through my mom and other members of my church, I was able to find out what I truly wanted to pursue, but had yet learned the techniques necessary to able to read and understand the concept of music. While music is something that has always been a part of my life growing up, but I had never considered the thought of pursuing it as a career. I can vividly recall around the year of 2006 when my little feet used to run down the hall once I heard, “The Best of Both Worlds” playing on the TV in the living-room and I instantly knew that my favorite show, Hannah Montana, was on. I would stand right in front of the TV with a hairbrush, fantasizing that I was on stage singing the theme song along with Miley Cyrus. I have always known that I had a

passion for singing and playing instruments, but never actually thought of taking it seriously until I had entered high school. When I started to attend Ramon C. Cortines High School of Visual and Performing Arts in Downtown LA, I still remember the feeling of being overjoyed to actually take music seriously due to being accepted into the music academy. Yet there were still lingering thoughts about choosing between two completely different things: dancing and my passion for God. Both consisted of music, but I knew that my passion to serve God came before anything; therefore, I completely stopped dancing. Dancing hip-hop was something I was committed to for almost 4 years starting in middle school until freshman year of high school. I always wondered why I stayed in it for so long when I knew it was only stopping me from actually pursuing music. I thought this was the route I wanted to take until high school. Eventually, I started to feel trapped within the dance community with responsibilities on my shoulders and didn’t want to leave because of those obligations. Although it somewhat fulfilled the void I had, dancing had felt more forced and I was unable to enjoy it like I once had. Nonetheless, dance was something that helped me acknowledge the music more, simply by recognizing the different beats and the rhythms. I then was able to notice the off-beats, the downbeats, the bass notes, and even the lyrics that the singer was trying to portray. Furthermore, in my freshman year of high school, I decided to leave that path due to wanting to start fresh and focus on the music I wanted to do for God. In my freshman year of high school, I had two music classes. I was accidentally placed in this Vocal Technique class full of juniors and seniors where the teacher helps you become more confident in singing by having one-on-one lessons. I can recollect feeling embarrassed for not knowing how to read the music while the other students around me did. When I first was given a

sheet of music, I saw black dots and lines on a page with words below it. Singing a solo was always my biggest fear. While I have not completely overcame it, I can confidently say it has gotten better since then. Within my first vocal technique class, my teacher would always make us start off class with breathing exercises and singing certain notes to help warm up our vocal cords. Afterwards, we were usually given different styles of music to learn and were able to perform a song of our choosing. For mixed choir, we learned techniques on blending with other voices along with how to sing different styles of music. Then, we would perform at the end of the semesters approximately three to four songs. The following years, I took more singing classes such as Women’s Choir, Chamber Choir, Vocal Technique (again), Vocal Jazz, Music Tech, as well as Beginning and Advanced Guitar. Throughout my years in high school, I have learned many terms within the music community. And finally had a glimpse of how the music world works. I am grateful to say that if I try hard enough, I am able to actually compose a song. Going back to my vocal tech classes, I felt that I could’ve taken it way more seriously than I should have. Knowing myself, I am not as a confident singer that I hoped to be, but gratefully, that class helped me out so much. Our teachers made us sing solos and duets in front of the class while we were being graded by the teacher on the side. It was not only singing, but we had to pay attention to our posture, our tone, emotion, and our connection with the audience. More importantly, we had to know what the songs meant and how we can relate it to our lives to add more dynamics and emotions while singing the song. Specifically, I can distinctly remember having to sing, “She Used to Be Mine” from the musical The Waitress; that was chosen by my teacher. In the hook of the song, I remember struggling to sing a high note that I wasn’t entirely

familiar with in my register, but my teacher taught me how to get rid of my nerves when it came to singing such difficult notes. The classes I would say that had the most impact on me would have to be Advanced Guitar, Vocal Technique and Chamber Choir. Advanced Guitar really opened my eyes unto a different view of a musician. I was so used to singing that I didn’t understand how hard it was for instrumentalists until my guitar class. In my junior year, I was placed in a beginning guitar class that was pretty simple to me due to my sister already teaching me the basics of it prior to the class, but the following year, I realized I was placed in advanced guitar and thought it was a huge mistake. I absolutely hated the class, but as time came by, I came into a realization that my teacher saw more potential in me that I didn’t see in myself. Subsequently, I turned back to wanting to know more about music. My favorite class out of all of them would have to be Chamber Choir because of how challenging it was. That class taught me techniques on how to continuously sing for almost an hour. For our spring concert, we sang the “Brahms Requiem” which is roughly a one hour and fifteen minutes piece, but we took out one section as a result of not having enough time to finish one. Yet, the challenging part was singing in a quartet, which is singing individually with one singer on each part (alto, bass, soprano, and tenor). So I wouldn’t have anyone to help support me if I got lost within the music. I am currently active in the music team of my church as a singer and as an alternate pianist. Ever since I made the decision to focus on music, it has impacted my life greatly. I honestly never thought my life would be as it is today to where I am passionately doing what I love and found it through God. Ever since seeing my mom’s joy while singing for the Lord, I can finally understand why my mom loved to sing. In comparison to today, I have seen how much all

of my years in high school changed my life whether it came to my teachers telling me to “project more” while singing or simply observing someone. I have disregarded what I learned in school about music when it came to what I did musically for the church. As it states in the Bible , “Each 10

of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter 4:10). I can say my sponsors are my teachers, my parents, my pastor, and some people from my church because they are the ones that support me the most when it comes to music. Within these music classes, it was nonstop of memorizing and writing the notes and how it felt in our registers. I always thought it was two separate priorities where I tried harder in school for the grade and for the recognition and then was passionately doing what I loved within church. Later on, I realized how much I could’ve applied everything I learned in school into my singing in church. Once I did, it opened my eyes unto what I was capable of, what my weaknesses were, and how I might improve them. It made me grow more into using what I had towards music for God, which gave me this overwhelming feeling of joy. In conclusion, being literate in the music community is something that has greatly impacted my life....