Jazz Band 2011-2012

Throughout this year (12^th grade) I have been the bass player for the high school jazz band. Practices were every Wednesday morning and Friday morning before school, from 7am – 8am. However, as I’ve been doing Varsity Volleyball and Basketball all year I’ve only been able to attend one of two practices all year. Throughout the year I’ve improved in my own personal Bass ability. As a player I haven’t grown as much as I did the first few months I was in Jazz Band. However, as it becomes harder to improve the better you get, it is understandable. Nevertheless, I did improve.

            One important way in which the Jazz band has influenced me is that I’ve improved on my bass playing as a whole, as well as improving in being a part of an ensemble. Being a part of a musical group, whether a four-person band, or a 20 person band, certainly has relatable aspects to every kind of teamwork. One needs to know when to play what, and needs to be alert so as not to enter the song at the wrong time. Also, it shows that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, or in this circumstance, a band is only as good as it’s worst player. That’s why it’s also important to try your hardest, just as I would in a team sport. This includes practicing at home, particularly for working on important parts. This is the primary area where I believe I should improve. I need to practice more. I generally don’t have the time to do it at home, however, I feel like I didn’t try my hardest to make time. I believe that in order to improve my usefulness to the Jazz Band I need to practice more, and that’s what I intend to do. I’m going to set aside 20 minutes, three times per week, outside of Jazz band practice, to practice my parts at home. I think that with this structure it should be easier to find the time to do so.

            Our performances haven’t had a grand effect on the world as we know it. However, music in general can be a great way to relieve stress. Whether listening to it, or being in a band. So hopefully we can some people a few minutes of enjoying music in our performances.

            Overall, I think this experience was influential to me as a bass player, as well as an all around musician. I think that with a structure set for practicing I’ll be able to improve more than just practicing randomly when I find I have some unfilled time. I’m also going to use this method for other musical groups that I’m a part of in order to better our group performance. Being in the High School Jazz Band has been a great experience, and I’ll certainly miss it in the following years. The energy that I could feel from the band, both in performances and practice was a great feeling to experience.

Organizing Basketball (1st semester, senior year)

In the first semester of Senior Year I decided to organize basketball once a week after school. The reason for this was so that people who were interested in trying out for the basketball team in the second semester. I thought that this would be beneficial for everyone. The benefits would come from the likely varsity players being able to start to get to know everyone’s playing style, so team-play would be better. As for the kids that were not likely to make varsity, i.e. newer people to the sport, it was a chance for them to better themselves in the off-season.

            As I was the organizer for the basketball I first decided on a day that would be best. However, everyday after school the gym was being used for an already organized activity. So to solve this problem I decided to have the basketball be from 5pm-6:30 pm, since the gym was only taken at this time on Mondays I just chose to do it on Thursdays; there was no particular reason for this, I just picked a day.

            During the first few Thursdays the organization proceeded as follows. We would all shoot free-throws to choose the starting 10 people. We then proceed to play a game of 5x5. This game then went to 21. Then the losing team would take the substitutes that hadn’t played. As there were usually around 12-14 people this worked really well. However, after the first few weeks the gameplay changed. Instead of changing teams we just had the not starting people sub on for a few people that were already playing. There would be substitutes every 5 minutes. This limit was set in place so substitutes wouldn’t go off then try to come back on after a minute. However, people tended to wait a few extra minutes after the limit and just sub on for players that were tired. The points per game weren’t really kept track of after this change, however, nobody minded as the important thing was to being playing basketball in a team environment. Once we changed to this method we easily gained an extra 15 minutes of playing time. With the previous method there was too much time being spent organizing the teams between each game

            Overall, I’m glad with the way that the organized basketball worked the way it did. The process was pretty good, and it’s clear that it improved over time. I think that it was definitely helpful for the off-season, as well as just being fun. The organized basketball ended around the time that basketball tryouts started and it was fairly clear who had been athletic during the off-season, whether from the Thursday basketball, or from doing something.

Mural Painting

            Two friends of mine (Reggie and Ajit) and I have been working on a Mural on the white wall that is surrounding the construction area for the new Commons Building. We came up with the idea to do a Mural of our favorite kid’s show, Pokémon.

            The first thing we had to do was fill out an application. In order to do this we made the basic design of our mural. We also had to decide how big it was going to be and where we wanted it. We decided to make it pan across three panels, the reason for this was that we wanted to include the three original starter Pokémon (Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur) and we decided to give each one their own panel. We also put it by the Primary School so that the younger kids could enjoy it, also people will walk past it every day. After we filled out the application, handed it in, and got it accepted, we had the hardest part; actually doing the mural.

            The application part of the process took us about a week to do, and we waited for a week on the acceptance. The “doing” part of the mural has taken us about 3 months so far. We decided to do the mural in steps. The steps we decided on were: outline in pencil, do the basic painting (the colors that filled a large area or were in the background), then do the finer painting markings. So far we have completed the first step and are halfway through the second step. The reason this has taken us so long is because two of us are full IB and we all have lots of extracurricular.

            Despite these setbacks we’re making progress on the mural slow and steady, each time we work on it starts to look better and better. However, with IB exams coming up it’s going to be even harder to find time to work on it. Nevertheless, we’re all determined to finish it, even if we have to come to school for a day after we graduate. We’ve made a pact to make sure it’s finished before we all leave this year. I’m looking forward to spending more time working on it. It’s going to be a great mural when it’s done, and it’s great spending time with my friends before going off to college and not seeing them for a while.

Varsity/ISSEA Basketball 2012

Activity – Varsity/ISSEA Basketball

Location – ISK – International School of Kenya

The process of this was tryouts, then practice, then ISL season then ISSEA. This season was my second season on varsity, and my first season as Captain. This season I played in a post-position. As a post I’m considered one of the big men on the team. I was one of the players that stayed under the basket while the guards stay at a distance. Throughout the season I improved upon my skills as post player. However, as Captain I tried to focus on being a positive model for the rest of the team. I encouraged intensity and encouraged the players to always give it 100% and their best. I believe I modeled this fairly well as I did just that at each practice and game. The coach, Mr. Robbins, also noticed this and I received the Coach’s Choice Award at the end of the season.

Throughout the season there were different levels of intensity for different games, and as we had a very naturally basketball-savvy team we won a few of our league games without full intensity, but I still encouraged everyone to push themselves in such games, even though it is hard to push yourself mentally when playing a team that you know you could beat at only half intensity. However, I think that during the ISSEA Tournament (held at ISK this year) we played every game with more intensity than I had seen all season. Along with myself, every player on our team played to win every game.

It was also clear that we as a team grew tremendously in the short time that ISSEA is over. We lost our first ISSEA game, Wednesday night, which was disappointing as we were undefeated the past two years. However, we didn’t let that effect us the next three days. We won all our other round robin games and had the number 1 seed going into the semi finals. In the semi-finals we played a team we’d already beaten and won again. In the finals we played the team which we had lost two the first night. This game was the most intense sports game I have ever played in. Only subbing out for about two minutes total myself (due to a dead leg), and having players that didn’t sub out at all, this was absolutely the most intense game I have played in. We ended the regular time in a draw, going into overtime. At the end of the 5 minute overtime we lost by 1 point. Despite being disappointed for the next week, I’m still glad to have played in this game, it was truly an amazing feeling to being playing on a court with such high intensity.

At the end of the ISSEA tournament the ISL league was about to finish. We had one more game to decide the first place seed in our division and then the semi-finals. We won the first place seed, however, we did it only playing with about half the spirit we had at ISSEA. Not because we were sad, but because three days of straight high-intensity basketball will leech you of every ounce of energy you have. However, we lost the semi-finals. We lost the lead we had in the first 3 quarters due to the other team making a few lucky shots, and our team play fell apart after that.

However, despite this loss, I didn’t feel two down. I think it’s because of the ISSEA tournament. Even though we came in second, the energy in that tournament was incredible. It was my fifth ISSEA and it had more energy than any other by far. I’m truly glad to have been on the basketball team this year. It was a great experience and I’m glad I got to experience it before I graduate.

ISSEA Volleyball 2011