Reflection 2

In his essay ”Why I Write,” George Orwell lists his four reasons for writing

These are Orwell’s four reasons for writing.

Political purpose. To cause change to happen so other peoples view points to change or argue. This can also cause people to debate the issues of today.

Historical impact. To record history and store them in a vault for future uses, History is very important for us to understand so that the same things do not repeat it.

Causing excitement. A person’s perception of the world’s beauty, or on the other hand, using words in the correct arrangement, the excitement of your favorite sports team wins a game.

Creativity. To create something or an idea, to be talked about, to be remembered for years to come.

These are my four reasons for writing.

Creativity. Dare to make up stuff, to say something, to jive talk on paper, even if it does not make any sense at all. I as an organist and organ student share this characteristic just like everybody else. Use for correcting music notes, fingering, stop registration, and other areas. Music is a weapon to silence any negative feelings and action just like writing. What about the Ideas that pops in your head? It is an idea of what you are trying to do.

Opinion. Get rid of rules that do not work. This alters people in a business setting that are against what you are doing. It is an opinion. Put new rules that work. This will make a better business environment.

Historical Facts. Finding out the facts about what happened in the past, placing them in vaults for future use.

Advertisement. To make a sale of a particular item, to get the word out a public event. Advertising is the best way to let your product is known in the market.

 

Weblog 4

First off, the students should have a right to know who they are dealing with. In a situation that involves college level writing, the students should know how to write college level papers properly. One other thing, the college writing professors should know what they are teaching to their students. College writing professors must know proper grammar, word usages, writing styles, and correct spelling of all words. The instructors should also require students to read each assignment. Students should have very good reading comprehension skills. If the writing professor can instruct the students can do just that, then it is a done deal. Some college writing professors are able to teach college level writing to his or her students. My idea of a perfect writing class would be that all students would be required to do weblogs. With the weblog assignments, I would be checking for proper word usage, grammar, writing style, and correct spelling of all words. I will require students to be able to read papers as well. College level comprehension skills would also be required. The questions would be answered in a weblog format which I as a traditionalist think is a very good idea in today’s world. If you are not able to read, then you are not able to write. The only text book that I would require my students to use is the everyday writer. The Everyday Writer has all of the information about formats, writing styles, how to avoid errors, correct spelling techniques, grammar, and all other forms of writing. The weblogs would make it very easy to see if students are able to write or not. If you think about it, weblogs are the new journals for today’s English students. Internet websites that has weblog setups such as my space and word press have the ability to do weblogs. And students would have an easier time of passing a college writing class.

 

Extra Credit 2

Fish says that students write dull arguments from worn out topics that consists of terrible ideas and themes. One thing to say is, if students can practice writing proper sentence that are acceptable to college professors, then their writing skills would not be deficient. All English teachers and college English Professors wants to make sure that all of their students succeed in whatever they do in life. I have had different English instructors tell me that the proper level of performance is needed to succeed in college level English. It may seem that English instructors assign worn out topics but that is not true. The fact of the matter is that English instructors give out challenging and stimulating assignments. Some of the most popular topics are argumentative research papers. This is to show each student his or her side of the issue which he or she stands for in the argument. There is nothing boring about argument writings. One thing about it is it challenges the student to think on what is the answer to the assigned question is. The question is “Is it possible for the student to start the writing assignment in his or her dorm area?” The answer is “only if the student wants to.” The same applies to any location where the student chooses to do his or her studies. With that thought, he or she can pre write all of his or her thoughts on a sheet of paper or type it on the computer word processing program such as Microsoft Word 2007 or Word Perfect. It is all up to the student to want to do it.

 

Weblog 3

First off I will start with the article “Dumbing Down American Readers” written by a Yale University professor, Harold Bloom. Bloom argues that excellent literature has declined over the past 50 years. One thing is for certain, Literature has never declined. I disagree with that statement because it is just an opinion. What Bloom is saying is not necessarily true. Over fifty years ago, very few families owned a television set because of the expensive pricing. If people wanted to be entertained back in those days, they read classic literature just to kill time. In fact, people still enjoy classic literature just as much as the Americans did back 50 years ago. I think that Americans are more cultured today than they were 50 years ago, this having to do with competition for novels, fiction, and literature. Of course many Shakespearean plays have been in motion picture format. It is not the same as the original play itself. Books like the Harry Potter series, often uses some weird language that cannot be understood. Some unusual slang is often in modern day novels. When you read any type of book, you are able to see what the writer is talking about. The saying is; the more you can read the more you will learn. This saying is true. If the people had never read a book while they were young, then they will never appreciate good literature. When that is the case, they were never taught to read from child hood. If they read any type of book, then they may be able to enjoy literature. I do not think that the argument cannot be proven at all.

 

Reflection 1

Why I Play the Organ

I play the organ because I like to make music. I play the organ because I am a musician. I play the organ because it supports people singing better than a piano. I play the organ to cause people to have problems. I play the organ very loud at times to make the music sound festive. I play the organ for a college class because I want to get better as I learn a lot more organ pieces. I play organ music on the organ because I am a huge fan of that instrument and I want to learn how to play baroque organ music. I play the organ because I enjoy “pulling out all the stops”, in some cases, the pedal organ stops can be very loud, thus causing a lot of racket in a room, so can the manual stops. I play the organ for people in church because I am a very talented young organist. I play plainsong music on the organ because they are the easiest type of hymns to play on the organ, the notes that are hold instead of repeating itself, thus making the hymn very easy to play in some cases. I play the organ because it is very relaxing when the sound of the instrument is just right. I play the organ to “put the fear of GOD in the presents of the audience”. I play the organ because it is music to my ears. I play the organ to practice my music that I have to play on the instrument because “practice makes it perfect” or so do they think. I play the organ to create new organ music that is suitable for worship music for the church; some of the earlier music is very good. I play the organ to entertain my friends and family in person, online, on audio and video recordings.

 

Weblog 2

From Turmoil to Music

When I was young, I was going through turmoil that started in 1987. I did not understand what was going on at the time. I was struggling to cope with what happened. I was feeling betrayed from my family due to my violent behavior that I had due to what happened when I was a baby. During those fifteen years of playing a musical instrument, I went through a violent time period where I was getting into trouble a lot. I was in a situation where I wanted to play the organ. The catch is that I had to take piano lessons. This is where I was able to find acceptance in music instead of family when all I wanted is to be accepted by my family.

I started taking piano lessons. During that time, I still had violent out bursts. This is when my family said that they would take my music privileges away for my misbehavior. I performed in five piano recitals in that five year period with the support of my family. My grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my friends were my support team at the time. I was in piano for five years and during that time, I started to play the organ in my third year of taking piano lessons. In the fall of 1995, I was sitting at an organ for the first time. I found myself playing the manuals and pedals to an organ piece. This is when my piano instructor told me that playing an organ requires to know three parts instead of only two.

In late 1997, I stopped taking piano lessons because I wanted to start playing the organ. I would find myself sitting at the organ from time to time from 1998 to mid 2001. During that time period, I was getting into major trouble for stupid things. I ended up going in and out of hospitals because could not control my anger. I also ended up in juvenile hall and ultimately a state hospital. This is where gave up playing the organ. I started to realize that I needed to get back on track. I started to do other things to get myself back on the right track.

In November of 2006, I found myself back at an organ for the first time in five years. I would be on the organ at least one time a month. I was able to learn how to play hymns and other organ pieces. I found that when I playing a musical instrument like the organ, I am forced to concentrate on my reading and hearing ability. My family is very supportive of me in going through my pursuit of a double major with one of the majors being in music. Now I am taking an organ class to this day because this is where I belong.

 

Weblog 1

What’s in a Name?

The answer is quiet simple. I have been playing the organ on and off for fourteen years. I was taking piano lessons for five years. During that five year period, I started to have a bigger interest in the organ. I ended up quitting the piano lessons and moved on the organ. I have never taken another piano lesson ever since. The organ has more sound settings to work with. In some cases it has two or more keyboards and a pedal keyboard. This sets the organist up to play one or two keyboards and pedals at the same time. The organ sounds better than the piano. The one thing that I like about the organ is that I have the option of “pulling out all the stops” for the full organ effect.

I taught myself how to play the organ using the skills hat I learned when I was taking piano lessons. I also watched other organists play the organ and listen to organ shows on the radio almost every Sunday night. The interesting thing about being self taught is that you can get very creative on what you are about to play on the organ.

I did not take any organ lessons until the Middle of May in 2009. I was self taught going into the applied music organ class which is giving me the advantage in learning to play the organ. I am currently learning new organ pieces and techniques on both the manuals and pedals. The only instrument that I had lessons prior to having organ lessons is on the piano. I am also planning on being a church organist within the next year or two. I am also planning on having a recital within the next several months or so. The organ pieces that I am learning right now are going to get much more challenging as I get deeper into learning the organ.

 

Extra Credit 1

I am Joshua “the organ player”. I am currently in college pursuing a Liberal arts double major degree in the education, teaching, and the music areas. The music area focuses on the performance on the organ. I have been playing the organ on and off for fourteen years. The type of music that I play on the organ is church hymnal music. I can also play classical organ pieces as well. My two favorite eras are the Renaissance era and the Baroque area.

A lot of church music was written for the organ at the time. For instance, plainsong chants were written long before the Renaissance era because the organ was use in some churches. When the Baroque era started, standard church hymns were written in harmony for church choirs to sing. Fugues, toccatas, preludes, and postludes were written for the organ and in some cases, organ and orchestral instruments.

An organist has to play in church services which includes, the daily office in both mornings and evenings, and masses also known as Divine Liturgy. Music from the Divine Liturgy contains the Kyrie, the Gloria, Sanctus, and the Angus Dei. The Lords prayer is included in the line up on occasion as well. Chants and hymns are played at all offices and masses. In addition with the music that is played in church, preludes, offertories, and postludes are also played as well.

The types of organ that are often used in churches are electronic organs and pipe organs. Most of them are used for classical and baroque church organ music that is often played in liturgical churches such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Catholic Church. The thing to remember is that no two organs are the same.

The organ can be very loud if you decide to “pull out all the stops”. What does “pull out all the stops” mean? It means to set the organ to full organ with or without reeds. The organ can rattle things around thus causing a thunderous blast sound in a particular room that you are in. I have made people scream at me for playing the organ too loud before. Be very careful on how you pull out all the stops on the organ.

 

Introduction

Hello,  I am Joshua Caudell.  I am a Full time student here at TCC.  I am a Liberal arts double major in  both the Education and teaching field and the Music Performance organ field.  I have a history of playing the organ in church.  I am currently taking applied organ music class this summer at ODU.   This will go on for the next four semesters, including the summer semester through TCC’s applied music program.  I am also serving on the Student Government Association parliamentarian.  I am in an Evening English class that I enjoy comming to every Tuesday and Thursday Night.  I am looking foward to comming to all of my classes this summer.