Drum lessons

Today was my 7th drum lessons since I started it last month on the 8th of October. Here are a few details about my lessons: I have a lesson every Monday for 30 minutes, my teacher's name is Roshan and I am still just a beginner to drums.

So up until the last lesson, I have only been doing some practice exercises that were done in order for me to be comfortable with the drum set in general and to keep a steady tempo going for a given period of time. Last lesson however, I was told to undertake a new challenge, which was playing a proper beat. Last lesson, I was taught how to do the 4/4 beat which is essentially a simple beat with a 4/4 time signature (1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4...). I was able to play this beat easily after a few minutes of practice and a countless amount of failed attempts. So today, I was asked to undertake another new challenge. Roshan taught me how to do the another basic drum beat, famously known as the 'waltz'.

The waltz drum pattern consists of a 3/4 time signature (1 2 3, 1 2 3...). This beat was an even easier beat to learn and play successfully than the 4/4 beat as I was able to play it in a few minutes without making many mistakes :) . He also taught me how to incorporate a 'drum roll' to the beat as well; this is a quick drum pattern where we basically beat all the drums in succession starting from the snare drum to the floor tom-tom and finally ending with a sharp hit to the clash symbol. By the end of the lesson I can certainly say I have developed new skills since I now know how to do two different drum beats.

What I learned: 

• I am now more confident with playing the drums and hopefully I would be able to easily pick up on the beats that I am to learn in the coming months.
• Confidence is key to playing an instrument and this is true for many other things as well, not just musical instruments. I have gained more confidence in this process to be much more "free" when playing the drums and simply letting the beats just come out as you play without having to think too much about it.

Recycling and Sustainability

On the 1st of November, we had our community and service activity as usual. We collected paper and cardboard from all the classrooms of our school and took them down to the recycling room where we then put all the cardboard and paper into large plastic containers. These containers were then put in the van which would take them to the recycling center situated near to the school. On that day however, I had the opportunity of going there myself along with Mr Lockwood (our activity teacher) and a few other students to see the place. So this was my opportunity to undertake a new challenge. It was not a very large area/shop but there was enough paper, cardboard and metal to fill up a car. We placed all the paper and cardboard on the weighing scale to calculate how much money we would get from that haul.

Me (in white) helping to put the paper in the weighing scale
on the back
(Photo credits: Mr. Lockwood)

What I learned:

• I was directly able to engage with an issue of global importance that is waste management, because I was able to visit the recycling site in person and help out there. It was very nice to see that there was a large amount of paper in the room as this suggests that people are indeed recycling and doing their bit for the environment. However, we may be able to encourage more people to recycle by organizing various awareness programs which we could do in the coming months.
• I was able to consider the ethical implications of my trip there because, I really enjoyed the trip to the recycling center and giving the paper to the man who owns the shop, we know that this paper in very important for this man and it was good to know that we were helping him.

IB Orientation trip to Borderlands- Day 3

So this was day three and the also the final day of our trip to Borderlands. On that day, the only plan was to go Canyoning. This was another chance for me to undertake a new challenge. What is Canyoning? well this is basically going to the top of a hill where a canyon is located and we jump through the water using the rocks until we get to the main river body. This may sound simple enough but doing it is a whole other story, out of all the activities we did so far, for me this was the most frightening of all. It was another rainy day and so the rocks we were standing on weren't so safe, an experienced camp guide taught us how to move around these rocks safely and other techniques to stay out of danger; such as, tapping our helmets twice to indicate that we are alright. We jumped through several rocks, gradually making our way down to the river. Unfortunately, due to the heavy downpour we could canyon all the way to the river, so we had to get off half way down the canyon and trek back to the river bank where we would float and move downriver all the way back to camp. This part of the activity didn't take much effort and so due to the lack of movement our bodies started to get very cold. But thankfully, our life jackets ensured that we were able to preserve our body heat as well and so, things started to get much more relaxing.

What I learned that day:

• Personally, that activity was very scary to me, I think I almost lost my glasses during one jump as well! However, I did show perseverance and commitment throughout the challenge. I'm really glad and proud of my self that I accomplished it and it also made me much confident to take more risks in life. 
• Team work is again, essential for successful canyoning and for any other activity that you could never really finish on your own. I learned to trust my colleagues more and to provide them with all the support I can give when they need it as well.