Hello. Today I’m talking about some of my favorite non-David Eddings series.
The first series is called His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. His Dark Materials is a very strange, very interesting series. It’s a mix between fantasy and science fiction. It’s a trilogy starring a girl named Lyra who ends up being involved in an enormous conflict between an infinite number of worlds and even Heaven itself. The infinite worlds and growing conflict makes for an exciting trilogy, weaving themes about loss, war, and growing up.
The second series is called The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver. This series I started reading when i was 9 or 10 and I actually never finished reading it. It still stands as one of my favorite series so I might finish it. The series takes place in a mostly forested or icy area similar to Alaska and it’s inhabited by a people similar to some Native American cultures. It’s definitely an action series about a boy named Torak and his companion, a wolf named Wolf. Together they have to deal with evil people and ancient darkness, including the demon-possessed bear that killed Torak’s father.
The last series is called The enemy by Charlie Higson. The Enemy is a 7 book series I am currently reading. I’ve read The Enemy, The Dead, The Fear, The Fallen, and I just finished The Sacrifice. It’s an amazing series because it’s about a virus that started to turn everyone in the world older than 16 into zombie-like, brainless cannibals. The series follows separate gangs of kids in London, fighting to survive against an enemy they have only one advantage over, their wit. They quickly discover that other kids, desperate for resources or power in a world with no adults can be just as deadly an enemy as the disease, but the plague is evolving, the adults are getting smarter.
There were 3 of my favorite series. Bye.
- By Ashton
The Grey Jack Frost
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Sunday, November 8, 2015
4 favorite iOS games
Hello. Today I'm writing about some more mobile games on iOS.
The first game is called Vector. Vector is a very fun 2D platformer. It's not a normal platformer in that you don't fight enemies or bosses, instead you use parkour to travel to the end of the level as quickly as possible to avoid being captured by The Hunter that's following you. You can also do special tricks and collect bonuses in the levels in order to get a higher score and unlock new levels. There is a story, but it is very simplistic and the story is not one of the game's main selling points. The graphics are nice and stylized but amazing.
The next game is titled Shadow Fight 2. This game was made by the same developers as Vector and has the same art style. Shadow Fight 2 is a ninja fighting game whee you have a lot of different armor, weapons, ranged weapons, and magic to use against your opponent. The fighting system is the best I've seen on iOS before and it gives you a lot of different options as to how you want to fight and the fights are fun yet challenging.
Next is a game named Blood Gate - Age of Alchemy. This is an RPG type game where you fight monsters by matching 3 or more corresponding element orbs in a grid similar to a bejeweled game. There's a pretty good story that's much better than the previous 2 games' and the graphics are really amazing. The game is very fun with tons of weapons and items and it's definitely a game you could keep playing for a long time.
The last game is called Mazecraft. Mazecraft is a charming pixel game where you can build mazes and fill it with challenges like traps and monsters. Other players can play and rate your maze and you can go and play other people's mazes in order to level up and gain access to more content. The game is a very cool concept and the pixel art is nice, however is feels like it is lacking some content. That being said the game is free so there's nothing to lose by trying it out.
There were 4 new mobile games. Bye.
- By Ashton
The first game is called Vector. Vector is a very fun 2D platformer. It's not a normal platformer in that you don't fight enemies or bosses, instead you use parkour to travel to the end of the level as quickly as possible to avoid being captured by The Hunter that's following you. You can also do special tricks and collect bonuses in the levels in order to get a higher score and unlock new levels. There is a story, but it is very simplistic and the story is not one of the game's main selling points. The graphics are nice and stylized but amazing.
The next game is titled Shadow Fight 2. This game was made by the same developers as Vector and has the same art style. Shadow Fight 2 is a ninja fighting game whee you have a lot of different armor, weapons, ranged weapons, and magic to use against your opponent. The fighting system is the best I've seen on iOS before and it gives you a lot of different options as to how you want to fight and the fights are fun yet challenging.
Next is a game named Blood Gate - Age of Alchemy. This is an RPG type game where you fight monsters by matching 3 or more corresponding element orbs in a grid similar to a bejeweled game. There's a pretty good story that's much better than the previous 2 games' and the graphics are really amazing. The game is very fun with tons of weapons and items and it's definitely a game you could keep playing for a long time.
The last game is called Mazecraft. Mazecraft is a charming pixel game where you can build mazes and fill it with challenges like traps and monsters. Other players can play and rate your maze and you can go and play other people's mazes in order to level up and gain access to more content. The game is a very cool concept and the pixel art is nice, however is feels like it is lacking some content. That being said the game is free so there's nothing to lose by trying it out.
There were 4 new mobile games. Bye.
- By Ashton
Sunday, November 1, 2015
The Martian
Hello. Today I'm writing about a movie I saw recently called The Martian.
Last Friday I saw the new movie The Martian with my girlfriend, Jillian. I was pretty excited to see the movie because it was directed by Ridley Scott, who also directed Alien and Prometheus, 2 of my favorite movies. The movie also got a very good rating on IMDB with an 8.2 out of 10. The Martian is a realistic science fiction movie about an astronaut named Mark Wattney that is accidentally left on Mars alone. The movie takes a journey about Mark trying to survive in a completely inhospitable environment with limited supplies and NASA desperately trying to find a way to bring him home alive.
The movie opens in the near future with the crew of Ares 3 collecting samples on Mars. Conflict quickly ensues when an enormous sandstorm starts heading their way with winds much higher than they anticipated. The crew collectively decide to head back to the rocket before it's too late except for Mark, who being the most reluctant to give up on the mission is the farthest back in the group heading towards the ship. During the storm Mark is hit by a satellite dish and thrown into the storm, too far away for the group to rescue and completely out of site. When the crew reaches the rocket they find out that Mark's suit is sending no life signs to the ship and they presume him dead and leave just before the rocket would have been tipped over.
Mark wakes up on Mars and makes it back to the habitat station and pulls the satellite antenna out of his abdomen that severed his life sign signaler on his suit. There he acknowledges in a video log that since he has no way of contacting NASA he has to grow food to last him 3 years until the next mission to Mars is launched. Mark learns that he can grow potatoes using rocket fuel to manufacture water and his and his crews mates feces as fertilizer. Eventually he finds the old Pathfinder probe and uses its camera to finally get in contact with NASA. NASA broadcasts across the world that Mark Wattney is alive on Mars and the entire world unites to try and bring him home. After there's a disastrous explosion that destroys Mark's potato crop and numerous failed attempts to give him more rations by NASA, a slightly crazy scientist on Earth finds a way to save Mark. The scientist proposes a plan to send the rocket carrying the crew around Earth and on back to Mars to rescue Mark. The plan is deemed to dangerous by the head of NASA but an employee secretly sends the plan to the crew onboard the rocket and the crew collectively makes the decision to disobey NASA and go back to Mars and save Mark. Mark travels for days across Mars to reach a small rocket capsule capable of barely getting him out of Mars' atmosphere and from there is an extremely intense climax involving the crew of Ares 3 and Mark trying desperately to attach to Mark's capsule and bring him safely to Earth. After a near failure 1 year later Mark is teaching a class of Astronauts on survival in space, laughing and joking about his experiences on Mars.
So there was The Martian, a very good science movie I highly recommend. Bye.
- By Ashton
Last Friday I saw the new movie The Martian with my girlfriend, Jillian. I was pretty excited to see the movie because it was directed by Ridley Scott, who also directed Alien and Prometheus, 2 of my favorite movies. The movie also got a very good rating on IMDB with an 8.2 out of 10. The Martian is a realistic science fiction movie about an astronaut named Mark Wattney that is accidentally left on Mars alone. The movie takes a journey about Mark trying to survive in a completely inhospitable environment with limited supplies and NASA desperately trying to find a way to bring him home alive.
The movie opens in the near future with the crew of Ares 3 collecting samples on Mars. Conflict quickly ensues when an enormous sandstorm starts heading their way with winds much higher than they anticipated. The crew collectively decide to head back to the rocket before it's too late except for Mark, who being the most reluctant to give up on the mission is the farthest back in the group heading towards the ship. During the storm Mark is hit by a satellite dish and thrown into the storm, too far away for the group to rescue and completely out of site. When the crew reaches the rocket they find out that Mark's suit is sending no life signs to the ship and they presume him dead and leave just before the rocket would have been tipped over.
Mark wakes up on Mars and makes it back to the habitat station and pulls the satellite antenna out of his abdomen that severed his life sign signaler on his suit. There he acknowledges in a video log that since he has no way of contacting NASA he has to grow food to last him 3 years until the next mission to Mars is launched. Mark learns that he can grow potatoes using rocket fuel to manufacture water and his and his crews mates feces as fertilizer. Eventually he finds the old Pathfinder probe and uses its camera to finally get in contact with NASA. NASA broadcasts across the world that Mark Wattney is alive on Mars and the entire world unites to try and bring him home. After there's a disastrous explosion that destroys Mark's potato crop and numerous failed attempts to give him more rations by NASA, a slightly crazy scientist on Earth finds a way to save Mark. The scientist proposes a plan to send the rocket carrying the crew around Earth and on back to Mars to rescue Mark. The plan is deemed to dangerous by the head of NASA but an employee secretly sends the plan to the crew onboard the rocket and the crew collectively makes the decision to disobey NASA and go back to Mars and save Mark. Mark travels for days across Mars to reach a small rocket capsule capable of barely getting him out of Mars' atmosphere and from there is an extremely intense climax involving the crew of Ares 3 and Mark trying desperately to attach to Mark's capsule and bring him safely to Earth. After a near failure 1 year later Mark is teaching a class of Astronauts on survival in space, laughing and joking about his experiences on Mars.
So there was The Martian, a very good science movie I highly recommend. Bye.
- By Ashton
Sunday, October 25, 2015
New iOS games
Hello. Today I'm writing about some more mobile games on iOS.
The first game is called Vector. Vector is a very fun 2D platformer. It's not a normal platformer in that you don't fight enemies or bosses, instead you use parkour to travel to the end of the level as quickly as possible to avoid being captured by The Hunter that's following you. You can also do special tricks and collect bonuses in the levels in order to get a higher score and unlock new levels. There is a story, but it is very simplistic and the story is not one of the game's main selling points. The graphics are nice and stylized but amazing.
The next game is titled Shadow Fight 2. This game was made by the same developers as Vector and has the same art style. Shadow Fight 2 is a ninja fighting game whee you have a lot of different armor, weapons, ranged weapons, and magic to use against your opponent. The fighting system is the best I've seen on iOS before and it gives you a lot of different options as to how you want to fight and the fights are fun yet challenging.
Next is a game named Blood Gate - Age of Alchemy. This is an RPG type game where you fight monsters by matching 3 or more corresponding element orbs in a grid similar to a bejeweled game. There's a pretty good story that's much better than the previous 2 games' and the graphics are really amazing. The game is very fun with tons of weapons and items and it's definitely a game you could keep playing for a long time.
The last game is called Mazecraft. Mazecraft is a charming pixel game where you can build mazes and fill it with challenges like traps and monsters. Other players can play and rate your maze and you can go and play other people's mazes in order to level up and gain access to more content. The game is a very cool concept and the pixel art is nice, however is feels like it is lacking some content. That being said the game is free so there's nothing to lose by trying it out.
There were 4 new mobile games. Bye.
- By Ashton
The first game is called Vector. Vector is a very fun 2D platformer. It's not a normal platformer in that you don't fight enemies or bosses, instead you use parkour to travel to the end of the level as quickly as possible to avoid being captured by The Hunter that's following you. You can also do special tricks and collect bonuses in the levels in order to get a higher score and unlock new levels. There is a story, but it is very simplistic and the story is not one of the game's main selling points. The graphics are nice and stylized but amazing.
The next game is titled Shadow Fight 2. This game was made by the same developers as Vector and has the same art style. Shadow Fight 2 is a ninja fighting game whee you have a lot of different armor, weapons, ranged weapons, and magic to use against your opponent. The fighting system is the best I've seen on iOS before and it gives you a lot of different options as to how you want to fight and the fights are fun yet challenging.
Next is a game named Blood Gate - Age of Alchemy. This is an RPG type game where you fight monsters by matching 3 or more corresponding element orbs in a grid similar to a bejeweled game. There's a pretty good story that's much better than the previous 2 games' and the graphics are really amazing. The game is very fun with tons of weapons and items and it's definitely a game you could keep playing for a long time.
The last game is called Mazecraft. Mazecraft is a charming pixel game where you can build mazes and fill it with challenges like traps and monsters. Other players can play and rate your maze and you can go and play other people's mazes in order to level up and gain access to more content. The game is a very cool concept and the pixel art is nice, however is feels like it is lacking some content. That being said the game is free so there's nothing to lose by trying it out.
There were 4 new mobile games. Bye.
- By Ashton
Sunday, October 18, 2015
New X-Wing Rebel Ships
Hello. Today I'm reviewing some new X-wing ships.
Today it's all rebel ships so let's start with the HWK-290. The HWK-290 is a pretty cool rebel ship and with its title "Moldy Crow" you can really make the best use of focus in the game. The HWK can focus and target lock, with 1 attack, 2 agility, 4 hull, and 1 shield. The Moldy Crow title you can equip it with is really cool because it lets you keep focus tokens so you can accumulate them throughout the game. My Dad has taken advantage of this by giving it the co-pilot Recon Specialist which lets you focus twice, the Blaster Turret which gives it a 360 firing arc with 3 dice at range 1-2 if it spends a focus, and the elite pilot skill Calculation which lets you use focuses to make criticals instead of regular damage.
The next Rebel ship is the K-wing. The K-wing has a 360 degree firing arc, 2 attack, 1 agility, 5 hull, and 4 shields. It can focus, target lock, and perform the new SLAM action which is very useful for maneuvering and speed. It has the modification Advanced SLAM which lets you perform a second action after you SLAM, the twin laser turret which only does 1 damage each time it hits, but gets to hit twice. The most important upgrade on the K-Wing is called Extra munitions which will give it an extra shot on the advanced homing missiles, plasma torpedos, Connor net, and proton bombs. There's also a co-pilot on it called Bombardier that lets it use the 2 template instead of the 1 when dropping bombs.
The last ship is the new T-70 X-Wing from the new Force Awakens Core set. The ship is pretty beefy with 3 attack, 2 agility, 3 hull, and 3 shields, almost matching up to the Tie Defender's 3 across the board. It can focus, target lock, and boost which is new to an X-wing. It has the same upgrade slots as the original X-wing except it can also equip tech upgrades. The ship is definitely a huge improvement on the original X-wing being only 2 more points than the original and still less expensive than an E-Wing, which was considered the X-wings original improvement.
There were some new rebel ships for X-wing. Bye.
- By Ashton
Today it's all rebel ships so let's start with the HWK-290. The HWK-290 is a pretty cool rebel ship and with its title "Moldy Crow" you can really make the best use of focus in the game. The HWK can focus and target lock, with 1 attack, 2 agility, 4 hull, and 1 shield. The Moldy Crow title you can equip it with is really cool because it lets you keep focus tokens so you can accumulate them throughout the game. My Dad has taken advantage of this by giving it the co-pilot Recon Specialist which lets you focus twice, the Blaster Turret which gives it a 360 firing arc with 3 dice at range 1-2 if it spends a focus, and the elite pilot skill Calculation which lets you use focuses to make criticals instead of regular damage.
The next Rebel ship is the K-wing. The K-wing has a 360 degree firing arc, 2 attack, 1 agility, 5 hull, and 4 shields. It can focus, target lock, and perform the new SLAM action which is very useful for maneuvering and speed. It has the modification Advanced SLAM which lets you perform a second action after you SLAM, the twin laser turret which only does 1 damage each time it hits, but gets to hit twice. The most important upgrade on the K-Wing is called Extra munitions which will give it an extra shot on the advanced homing missiles, plasma torpedos, Connor net, and proton bombs. There's also a co-pilot on it called Bombardier that lets it use the 2 template instead of the 1 when dropping bombs.
The last ship is the new T-70 X-Wing from the new Force Awakens Core set. The ship is pretty beefy with 3 attack, 2 agility, 3 hull, and 3 shields, almost matching up to the Tie Defender's 3 across the board. It can focus, target lock, and boost which is new to an X-wing. It has the same upgrade slots as the original X-wing except it can also equip tech upgrades. The ship is definitely a huge improvement on the original X-wing being only 2 more points than the original and still less expensive than an E-Wing, which was considered the X-wings original improvement.
There were some new rebel ships for X-wing. Bye.
- By Ashton
Sunday, October 11, 2015
New X-Wing ships
Hello. Today I'm writing about another new batch of X-wing ships.
This time it's a pure imperial batch starting out with the 2 First Order Ties you get in the new Force Awakens core set. It comes with 5 different pilot cards for each ship and 3 of them are very useful. The lowest point cost is 15 for an Epsilon Squadron Pilot with 1 pilot skill and no ability. The extra 3 points over the lowest regular tie is very worth it because these Ties have 1 more shield, the ability to target lock, and a much better maneuver dial. The new maneuver dial has a Segnor's loop on 2, green 2 sharp turns, and no 3 k-turn. Overall that makes the new First Order Tie highly maneuverable and much better than the normal ones especially since it's only a 3 point difference. The second useful pilot card is the Epsilon leader with pilot skill 6 that lets you remove stress from every friendly ship at range one at the start of the combat phase. This is very useful because if you're flying a formation doing a red maneuver will still give you stress and prevent you from taking an action but since he clears it right after the entire formation could repeatedly pull red maneuvers. The last useful pilot is Omega Ace at 7 pilot skill and his ability is to change your attack results to damage results if you have a target lock on the defender and a focus token. That ability combined with howl runners will make sure your Ties are doing damage with every attack. Every ship can also equip the new tech upgrade slot and a useful upgrade comes with them for tech called weapons guidance that lets you spend a focus to change a blank result to a critical. The Omega Ace can equip an elite pilot upgrade and a card called Wired that comes with it will make it even easier to to damage by letting you reroll an eye result if you're stressed.
The second ship I got is the Tie Punisher. The Tie punisher has a high/low point cost of 21/27 and has 2 attack, 1 agility, 6 hull, and 3 shields. The Tie punisher has upgrade slots for systems, 2 torpedoes, 2 missiles, and 2 bombs so you can really load a ton of secondary weapons on this ship. Another awesome selling point for this ship is that it comes with a torpedo card called Extra Munitions which basically gives you an extra shot for every torpedo, missile, or bomb you have equipped. This is awesome because you could potentially have 10 shots with secondary weapons, so if you have this ship you should be target locking or dropping bombs every turn because you've definitely got the firepower. My favorite pilot to use with this ship is Deathrain at 6 pilot skill because it can drop a bomb from its front guides and then barrel roll before moving, this makes it a lot easier to line up a bomb in your enemies path and get away from it fast. The highest pilot skill card is Redline with 7 pilot skill and his ability is to be able to maintain 2 target locks on one ship as only 1 action which is pretty good for all the target locks you're gonna need. A systems upgrade card that comes with it called Enhanced scopes lets you treat your pilot skill as 0 when it comes to moving if you decide to which could be useful for a bomber because you could drop your bomb and get away before anybody else had a chance to move. The Tie punisher is obviously not very maneuverable but it does have a 1 forward which is useful, and a red 4 k-turn. It has the ability to focus, target lock, and boost.
The last ship is a large ship called the VT-49 Decimator. This ship is a beast. It's huge with 3 attack, 12 hull, 4 shields, and unfortunately 0 agility. With these stats it has high health but is gonna get hit all the time and after only 4 shields those critical hits are gonna be nasty. It's got turreted guns and a high/low point cost of 40/46. It has the ability to target lock and focus. Has upgrade slots for torpedo, 3 co-pilots, a bomb, as well as an elite pilot upgrade for most pilots. My favorite pilot to use is Captain Oicunn with 4 pilot skill because his ability is to cause 1 damage to every enemy ship he's touching after he moves. That's awesome. Whether you're using that pilot or not it has some awesome upgrade cards to choose from. It has the elite pilot upgrade Intimidation which lowers the agility of every enemy ship by 1 that you're touching which is awesome with Captain Oicunn. It also comes with 4 co-pilots, a fleet officer than can focus up to 2 ships at range 1-2 for an action and a stress token, Moff Jerjerrod who lets you sacrifice co-pilots to turn critically facedown, Ysanne Isard who lets you perform free evade actions of you have damage every turn, and Mara Jade who gives every enemy ship at range 1 at the end of combat a stress if they didn't have one. Those are amazing co-pilots. The Decimator has the standard Large ship maneuvering dial except it has literally no maneuvers that give it stress which is again, awesome.
There were some of my new X-wing ships. Bye.
- By Ashton
This time it's a pure imperial batch starting out with the 2 First Order Ties you get in the new Force Awakens core set. It comes with 5 different pilot cards for each ship and 3 of them are very useful. The lowest point cost is 15 for an Epsilon Squadron Pilot with 1 pilot skill and no ability. The extra 3 points over the lowest regular tie is very worth it because these Ties have 1 more shield, the ability to target lock, and a much better maneuver dial. The new maneuver dial has a Segnor's loop on 2, green 2 sharp turns, and no 3 k-turn. Overall that makes the new First Order Tie highly maneuverable and much better than the normal ones especially since it's only a 3 point difference. The second useful pilot card is the Epsilon leader with pilot skill 6 that lets you remove stress from every friendly ship at range one at the start of the combat phase. This is very useful because if you're flying a formation doing a red maneuver will still give you stress and prevent you from taking an action but since he clears it right after the entire formation could repeatedly pull red maneuvers. The last useful pilot is Omega Ace at 7 pilot skill and his ability is to change your attack results to damage results if you have a target lock on the defender and a focus token. That ability combined with howl runners will make sure your Ties are doing damage with every attack. Every ship can also equip the new tech upgrade slot and a useful upgrade comes with them for tech called weapons guidance that lets you spend a focus to change a blank result to a critical. The Omega Ace can equip an elite pilot upgrade and a card called Wired that comes with it will make it even easier to to damage by letting you reroll an eye result if you're stressed.
The second ship I got is the Tie Punisher. The Tie punisher has a high/low point cost of 21/27 and has 2 attack, 1 agility, 6 hull, and 3 shields. The Tie punisher has upgrade slots for systems, 2 torpedoes, 2 missiles, and 2 bombs so you can really load a ton of secondary weapons on this ship. Another awesome selling point for this ship is that it comes with a torpedo card called Extra Munitions which basically gives you an extra shot for every torpedo, missile, or bomb you have equipped. This is awesome because you could potentially have 10 shots with secondary weapons, so if you have this ship you should be target locking or dropping bombs every turn because you've definitely got the firepower. My favorite pilot to use with this ship is Deathrain at 6 pilot skill because it can drop a bomb from its front guides and then barrel roll before moving, this makes it a lot easier to line up a bomb in your enemies path and get away from it fast. The highest pilot skill card is Redline with 7 pilot skill and his ability is to be able to maintain 2 target locks on one ship as only 1 action which is pretty good for all the target locks you're gonna need. A systems upgrade card that comes with it called Enhanced scopes lets you treat your pilot skill as 0 when it comes to moving if you decide to which could be useful for a bomber because you could drop your bomb and get away before anybody else had a chance to move. The Tie punisher is obviously not very maneuverable but it does have a 1 forward which is useful, and a red 4 k-turn. It has the ability to focus, target lock, and boost.
The last ship is a large ship called the VT-49 Decimator. This ship is a beast. It's huge with 3 attack, 12 hull, 4 shields, and unfortunately 0 agility. With these stats it has high health but is gonna get hit all the time and after only 4 shields those critical hits are gonna be nasty. It's got turreted guns and a high/low point cost of 40/46. It has the ability to target lock and focus. Has upgrade slots for torpedo, 3 co-pilots, a bomb, as well as an elite pilot upgrade for most pilots. My favorite pilot to use is Captain Oicunn with 4 pilot skill because his ability is to cause 1 damage to every enemy ship he's touching after he moves. That's awesome. Whether you're using that pilot or not it has some awesome upgrade cards to choose from. It has the elite pilot upgrade Intimidation which lowers the agility of every enemy ship by 1 that you're touching which is awesome with Captain Oicunn. It also comes with 4 co-pilots, a fleet officer than can focus up to 2 ships at range 1-2 for an action and a stress token, Moff Jerjerrod who lets you sacrifice co-pilots to turn critically facedown, Ysanne Isard who lets you perform free evade actions of you have damage every turn, and Mara Jade who gives every enemy ship at range 1 at the end of combat a stress if they didn't have one. Those are amazing co-pilots. The Decimator has the standard Large ship maneuvering dial except it has literally no maneuvers that give it stress which is again, awesome.
There were some of my new X-wing ships. Bye.
- By Ashton
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Strings Class and Cello
Hello. Today I'm talking about my experience with strings class and playing cello.
I started to play cello in sixth grade so I've been playing for 4 years now. In 6th grade at North Middle School the year started with 3 or 4 cello players so I was not alone and there was one person that was abetted player than me so I would have been 2nd or 3rd chair. My teacher was Mr. Cushwaw for most of that year until he stopped teaching so I had another teacher, Mr. Newburger for the rest of middle school. 7th grade was when things really got started because all the other cellos in my grade stopped playing. This meant that I would be the only cello player and I was for the rest of middle school. During concerts if I was lucky there would be 1 or 2 other cellos because that was the only time all 3 grades ever played together. Being the only cello player for so long definitely helped both my playing skills and gave me a lot of confidence since I would often be doing solos. Being the only cello I was also often playing loud, fast, deep parts, which happen to be my favorite part to play and it's also the reason the cello is the instrument I chose. My 7th and 8th grade years playing I had a good amount of friends in the class too, and being an essential part of the orchestra definitely helped me, even though a senior cello player could have taught me some useful things.
After 8th grade I went to high school to play at Spring Mills High. At high school the orchestra was a lot larger because all of the grades are in the same class and practice the same music together, and because of this there was an even larger range of playing ability and there were 2 other cellos, both better than me. I think that this was my worst year because since I was last chair I got a lot less attention and since my orchestra teacher, Dr. Sturm, doesn't have time to teach every single thing to every student, the senior players in each section are supposed to help and teach the others in their section. Neither of the other 2 players ever taught me anything even though they were both much better than me so I started to really lag behind and there was a lot of guilty fake-playing-hide-behind-other-cellos. Also most of what we played didn't have those loud, fast, deep, almost dreary parts that I played in middle school and I definitely missed that and didn't have near as much fun playing these other pieces. One song that did have those elements was Fantasia on Theme (no not Disney) and I very much enjoyed that.
This year I am in the same situation as I was for most of middle school in that the other two players quit and graduated so I'm the only player. This way I've started to actually learn things and grow and get better as a player because I'm being taught directly by Dr. Sturm, who's great. Because I'm actually learning new things and becoming a more well rounded player I'm also enjoying all kinds of music and not only what I was used to playing. Recently there was an event called WV Strings Day hosted at our school where the best players from our school played very challenging pieces with good players from across the state. My regained confidence and skill had me enjoying something I'm sure I would have dreaded the previous year and I was even 3rd chair out of 9 cellos, which is pretty good. There's another girl playing cello this year I'm friends with and she's just starting this year so I've resolved to actually teach her things and help her get better, unlike the other 2 players from my previous year.
I'm definitely looking forward to playing cello at Spring Mills High for the next 2 years and it's going to be a very awesome experience being the head of a section with my friends also a surprisingly large amount of cellos coming from various middle schools next year and the year after that. So there was my history of playing cello and strings class. Bye.
- By Ashton
I started to play cello in sixth grade so I've been playing for 4 years now. In 6th grade at North Middle School the year started with 3 or 4 cello players so I was not alone and there was one person that was abetted player than me so I would have been 2nd or 3rd chair. My teacher was Mr. Cushwaw for most of that year until he stopped teaching so I had another teacher, Mr. Newburger for the rest of middle school. 7th grade was when things really got started because all the other cellos in my grade stopped playing. This meant that I would be the only cello player and I was for the rest of middle school. During concerts if I was lucky there would be 1 or 2 other cellos because that was the only time all 3 grades ever played together. Being the only cello player for so long definitely helped both my playing skills and gave me a lot of confidence since I would often be doing solos. Being the only cello I was also often playing loud, fast, deep parts, which happen to be my favorite part to play and it's also the reason the cello is the instrument I chose. My 7th and 8th grade years playing I had a good amount of friends in the class too, and being an essential part of the orchestra definitely helped me, even though a senior cello player could have taught me some useful things.
After 8th grade I went to high school to play at Spring Mills High. At high school the orchestra was a lot larger because all of the grades are in the same class and practice the same music together, and because of this there was an even larger range of playing ability and there were 2 other cellos, both better than me. I think that this was my worst year because since I was last chair I got a lot less attention and since my orchestra teacher, Dr. Sturm, doesn't have time to teach every single thing to every student, the senior players in each section are supposed to help and teach the others in their section. Neither of the other 2 players ever taught me anything even though they were both much better than me so I started to really lag behind and there was a lot of guilty fake-playing-hide-behind-other-cellos. Also most of what we played didn't have those loud, fast, deep, almost dreary parts that I played in middle school and I definitely missed that and didn't have near as much fun playing these other pieces. One song that did have those elements was Fantasia on Theme (no not Disney) and I very much enjoyed that.
This year I am in the same situation as I was for most of middle school in that the other two players quit and graduated so I'm the only player. This way I've started to actually learn things and grow and get better as a player because I'm being taught directly by Dr. Sturm, who's great. Because I'm actually learning new things and becoming a more well rounded player I'm also enjoying all kinds of music and not only what I was used to playing. Recently there was an event called WV Strings Day hosted at our school where the best players from our school played very challenging pieces with good players from across the state. My regained confidence and skill had me enjoying something I'm sure I would have dreaded the previous year and I was even 3rd chair out of 9 cellos, which is pretty good. There's another girl playing cello this year I'm friends with and she's just starting this year so I've resolved to actually teach her things and help her get better, unlike the other 2 players from my previous year.
I'm definitely looking forward to playing cello at Spring Mills High for the next 2 years and it's going to be a very awesome experience being the head of a section with my friends also a surprisingly large amount of cellos coming from various middle schools next year and the year after that. So there was my history of playing cello and strings class. Bye.
- By Ashton
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)