Jesse Musinguzi, Grade 12
UWCEA Moshi
We had just left the math class and were supposed to head to our arts classes. I took music, and so I headed to the music room with my two other classmates. There was a light drizzle that day, and I just so happened to have an umbrella. I didn’t intend on using it, but one of my classmates saw it and literally begged me to use it.
I made a deal with him that stated if we used the umbrella, he would get me an ice cream from the canteen. The three of us walked under the small umbrella and in on our teacher, so engrossed in the piece he was playing on the piano. We could tell he was so deep into it because, well, he had his eyes closed facing the ceiling and swaying, and we stood at the door for a good five minutes trying to decipher the tune he was playing.
My classmate let out a giggle, and he opened his eyes wide, as if shocked to see us. He didn’t ask how long we watched him because we all knew it would lead to a long awkward silence. He drew the curtains to let some light into the dark, cluttered room.
Today, we would be analyzing one of the songs by an artist two out of three of us listened to, Juice Wrld. I never thought I’d see the day that we analyzed something like that. I was excited! We were to analyse his song Wishing Well. My classmate and I thought we would be discussing the meaning behind the lyrics and end there. We analyzed the lyrics, yes, but also went ahead to analyze the instrumental.
I had been so used to us analyzing classical pieces and was confused about how we would be analyzing this type of instrumental. It’s like our teacher had been preparing for this day for weeks. He had already printed a worksheet on the song. Where had he found the worksheet? Or did he make it himself? There were questions about certain musical elements that I had no idea were even in the song.
We analyzed the song much more thoroughly than the Youtube channels we had agreed to the day before. The fact that this was a song we listened to when we were outside of class made it special in the sense that we started looking at music from a different angle. We were dissecting the piece in a way that none of us had done before, and this allowed me to visualize what was going on. We even learned how to play it on the piano!
My mind was blown away when we discussed the intricacies of the piece and how we could apply them to the piece we were to create ourselves. Ever since then, listening to music has been different.
My teacher even noticed that I had developed a musical ear, which meant I could recognize ideas and concepts from songs and apply them to the pieces I made.
I made a deal with him that stated if we used the umbrella, he would get me an ice cream from the canteen. The three of us walked under the small umbrella and in on our teacher, so engrossed in the piece he was playing on the piano. We could tell he was so deep into it because, well, he had his eyes closed facing the ceiling and swaying, and we stood at the door for a good five minutes trying to decipher the tune he was playing.
My classmate let out a giggle, and he opened his eyes wide, as if shocked to see us. He didn’t ask how long we watched him because we all knew it would lead to a long awkward silence. He drew the curtains to let some light into the dark, cluttered room.
Today, we would be analyzing one of the songs by an artist two out of three of us listened to, Juice Wrld. I never thought I’d see the day that we analyzed something like that. I was excited! We were to analyse his song Wishing Well. My classmate and I thought we would be discussing the meaning behind the lyrics and end there. We analyzed the lyrics, yes, but also went ahead to analyze the instrumental.
I had been so used to us analyzing classical pieces and was confused about how we would be analyzing this type of instrumental. It’s like our teacher had been preparing for this day for weeks. He had already printed a worksheet on the song. Where had he found the worksheet? Or did he make it himself? There were questions about certain musical elements that I had no idea were even in the song.
We analyzed the song much more thoroughly than the Youtube channels we had agreed to the day before. The fact that this was a song we listened to when we were outside of class made it special in the sense that we started looking at music from a different angle. We were dissecting the piece in a way that none of us had done before, and this allowed me to visualize what was going on. We even learned how to play it on the piano!
My mind was blown away when we discussed the intricacies of the piece and how we could apply them to the piece we were to create ourselves. Ever since then, listening to music has been different.
My teacher even noticed that I had developed a musical ear, which meant I could recognize ideas and concepts from songs and apply them to the pieces I made.
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