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I'm tired of doing these blog posts. School just needs to be over with now.

I kind of wish I could relive the ocean city trip that I went on last weekend after prom. It was so much fun.

One more week of classes left. I have two benchmarks due this week, my art portfolio, I still have some things on my capstone to finish up, and make up any work that I'm missing for classes. On top of that I work some days this week. #killmenow

Today was a bad day. I expected it to be a good one since I didn't have work, but that obviously wasn't the case.

To produce sound on a xylophone, you need to hit the bars on the xylophone with mallets. That sound is produced by vibration. When the bars are hit with the mallets, they vibrate and produce sound waves that are recognized and heard. However, bars with different properties produce different sound. Shorter, thinner bars create higher pitch while longer, thicker bars create lower pitch. To raise the pitch, I can start out with one long bar, and keep shortening bars and placing the after the next. It would go from low pitch to high pitch. I will be using rosewood or the metal bars as the material for the bars because they are the easiest to access and can produce the best sound. Another way to approach it is by getting a set of wine glasses and adding water gradually from the one glass to the next. The more water, the lower the pitch; the less water the higher the pitch.

    I can play the instrument by striking the wood or glass with mallets or something along those lines.

I don't have questions really, just feedback would be great from Ms. Echols.

Marquis Simmons

To see a xylophone being played, click on the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHP5xjBP-9I

     The instrument that I plan on playing for the benchmark is the Xylophone. The xylophone originated in Asia and Africa. It consists of bars of different lengths that can be struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber to produce sound. Bars of different lengths produce different sound. The xylophone is played by striking the bars with mallets. The bars vibrate producing sound.

      The general form/shape that a xylophone is in is a rectangle or sometimes a square. To change the notes that are played on a xylophone, all you have to do is strike a different bar on the xylophone. You can change the sound by altering the density of the specific notes. This makes me think about the density of the notes and if the type of mallet matters. Also it makes me think whether hitting the bars with more force will make the sound louder. I wonder if the material of the xylophone (what its going to made of) will make a difference on the sound. The vibration of the bars when hitting them makes me think about the connection between that and the sound, and how the length matters as well.

Marquis Simmons
I've always enjoyed the percussion parts of songs. So when thinking about the idea for my instrument I immediately thought about making a drum. Since we couldn't make a drum, the next  instrument I was interested in was the xylophone.

I watched a video of someone playing a big xylophone. He uses some wooden sticks with balls on the end to make the music. I'm not sure what the material of the xylophone or the balls on the sticks are. My guess about how tao change a note would be that the thicker the piece of the xylophone is, the deeper or lower the note that it makes will be. The entire xylophone is a rectangle, while each piece is also a rectangle which I guess helps make the sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ngt9CxBaMQ&feature=pyv&ad=2837289356&kw=marimba
​

Marquis Simmons
I've always enjoyed the percussion parts of songs. So when thinking about the idea for my instrument I immediately thought about making a drum. Since we couldn't make a drum, the next  instrument I was interested in was the xylophone.

I watched a video of someone playing a big xylophone. He uses some wooden sticks with balls on the end to make the music. I'm not sure what the material of the xylophone or the balls on the sticks are. My guess about how tao change a note would be that the thicker the piece of the xylophone is, the deeper or lower the note that it makes will be. The entire xylophone is a rectangle, while each piece is also a rectangle which I guess helps make the sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ngt9CxBaMQ&feature=pyv&ad=2837289356&kw=marimba
​

Marquis Simmons
I've always enjoyed the percussion parts of songs. So when thinking about the idea for my instrument I imediately thought about making a drum. Since we couldn't make a drum, the next  instrument I was interested in was the xylophone.

I watched a video of someone playing a big xylophone. He uses some wooden sticks with balls on the end to make the music. I'm not sure what the material of the xylophone or the balls on the sticks are. My guess about how to change a note would be that the thicker the piece of the xylophone is, the deeper or lower the note that it makes will be. The entire xylophone is a rectangle, while each piece is also a rectangle which I guess helps make the sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ngt9CxBaMQ&feature=pyv&ad=2837289356&kw=marimba
​

I had a long shift at work today: 9:30-5.  It must have been near the end; I was getting tired.  I had taken the customer's change, $2:75, from the register.  I guess my coworker was in front of the register, so I had to hand the change over the bar. Being the clumsy, short person I am, I was unable to reach her hand and had to get on my tiptoes.  In the midst of all this confusion, I dropped two quarters. In the strawberry sauce. I'm just glad my boss wasn't there to see it. 

​The xylophone makes sound, as similar to other percussion family instrument, by vibrating. To be more specific, when the mallet hits the bars, it makes the bars vibrate. From that vibration, it creates waves in the surrounding air, and finally, these waves are recognized as sound by humans' brain! It is so interesting to discover how these bars' properties are accountable for the pitch that they make. First, shorter, denser, and thinner bar makes higher pitch(I used to understand this as the other way around). In order to adjust the pitch, the bars need to be adjusted, according to its properties. To higher the pitch, I can make the ends thinner, or carve out a semi oval [or rectangle] section in the middle of the bars between the nodes, or shorter the bars. However, the density of the bars cannot be changed, since that's a permanent property of the material. I only have properties for pitches of rosewood, so I'll be using rosewood as the material for my xylophone. I will be constructing my xylophone by using wooden bars (lengths are according to the property table that I downloaded :D), and hammer them into a triangle wooden box. 

Questions: How does the box underneath the bars amplified its volume? And why does longer bar has lower pitch? Please answer this (or show me how to find out the answer) asap, Ms. Écholsawnsome:)

Like my previous post wasn't a story so here is another one...

Ms. Hull: "Marchella, I saw your senior picture the other day and it was so pretty!" 
Me "Ummmm...Thank you Ms. Hull!"

Random complements when stressed make you feel pretty awesome. 

Today I played wiffle ball with my sister, brother, father, step-mom and my sister's friend, Sam. They put me, Sam and Giana on a team. And my father, brother who is on a baseball team and my step-mom on a team together. We lost 5-4 in the last inning. Damn.

As 9th grader who's on her way to being a 10th grader, I feel that my work in the beginning represented someone who was transitioning from the 8th grade. However, as the year progressed and I was guided on how to become a better writer, my work became stronger. And rather than receiving a 70 as a grade, I received 90's. When people read my work, I want them to think of the actual subject and not who's behind it. Why? because I want people to actually think about what ever it is that I wrote and not form an opinion about me personally, until the end.

Ninth grade English was definitely not what I suspected. I thought it was going to be a breeze because I have always been an A student when it came to reading and writing. Boy was I wrong, I was challenged form the very first day we came into Ms. Dunn's Class. Regardless of how challenging it got, Ms. Dunn was always there for us-And ms. Findlay too-. I am grateful to have been given the chance to be taught how to become a better writer. My writing now compared to my writing in September is completely different. But different in a good way. My weakness as a writer I would have to say is the fact that my vocabulary isn't broad enough. I work on that everyday by just sitting down and picking up the dictionary every once in a while. One of my strengths would probably be comprehension. I understand text immediately and already have a response to whatever it is I read.

For this project I may have encountered an Issue as far as uploading and putting things onto the blog. But this was mostly because of technical difficulties. Anyways, when I went back through my work, I was proud of the few errors I had, but disappointed in the errors that were made. There were some things where I felt like it shouldn't have been a mistake that I made. I simply had to retouch most of my work however. It felt great to go back through my old work and look at what I have become over the past few months.

But I can't comment on any of them. :( We really need a comment section for these blogs. 

It's really good having my mom here, finally. It feels like she has been gone for a year or so, but the time apart really did help me realize how much she does to keep the house mantained and everyone fed. It's a jungle out here (my house) filled with blood craving savages (my hungry brothers) who will stop at nothing until they are fed.... (by me). But now that I'm not in charge anymore, it's nice to have my "independence" back. Well I have loads of work to do. I plan on getting it done; I just got an awesome second job, and I'm sorta happy.

:)

1.  When I tap the glass, it vibrates.  The vibrations create sound waves that travel outwards and reach the ears of people nearby.  When the glass moves, it causes the air molecules around it to bump into each other and get compressed.  This results in a chain reaction in which air molecules travel away from the glass, becoming compressed.  Since the glass is circular and there is nothing to block the movement of the sound waves, the sound can reach anyone within a certain radius.

2.  I will change the pitch by changing the amount of water inside the glass.  The more water there is in the glass, the lower the pitch will be.  This is because when there is water inside the glass, some of the energy that would be pushing air molecules is moving water molecules instead.  The more water there is in the glass, the more energy is diverted to moving the water instead of the air.  This creates a lower pitch.

3.  I will be using a set of cheap wine glasses glued to a simple surface like a piece of wood, to keep all the glasses together and safe.  I will pour different amounts of water into each glass to achieve different notes.  I will play the instrument by tapping different glasses to produce different sounds.

4.  How can I precisely measure the amount of water to put in each glass so that I can achieve specific notes?  Should I be careful to tap each glass in the same specific place?

You hold the handheld instrument in one or both hands and you blow on the top of each tube to make a specific sound(various pitches). In order to produce sound the pipes has two holes in them and the hole that you must blow in will be at the top and the bottom hole should be covered up by something so that the sound does not just travel straight through the pipe. To change a note, the user must blow on one of the pipes. Each pipe should create a certain pitch based on its size. The instrument is a row of pvc pipes from lowest to highest or vice versa. The instrument can also be made small enough to fit in your hand and also big enough to be played while sitting on a table. It is shaped basically like a set of stairs because of the row of pvc pipe sizes. The working of the instrument makes me think that the various sizes of the pipes are essential factors when it comes to producing the different pitches of sound. In all I believe that the wave of sound is specifically produced in an individual pipe to produce a certain pitch each time. None of the waves are the same because of the different types of sound produced. 

SLA's goal is for the students to kill themselves. Sometimes the work load is just too overwhelming. I guess the rejoicing feeling is when you do graduate and it's like- well i got through that.

"Here. This is for you." 
He began to count em out. 
"1 million, 2 million, 3 million, the world." 

"Hey, I'm Lenea." 
"Hey, I'm Lena." 

"OH, are you twins?" 

"Fraternal."

For this quarter we had to do  things. We had to
- Take 200 photos and edit the ones you wants you want
- Post some that you think you were cool
- Make a sculpture
- Copy a piece by a famous artist
- Draw a bike 3 times
- Draw an observation from outside
Just like last quarter and the ones before, I listened to music to concentrate on doing my work. Unlike the last, I decided to do something that I wasn't used to. I put my pictures up earlier. Usually wait until everything is done and then do. Seeing as that didn't go so well the last time, I tried something different. I decided to changed mostly because of that and because my sister and thrown away my original sculptures. I had made a dress with a bag and roses. Thinking that i had already taken pictures she threw them away. Instead of deciding of using that as an excuse for not doing my work. I choose make one about something else. So I made one of the T.A.R.D.I.S. It stands for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space. It is from a BBC show called Doctor Who used by a man and his current companion to travel through time and space. For the 200 photos, I took my camera with me everywhere​. I took pictures of anything and everything, sometimes even hiding a little ironman figure into the scenery. Sadly none of those were good enough to show. But some that were were of my gecko, Speedy, an etching i found at Penn's Landing and one of Center City. My outside photo was of a moving train. I was actually surprised that it came out so clear. The edited photo is of my nephew at Penn's Landing. I edited it so that Keanu Reeves was in it. The painting from my famous artist is from Bob Kessel. It is his version of Tokyo Girl Utamaro. .
(Pictures are not in order)

Original Photo

Edited picture

Pictures i thought looked cool

Outside Photo

Hand Drawn Photo

T.A.R.D.I.S from the BBC show Doctor Who and it stands for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space. It was hard to get a light to stick to the top; it kept falling off.
Original

One I made from duct tape

Tokyo Girl by Bob Kessel

My version of Tokyo Girl