Singing Lessons + Recital + Volunteer

Date of this reflection Date(s) of CAS Activity: August 2010 to present

Title of Activity: Singing lessons

Number of hours spent on this activity: 130 hours

1. Briefly describe the CAS activity. Who did you work for? What did you hope to accomplish?
I go to singing lessons once a week throughout high school. I take singing lesson from Ms. Karen Fang. I hope to learn a new skill (singing) because I am mediocre at singing and I had always wanted to improve my singing.

2. What was the outcome of the activity? Did you accomplish your goals?

• able to sing using the right way (abdominal muscles instead of throat muscles)
• become more confident in singing 
• understood that with practice I can sing on tune, and that singing is a form of exercise
• kinda understand what "good" singing sounds like as a form of art
• I performed at my first singing recital in 2011
• Compete in Singing Competitions at the Chinese Academy and brought home 1st for duet in 2011 and 2nd Place for solo singing 2012 (Senior Category)
• I did accomplish my goal of singing in front of an audience

3. What would you do differently if you did this activity again?

• Practice singing more often at home 
• Volunteer with other students more often to sing at local senior centres

4. Describe how this activity represents Creativity, Action, and/or Service.

• It represents Creativity as singing is a form of art, and by practicing and refining my singing I am embracing the art in music
• I also channel my singing into different events such as competitions and recitals, so this is a form of Creativity
• It represents Service because I sang at local senior centres to make their evening more pleasant

5. Which of the following learning outcomes have you addressed with this activity? (choose all that
apply)
+Increasing your awareness of your own strengths and areas for growth
+Undertaking new challenges
+Working collaboratively with others
+Showing perseverance and commitment in your activities
+Considering the ethical implications of your actions
+Developing new skills

How does the activity address these learning outcomes?
I become very conscious of my strengths and weaknesses in singing. For example, I have a very clear voice and can reach high notes easily with my throat but not with my abdominal muscles. This is due to my lack of exercise. I am also aware of the fact that I have difficulty channeling emotions into art, although I had faced this problem in other musical programs that I was involved in, singing out of all of them gave me the greatest awareness. This might be due to the fact that I have a very strict teacher who is very seasoned, and also because I paid more attention to singing because my friend does it as well. But the result of my increased awareness is that I can apply this awareness to my other arts such as drawing and Guzheng, and this helps me to actively remember to not be emotionless in performances and creations of arts.
By doing singing, I am challenging myself because the me before has no confidence in singing because I did not listen to music often enough to identity the "right" technique of singing (Well, at least in opera singing)
I worked collaboratively with others by singing with them together and adjusting the musical pieces together. my 3 years commitment shows perseverance, and I developed new singing skills from the lessons. By singing for senior citizens in the senior centre I am considering my ethical responsibility and bringing them happiness as the next generation from them.

At singing recital 2012 

From left to right: Alice, Teacher, Me, Alice