(I’m playing the piano on the left side of the video)

Ever since 11th started, I have been part of the school band where I play the piano. We participated in the SIS Conzert, the interschool band tournament, in which bands from schools across India come and play songs across various music genres. Great famous musicians such as “Papon” and “Pritam” had come to visit as the guests of honour at the event and talented musicians judged all the bands. We played the classic rock song “Eye of the Tiger”, and in the whole event we had a lot of fun and we were amazed to witness the creativity of different bands playing bewildering songs such as “Master of Puppets, Sweet Child of Mine, etc”.  

LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

• Once we learned about the competition, we immediately started practising the song we decided upon and each of us quickly learnt everything about the song, from the song dynamics to the entire chord structure. I knew that my strength was quickly understanding and being able to play any song and give creative input. I feel that area of growth could be properly playing the song, all instruments being in sync with each other and just playing the song with all instruments was very hard and we had to put a lot of effort into it. Another strength I feel for me was that I don’t have any stage fear and I did not mess up on stage I enjoyed a lot while playing the song. 

LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

• We had to discuss a lot in order to finalize the song that we were going to play. We had to plan how we were going to prepare for the event properly and we had to put in a lot of hours of work in school and outside school. I had to plan and organize myself on how to manage my music practice for the event and the other activities that I usually do in a day, like my studies and much more. I am usually an organized person and I managed it very well. 

LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

• I feel that preparing for this song was not difficult, but since every part of the song should be played perfectly, it required me to show commitment and perseverance. I listened to the song that we were going to perform over and over, again and again, so that I knew the song by heart. To play a song perfectly and have creative ideas about it, you must know the song by heart. I practised it a lot on my own.

LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

• Working with others is generally easy for me. Working collaboratively on this song was integral for it to be played perfectly by the band. We all had to give a lot of time and play together and practice a lot while doing so I also saw that we all were giving feedback to each other and areas of improvement to each other for how we were playing, practising together led to us giving more and more suggestions to each other and a lot of creative ideas being added in the song. In the end, when we all were on the stage, playing the song, we were very comfortable playing it since we had worked together on it, and we all had practiced it hundreds of times. Each of us knew what to do and what parts of the song were going to be played in what specific manner. These were a few of the so many benefits of working collaboratively I could feel. I think this is why it’s necessary to work collaboratively on group activities such as these, so that it becomes easy and perfect at the end, along with all the benefits that come with it. 

I developed the learner profile attributes of “Communicator, Thinker and Open-minded” during this CAS experience. The highlight for me personally of this whole activity was when we were playing on stage and seeing the audience cheering for us and everyone enjoying the performance, and other than this seeing other great performances of other schools and enjoying it was a highlight for me. I learned a lot from this experience, it was valuable for me, and it gives me a sense of accomplishment and I enjoyed it a lot.