Blog Summary part 2

I've decided to "add" to my blog summary, so here it goes...

The Little Rabbit also talked about how the radio show went, and I thought he made some good points. I agree with him that it would have been nice if more people had come from our class, even if just to eat pizza, listen to the show, and give a few suggestions. It seemed like some parts of our Jamboree included the whole group, and some people just ignored the other parts. I guess that happens sometimes.
I appreciated Nic's blog about smoking on his personal blog. It's really sad to hear about his dad's cancer, and people should think about the outcomes of their actions when they hear stories like that. It's hard enough for people to talk about their personal lives, so when they do, just listen! And think about what they say.
Megan discussed jamboree for awhile... she seem's to have been more outgiong at jamboree than many of us, and she also seems to have liked it better than many of us. Hmmm... could there be a conection??? She also talked about the fantastic music at the carol concert. I even found a compliment on a solo I played beforehand ;) And I must agree the the choir portion was amazing.
Lindsey had an entertaining discussion summary about our conversations (or lack thereof) regarding jamboree. It sure would be nice if everyone talked more...
Kelsey Jo had a pretty complete idea for a current events FYS, and it seemed like a good plan to me! I especially liked her ideas about learning how to distinguish real news to propoganda and talking to a real reporter. A current events class would be really good for all of us, since it's hard to make time for reading newspapers and such with homework and all, and it would be a good habit to get into.
Brady blogged about the swing dancing at jamboree, and it was interesting to hear how the live band was the biggest success of the show. Yay swing dancing!
Well, other than a lot of last minute discussion and blog summaries, that's all there was this week!
Adiós!

Blog Summary

Yay! Blog summary time...

There were some pretty random blogs this week, which was fun.
jweb talked about Bob Dylan's song from the podcasts in relation to the war in Iraq, making an excellent point about how it's much easier to say the war is a good idea from over here. It's nice when people connect our class to the outside world.... makes it more meaningful and such.
kat discussed the glory of MPR, and culture jammer talked about how unpleasant music can become when it is blasted through the wall from the wall next to you. The little rabbit made excuses for not attending the jazz dance, and dooner talked about the sad story of his hs band director's 2-y-o son's death, and the inappropriateness of the phrase RIP.
Other than this, there have been a few blogs about our class discussions about jamboree and FYS in general. Most seem to support the idea of making FYS more current events-based, with several different ideas about how best to do that.
That's about all, enjoy your day :)

Gospel Playlist Part 1

I really actually enjoyed this play list, much more than the other ones! I expected I'd like it, because the gospel music is what I've really been looking forward to in this class. I'd heard a little before, and liked the style, but now I just like it more! Some of the songs I particularily enjoyed were "Prayer of the Doomed", "Blind Barnabus", "Present Joys" and "You've Got to Move". I have some thoughts on specific songs from the playlist.
"Move On Up A Little Higher"- I love Mahalia's voice! However, it was a little hard to understand the words. I also really liked the piano. She used many repeats of meaning, but I thought they were really effective. Sometimes, she repeated with the same words, but always increased in intensity. Other times, she repeated meaning, but with different religious symbols.
"You Must Be Born Again"- I had a hard time with the sermons. I tried to focus more on the interaction between the preacher and the congregation, but I really didn't agree with what he said, so that made it harder for me to take it seriously. Maybe that makes me a bad person... oh well. I did notice from the interaction I was able to focus on, that it sort of creates a melody.
"Prayer of the Doomed"- I love the sound of the large group singing, and the style of the lead singers with people singing behind them. The low, low vioces were awesome, and the analogies were really pretty. Unlike some of the music we've listened ot so far, I could really hear the emotion behind the words.
"Blind Barnabus"- I really liked the happy, catchy tune. I wonder if this is a way they passed down Bible stories- since they are telling a story, and it is such a fun song to listen to?
"Present Joys"- My first reaction was that it sounded like "Little April Showers"- the rain song from Bambi. It was just a neat song- all the different parts fit together in a unique way.
You've Got to Move"- This sounded like a dancing song. That made me wonder if it possibly had a dual meaning... like 1) you have to move cause this music makes it impossible not to, and 2) you have to move... for a more religious/ spiritual reason.

Yay good music!

Discussion Summary

I know there was alread a discussion summary for last week, but it's acually my turn so I'm going to do one anyway! :) On Tuesday, we listened to a cool presentation about that African singing group, which I really enjoyed. I thought the DVD of them sining in that church was especially cool, cause it was more authentic than I'm used to. Then we started with the junk band which was a little scary for some of us who like to read music, rather than just make it up. Thanks to Tyler and Joe, though, it started to go somewhere. We did the junk band again on Thursday, and it started out really well. I think everyone was more confidant, or at least I was. Then the cameras started rolling... and it got a little awkward. No one really wanted to look at the camera, but there was really no where else to look. I bet we look like a pretty stoic junk band. Oh well!

Jamboree Questions

So I'm supposed to work on organizing the line dancing section of our video, so I'd like to get some ideas of what you guys want from that. On the video, would you just like to see a short snipit of our class line dancing, if so would you like lots of time to re-learn it and practice, or just go for the humorous side of what you can do now (no offense). Or would you like it to show you actually being taught to line dance. Or do you have other ideas???

Episode 5

So I finally got Episode 5 to download on my computer, but it took long enough! I think one of the best quotes in the episode was said right away. Harry Smith said "I would like to see more of you studying the beauty of nature around you." This fits with our class, because a lot of times this kind of relaxed looking around contributes to music. However, I think it fits better with the entire college setting, because often we get so wrapped up un our classes, we forget to just be amazed by the world and decide to learn things about it on our own.
When they talked about the "genuine anguish" expressed in the song "Penny's Farm", because I didn't hear that genuine anguish... I thought it sounded more like someone discussing the difficulties of life that they'd accepted.
In the Cajun Fox Trot, I liked the tune, and wondered what it would sound like on a different instrument... maybe like something we are more used to. I was also struck by the singer's apparant lack of pitch.... or is it supposed to sound like that?
I thought it was interesting how they talked about Harry Smith having too common of a name to become known early in his career-- I guess I never actually considered that a person's name could determine so much.
For awhile it was interesting to hear about how he was heavily into drugs and alcohol, and how he was basically crazy. But the "Harry" stories got overdone... just one or two would have gotten the picture across just fine.
I liked the sound of the Hawaiian Guitar in the song from sounthern Alabama, but it bothered me how the voices didn't match very well. They sang slightly different rhythms, and although they both used slides between notes, they did that at different times.
When they talked about him teaching Epistomology, I really really wanted to sit in on a class of this subject sometime. I think it'd be very interesting.

Line Dancing

So... line dancing. I kinda (really) have a big fear of performing... so I was really nervous (haha like you couldn't tell). But so yeah... thanks to all who participated and at least pretended to be interested--otherwise I would have felt even more dumb. But it was interesting to learn about the dance that accompanied the music that we've been studying, because a lot of times, the dance was the reason for the music. Bascially, I'm just glad it's done.

Episode 4

In episode 4, I found 2 important quotes. One was "My dreams came true... that I saw America changed through music." I found this especially imortant for our class. I think we maybe spend too much time in class focusting on how music changed because of how America changed, rather than how music itself contributed to the changing of America. Because music HAS changed America--from social activities to the world's perception of of.
I also found it important when they said "Music is a way of getting through the tedium of everyday life." How many times have you turned to your favorite music after a long or stressful day? Some of us can't even fall asleep without music playing. Music can be a vehicle for what we need... we can either use the music to express our emotions, or use the music as an escape from what we're feeling.
I laughed during the song "I wish I Were a Mole in the Ground". It was funny that critics can't agree on what it was about.... but it's funnier that critics would actually try to decide what its about. I can't offer an explination, all I have is that I definately wouldn't want to be either a mole in the ground or a lizard in the spring.
This one was harder to listen too, maybe because it was the second hour in a row?

Episode 3

Not going to lie-- that took a long time, and parts were really hard to listen to. I was impressed by the variety on there, though.
I couldn't really tell what "Irene" was, it didn't seem either blues or jazz or whatever they were talking about, it was just folky. The song kinda bothered me cause I have a really hard time with repetitive lyrics.
Later we herd the Hammer Song (I don't think thats the real title), and I laughed. It reminded me of a stand-up comody thing Ellen DeGeneres did about how if she had a hammer, she probably wouldn't actually hammer in the morning or in the evening or all over this town. Sorry that was random.
Then there was "Harlem Ray"... the first recorded ragtime. That made me laugh too, because it sounded like something straight from a piano lessons book. Apparantly I was in an odd mood. I was a little suprised that ragtime has been around since 1897, though. So that was interesting.
The poem "The Women Gather" suprised me... it's like early emo. "Most of us love cause we have a need for love, not cause we find someone deserving" That line bothered me... I guess I'm a fan of the "everyone deserves my love till they prove otherwise" idea. Not like I sleep around... but like in a friend-type way, I love people! Also, I like to believe that most of us actually DO find someone we really do love.
I was impressed that he got Martin Luther King Jr's famous "I have a dream" speech. I wonder if it's on of the only recordings of that, or if many people recorded it?
The Jawharp was interesting... not something I'd probably listen to for fun. But it had a cool sound. And I've had "skip to my lou" stuck in my head since I listened to it.
I got excited when they talked about Bob Dylan, cause I've actually listened to him outside of calss, and thats the first time thats happened!
So yeah, this is just a sample of the variety on there and my random thoughts while listening to it.
Oh yeah... the quote I found importanta was " It was important for Mo Ash to record the sounds of the world" I thought that really explained the variety of the album. Also, recording everying in its natural environment gives it a lot more character, and makes it seem more real to us.
Thats all.

Country of Country- prologue, parts 2+3

So I guess it's time to play a little catch-up as far as the blogging is concerned.

Prologue-
It made me laugh how biased Dawidoff is about Country music. The first thought I had about the book is that it's not very journalistic or scholarly because of his overpowering opinions. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just not what I'm used to reading for classes. Favorite sentence: "Brooks is a pop star masquerading as a country singer, a yuppie with a lariat."(pg 15) I laughed. I think he was a little extreme. He seemed to be saying that his kind of country is the only music that is played with emotion, but if you ask me, all good music is emotion. And sure, some country music is written to be sold, but theres some of that in all music genres. In fact, of the other genres, he probably only knows about the commercialized music, so it would seem to him that all other music if feelingless. He sees the emotion in country because it's what he knows the most about.

Part 2-
(Talking about the Carter Family) "It was straightforward music filled with honest feeling; a template for what would be called country." (pg 59) This bothered me. I'm sure it was an ancestor to country, but for a different reason. Like I said, theres lots of straightforward music with honest feeling. He was also contradictory--he had quotes about how Janette Carter wasn't wrapped up in music (probably not real emotional in her singing then) and how Kitty Wells sang about things that had nothing to do with her life. It's pretty hard to be as emotional as he talks about and not really understand what she's singing about.


Part 3-
I liked reading about the Bluegrass Music. We all kinda know what it sounds like, but it was neat to actually hear why it sounds like that. The fact that they have improvisional solos made me respect it a lot. It's also cool that it hasn't changed much since its beginnings.

The End

Possible Performance Idea

I've been thinking about possible performance ideas (seeing as how I have to go first), and haven't come up with a whole lot.

One idea I had was to look at the more visual side of the music we've been listening to. I would do some research on the type of dance that goes with cajun music, country music, and if any dance goes with blues.

One other idea is since we've discussed the multitude of blind musicians, I would look into musicians with other disabilities. For example, deaf musicians (I've heard of a few) or like that one man we talked about who played guitar with his feet.

I'm not sure how well the second one fits with our class. And I'm not sure how it would really be considered a performance. Any ideas?

Deep Blues, Chapter 2

Now that I've finished reading chapter 2, "Heart Like Railroad Steel", i though I'd blog about a few of the things I found most interesting.

First of all, I found this chapter much more enjoyable than the first one, because it was more about the actual musicians and music. It was really interesting for me to read about the lives of the musicians, then look at the form and lyrics of their music.

Another thing I found interesting was on pages 59-60 when it talked about Tommy Johnson saying that he sold his soul to the Devil. It seems as if the people there really believed it. Always before, I had considered this phrase just like a metaphor, but these people don't seem to view it that way. It was also interesting for me because when he said that, I remembered that the man on "O Brother, Where Art Thou" said the same thing. Was it a common thing to say, or is it just one of those consequences?

Also, being the band nerd that I am, I loved reading about the specific rhythm patterns and melody/harmony lines in differet artists' music. For example, on page 64, Palmer discusses Charley Patton's unique and complex rhythm patterns, and I loved every word of it. I found myself trying to create the overlapping douple-triple beats by tapping on something. Then I realized there were people around me and I stopped.

One other thing that reall interested me was how they used similar lyrical lines or phrases, but changed them to make them thier own. This kind of helped me understand that it isn't always necessarily the words themselves that make an artist unique, but rather the feeling their music gives with the combination of words, musical patterns, and tone.

I'll be done now. Although I wouldn't have to be.

Listening Assignment

After listening to a selection of what Pandora's box gave me, there are just a few things I wanted to mention about the music.

First off all, "Deep Blues" mentioned how each artist has their unique style--something that makes thier music truly theirs. I noticed in a few of the songs, when I listened to more than one song from an artist. Charlie Patton, for example, had a unique vocal slide, which I noticed in both "Shake It and Break It" and "When Your Ways Get Dark". One other artist used a vocal slide, but it was a different style. Also, in both the songs I heard by Skip James ("I'm So Glad" and"Devil Got My Woman"), he used repetitive vocals, with variations in the harmony by the guitar. Many of the other artists had a repititive underlying melody and harmony line, and just changed the lyrics.

One other thing I noticed was that I still heard a little of he talk/sing or shout/sing style we heard in the cajun music. I wonder if they are related like this for a reason, or it just happened like that. I also noticed that in songs with more than one artist listed, there were often spoken vocal additions, such as "un-huh", "yeah", and a kind of snort or grunt. We don't hear that so much in our modern pop music.

Deep Blues, Prologue and Chapter 1

While reading the first bit of "Deep Blues", there were several things I found interesting.

First of all was the mention of voice masking(Beginnings, page 36). Being the band nerd I am, I immediatly thought of how the brass in band use different kinds of mutes to add a different sound to the band. I don't think that was necessarily the purpose of the voice masking, though. Sure, it would be more interesting to listen to with the singer singing in various different sounding voices, but I think it had more to do with the theatrics. It mentioned how the singers, with their masks, were believed to be posessed by the gods. Then it also said that this voice masking was more popular in sacred music for the African Americans. This was interesting to me because the Christian faith (which I think they are talking about as far as "sacred music") doesn't much believe in possession or things like that. So the perspective of voice masking must have changed, but it would be interesting to know what they believed it added to spiritual songs.

I also found it interesting when Palmer discussed the wide variety within Blues Music(Beginnings, page 43) He listed all the different types of music that probably contributed to blues. He then explained that blues musicians are influenced by other blues musicians, then add their own twist or distnictive style. I think this is really important. From the small amount of it I've heard, blues seems really personal, so being yourself while singing is part of what makes it blues.

Adios!

About Governor Blanco

So after our discussion about Governor Blanco's speech yesterday, I have some thoughts about it... more about our reactions than her speech though.

I was a little upset when I found out that both classes had spent considerable time discussing the Governor's mistakes in her speech. I had thought, or maybe hoped, that by now we would be old enough to be able to focus on the message of her speech, rather than look for someone to entertain us for an hour. Yes, delivery is important, but on the whole, I though she was a very good speaker. I doubt any of us could talk that long without a few mistakes. Also, we should keep this speech in perspective from her point of view. It is unlikely that she spent months practicing this speech. Yes, she took it seriously, but she has a big job, and she probably spends most of her time on stuff that directly effects the people of Lousianna. At least, that's what I would ask of my governor.

Also, I didn't quite understand the comments about her not really speaking to us. As college freshmen, she said a lot of what we needed to hear. She discussed the importance of the opportunities we will have, then related that to her life. This helped make it it seem more real, and helped it feel less like she was preaching at us. She also talked about the inevitable setbacks we will encounter. We need to hear about this. It is important for us to know that they happen to everyone, not just to us. Again, by discussing some of her setbacks (Hurricane Katrina), it made it easier to listen to.

So basically, I enjoyed the speech, and I don't think all of understand how cool it was to have Governor Blanco visit us.

Questions 4,5, and 6

Ok, for the National Anthem. First of all, I wouldn't change it. Our current national anthem tells an important part of our history, a part that we must not forget. However, if I was forced to change it, I would use themes from several differnt songs about, for or written by the people of our nation. Some examples would include exerpts of "America the Beautiful" and "America", as well as a small portion of Suza's "Stars and Stripes Forever" (but a very, very small portion and definately not the piccolo solo part). It would also be neat to have different styles throughout, especially styles that originated or were especially important in the USA. These would include a Native American type thing, some jazz, blues, country, rock, ect.

As far as performing, I am involved in Concert Band (flute), Flute Ensemble, I've performed solos/duets before, and in high school I was in marching band. I also was involved in gymnastics, and floor routines (in their own way) could be considered music related performance.

If I were to ask Governor Blanko any question, I would ask her if anything that is unique to Lousianna helped them get through the hurricane, and if so, what was it?

First of the mandatory Posts

"Why did you sign up for a roots music FYS section?"

I've been told it was one of the least tacky FYS classes, and I really like music.


"If you could take 5 pieces of music with you to the desert isle, what would they be?"

-Getting Into You by Reliant K
-Operator by Manhatten Transfer
-La Plus Que Lente by Claude Debussy
-Under the Sea from Disney's The Little Mermaid
-Pilatus: Mountain of Dragons by Steven Reineke


"What's a piece of music you associate with a parent, a grandparent, or someone you know well that's at least a generation older than you?"

I associate a lot of Christmas time Hymns with my grandma, because she always used to sing them to me and my sisters at Christmas. I don't remember which ones exactly. And she still sings them when we let her.


I must leave you now. I'll finish soon ;)