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???