Sadly, my final blog :(

Yes, it is deeply saddening, but after such an awesome time in class these past two days with the fantastic presentations, at least we're ending on a fun note. :) The tango today made me a very happy girl. Just saying.

Now, to answering the questions we have been given! Muahahahaha!

1. What is something you learned about another culture this term that surprised or intrigued you?

Wow, big question first... There was a lot that really intrigued me... One of which was gamelan music... I don't really like it, because when you first start listening it sounds like noise to me... but as you kept with it, it became strangely hypnotic... I really prefered the bamboo gamelan we heard to the metal ones, but that's just my personal opinion.
I also found the music of the Arab world completely facinating -- I love it, and I'm completely obsessed! :)

2. What is something that you realized about your own culture through our discussions.

I really realized that our culture is very bad about giving negetive connotations to other areas of the world. For example, I was literally raised and taught to dislike anything from the Middle East because it is apart of the world with so much conflict and it has personally impacted my family. (You remember the story of 'Dad's going--Dad's not going' when we first started talking about the middle east... yeah... Not a happy time for my mom, dad and very young sister. I actually found out that if my dad had gone to Iraq/Kuwait [not totally sure where exactly he would have been sent, but it was one of the two] I wouldn't have been concieved...)
Anyway, I love music from the middle east or the Arab world, as well as music from India. The micro tonality makes me happy... I also love listening to Qur'an recitations (believe me, you do not want to know how much yelling there was when my parents found that out... "Don't you know it says to kill Christians in the Qur'an?!" Turns out it does not say that. It does say that nonbelievers will have eternal death, sort of like how in Christianity true Christians will have eternal life thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus. In fact the only mention of killing anyone in the Qur'an that I found was that practitioners of Islam are supposed to kill people who left the faith. Having never been Muslim, I'm safe and okay in the eyes of the Qur'an...)

3. What is something that this course has inspired you to learn more about.

As I've said previously, I love music from the Arab world -- my boyfriend and his mother both know this and have been finding me all kinds of web sites where I could listen and download to Christian songs translated to and sung in Arabic... My boyfriend has also been finding me some funky youtube videos of Arabic and Indian music... we're also going on a date for Indian food since I fell in love with it on our little class trip to Namaste... :) yummy!
I would really love to learn to sing in the same style that they do in the Arab world... I think the microtones are very beautiful and can help singers convey many more emotions than the music we're accustomed to. Also, some nice flute music that makes me want to ride a camel is definately in my future. :) Hope Dr. Mr. Vaneman is ready...

I'm actually very sad that this class is over. Despite the early mornings, it was the most enjoyable class I've taken here at Converse... I expect that I'll visit it next year if I can. :)

Cool Stuff # 3! Ooo, la la! The Arab World!!

Oh yes, I LOVE the music of the Arab world! Its mysterious, facinating, and just so different and beautiful!

I did a Youtube search of Arabic music and turned up all kinds of different things (strangely a lot of hip hop and club remixes) These are some links for the instrumental music that I found and just loved! :)

Soothing Arabic Music

RUM Arabic Music

Makes me want to Ride a Camel :)

The Title is in Arabic - The Music is Pretty

Lullaby in Arabic

Arabic Belly Dancing Music

My search yeilded alot of belly dancing music, but some really good stuff from a modern group called RUM. I also managed to find a beautiful lullaby in Arabic that I really want to find a recording of so I can use it to put my children to sleep when I have them :).

Another thing I fell in love with is Qur'an recitations. I'm completely in love with listening to them. I think its one of the more beautiful things I've ever heard.

Qur'an Recitation we saw in class

Clearer version of the video we watched in class

Beautiful Qur'an Recitation

3 Year Old boy reciting Qur'an -- cute :)

Qur'an Recitation by a young girl

This last Qur'an Recitation video is very interesting to me - there aren't that many of girls. I'm not totally sure if that is a part of the religion or not, but I thought it was kind of interesting.

This final video is from Bollywood. I found is a Bollywood version of Thriller that made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe. It's really interesting to see Indian music meshed with Michael Jackson.

Thriller

Field Study - Music and Family :)

For our “Family and Music” field study, I interviewed my parents. They didn’t really understand the point of the interview, but they were nice enough to sit and answer my questions.

I found out that when my mom was young she listened to whatever was popular (i.e. the Top 40), but she mostly listened to what she considers Rock music (which is now classic rock) I happen to know for a fact that she is a big Pat Benatar fan.

When she was young, my mom listened to music on many different mediums, mostly because technology advanced so much. She could remember listening on a stereo, a record player (one of which we still have in our house, which just makes me happy), eight tracks and even cassette tapes as they became available.

My mother didn’t dance to any of the music she listened to, “unless I was at a dance”, she said. She would listen to music in her bedroom, and her parents didn’t really say anything about her taste in music; they would just yell at her to turn it down every now and then.

When asked what happened once she became the parent, she said “I taught my girls how to listen to my music.” She laughed a little, and then said, “Actually, I taught you to listen to all sorts of music.” Which is true; we listened to a lot of different music when I was a child. My taste in the random has just broadened my musical tastes.

My mom played a couple instruments when she was young – she started on the clarinet and then moved to keyboard percussion, which she marched with in her high school’s marching band. She also likes to sing, thought she only does it for herself.

When I asked her about her musical environment, she laughed and said “I grew up and was in marching band.” She didn’t come from a particularly musical home, so when she joined marching band, which was the most musical exposure she had ever had… That is, until her two daughters became music majors. :)

She said that she just listened to music for the enjoyment – there wasn’t really an emotional connection to any of it. The last thing I asked was if she had ever been exposed to music outside of her own culture. She laughed, gave me a funny look and said, “Only as an adult when we lived in Japan. It was… … (Silence) Different.”

Then she turned the mic., so to speak, over to my dad. When my dad was younger, what he listened to depended on which phase of life he was in. When I asked him about the technology he used to listen to music, he said, “The only technology we had – a radio!”

Dad said he didn’t dance to music, which is slightly understandable… bless his heart, he’s not musical in anyway, and he has no sense for rhythm. That said, he listened to music mostly in his car, sometimes at home. His mom, my Nanny, didn’t like his choice of music. She would yell at him, “Turn that long haired shit off!” (I think that is the greatest parent-to-child command ever!)

After he became a dad, his taste in music didn’t change; he’s listened to rock music as long as I can remember, and apparently long before that.

My dad was a jock when he was young, and he didn’t play an instrument or join the marching band like everyone else in our house. “I try not to sing, not even for myself,” he said with a laugh. He’s not the best at carrying a tune, bless his heart. My mom, however, likes hearing him sing.

When I asked him about his musical environment, he laughed and said, “Mostly drunk.”

I asked him why he listened to music and if there was an emotional connection to it for him, but he just scrunched his nose and shook his head a little. When we got to the last question about being exposed to music from other cultures, my dad told me about hearing native music in the different countries he went to while he was in the military. He has been all over the world – Egypt, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, China, Saudi Arabia, among many other countries (he said ‘tons of places’). There’s even places he’s not supposed to talk about going to because according to the government, he never went, so I’m sure my dad has had a great deal of experience with music from different cultures.

It’s really interesting to look at my parents’ musical histories. It’s something I’ve never really thought about, and it’s actually more interesting than I thought. I just hope that I can expose them to more music from different cultures. :) As some of my class mates know, I’m slightly obsessed with the music of the Arab world as well as recitations from the Qur’an and vocal music from India. Oh yes, exposing my parents to more things will be very fun indeed.

Cool Stuff #2! -- Flutes Everywhere!!!

Yay! Cool stuff #2! And this one is going to be a lot better than the last one! Utterly random, but better!!!

So, I started this adventure in diverse music by going to Youtube.com and searching for ‘Cool Native American Flute Music’. The first thing I found was this, which caught my attention.

Wolf Medicine - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHNsLd-Yoqc

This piece is called Wolf Medicine, and I thought it was really cool because some of the music from the flute sounds like wolf howls and yaps. This was interesting to me because 1) I love flute music, especially the ‘foreign’ kind, as in foreign to me. 2) I love wolves. So this made me very happy.

Another title caught my eye on the side of the Wolf Medicine page. So I clicked and listened.

Calling Snow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g6OlsENbRk

This one is called Calling Snow. Knock on wood that I’m not jinxing us. ;)

Now this one caught my eyes and I laughed at first. I mean a Cherokee Irish jig….. Ooooooooooooooooookay then. But then I listened and I honestly fell in love with it. This Irish jig on a Native American (I’m assuming Cherokee) flute is really fun to listen to.

Cherokee Irish Jig - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cIUtau6PTY

This video is by the same guy who did the Cherokee Irish Jig. He plays two Native American flutes at once (which is just astonishing to me O.O) and plays a popular Beatles Song. I know you’ll see the name in the title, but see if you can hear the tune.

Hey Jude - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocuxktCU3So

After all this Native American flute music, I searched African Flute Music (are you sensing a theme here?).  I literally only found one relatively good video (there were a lot of techno remixes that were pretty cool, but I didn’t think it was all that appropriate for my blog.)

I found this, featuring a man playing a long tubal flute. I love the piece he plays.

African Flute Music - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI8mXl3xNN0

Well, along the side of that page I found this. I know we’re not set to go to the Arab world for a while but I listened and fell in love with it, so I’m posting it because it makes me really happy. That and its sticking with my theme of foreign flutes.

Arabian Meditation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A_G4NmiYzg

Then I realized that I hadn't shown Latin American music any love. So guess what I searched… ‘Latin American flute music’. Yeah, the turnout was freaking terrible, so I changed the word from ‘flute’ to ‘panpipe’ and I found this.

Jai Ho on Panpipes and guitar - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGAZUJ9p5PQ

I love the song Jai Ho (although I haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire yet… ahh, the wonders of VH1 and MTV). And hearing this recording on the guitar and panpipes was like ‘Wow… that’s cool!’ Here is the original song for anyone who doesn’t know it… and also because it makes me happy :)

Jai Ho Original - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRC4QrUwo9o

Oh, random fact – the lead guy in Slumdog Millionaire also stars in The Last Airbender as Prince Zuko. Just thought I’d let you know.

And now, my favorite find – This piece is written by Vic Mignogna, an anime voice actor and musician who is AMAZING!!!  He wrote this piece to be the opening credits to a documentary that his friend was filming. It was in exchange for some help filming a little film he made called ‘Full Metal Fantasy’ which he shows at anime conventions and is hilarious!

The flute in this piece is much like the Native American flute we’ve heard – similar in timber. And the song overall is repetitive. It’s just beautiful, and I love it.

Lion Dance - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiWVSozHPf0

So, there’s my relative cool stuff… Now this last one is totally random! But it makes life happy! As many of you know, I went to my first anime convention (con) on the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th. Vic Mignogna (who is mentioned above) was a guest there and held a concert on Saturday afternoon. It was fantastic and for one song, he required some help from audience members.

I got picked!!! I got to go up and sing with him! This was the first recording I found on Youtube.com, my best friend Mari found another one, but here it is! Enjoy!

Oh, just so you know, I have the third verse:

The tracks are getting dense

The Walla is intense

The director says it’s time for my dying to commence

My death rattle simply was sublime

But the engineer blew it, so I’ll have to do it one more time! 

Followed by the chorus. This is a fun song, I love it and I had the time of my life singing it up on stage with one of my favorite singers. :) Enjoy Solider A everyone!!!

Solider A Ichiban con 2 2011 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkb1KibxnZo

Music and Gender -- yeah, Not really that related...

In my own personal experience, gender had no relation to music – at all. No lie, in my chorus class my senior year of high school we had a female singing the bass part (true, it was Chesnee, but still, the girl had skills).

In my marching band we we’re pretty well mixed when it came to sexes. Most of our marching band was female, and although the woodwind section was the majority females, the brass had quite a bit of estrogen in it as well.

No instruments were pegged as “boy” or “girl” instruments (except the flute and piccolo – we had a little boy playing flute my junior year and he got so much crud for playing a “girl” instrument that he quit. :( It was very sad because he was very talented. He is now a failing high school wrestler.)

But we had a lot of gender mixing within sections – our main sousaphone player my senior year was my friend Brittney Cromer. She had started on trumpet them moved to French horn and ended up on tuba when my friend Big Daddy was all by himself.

Chorus wasn’t all that different – we were a very tiny group with two full time males and a male who greatly wished to be female and sang soprano terribly. I can’t tell you how many times I just wanted to slug the boy… but I digress…

As for middle school listening tastes, they were flat out terrible when I was young. All that stuff that is now “old” rap. All that “Shawdy get low-low-low” crap… And boys and girls would listen to all the same stuff – it ended up giving boys the wrong idea of how to treat women and gave the girls the idea that they had to be a hoe in order to receive male attention. Now that I think about it, unwed teenage pregnancy was pretty high even back then. Alright, I’m off the soap box now.

Now, all of this in comparison to my almost-all-women environment, it’s pretty much like a mixed environment to me. I mean, I always hung out with girls and gay or bi-sexual guys, so being surrounded by mostly females are nothing new. Although now that I think about it, I’m exposed to more random music than I used to be – if it hadn’t been for my converse friends I would never have been introduced to the Korean DBSK or the group Nightwish who I am desperately in love with. I also don’t have to constantly listen to the likes of Ke$ha or Flo-rida… We have classier dirty music :) Like our renaissance songs about “I die, I die a thousand deaths a day” when dying means having sex… Yep, classy dirty music.

This blog sort of felt like a bit of a rant, but I wanted to forge forward and hit all the bases mentioned in our prompt.

Also, I will be seeing ya’ll tomorrow – my drive way is clear! Hooray!!!

Cool Stuff #1!

Yay! Random cool stuff! I like the sound of this blog! Well, I decided I wanted to focus on R. Carlos Nakai and the Native American flute for this one. Oddly enough, I just found out I had a CD of his on my computer. It’s called Desert Dance and it is in the Converse music library. I found it by accident last summer and thought it was neat, so I picked it up. I literally just found it as I was waiting for Blogger to load, so I’m listening to it while I write my blog. Coolness!

Interestingly enough, Carlos Nakai started out as a trumpet player, but was involved in a car accident that ruined his embouchure. He only started playing the Native American flute when he received one as a gift and was challenged to become a master on it. Mission accomplished, don’t you think..?

Nakai is featured in thirty-five different CDs, spanning from the mid 1980’s up until 2010. He’s had an amazingly successful career!

Nakai has worked with many well know musicians from around the world, including the Wind Travelin’ Band of Japan and Nawang Khechong, a Tibetan flutist and chanter.

Alright, now onto the actual instrument! :) Fun! The Native American flute is very different from the transverse flute that most of us are familiar with. It’s played pointing downward, sort of like a clarinet and has a very different anatomy. They differ in length, decoration and overall construction depending on which tribe and part of the world you are in.

I really don’t know what else to say for this.

Oh, quick thing – the reason I don’t have YouTube links to the coolie keen stuff and I tell you to go look it up is because I can’t get on YouTube on my computer – It would use up the limited number of Gigs I receive from my internet provider and then they would start charging me out the bum. So yeah, that’s the reason I don’t have links to there. I do, however, have these links!

http://cedarmesa.com/flutehistory.html  -- A site talking about the history of the Native American flute, as well as anatomical aspects and other information.

http://www.rcarlosnakai.com/biography.php -- Carlos Nakai’s website, giving you all kinds of cool information about him.

I did have a few pictures for you all, but Blogger is being mean again -- I apologize.

Since Blogger is being nice -- Music and Religion

Okay, I’m still, despite clarification earlier today, having issues with this topic. I honestly have no idea how to tackle the ‘Aesthetics’ portion of this assignment. So I’m going to leave it alone for now. The “Uses” might be a tad bit easier, but we shall see.

 We’re supposed to discuss how music is actually used in a religion we’re familiar with. Well, I’m not really familiar with any religion – I wasn’t raised with it, not really anyway.  I’ve been agnostic most of my life, and – being a free and unstructured religion where you know there’s something greater than man, but you don’t know what it is (God, Buddha, someone else, etc…) – There really isn’t much music for it. Understandable, yes..?

As I got older and went through some things that will not be discussed here, I became an atheist. I felt God gave up on me, so I gave up on him. Well, atheists don’t really have any religious music; again, understandable.

I’ve only just recently become a Christian, and I have limited knowledge as to how music is used within the religion. Don’t get me wrong, I know tons of Christmas carols rejoicing about the birth of Christ, but aside from that, I have no clue practically.

Fortunately, I gained some insight a couple hours ago – I went to church with Micah. We went to the youth service and at the beginning, we had music and fellowship. There was an acoustic guitar and two singers, one male and one female leading us. We sang two songs, and the whole purpose of singing them was to glorify God.

Now that I think about it, it’s sort of like what was said on the Powwow video we watched yesterday – our singing was our way to glorify our Creator (our ‘Ultimate Parent’ as it was said at one point later on in the night). I rather like the idea of using music for worship, personally. I mean, it comes more naturally to me than just sitting and praying. So, I guess the ultimate point of music in the Christian religion is to glorify God in a way that comes easier to people. I mean, we all have a song in our hearts, right..?

Now, aesthetics – I have no flipping clue! I mean, we got the idea of singing in 3rds and 6ths from monks and nuns; those are based in Catholicism which led to Christianity, so I guess that’s something within religions that’s pleasing to the ear that carries over into secular music.

There’s also simple song structure. I mean, we all know that hymns aren’t that terribly hard. Many pop songs are that way too. The biggest difference is that pop has a chorus where Hymns are just verses.

Alright, here it is! My music-religion blog. On a personal not (like this whole thing hasn’t been personal) my favorite kind of music for worship are Gregorian and Medieval Chant and Christian rock and metal. Totally opposite ends of the spectrum, but I am the queen of randomness. :)