Well. I know I haven't done anything musically awesome recently, so I technically shouldn't have anything cool for you to read. But I can show you some pretty cool Youtube videos. That's kinda like a Christmas present, right?
This is from my favorite Christmas cd ever.
My favorite vocal jazz group ever:
Speaking of favorites vocal jazz groups:
A classic:
And one last video from Sesame Street, for the grouch in all of us:
Have a good Christmas, and I'll be writing normally soon!
M
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
12/20 - Blue Knights II
This weekend was a blast. It didn't go how I thought it would, but it doesn't really matter, because I learned a lot and I still ended up with a really good result.
I started playing with the tenors. I learned the basics and I could probably teach them, and even though some of it was review, a lot of the concepts they covered were things that I had never been taught or even thought of. It was clear by the end of the night that I was playing with people that were out of my league, and I was told my time would be better spent playing timpani, which, after talking to my good friend from high school, became an option for me again.
In case you didn't know this, I played timpani for a winter percussion ensemble my freshman year. We played a lot of notes, it sounded pretty great, and we made it to finals in our class at WGI. I was pushed a lot and I learned a lot; that winter semester my freshman year was probably my most productive period of time, from a musical perspective anyways.
The next day, Saturday, my friend Jon introduced me to the pit instructor, Dan, and got me started playing timpani. I didn't know any of the exercises, since I'd been practicing tenor stuff, but Dan was patient and let me take my time to get comfortable, and fortunately, it didn't take too long. By 10:30 in the morning I could look through the music once, listen for a rep, and play the exercise the next rep. Sure, it wasn't always clean, but I surprised myself yesterday. I hadn't played timpani like that in four years, changing notes all the time, with improving technique, in a quality ensemble like that. It felt really nice.
We played 10 exercises for 11 hours on Saturday. You could read that two different ways: you could see it as boring, which is true sometimes, or you could see that as very strenuous and productive. Every rep I had things I needed to focus on, like making every note sound the same, or tuning correctly, or keeping my elbows out, or ending up quickly, and putting them all together. It was a very good eleven hours.
We only played for around three or four hours on Sunday. The first few were reviews of exercises, and after lunch I had my audition. My exercises went smoothly, my tuning was spot on, and my dampening was okay, which was to be expected, because it needs work. He said I improved a lot in one day, and he told the kid who was considering auditioning for timpani on a whim that it wouldn't be worth his time. It sounds kinda cruel, but it made me a little happy. You can't say you aren't proud of yourself when you put yourself out there and rock and others are told "don't bother."
Eventually we had show and tell, and pit didn't play anything because the rest of the corps was playing show music, and it would be a let down if we dragged our stuff a long ways to play exercises. So we sat at listened.
Our show music this year is a little bit of Holst, some Grainger, some R. Vaughan Williams, and some other things. We only heard the Holst, I think... it was only a minute of music. But it already sounded awesome. The tenors played a whole bunch of notes, the basses sounded totally sweet, the horns were loud and powerful, and even in December, it already sounded pretty great.
I didn't get a contract yet, though, even though I'm the only reasonable choice for timpani, I think. It seemed to me as though the vets got contracts, at least in the pit, because I don't know anyone that didn't play last year that got a contract. I don't really mind either way. I'll go back to camp in January and play even better and if I get a contract, I'll be really happy, and if I don't, I will have learned a lot.
I met some pretty cool people at camp. I saw old friends (I think Cory, Jon and Anna got contracts), some familiar faces (I recognized a couple of people from UNT), and I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of new friends and musicians. They were old and young (I slept next to a kid in middle school, he was awesome), from near and far, and they all had the same goal, which was to get better. It was a humbling experience, and it's nice to really see that you're not the only one who struggles.
I think that's it. I'm sore, and tired. It's good to be home.
I started playing with the tenors. I learned the basics and I could probably teach them, and even though some of it was review, a lot of the concepts they covered were things that I had never been taught or even thought of. It was clear by the end of the night that I was playing with people that were out of my league, and I was told my time would be better spent playing timpani, which, after talking to my good friend from high school, became an option for me again.
In case you didn't know this, I played timpani for a winter percussion ensemble my freshman year. We played a lot of notes, it sounded pretty great, and we made it to finals in our class at WGI. I was pushed a lot and I learned a lot; that winter semester my freshman year was probably my most productive period of time, from a musical perspective anyways.
The next day, Saturday, my friend Jon introduced me to the pit instructor, Dan, and got me started playing timpani. I didn't know any of the exercises, since I'd been practicing tenor stuff, but Dan was patient and let me take my time to get comfortable, and fortunately, it didn't take too long. By 10:30 in the morning I could look through the music once, listen for a rep, and play the exercise the next rep. Sure, it wasn't always clean, but I surprised myself yesterday. I hadn't played timpani like that in four years, changing notes all the time, with improving technique, in a quality ensemble like that. It felt really nice.
We played 10 exercises for 11 hours on Saturday. You could read that two different ways: you could see it as boring, which is true sometimes, or you could see that as very strenuous and productive. Every rep I had things I needed to focus on, like making every note sound the same, or tuning correctly, or keeping my elbows out, or ending up quickly, and putting them all together. It was a very good eleven hours.
We only played for around three or four hours on Sunday. The first few were reviews of exercises, and after lunch I had my audition. My exercises went smoothly, my tuning was spot on, and my dampening was okay, which was to be expected, because it needs work. He said I improved a lot in one day, and he told the kid who was considering auditioning for timpani on a whim that it wouldn't be worth his time. It sounds kinda cruel, but it made me a little happy. You can't say you aren't proud of yourself when you put yourself out there and rock and others are told "don't bother."
Eventually we had show and tell, and pit didn't play anything because the rest of the corps was playing show music, and it would be a let down if we dragged our stuff a long ways to play exercises. So we sat at listened.
Our show music this year is a little bit of Holst, some Grainger, some R. Vaughan Williams, and some other things. We only heard the Holst, I think... it was only a minute of music. But it already sounded awesome. The tenors played a whole bunch of notes, the basses sounded totally sweet, the horns were loud and powerful, and even in December, it already sounded pretty great.
I didn't get a contract yet, though, even though I'm the only reasonable choice for timpani, I think. It seemed to me as though the vets got contracts, at least in the pit, because I don't know anyone that didn't play last year that got a contract. I don't really mind either way. I'll go back to camp in January and play even better and if I get a contract, I'll be really happy, and if I don't, I will have learned a lot.
I met some pretty cool people at camp. I saw old friends (I think Cory, Jon and Anna got contracts), some familiar faces (I recognized a couple of people from UNT), and I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of new friends and musicians. They were old and young (I slept next to a kid in middle school, he was awesome), from near and far, and they all had the same goal, which was to get better. It was a humbling experience, and it's nice to really see that you're not the only one who struggles.
I think that's it. I'm sore, and tired. It's good to be home.
Friday, December 17, 2010
12/17 - Blue Knights
Hello everyone. It's been a while.
This is a classic. Malaguena, by the Madison Scouts, one of two all-male corps:
Blue Knights bass line, in 2007. They were, uh, pretty good.
Also, these guys are pretty good.
If you like that, YouTube DCI. That's really the only place you can look for free. It used to be on ESPN but drum corps gets worse ratings than pool, WSOP or bowling. Which is kinda lame.
Or go to dci.org!
Hope you're having a good winter break, or break, or winter.
M
Since I'm doing something musical, I figured I would let you know.
I'm trying out for the Blue Knights drum and bugle corps this weekend, Friday - Sunday. I don't really know what to expect, except that it will be awesome. A lot of hard working, dedicated, talented people all in one place. I'm excited even if I don't make it.
I'll take this time to preach a little bit. I would love to play tenors in Blue Knights, I really would. But I would also love to play bass, or play in pit, mallets or timpani or whatever. I would really like the experience. And everyone knows that you're more likely to get the job if you keep yourself open to any opportunity you feel you're even slightly prepared for or would like to experience.
Not really preaching.
If you're not familiar with the Blue Knights, or with drum corps in general, I'll show you what all the excitement is about.
This is a best of video. It rocks. A lot.
This is a classic. Malaguena, by the Madison Scouts, one of two all-male corps:
Blue Knights bass line, in 2007. They were, uh, pretty good.
Also, these guys are pretty good.
If you like that, YouTube DCI. That's really the only place you can look for free. It used to be on ESPN but drum corps gets worse ratings than pool, WSOP or bowling. Which is kinda lame.
Or go to dci.org!
Hope you're having a good winter break, or break, or winter.
M
Thursday, December 2, 2010
12/02 - Done for the semester
On Tuesday, I was riding my bike to a rehearsal when a car turned in front of me and hit me. I woke up in the hospital and spent two nights recovering and finding out what happened to me. Fortunately, I ended up with just a concussion, a laceration on my head (12 stitches), a pretty bloody ear, and some cuts, but for not wearing a helmet, I got pretty lucky.
They say you're not supposed to ride on the sidewalk, which is what I was doing. But, the street where I was riding has pretty narrow lanes, and when I have ridden on the street, a couple of cars have gotten a little close. The Colorado drivers are a little friendlier because there are laws, but the Texas drivers are a little more.. uh, scary.
A proposal was proposed to put bike lanes on the street I was riding on earlier this year, but nothing ever happened, and I think I'm the second or third person who's been hit on that street in the past couple months. For a college town, you'd think it would be a little more bike friendly; hopefully it's getting to be that way.
I'm out of the hospital now, but since I have a concussion, I'm not supposed to be thinking a lot (or typing this blog) for at least two weeks, which forces me to miss all of my auditions, juries, and finals. So I'm going home with my mom this weekend, and I think my teachers are letting me finish things up when I get back in the spring, which is very gracious of them. Thank you.
So. I guess I won't be writing very much in the near future, because 1. I have a concussion, and 2. I won't be at UNT, which is part of the premise of this blog. But I'll let you all know about anything cool and musical I'm doing back home, and I'll keep this up next semester.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for all the prayers and such. I had a lot of fun this semester.
M
They say you're not supposed to ride on the sidewalk, which is what I was doing. But, the street where I was riding has pretty narrow lanes, and when I have ridden on the street, a couple of cars have gotten a little close. The Colorado drivers are a little friendlier because there are laws, but the Texas drivers are a little more.. uh, scary.
A proposal was proposed to put bike lanes on the street I was riding on earlier this year, but nothing ever happened, and I think I'm the second or third person who's been hit on that street in the past couple months. For a college town, you'd think it would be a little more bike friendly; hopefully it's getting to be that way.
I'm out of the hospital now, but since I have a concussion, I'm not supposed to be thinking a lot (or typing this blog) for at least two weeks, which forces me to miss all of my auditions, juries, and finals. So I'm going home with my mom this weekend, and I think my teachers are letting me finish things up when I get back in the spring, which is very gracious of them. Thank you.
So. I guess I won't be writing very much in the near future, because 1. I have a concussion, and 2. I won't be at UNT, which is part of the premise of this blog. But I'll let you all know about anything cool and musical I'm doing back home, and I'll keep this up next semester.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for all the prayers and such. I had a lot of fun this semester.
M
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
11/29 - Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Hey. I haven't done this in a while. Not consistently like I should be, anyways.
Over Thanksgiving break I saw my family, which was really nice. My brother Max forgot my name only once and Todd got out of doing work only once, which is pretty unusual for the both of them. I got to do a lot of cool things, eat a lot of good food, and return with clean laundry and groceries. Hooray!
But now that I'm back, it's really crunch time. After my bad lesson on Monday, I had to make sure I wouldn't have another one. So I practiced for two hours Sunday and at least two more today and got things more solid, and it paid off. He said he saw drastic improvement, which is always nice to hear, but I still have quite a ways to go. So we'll see how things go.
Today in Jazz Records we talked about awesome jazz singers, which was pretty sweet. We've covered Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Billy Eckstein, Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Patti Austin, Diane Schuur, and Joe Williams. They're all pretty great, and you should listen to all of them, but especially these three:
My teacher told us today that Nature Boy was written by some homeless man that lived underneath the Hollywood sign. He would go down to Capitol Records every day and try to hand his lead sheet out to people to see if they would record it, but no one did until Nat King Cole came along. Since he could sing and play piano, he could arrange it and make something of it, and so he did, and everyone loved it.
Nat and the homeless guy were flown out to New York once for a show, and they put them in the Ritz-Carlton. But the homeless guy just slept in Central Park, just because he wanted to.
That's a tasty combo of my favorite a cappella jazz group with a pretty awesome singer. She has a record with the WDR Big Band, I think I talked about them, right? They're the ones who get payed to rehearse and rehearse, and they don't have to play shows, so they can just rehearse all the time. They're from Germany. Germany isn't in a trillion dollar deficit and can afford to sponsor music programs in their country. Just saying, America.
Anyways, look up "For Ella", Patti Austin with the WDR Big Band. It's very nice.
Squirrel Nut Zippers is definitely my favorite band of the week. It's kind of depressing that I'm discovering them now, now that they're on like their third wind. But they still rock, a whole lot.
I had a very good day. I hope you did too.
Also, check out that map --------------> I'm digging this sudden wave of foreign attention. ...haha.
M
Over Thanksgiving break I saw my family, which was really nice. My brother Max forgot my name only once and Todd got out of doing work only once, which is pretty unusual for the both of them. I got to do a lot of cool things, eat a lot of good food, and return with clean laundry and groceries. Hooray!
But now that I'm back, it's really crunch time. After my bad lesson on Monday, I had to make sure I wouldn't have another one. So I practiced for two hours Sunday and at least two more today and got things more solid, and it paid off. He said he saw drastic improvement, which is always nice to hear, but I still have quite a ways to go. So we'll see how things go.
Today in Jazz Records we talked about awesome jazz singers, which was pretty sweet. We've covered Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Billy Eckstein, Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Patti Austin, Diane Schuur, and Joe Williams. They're all pretty great, and you should listen to all of them, but especially these three:
My teacher told us today that Nature Boy was written by some homeless man that lived underneath the Hollywood sign. He would go down to Capitol Records every day and try to hand his lead sheet out to people to see if they would record it, but no one did until Nat King Cole came along. Since he could sing and play piano, he could arrange it and make something of it, and so he did, and everyone loved it.
Nat and the homeless guy were flown out to New York once for a show, and they put them in the Ritz-Carlton. But the homeless guy just slept in Central Park, just because he wanted to.
That's a tasty combo of my favorite a cappella jazz group with a pretty awesome singer. She has a record with the WDR Big Band, I think I talked about them, right? They're the ones who get payed to rehearse and rehearse, and they don't have to play shows, so they can just rehearse all the time. They're from Germany. Germany isn't in a trillion dollar deficit and can afford to sponsor music programs in their country. Just saying, America.
Anyways, look up "For Ella", Patti Austin with the WDR Big Band. It's very nice.
Squirrel Nut Zippers is definitely my favorite band of the week. It's kind of depressing that I'm discovering them now, now that they're on like their third wind. But they still rock, a whole lot.
I had a very good day. I hope you did too.
Also, check out that map --------------> I'm digging this sudden wave of foreign attention. ...haha.
M
Friday, November 26, 2010
11/25 - Thanksgiving
I'm thankful for my family for supporting me and paying for school and doing everything they possibly could to make my dreams come true.
I'm thankful for my girlfriend, Zoe, sometimes for keeping my head above water, sometimes for keeping my head out of the clouds, but always for keeping me close to her heart and helping me do whatever I think I can do. I hope I do the same thing for her.
I'm thankful for all of my relatives that I've seen and those that I'm yet to see this break, for feeding me excessively and caring for me graciously. I'm really going to miss all of the breakfasts and card playing and turkey dinners when I wake up at Bruce on Monday.
I'm thankful for all of my friends, whether I'll be seeing them next week, over break, or not until a long time from now, because just by meeting me and saying hi, you've made my day a little brighter, and you've probably helped me out and made my life easier.
I'm thankful that my professors know what they're doing and aren't jerks about teaching, and thankful that the janitor at Bruce cleans the bathrooms (thank goodness), and thankful for all of the people at UNT that make my experience better because of their time and effort.
I'm thankful for all of the people that brought food to the tables I've eaten at, heated the buildings I've lived in, and provided entertainment to get me through the day. I am nourished and healthy and sane. Good work, team.
I'm thankful for all of the people that read this blog; whether I know you personally or you just happened upon this little site by chance, it's very nice of you to take a little time out of your hectic day and read a little bit about my hectic day. I think it's pretty cool that we can care about people we haven't even met. But that's just me.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for helping me out.
M
Monday, November 22, 2010
11/22 - A Bad Day.
Today I had a bad day.
I thought I was going to get up at 7, work out to wake up, eat a good breakfast and go to class awake. But I got up at 8, didn't eat much, and half slept through Jazz Records.
My friend reminded me of the Music History paper that I had forgotten to do, due last night... oops.
We had a quiz in Aural Skills that I completely forgot about, so I b.s.ed it and did okay. But it wasn't fun disappointing my teacher.
I caught a break in Percussion Methods, and Paul Rennick came in and talked about marching percussion, which was really informative and he's a pretty nice dude.
But then I didn't have Singers, which was kind of a bummer. So I went to practice, and I memorized the little etudes I had to memorize. All was for naught, but I'll get to that eventually.
Watched Family Guy and American Dad, but they were kinda disappointing. I can't remember why.
Checked the mail. Got a good letter :)
And then I went to practice more before my lesson, but all of the marimbas were taken, so I just played my music on piano.
At my lesson, I made it through an etude without being to heavily criticized, but halfway through the second one I lost my place and Jake started fixing my technique, again. I can't understand why it isn't sticking, but it's not, and it's frustrating. We barely made it through that etude and didn't really accomplish anything in 35 minutes, 5 minutes too many.
But I did cuss a few times and act really unprofessionally, which he said I shouldn't do, even though he wasn't a professor. It wasn't respectful, and I didn't know what I was doing and I was a disappointment all around.
Didn't eat dinner, didn't feel like it. Went to a good concert but I couldn't find it in me to ask Mark Ford for some technique help. And now I'm just moping.
If I could have a week where I could commit to just focusing on mallet technique, I would definitely use it. But I can't do that. I'm away from a mallet instrument almost the rest of the week, and I have classes and family things to attend to, and other homework to do, and things to study for and sleep to get, maybe.
And, on top of that, I don't know that I could make myself practice the whole time. I can barely get myself to the gym for a half an hour every day. I don't practice every day, and it's not that I have better things to do; I sit around at watch a lot of Hulu and spend way too much time on Facebook and generally do a lot of nothing. I wish I could fix my work ethic. It'll take some time.
M
I thought I was going to get up at 7, work out to wake up, eat a good breakfast and go to class awake. But I got up at 8, didn't eat much, and half slept through Jazz Records.
My friend reminded me of the Music History paper that I had forgotten to do, due last night... oops.
We had a quiz in Aural Skills that I completely forgot about, so I b.s.ed it and did okay. But it wasn't fun disappointing my teacher.
I caught a break in Percussion Methods, and Paul Rennick came in and talked about marching percussion, which was really informative and he's a pretty nice dude.
But then I didn't have Singers, which was kind of a bummer. So I went to practice, and I memorized the little etudes I had to memorize. All was for naught, but I'll get to that eventually.
Watched Family Guy and American Dad, but they were kinda disappointing. I can't remember why.
Checked the mail. Got a good letter :)
And then I went to practice more before my lesson, but all of the marimbas were taken, so I just played my music on piano.
At my lesson, I made it through an etude without being to heavily criticized, but halfway through the second one I lost my place and Jake started fixing my technique, again. I can't understand why it isn't sticking, but it's not, and it's frustrating. We barely made it through that etude and didn't really accomplish anything in 35 minutes, 5 minutes too many.
But I did cuss a few times and act really unprofessionally, which he said I shouldn't do, even though he wasn't a professor. It wasn't respectful, and I didn't know what I was doing and I was a disappointment all around.
Didn't eat dinner, didn't feel like it. Went to a good concert but I couldn't find it in me to ask Mark Ford for some technique help. And now I'm just moping.
If I could have a week where I could commit to just focusing on mallet technique, I would definitely use it. But I can't do that. I'm away from a mallet instrument almost the rest of the week, and I have classes and family things to attend to, and other homework to do, and things to study for and sleep to get, maybe.
And, on top of that, I don't know that I could make myself practice the whole time. I can barely get myself to the gym for a half an hour every day. I don't practice every day, and it's not that I have better things to do; I sit around at watch a lot of Hulu and spend way too much time on Facebook and generally do a lot of nothing. I wish I could fix my work ethic. It'll take some time.
M
Friday, November 19, 2010
11/18 - Percussion, day four
My family is coming to see me! I could not be more excited... that I don't have to drive down to Texas again. Haha. I love you guys.
We'll discuss the last group of percussion instruments today. Let me know if you think you know an instrument that doesn't fit in these categories.
The group we haven't discussed is the largest, by far, the idiophones. Idiophones are instruments that vibrate throughout the whole body, not by use of a membrane or a string.
Idiophones can be split up into six nifty categories:
- Concussion instruments: sound is produced when a pair is struck together and both vibrate
ex. Crash cymbals, slapstick, castanets, claves
- Percussion instruments: sound is produced when something vibrates after being struck by something else.
ex. triangle, woodblock, all mallet instruments, cymbals, steel drums, udu, bells, ghatam, brake drum, etc.
- Rattle instruments: they're shaken. Simple.
Flex-a-tone, tambourine (sometimes), maracas, rainstick, shakers, vibraslap.
- Scraper instruments: they're scraped. Also simple.
Guiro, washboard....
- Plucked instruments: a flexible "tongue" that is inside or a part of the instrument is plucked.
Jew's harp, kalimba, music box, mbira, marimbula.
- Friction instruments: anything rubbed to create sound and vibration.
Nail violin, singing bowl, saw, glass harp (singing glasses).
There's one exception that I've heard of, the wobble board, which is directly flexed. It was used in Shakespeare's staged plays to imitate thunder, and today people use them as effects. They aren't sold commercially though, you have to make your own.
I guess I haven't really gone over how to actually play any of them, have I?
I apologize. It's a lot easier to teach with pictures, or in real life.
If you want, you can yell at me to teach you how to play something and I'll spend a day on that. I think I'd enjoy that, actually.
Tomorrow, I have classes, and departmental (hooray.), and then clean and get ready for family and concert! Should be an awesome Friday for me.
I hope it's pretty awesome for you too.
M
We'll discuss the last group of percussion instruments today. Let me know if you think you know an instrument that doesn't fit in these categories.
The group we haven't discussed is the largest, by far, the idiophones. Idiophones are instruments that vibrate throughout the whole body, not by use of a membrane or a string.
Idiophones can be split up into six nifty categories:
- Concussion instruments: sound is produced when a pair is struck together and both vibrate
ex. Crash cymbals, slapstick, castanets, claves
- Percussion instruments: sound is produced when something vibrates after being struck by something else.
ex. triangle, woodblock, all mallet instruments, cymbals, steel drums, udu, bells, ghatam, brake drum, etc.
- Rattle instruments: they're shaken. Simple.
Flex-a-tone, tambourine (sometimes), maracas, rainstick, shakers, vibraslap.
- Scraper instruments: they're scraped. Also simple.
Guiro, washboard....
- Plucked instruments: a flexible "tongue" that is inside or a part of the instrument is plucked.
Jew's harp, kalimba, music box, mbira, marimbula.
- Friction instruments: anything rubbed to create sound and vibration.
Nail violin, singing bowl, saw, glass harp (singing glasses).
There's one exception that I've heard of, the wobble board, which is directly flexed. It was used in Shakespeare's staged plays to imitate thunder, and today people use them as effects. They aren't sold commercially though, you have to make your own.
I guess I haven't really gone over how to actually play any of them, have I?
I apologize. It's a lot easier to teach with pictures, or in real life.
If you want, you can yell at me to teach you how to play something and I'll spend a day on that. I think I'd enjoy that, actually.
Tomorrow, I have classes, and departmental (hooray.), and then clean and get ready for family and concert! Should be an awesome Friday for me.
I hope it's pretty awesome for you too.
M
Thursday, November 18, 2010
11/17 - Percussion, day three
Happy Wednesday, everyone!
It's getting pretty chilly in Denton, even for a Colorado kid. It's the wind, I tell you. It's hard to ride a bike these days.
Let's get started with membranophones, since there are a lot of them.
Membranophones are typically drums. Typically. Kazoos are also membranophones, but also aerophones, since air resonates the membrane. But I'm pretty sure everything else is a drum.
There are plenty of different types of drums. I'll try to cover all of the bases:
In the tubular drums category, there are:
- Cylindrical drums, with non-sloping edges and usually two heads. Think bass drum, snare drum, toms.
- Conical drums, like this timbal baiano:
- Barrel drums, like this bendre from the Mossi people of Burkina Faso:
- Hourglass drums, like this talking drum:
- Goblet drums, like this darabukka:
- Footed drums, which are really just any drums held up from the ground by the feet:
- Long drums, which is any drum that's just really, uh, long. No that's what she said jokes, please.
Can't find a picture. Dangit.
There are also...
- Kettle drums, which include the timpani but also the tabla... (think about it)
- Frame drums, like the tambourine, kanjira, and bohdran.
- Friction drums, like the lion's roar and the thunder sheet, though I guess the last one isn't a drum.
All of these instruments are played either with sticks or hands, sometimes both, except the lion's roar.
Lion's roar is played by rubbing a cloth down a string connected to the drumhead to create friction, vibrating the string, vibrating the drumhead. It's pretty cool.
There are a whole lot of different instruments to learn, each with different techniques and standard patterns and genres and sounds, some of them taking a lifetime to master. I hope I can at least play them all, even if I don't achieve mastery.
That's all for today. I'll write a lot tomorrow, we have a lot of ground to cover.
M
It's getting pretty chilly in Denton, even for a Colorado kid. It's the wind, I tell you. It's hard to ride a bike these days.
Let's get started with membranophones, since there are a lot of them.
Membranophones are typically drums. Typically. Kazoos are also membranophones, but also aerophones, since air resonates the membrane. But I'm pretty sure everything else is a drum.
There are plenty of different types of drums. I'll try to cover all of the bases:
In the tubular drums category, there are:
- Cylindrical drums, with non-sloping edges and usually two heads. Think bass drum, snare drum, toms.
And yes, I'm subconsciously obligated to support Dynasty as a UNT student.
- Conical drums, like this timbal baiano:
- Barrel drums, like this bendre from the Mossi people of Burkina Faso:
- Hourglass drums, like this talking drum:
- Goblet drums, like this darabukka:
- Footed drums, which are really just any drums held up from the ground by the feet:
- Long drums, which is any drum that's just really, uh, long. No that's what she said jokes, please.
Can't find a picture. Dangit.
There are also...
- Kettle drums, which include the timpani but also the tabla... (think about it)
- Frame drums, like the tambourine, kanjira, and bohdran.
- Friction drums, like the lion's roar and the thunder sheet, though I guess the last one isn't a drum.
All of these instruments are played either with sticks or hands, sometimes both, except the lion's roar.
Lion's roar is played by rubbing a cloth down a string connected to the drumhead to create friction, vibrating the string, vibrating the drumhead. It's pretty cool.
There are a whole lot of different instruments to learn, each with different techniques and standard patterns and genres and sounds, some of them taking a lifetime to master. I hope I can at least play them all, even if I don't achieve mastery.
That's all for today. I'll write a lot tomorrow, we have a lot of ground to cover.
M
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
11/16 - Percussion, day two
Happy Tuesday, everyone!
Chordophones aren't really split into any categories. They don't need to be.
Chordophones, percussion instruments or not, are stringed instruments, bowed, plucked or struck. Since we're drummers and we hit things, we prefer them struck.
Percussionists don't generally have to play these instruments, because they're either very similar to or are a piano. Or dulcimer, which is kinda weird and usually pretty rare.
Hammered dulcimer is played with two "sticks", that are shaped kind of a like a shepherd's crook. Each note resonates on two strings, and notes can be played on both sides of the bridge in the middle. If you're interested, youtube it. I'm short on time and studying for a test, so I can't search around for a good hammered dulcimer video.
But, keep in mind, the hammered dulcimer isn't the same as the dulcimer. Dulcimers have frets and are played like a steel, lap guitar. They're sometimes called the "mountain dulcimer." I've had the pleasure of playing both of them.
Pianos are pretty common. I suppose you know what a piano is.
Harpsichords are similar to pianos but instead of the hammer striking the string(s), like a piano, the strings are plucked, which gives it that halfway in between piano and guitar sound.
The celesta is another similar instrument, but its hammers strike metal bars, usually steel, that hang over resonators, producing a sound very similar to bells or a high vibraphone. It's usually more of an effect instrument than a solo instrument, and it's most famous for its part in "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" in Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite."
That's really all I've got in terms of chordophones.
I'm studying for a Jazz Records test tomorrow, so I'll show you some awesome bits from that class. Perhaps a top three or five.
I like Buddy Rich a lot.
But he's much more a of a big band guy than a quintet guy. Especially with Thelonious, Dizzy, and Charlie Parker, he sounds a little out of place. Sorry Buddy.
This is what happens when you leave timpani in the studio. Max Roach adds one to his drums.
My family is coming on Friday! I'm excited.
M
Chordophones aren't really split into any categories. They don't need to be.
Chordophones, percussion instruments or not, are stringed instruments, bowed, plucked or struck. Since we're drummers and we hit things, we prefer them struck.
Percussionists don't generally have to play these instruments, because they're either very similar to or are a piano. Or dulcimer, which is kinda weird and usually pretty rare.
Hammered dulcimer is played with two "sticks", that are shaped kind of a like a shepherd's crook. Each note resonates on two strings, and notes can be played on both sides of the bridge in the middle. If you're interested, youtube it. I'm short on time and studying for a test, so I can't search around for a good hammered dulcimer video.
But, keep in mind, the hammered dulcimer isn't the same as the dulcimer. Dulcimers have frets and are played like a steel, lap guitar. They're sometimes called the "mountain dulcimer." I've had the pleasure of playing both of them.
Pianos are pretty common. I suppose you know what a piano is.
Harpsichords are similar to pianos but instead of the hammer striking the string(s), like a piano, the strings are plucked, which gives it that halfway in between piano and guitar sound.
The celesta is another similar instrument, but its hammers strike metal bars, usually steel, that hang over resonators, producing a sound very similar to bells or a high vibraphone. It's usually more of an effect instrument than a solo instrument, and it's most famous for its part in "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" in Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite."
That's really all I've got in terms of chordophones.
I'm studying for a Jazz Records test tomorrow, so I'll show you some awesome bits from that class. Perhaps a top three or five.
I like Buddy Rich a lot.
But he's much more a of a big band guy than a quintet guy. Especially with Thelonious, Dizzy, and Charlie Parker, he sounds a little out of place. Sorry Buddy.
This is what happens when you leave timpani in the studio. Max Roach adds one to his drums.
My family is coming on Friday! I'm excited.
M
Monday, November 15, 2010
11/15 - Percussion, day one
I've decided that I'm doing another themed week, since I didn't have anything really interesting happen today. This week is going to be based on percussion instruments, percussive history, and possibly how to play stuff. We'll see.
Percussive instruments can be divided a few different ways...
By methods of sound production, there are four categories:
- Idiophones: instruments that produce sounds through the vibration of the entire instrument:
Guiro, singing bowls, all cymbals, all mallet instruments, triangle, woodblock, etc.
- Membranophones: most instruments commonly known as drums, sound produced on a membrane:
Snare and bass drum, tom-toms, timpani, congas, djembe, lion's roar, wind machine, etc.
- Chordophones: stringed instruments that are struck:
Hammered dulcimer, harpsichord, celesta, technically piano I guess.
- Aerophone: Wind instruments played by percussionists:
Bird, slide, and samba whistle, police siren, didgeridoo, etc.
There's another way of classification, whether or not it has a definite pitch:
Yes: mallets, timpani, tabla/mridangam, steel drums, crotales, etc.
No: tam-tam, anvil, castanets, bass drum, whip, cymbals, rainstick, etc.
There are a couple other classifications that I don't really care for; the "common knowledge" division (whether you'd think of it as a common percussion instrument) or the "common or ethnic" division.
Let's talk about aerophones today.
There are two classes of aerophone, split by whether the air producing the sound is contained in the instrument or not. This separates didgeridoos from bullroarers, both of which are used by the Aborigines for communication, incidentally.
Here's a bullroarer:
I guess you all know what a didgeridoo sounds like, but youtube it if you don't. They're cool. I can kinda play it, but I can't circular breathe yet, so.
Most of the aerophones are used for effects. Bird whistles create nature sounds, and samba whistles, motor horns and sirens create some interesting city effects. They're really only called for in more contemporary orchestral literature or weird percussion ensemble stuff. But they're valid nonetheless.
I'm writing this week mostly to see all of the cool stuff I get to play. Sure, I don't have to know how to play all of it, but it's certainly to my advantage if I can.
I'm off to go practice my bullroarer skills.
M
Percussive instruments can be divided a few different ways...
By methods of sound production, there are four categories:
- Idiophones: instruments that produce sounds through the vibration of the entire instrument:
Guiro, singing bowls, all cymbals, all mallet instruments, triangle, woodblock, etc.
- Membranophones: most instruments commonly known as drums, sound produced on a membrane:
Snare and bass drum, tom-toms, timpani, congas, djembe, lion's roar, wind machine, etc.
- Chordophones: stringed instruments that are struck:
Hammered dulcimer, harpsichord, celesta, technically piano I guess.
- Aerophone: Wind instruments played by percussionists:
Bird, slide, and samba whistle, police siren, didgeridoo, etc.
There's another way of classification, whether or not it has a definite pitch:
Yes: mallets, timpani, tabla/mridangam, steel drums, crotales, etc.
No: tam-tam, anvil, castanets, bass drum, whip, cymbals, rainstick, etc.
There are a couple other classifications that I don't really care for; the "common knowledge" division (whether you'd think of it as a common percussion instrument) or the "common or ethnic" division.
Let's talk about aerophones today.
There are two classes of aerophone, split by whether the air producing the sound is contained in the instrument or not. This separates didgeridoos from bullroarers, both of which are used by the Aborigines for communication, incidentally.
Here's a bullroarer:
I guess you all know what a didgeridoo sounds like, but youtube it if you don't. They're cool. I can kinda play it, but I can't circular breathe yet, so.
Most of the aerophones are used for effects. Bird whistles create nature sounds, and samba whistles, motor horns and sirens create some interesting city effects. They're really only called for in more contemporary orchestral literature or weird percussion ensemble stuff. But they're valid nonetheless.
I'm writing this week mostly to see all of the cool stuff I get to play. Sure, I don't have to know how to play all of it, but it's certainly to my advantage if I can.
I'm off to go practice my bullroarer skills.
M
Friday, November 12, 2010
11/11 - The Rundown
I don't really have a thesis statement for how my day went. I apologize.
But I can explain how my day went with props. Decent trade? I think so.
In music history, we talked about opera. Well... the teacher did. And my friend Eric and I wrote a chorale. But then she started playing Don Giovanni, my favorite opera, so I watched. You can watch too!
I love that song so much.
Then I had a "test" in theory that took literally ten minutes.
Ate lunch, took a nap, worked on drum corps exercises almost the rest of the day.
Side note - I'm auditioning for Troopers and Blue Knights if I can find the time to get to the audition camps. Hopefully I can. But it means taking my finals early, during jury week, and that will be a major pain.
I can't legally show you the Troopers exercises I have to learn, but they're silly. If I have more time tomorrow, I'll write out bits and pieces (legally) and show them to you. But the Blue Knights exercises are free, and they are here:
http://www.bknights.org/bknights.org/membership/bkdbc/download/percussion/BK2011QuadAudition.pdf
They're not too difficult. They have a thing for 5s, which I can handle. The last page, the timing exercises are like the beat displacement things we've been doing in South Indian ensemble, kinda.
Now I just have to get to the auditions.
And then I went to the Jazz Repertory Ensemble concert, they played "A Night in Tunisia," one of my favorites:
It was a good day.
I'll talk more tomorrow. Have a good Friday.
M
But I can explain how my day went with props. Decent trade? I think so.
In music history, we talked about opera. Well... the teacher did. And my friend Eric and I wrote a chorale. But then she started playing Don Giovanni, my favorite opera, so I watched. You can watch too!
I love that song so much.
Then I had a "test" in theory that took literally ten minutes.
Ate lunch, took a nap, worked on drum corps exercises almost the rest of the day.
Side note - I'm auditioning for Troopers and Blue Knights if I can find the time to get to the audition camps. Hopefully I can. But it means taking my finals early, during jury week, and that will be a major pain.
I can't legally show you the Troopers exercises I have to learn, but they're silly. If I have more time tomorrow, I'll write out bits and pieces (legally) and show them to you. But the Blue Knights exercises are free, and they are here:
http://www.bknights.org/bknights.org/membership/bkdbc/download/percussion/BK2011QuadAudition.pdf
They're not too difficult. They have a thing for 5s, which I can handle. The last page, the timing exercises are like the beat displacement things we've been doing in South Indian ensemble, kinda.
Now I just have to get to the auditions.
And then I went to the Jazz Repertory Ensemble concert, they played "A Night in Tunisia," one of my favorites:
It was a good day.
I'll talk more tomorrow. Have a good Friday.
M
Thursday, November 11, 2010
11/10 - The Return of South Indian Day
Today in South Indian we talked about koraippu, or the trading off that happens between musicians.
But first, a little exercise.
4s are takadimi, 5s are takatakita, 6s are takitatakita, and 7s are takadimitakita, but when you get in to the weird parts, it's ta ka, ta ka da, ta ki ta ta, or ta ka di mi ta.
I like this one. It focuses on being able to play something on any subdivision of the beat, and that's what I need.
Okay, so, koraippu. I guess the best way to explain it is to give you some examples. But, generally, they start with a decent-sized phrase, say 4 bars or so, and do call and response. It's like a game; the first musician tries to play something too hard to follow, and the second tries to play it back. The phrases are cut in half over time, from 4 bars to 2 to 1 to 2 beats to 1 beat to as small as possible.
The koraippu is usually followed by a riff that both of them know (because they've been playing their whole lives), and then end with a korwai.
This first example is Harishankar on kanjira and Karaikudi Mani on mridangam. The kanjira solo is mostly 5lets and the mridangam solo is mostly triplets, if that makes things any clearer.
I can't tell if the video is off just a little bit, or if some of them aren't very good at counting. But the two playing are excellent.
That's the same dude, Harishankar, on kanjira. I can't find any of the videos that really showed the koraippu.
If I've ever shown you music before on youtube, chances are you've seen this:
But it's a perfect example of the whole trading off and trying to play impossible things to mess each other up concept.
That's all I've got today for S. Indian things.
It's kinda weird around here since half the percussion studio is in Indianapolis. But now I have more practice room time, which means I've almost learned all of that transcription from a couple days ago, and I finished writing my marimba solo piece! Yay! Over two years, took you long enough, inspiration.
But I'm glad I finished it. Once I can play it, it'll be up here.
M
But first, a little exercise.
4s are takadimi, 5s are takatakita, 6s are takitatakita, and 7s are takadimitakita, but when you get in to the weird parts, it's ta ka, ta ka da, ta ki ta ta, or ta ka di mi ta.
I like this one. It focuses on being able to play something on any subdivision of the beat, and that's what I need.
Okay, so, koraippu. I guess the best way to explain it is to give you some examples. But, generally, they start with a decent-sized phrase, say 4 bars or so, and do call and response. It's like a game; the first musician tries to play something too hard to follow, and the second tries to play it back. The phrases are cut in half over time, from 4 bars to 2 to 1 to 2 beats to 1 beat to as small as possible.
The koraippu is usually followed by a riff that both of them know (because they've been playing their whole lives), and then end with a korwai.
This first example is Harishankar on kanjira and Karaikudi Mani on mridangam. The kanjira solo is mostly 5lets and the mridangam solo is mostly triplets, if that makes things any clearer.
I can't tell if the video is off just a little bit, or if some of them aren't very good at counting. But the two playing are excellent.
That's the same dude, Harishankar, on kanjira. I can't find any of the videos that really showed the koraippu.
If I've ever shown you music before on youtube, chances are you've seen this:
But it's a perfect example of the whole trading off and trying to play impossible things to mess each other up concept.
That's all I've got today for S. Indian things.
It's kinda weird around here since half the percussion studio is in Indianapolis. But now I have more practice room time, which means I've almost learned all of that transcription from a couple days ago, and I finished writing my marimba solo piece! Yay! Over two years, took you long enough, inspiration.
But I'm glad I finished it. Once I can play it, it'll be up here.
M
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
11/9 - How awesome Jose Aponte is
So Jose Aponte is the king of all things Latin here at UNT's School of Music, at least percussion-wise. He leads the two Afro-Cuban Ensembles, the Brazilian ensemble, and the Latin Jazz Ensemble. He doesn't talk much, but when he does, it's either funny or really cool. That's enough background.
Today, at Voertman Hall at 8 pm, there was a concert featuring all three (or four) of Jose's ensembles. They were excellent.
The concert started with Afro-Cuban ensemble. They played a song with the beginners, then kicked them off until their last song (of four). The Advanced ensemble had six or seven players and Jose, and when they played with the new kids they were 14 or 15? It's kinda hard to remember.
I snagged a program so I could find the songs they played and show them to you!
Then Brazilian Ensemble came onstage and played a couple tunes. Brazilian Ensemble has a rhythm section, at least they did at this concert, and my Jazz Singers "teacher" Kathryn sang vocals. Brazilian music has a more obvious beat to dance to than the Afro-Cuban stuff (just listen to the big, boomy surdo), but it's all dance music.
But that last one ^ didn't have full orchestra. Just people playing loudly on drums and rhythm section.
And then the party really started, if it hadn't already started (it had).
Latin Jazz came on stage and totally rocked the house.
Latin Jazz Ensemble is alto, tenor, and bari, 3 trumpets, 2 bones, rhythm section (incl. drum set), congas, bongos, timbales, etc., and Jose, who does whatever the heck he wants to.
I can't find much of the music because most of it was original, but they did cover this song:
It was kinda like that but more brass power. Excellent.
Don't worry if you didn't really get this. Hopefully I'm in one of these ensembles next semester and I'll tell you all about it.
M
Today, at Voertman Hall at 8 pm, there was a concert featuring all three (or four) of Jose's ensembles. They were excellent.
The concert started with Afro-Cuban ensemble. They played a song with the beginners, then kicked them off until their last song (of four). The Advanced ensemble had six or seven players and Jose, and when they played with the new kids they were 14 or 15? It's kinda hard to remember.
I snagged a program so I could find the songs they played and show them to you!
Then Brazilian Ensemble came onstage and played a couple tunes. Brazilian Ensemble has a rhythm section, at least they did at this concert, and my Jazz Singers "teacher" Kathryn sang vocals. Brazilian music has a more obvious beat to dance to than the Afro-Cuban stuff (just listen to the big, boomy surdo), but it's all dance music.
But that last one ^ didn't have full orchestra. Just people playing loudly on drums and rhythm section.
And then the party really started, if it hadn't already started (it had).
Latin Jazz came on stage and totally rocked the house.
Latin Jazz Ensemble is alto, tenor, and bari, 3 trumpets, 2 bones, rhythm section (incl. drum set), congas, bongos, timbales, etc., and Jose, who does whatever the heck he wants to.
I can't find much of the music because most of it was original, but they did cover this song:
It was kinda like that but more brass power. Excellent.
Don't worry if you didn't really get this. Hopefully I'm in one of these ensembles next semester and I'll tell you all about it.
M
Monday, November 8, 2010
11/8 - A Little Bonus!
Tonight, instead of doing my theory homework (yet), I finished transcribing a solo. I'd been playing bits and pieces of it on marimba for a while, but I really needed the complete version to get the right feel for it. And I did. It took a lot of plays, and some battles with patience, but here it is:
Throw Down Your Heart (Bonus Reprise)
from "Throw Down Your Heart - Tales of the Acoustic Planet vol. 3, the Africa Sessions"
written and performed by Bela Fleck, transcribed by yours truly.
I'm going to go work on it right now!
Good luck!
M
Throw Down Your Heart (Bonus Reprise)
from "Throw Down Your Heart - Tales of the Acoustic Planet vol. 3, the Africa Sessions"
written and performed by Bela Fleck, transcribed by yours truly.
I'm going to go work on it right now!
Good luck!
M
11/8 - What I Learned from Ed Soph
Ed Soph came in to my Percussion Methods class the other day to talk about drum set.
The first thing he talked about was the drum set's history. The drum set really first originated when the Ludwig brothers invented the bass drum pedal; before that, there was a snare and toms guy and a cymbals and bass drum guy. But, because of this new invention, the bass drum guy was out of luck, and the snare guy had to learn some coordination.
The first "beat" on the drum set was the New Orleans groove, four on the bass drum, keeping time, and a press roll with accents playing something similar to a bossa nova pattern. Cymbals were only used for fills. If you listen to any really early swing, you'll hear it.
Now, before the hi hat was invented, there was a low boy. It sat 8 inches above the ground, and was just to keep 2 and 4. But once the hi hat became popular, the right hand played the swing pattern on the hi hat, four on the bass drum, and accents or 2 and 4 on the snare drum.
Then, Mr. Avedis Zildjian, the one who really brought their company to fame, started making bigger cymbals (only like 13 inches, but still, not splash cymbals anymore). The drummers started to keep the swing pattern on the "ride" cymbal, and 2 and four with the hi hat, so keeping four on the bass drum wasn't really necessary, instead it started being used for big accents and with cymbals. The snare did it's same old job.
Once the hard boppers came along, drummers started getting a little more creative, and put the hi hat in places where it had never been before, on offbeats, in fills, etc. The ride pattern didn't have to stay constant, and the snare and bass hits got a little weirder too. Hard bop was a creative time.
And now we're at this modern phase where everything is possible and so it all kind of blends together. He didn't explain this part very well.
He said we should all probably listen to Warren "Baby" Dodds, the original of the originals. Here's some audio:
We came up with a list of things that are important to drummers all around:
- Time. Keep it well. None of this matters if you don't have time.
- Dynamics
- Phrasing (yes, we can phrase)
- Form, like don't change cymbals in the middle of a phrase.
- Sound, getting exactly the ones you want.
- Touch
- Technique, not that there is a specific good one, but know which one to use in a certain situation.
- Balance, within the drum set and within the ensemble
- Interpretation, how much you're copying from things you've heard, and how much is original.
- Style, knowing which things are crucial and which are flexible.
- Motion. If you're tense, your playing sounds tense, if you're fluid, you sound fluid.
- Improvisation. Know when, have a reason why, and know how to play what you're trying to.
- Imagination, really key since it's one of the only things keeping us from being replaced by machines.
- Listening. This one is really key.
I'm starting to like this guy. He has some pretty thick either sarcasm or lack of emotion to get through, but he's a legit person once you get through it.
Oh, and he said some cool things that I just had to write down.
"There's always going to be something that taunts you, but that's okay, because life would be boring if you knew everything."
"It's not that you can't do it because it's hard, you can't do it because it's new."
M
The first thing he talked about was the drum set's history. The drum set really first originated when the Ludwig brothers invented the bass drum pedal; before that, there was a snare and toms guy and a cymbals and bass drum guy. But, because of this new invention, the bass drum guy was out of luck, and the snare guy had to learn some coordination.
The first "beat" on the drum set was the New Orleans groove, four on the bass drum, keeping time, and a press roll with accents playing something similar to a bossa nova pattern. Cymbals were only used for fills. If you listen to any really early swing, you'll hear it.
Now, before the hi hat was invented, there was a low boy. It sat 8 inches above the ground, and was just to keep 2 and 4. But once the hi hat became popular, the right hand played the swing pattern on the hi hat, four on the bass drum, and accents or 2 and 4 on the snare drum.
Then, Mr. Avedis Zildjian, the one who really brought their company to fame, started making bigger cymbals (only like 13 inches, but still, not splash cymbals anymore). The drummers started to keep the swing pattern on the "ride" cymbal, and 2 and four with the hi hat, so keeping four on the bass drum wasn't really necessary, instead it started being used for big accents and with cymbals. The snare did it's same old job.
Once the hard boppers came along, drummers started getting a little more creative, and put the hi hat in places where it had never been before, on offbeats, in fills, etc. The ride pattern didn't have to stay constant, and the snare and bass hits got a little weirder too. Hard bop was a creative time.
And now we're at this modern phase where everything is possible and so it all kind of blends together. He didn't explain this part very well.
He said we should all probably listen to Warren "Baby" Dodds, the original of the originals. Here's some audio:
We came up with a list of things that are important to drummers all around:
- Time. Keep it well. None of this matters if you don't have time.
- Dynamics
- Phrasing (yes, we can phrase)
- Form, like don't change cymbals in the middle of a phrase.
- Sound, getting exactly the ones you want.
- Touch
- Technique, not that there is a specific good one, but know which one to use in a certain situation.
- Balance, within the drum set and within the ensemble
- Interpretation, how much you're copying from things you've heard, and how much is original.
- Style, knowing which things are crucial and which are flexible.
- Motion. If you're tense, your playing sounds tense, if you're fluid, you sound fluid.
- Improvisation. Know when, have a reason why, and know how to play what you're trying to.
- Imagination, really key since it's one of the only things keeping us from being replaced by machines.
- Listening. This one is really key.
I'm starting to like this guy. He has some pretty thick either sarcasm or lack of emotion to get through, but he's a legit person once you get through it.
Oh, and he said some cool things that I just had to write down.
"There's always going to be something that taunts you, but that's okay, because life would be boring if you knew everything."
"It's not that you can't do it because it's hard, you can't do it because it's new."
M
Saturday, November 6, 2010
11/5 - Crunch Time.
I'd like to start this blog by talking to my mother for a little bit.
Dear Mom,
We can't both be M when we post stuff on here. That's confusing. It looks like I'm talking to myself.
I do appreciate the comments though :)
Love, Mason.
Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about things that really matter.
Today I couldn't force myself to get up at 8 because a certain roommate of mine's chest cold kept both of us awake until 3. I got up at 9:40, went to aural skills, took a shower, and was then ready to start my day.
So, sure, slow start. I'll take that.
But once I got to Jazz Singers, I was on my game. Didn't miss a cut off more than once, sight read like a boss and even plugged cords in quickly. I was in the zone.
And I had to be in the zone, because I was in lessons mode already. I had a lesson on Wednesday as a make-up for Monday, a lesson Thursday, and two lessons (well, that was the plan, anyways) today. So, after Singers, I ate some quick lunch and got to work. Since everyone else was at departmental (I already told you my policy about not going to class), I got to use the five octave marimba to practice on, from 1:30 to 3. I worked on my solo, spent some time on my method books, and sight read a little, and was totally ready for my lesson at 3.
And it was a good lesson. My solo was better, the method book things were good, and I wasn't too shabby sight reading. I had things to work on but not so many things that it's just a bummer.
From there, at 3:30 I went home and wrote a little bit until 4, and then practiced snare stuff for an hour until my lesson at 5. Everything was solid, even the rudimental stuff, which is my kryptonite. I would've rocked the house, but Jayce got stuck in traffic and we'll have to reschedule. Bummer.
But I didn't feel like I was out of energy, somehow. After 2 1/2 hours of almost constant practice and more than 3 hours of constant playing, I still had something in me to keep being productive. So I wrote a letter, registered for all of my classes, and organized my iTunes, all before eating dinner.
Today I learned that I really can be productive, and that I shine best under pressure. It took the fire of two lessons in two hours under my butt to get me practicing a lot, but I did practice, and it did sound pretty great. Playing well and being productive made me feel good, so I kept being productive.
If you've got the energy, use it. If you have things to do, do them. If you have the opportunity, seize it.
Here's my class schedule, by the way:
I don't know how much of that you can read, so I'll put it up here.
MWF:
- Piano III 10 am
- Intro to Composition 11 am
- Singers? noon
MW, not friday:
- English. Hooray. 1:30 pm
- African Ensemble 3 pm
- Brazilian Ensemble 4 pm
TR:
- Poli Sci 9:30 am
- Steel Band 8 pm
- Jazz Lecture at 2 pm on Tuesdays
- Gamelan at 6 on Tuesdays
- Departmental is at 1 on Fridays
- I don't know if I can be in Advanced S. Indian Ensemble yet.
- I don't know which Jazz Singers or Concert Band or Jazz Lab I'm in yet, if any.
- All of this may change if I become a Jazz Studies major.
So. A very tentative schedule, but an awesome one nonetheless.
Have a good weekend!
M
Dear Mom,
We can't both be M when we post stuff on here. That's confusing. It looks like I'm talking to myself.
I do appreciate the comments though :)
Love, Mason.
Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about things that really matter.
Today I couldn't force myself to get up at 8 because a certain roommate of mine's chest cold kept both of us awake until 3. I got up at 9:40, went to aural skills, took a shower, and was then ready to start my day.
So, sure, slow start. I'll take that.
But once I got to Jazz Singers, I was on my game. Didn't miss a cut off more than once, sight read like a boss and even plugged cords in quickly. I was in the zone.
And I had to be in the zone, because I was in lessons mode already. I had a lesson on Wednesday as a make-up for Monday, a lesson Thursday, and two lessons (well, that was the plan, anyways) today. So, after Singers, I ate some quick lunch and got to work. Since everyone else was at departmental (I already told you my policy about not going to class), I got to use the five octave marimba to practice on, from 1:30 to 3. I worked on my solo, spent some time on my method books, and sight read a little, and was totally ready for my lesson at 3.
And it was a good lesson. My solo was better, the method book things were good, and I wasn't too shabby sight reading. I had things to work on but not so many things that it's just a bummer.
From there, at 3:30 I went home and wrote a little bit until 4, and then practiced snare stuff for an hour until my lesson at 5. Everything was solid, even the rudimental stuff, which is my kryptonite. I would've rocked the house, but Jayce got stuck in traffic and we'll have to reschedule. Bummer.
But I didn't feel like I was out of energy, somehow. After 2 1/2 hours of almost constant practice and more than 3 hours of constant playing, I still had something in me to keep being productive. So I wrote a letter, registered for all of my classes, and organized my iTunes, all before eating dinner.
Today I learned that I really can be productive, and that I shine best under pressure. It took the fire of two lessons in two hours under my butt to get me practicing a lot, but I did practice, and it did sound pretty great. Playing well and being productive made me feel good, so I kept being productive.
If you've got the energy, use it. If you have things to do, do them. If you have the opportunity, seize it.
Here's my class schedule, by the way:
I don't know how much of that you can read, so I'll put it up here.
MWF:
- Piano III 10 am
- Intro to Composition 11 am
- Singers? noon
MW, not friday:
- English. Hooray. 1:30 pm
- African Ensemble 3 pm
- Brazilian Ensemble 4 pm
TR:
- Poli Sci 9:30 am
- Steel Band 8 pm
- Jazz Lecture at 2 pm on Tuesdays
- Gamelan at 6 on Tuesdays
- Departmental is at 1 on Fridays
- I don't know if I can be in Advanced S. Indian Ensemble yet.
- I don't know which Jazz Singers or Concert Band or Jazz Lab I'm in yet, if any.
- All of this may change if I become a Jazz Studies major.
So. A very tentative schedule, but an awesome one nonetheless.
Have a good weekend!
M
Thursday, November 4, 2010
11/4 - Throwing out the 12 tone scale
Today at the Wind Symphony concert, they played a piece called Apotheosis of This Earth, written by Karel Husa. It's a tale of destruction and demise for the Earth, prophecy-style. It's very dark, chaotic, and seemingly random. It's like Stravinksy on acid.
If that doesn't sound cool enough for you, they use a whole bunch of microtones, most noticeably in the first movement, but they're really all through the piece. I found a link on Youtube for free and I'll put it up here.
Holy crap it's a lot cooler with choir.
It got me thinking about true dissonance again. Not leading tone to tonic dissonance from theory, for the old folks. Real, headache-inducing, makes you cringe tension only caused by playing notes within a few hertz of each other.
It's much more of a modern thing, and I can't really decide if it's a result of equal temperament tuning, how everyone tunes to a440 nowadays so it's easier to write and play intentionally, or if it was considered too disgusting or sacrilegious back in the Classical and Romantic days. I'm leaning towards the former.
Either way, it's pretty freaking cool. I just thought you should know.
If we can get tension out of a fully diminished chord, and feel so relieved after its resolution, imagine how much more tension and how much more release we could experience from cluster chords and microtones! It's like the Saw series versus some creepy thriller that feels like it goes on forever and finally gets happy at the end. Like Signs. I definitely prefer Signs. Or Red Dragon, or The Village.
Not much to talk about today. I'll talk more tomorrow if things go my way.
M
If that doesn't sound cool enough for you, they use a whole bunch of microtones, most noticeably in the first movement, but they're really all through the piece. I found a link on Youtube for free and I'll put it up here.
Holy crap it's a lot cooler with choir.
It got me thinking about true dissonance again. Not leading tone to tonic dissonance from theory, for the old folks. Real, headache-inducing, makes you cringe tension only caused by playing notes within a few hertz of each other.
It's much more of a modern thing, and I can't really decide if it's a result of equal temperament tuning, how everyone tunes to a440 nowadays so it's easier to write and play intentionally, or if it was considered too disgusting or sacrilegious back in the Classical and Romantic days. I'm leaning towards the former.
Either way, it's pretty freaking cool. I just thought you should know.
If we can get tension out of a fully diminished chord, and feel so relieved after its resolution, imagine how much more tension and how much more release we could experience from cluster chords and microtones! It's like the Saw series versus some creepy thriller that feels like it goes on forever and finally gets happy at the end. Like Signs. I definitely prefer Signs. Or Red Dragon, or The Village.
Not much to talk about today. I'll talk more tomorrow if things go my way.
M
11/3 - Not South Indian Day
Let's take this post to explain why sometimes it is a good thing to ditch class.
Today, I had a make-up mallet lesson at 6:30, and I knew South Indian wouldn't get out until 7, and I didn't know if Sriji was even going to be there. So I decided I would spend that class time practicing my mallet stuff so I could rock my lesson, instead of going to class worrying and then leaving halfway through. I did rock my lesson, but I have another one Friday, and another Monday.
The reason I have so many make-up lessons is either health related, not my fault, or conflicting with a rehearsal. I couldn't make it to a snare lesson once because I had rehearsal for vocal forum with Jeremy the day before we had to perform, and the rehearsal ran over. I wasn't angry. I knew I was still spending my time well, probably doing something more important at the time.
Sometimes I don't go to Intro to Jazz Records. It's a 9:00 class and it's kind of difficult to make it to on Mondays especially when your roommate is a night owl and has the sniffles. But I always get the notes from someone else and I'm on a mission to get every CD we listen to in class from the library. So I'll know all of the music.
I'm a college student. I'm supposed to be making decisions about what to do with my time. I think it's interesting that I can handle the times when I have too much going on better than the times when I have nothing going on; usually when I'm not busy I'm watching Youtube videos or eating something, or sitting outside talking. It's up to me to decide what to do when, and if a class gets in the way of something that's more important at that time, don't go to class, especially when the other thing is urgent or if you have friends in your classes that take thorough notes (which is always the case).
Hm. Wednesday. No cool songs or anything today. Unless....
Here's the marimba solo I'm working on: Prelude from Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. It's played by Friedrich Guida.
Happy Thursday!
Mmmmmmmmmm
Today, I had a make-up mallet lesson at 6:30, and I knew South Indian wouldn't get out until 7, and I didn't know if Sriji was even going to be there. So I decided I would spend that class time practicing my mallet stuff so I could rock my lesson, instead of going to class worrying and then leaving halfway through. I did rock my lesson, but I have another one Friday, and another Monday.
The reason I have so many make-up lessons is either health related, not my fault, or conflicting with a rehearsal. I couldn't make it to a snare lesson once because I had rehearsal for vocal forum with Jeremy the day before we had to perform, and the rehearsal ran over. I wasn't angry. I knew I was still spending my time well, probably doing something more important at the time.
Sometimes I don't go to Intro to Jazz Records. It's a 9:00 class and it's kind of difficult to make it to on Mondays especially when your roommate is a night owl and has the sniffles. But I always get the notes from someone else and I'm on a mission to get every CD we listen to in class from the library. So I'll know all of the music.
I'm a college student. I'm supposed to be making decisions about what to do with my time. I think it's interesting that I can handle the times when I have too much going on better than the times when I have nothing going on; usually when I'm not busy I'm watching Youtube videos or eating something, or sitting outside talking. It's up to me to decide what to do when, and if a class gets in the way of something that's more important at that time, don't go to class, especially when the other thing is urgent or if you have friends in your classes that take thorough notes (which is always the case).
Hm. Wednesday. No cool songs or anything today. Unless....
Here's the marimba solo I'm working on: Prelude from Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. It's played by Friedrich Guida.
Happy Thursday!
Mmmmmmmmmm
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
11/2 - Embrace the Unexpected
I'm going to let you in on a little secret: If you're going to make it doing one thing and one thing only, you'd be very, very good at it and willing to commit your life to it.
For the rest of us, don't get stuck doing one thing. Knowing how do everything and knowing where to start and how to approach things you're clueless about is a pretty big asset.
Let's approach this from a musical perspective, and start with some wonderful examples. A dude I know, Drew, a sax player, rocks at alto and bari, I don't know how his tenor skills are but I bet they're pretty good too. But he's also a boss at clarinet and flute, and he sings in Singers 1. I don't know exactly how he got to be in the ensembles he got to be in, but he probably got into the Jazz Repertory because he can play those woodwinds because clarinet and flute were used a lot in early swing jazz, and he probably got into Singers because he has another musical perspective with which to approach things. I don't know what lab band he's in, but I'm sure the alto and tenor chairs are a lot more competitive than the bari spots. Regardless, nice job Drew.
I know for a fact that to be accepted to the school of music at UNT as a sax player, you have to be able to hold your own on alto, tenor, and bari. This is a pretty smart move because it promotes well-roundedness and makes a student's musical ability easier to examine, because, personally, it's a lot more impressive to see a pretty great all around sax player who switches all the time than an amazing alto player. It shows me that they have the ability to turn their mind upside down and switch trains of thought really quickly. Nice.
I don't think there are very many other instruments here that require doubling or well-roundedness to get into the music school. Sure, you have to be able to sight read on snare and mallets, and play a mallet solo and a different solo, but if you got lucky, you could probably get in without touching timpani or bells or maracas or a drum set, even, in your entire life, and I feel like there are some people that are that way.
Once you get into school though, it's a whole different story.
The drum set players are struggling in their mallet lessons, the vocal jazz majors are complaining through their classical voice lessons (which is probably at least a little true, since they don't have any male vocal jazz majors, I guess they have one or two), the low brass players are cringing while writing in treble clef, and everyone else is slowly but surely making their way through two full years of piano class. In the college of music, almost the whole first year focuses on diversity. We take theory, aural skills, piano, music history, classical lessons, and some of us take some crazy ethnic ensemble, and for the general population, most of the subject material in those classes is uncharted territory. But the professors and T.A.'s know that spreading the students out evenly will in time mold a better player, and result in a more successful career and a happier life.
Two out of two of the people living in my room are struggling through sonatas right now, whether they're being used in classical lessons or my mallet lessons, and they're both things that we're not the cat's pajamas at. I'm sure the exact same thing is happening to every freshman all over campus.
So don't feel bad if you feel like you're spread out thin or being stretched too far. That's what college is about, and come senior year you'll be the best at everything. Or something like that.
This has something to do with my day, I sweat. The UNT Percussion Ensemble, our top percussion ensemble, had a concert today. The UNT Percussion Ensemble is the cream of the crop at embracing the unexpected and being well-rounded. Let me explain.
- Fanfare for a New Audience, David Skidmore. Basically two sets of crotales, two chimes per player (not sets, just individual chimes), and a lot of toms.
- Imaginary Landscape No. 2, John Cage. If the composer didn't give away how wacky this piece was going to be, they played tuned tin cans, a lion's roar (legit percussion instrument), slinky, and my mallet teacher played a conch shell. We'll add it to the list of the pretty awesome things he's done.
- Pythagoras and the Four Hammers, Andrew Thomas. A song about when Pythagoras was wandering through a forest and heard a blacksmith forging with some hammers and how that explained to him what music was. Best part: it's standard percussion literature.
- Vous avez du feu?, Emmanuel Sejourne. A piece for four players, each holding a lighter in each hand. I'll put a video up if I can find one, it's awesome.
- A Ceiling Full of Stars, Blake Tyson. Finally, a piece that non-percussionists would recognize as music. Lots of mallet instruments with bells and triangles to sound like stars, which was pretty effective.
- Rounders, Michael Burritt. I didn't stay for this one, but it looked like it was going to be solo marimba with lots of bass drums and tom toms. I was scared.
Not only do the players in the ensemble have to be prepared to play different instruments and objects, they have to be prepared to play different genres, in different formations, in different time signatures and with crazy mallet setups. Not only was I impressed by the sheer madness, which is typical, but the music really did sound good. Good job, you guys.
I think I'm ditching South Indian tomorrow because I have a lesson that I need to practice for. It's rained all day today and I didn't want to walk down to the practice rooms in the rain, not because I didn't want to get wet, but I didn't want wet mallets. Ew.
Here's that video:
Have a good Wednesday!
M
For the rest of us, don't get stuck doing one thing. Knowing how do everything and knowing where to start and how to approach things you're clueless about is a pretty big asset.
Let's approach this from a musical perspective, and start with some wonderful examples. A dude I know, Drew, a sax player, rocks at alto and bari, I don't know how his tenor skills are but I bet they're pretty good too. But he's also a boss at clarinet and flute, and he sings in Singers 1. I don't know exactly how he got to be in the ensembles he got to be in, but he probably got into the Jazz Repertory because he can play those woodwinds because clarinet and flute were used a lot in early swing jazz, and he probably got into Singers because he has another musical perspective with which to approach things. I don't know what lab band he's in, but I'm sure the alto and tenor chairs are a lot more competitive than the bari spots. Regardless, nice job Drew.
I know for a fact that to be accepted to the school of music at UNT as a sax player, you have to be able to hold your own on alto, tenor, and bari. This is a pretty smart move because it promotes well-roundedness and makes a student's musical ability easier to examine, because, personally, it's a lot more impressive to see a pretty great all around sax player who switches all the time than an amazing alto player. It shows me that they have the ability to turn their mind upside down and switch trains of thought really quickly. Nice.
I don't think there are very many other instruments here that require doubling or well-roundedness to get into the music school. Sure, you have to be able to sight read on snare and mallets, and play a mallet solo and a different solo, but if you got lucky, you could probably get in without touching timpani or bells or maracas or a drum set, even, in your entire life, and I feel like there are some people that are that way.
Once you get into school though, it's a whole different story.
The drum set players are struggling in their mallet lessons, the vocal jazz majors are complaining through their classical voice lessons (which is probably at least a little true, since they don't have any male vocal jazz majors, I guess they have one or two), the low brass players are cringing while writing in treble clef, and everyone else is slowly but surely making their way through two full years of piano class. In the college of music, almost the whole first year focuses on diversity. We take theory, aural skills, piano, music history, classical lessons, and some of us take some crazy ethnic ensemble, and for the general population, most of the subject material in those classes is uncharted territory. But the professors and T.A.'s know that spreading the students out evenly will in time mold a better player, and result in a more successful career and a happier life.
Two out of two of the people living in my room are struggling through sonatas right now, whether they're being used in classical lessons or my mallet lessons, and they're both things that we're not the cat's pajamas at. I'm sure the exact same thing is happening to every freshman all over campus.
So don't feel bad if you feel like you're spread out thin or being stretched too far. That's what college is about, and come senior year you'll be the best at everything. Or something like that.
This has something to do with my day, I sweat. The UNT Percussion Ensemble, our top percussion ensemble, had a concert today. The UNT Percussion Ensemble is the cream of the crop at embracing the unexpected and being well-rounded. Let me explain.
- Fanfare for a New Audience, David Skidmore. Basically two sets of crotales, two chimes per player (not sets, just individual chimes), and a lot of toms.
- Imaginary Landscape No. 2, John Cage. If the composer didn't give away how wacky this piece was going to be, they played tuned tin cans, a lion's roar (legit percussion instrument), slinky, and my mallet teacher played a conch shell. We'll add it to the list of the pretty awesome things he's done.
- Pythagoras and the Four Hammers, Andrew Thomas. A song about when Pythagoras was wandering through a forest and heard a blacksmith forging with some hammers and how that explained to him what music was. Best part: it's standard percussion literature.
- Vous avez du feu?, Emmanuel Sejourne. A piece for four players, each holding a lighter in each hand. I'll put a video up if I can find one, it's awesome.
- A Ceiling Full of Stars, Blake Tyson. Finally, a piece that non-percussionists would recognize as music. Lots of mallet instruments with bells and triangles to sound like stars, which was pretty effective.
- Rounders, Michael Burritt. I didn't stay for this one, but it looked like it was going to be solo marimba with lots of bass drums and tom toms. I was scared.
Not only do the players in the ensemble have to be prepared to play different instruments and objects, they have to be prepared to play different genres, in different formations, in different time signatures and with crazy mallet setups. Not only was I impressed by the sheer madness, which is typical, but the music really did sound good. Good job, you guys.
I think I'm ditching South Indian tomorrow because I have a lesson that I need to practice for. It's rained all day today and I didn't want to walk down to the practice rooms in the rain, not because I didn't want to get wet, but I didn't want wet mallets. Ew.
Here's that video:
Have a good Wednesday!
M
11/1 - Brass Band Concert
Sorry I didn't update on Friday. I was taking care of a drunk friend. Everyone but me had a pretty craaaazy Halloween weekend. But I had a hangover-less weekend.
Happy November, by the way. It's nice in Texas, it's hoodie weather, and not big poofy jacket weather like it is in New York (pobre Zoe) or I think Colorado right now. I don't know about CO.
I haven't told you much about Brass Band, have I? We're going to fix that.
Brass Band meets on Mondays and Wednesdays at 2:15 in the orchestra hall in the music building. It's kind of a bad location, for two reasons; they don't keep a lot of percussion equipment up there, and it's a pain in the butt to move everything you need to play either up a staircase or in a slowwww elevator.
Now, when I say they don't keep a lot of stuff up there, I mean they keep a bass drum with no stand, mismatched timpani, three snare drums but no stand (?), chimes missing a wheel, an old kevlar xylophone, some cheap crash cymbals, and a gong on a bad stand. It's pretty sad.
So in the final weeks of rehearsal before the concert, I'd get there at 1:45, start hauling bells, vibes, 5 toms and stands, drum set, suspended cymbals and stands, bongos and stands, field drum and two stands, shaker, maracas, bell tree, claves, guiro, and big mallets (i'm probably forgetting something too) up the elevator or stairs. I had to get the key to get to most of it at 2, so that kinda kept us from being on time. So by the time we really got set up, it was 2:30 and they were halfway through the first song.
Also, because of this class I've purchased a tambourine and two triangles, which cost a total of way more money than I wanted to spend.
Complaints aside, it's a lot of fun. We play some loud and crazy music, I play a whole lot of instruments, and no piccolos! I'm not taking it back, I really do hate piccolos. I play with Jordan, a 4 semester vet, and Taylor and Jeremy, two freshman roommates. They're kinda funny.
I arrived to set up for my 7:30 concert at 5:30 today, because we all knew that it'd take a while to move all of our crap and make it look nice before our mini rehearsal at 6:30. Aside from my little break before the concert and playing drumset, I stood up for like 4 hours. I need a nap.
Or sleep.
We started with a little overture, I played tambourine and triangle. Still can't play thumb rolls, but my fancy new triangle sounds pretty.
Then we played a Rossini overture and a British march about a Russian, I played snare on both.
Played a lengthy, strenuous piece before intermission. I played timpani, and I was pretty glad I had gauges. Tell me if you don't know what gauges are and I'll fill you in. Lots of tuning and a fun tom-tom part in the middle.
After intermission we played another long, difficult piece, again on timpani. Oh and I played some vibes. But this one was definitely cooler because I had a timpani solo and I used extra hard mallets.
Then I played maracas and toms on Postcards from Mexico. There's a drunken section in the middle and it was really hard to keep myself from doing a dance to it. Hardly even a dance.
We played a Gordon Goodwin arrangement of a Cole Porter song, and I played drumset, without any toms and on a concert snare drum. Awesome. It was fun, and I did pretty well.
We finished with Pines of Rome, and I nailed all my gong parts. Except I might have played ffff instead of fff. Sorry.
So, overall it went pretty well. I usually don't remember much that happened in a performance, maybe because I'm concentrating on playing, but the gong hit in the beginning of Pines of Rome was perfect. I remember smiling really big and forgetting to count my rest.
That's how brass band goes. I can't tell if I want to do it again next semester. Perhaps. If I can get us some better equipment, then definitely.
M
Happy November, by the way. It's nice in Texas, it's hoodie weather, and not big poofy jacket weather like it is in New York (pobre Zoe) or I think Colorado right now. I don't know about CO.
I haven't told you much about Brass Band, have I? We're going to fix that.
Brass Band meets on Mondays and Wednesdays at 2:15 in the orchestra hall in the music building. It's kind of a bad location, for two reasons; they don't keep a lot of percussion equipment up there, and it's a pain in the butt to move everything you need to play either up a staircase or in a slowwww elevator.
Now, when I say they don't keep a lot of stuff up there, I mean they keep a bass drum with no stand, mismatched timpani, three snare drums but no stand (?), chimes missing a wheel, an old kevlar xylophone, some cheap crash cymbals, and a gong on a bad stand. It's pretty sad.
So in the final weeks of rehearsal before the concert, I'd get there at 1:45, start hauling bells, vibes, 5 toms and stands, drum set, suspended cymbals and stands, bongos and stands, field drum and two stands, shaker, maracas, bell tree, claves, guiro, and big mallets (i'm probably forgetting something too) up the elevator or stairs. I had to get the key to get to most of it at 2, so that kinda kept us from being on time. So by the time we really got set up, it was 2:30 and they were halfway through the first song.
Also, because of this class I've purchased a tambourine and two triangles, which cost a total of way more money than I wanted to spend.
Complaints aside, it's a lot of fun. We play some loud and crazy music, I play a whole lot of instruments, and no piccolos! I'm not taking it back, I really do hate piccolos. I play with Jordan, a 4 semester vet, and Taylor and Jeremy, two freshman roommates. They're kinda funny.
I arrived to set up for my 7:30 concert at 5:30 today, because we all knew that it'd take a while to move all of our crap and make it look nice before our mini rehearsal at 6:30. Aside from my little break before the concert and playing drumset, I stood up for like 4 hours. I need a nap.
Or sleep.
We started with a little overture, I played tambourine and triangle. Still can't play thumb rolls, but my fancy new triangle sounds pretty.
Then we played a Rossini overture and a British march about a Russian, I played snare on both.
Played a lengthy, strenuous piece before intermission. I played timpani, and I was pretty glad I had gauges. Tell me if you don't know what gauges are and I'll fill you in. Lots of tuning and a fun tom-tom part in the middle.
After intermission we played another long, difficult piece, again on timpani. Oh and I played some vibes. But this one was definitely cooler because I had a timpani solo and I used extra hard mallets.
Then I played maracas and toms on Postcards from Mexico. There's a drunken section in the middle and it was really hard to keep myself from doing a dance to it. Hardly even a dance.
We played a Gordon Goodwin arrangement of a Cole Porter song, and I played drumset, without any toms and on a concert snare drum. Awesome. It was fun, and I did pretty well.
We finished with Pines of Rome, and I nailed all my gong parts. Except I might have played ffff instead of fff. Sorry.
So, overall it went pretty well. I usually don't remember much that happened in a performance, maybe because I'm concentrating on playing, but the gong hit in the beginning of Pines of Rome was perfect. I remember smiling really big and forgetting to count my rest.
That's how brass band goes. I can't tell if I want to do it again next semester. Perhaps. If I can get us some better equipment, then definitely.
M
Thursday, October 28, 2010
10/28 - The Global Rhythms Concert and the Gyil
I didn't have time to read and analyze anything today. I had a little relaxation time after classes finished (noon, awesome), but other than that it was go time all the time today. Fortunately, the ethnomusicology came to me today in the form of the global rhythms concert.
Let me just start by saying UNT is a pretty sweet place for diversity and covering all your bases as a percussionist. Not only do we have a drumline and three classical ensembles, but we also have two steel drum bands, beginning and advanced South Indian, African, and Afro-Cuban ensembles, Brazilian, Gamelan, and the indoor drumline. And a plethora of jazz bands, concert bands, and solo opportunities. I believe that is quite literally all of the bases to be covered.
But, on top of all of this beautiful madness, Valerie Naranjo, an expert gyil player and percussionist of SNL, came and performed with most of the ensembles.
The concert started with Gamelan, and they played a very traditional piece. The ensemble consisted of a gong ageng and siyem player, a kethuk player, a full bonang barung, a 5 gender and 5 saron, and the leader played a hand drum, probably a kendhang. There was also a dude playing something similar to finger cymbals but with a buzzy sound, in fast rhythms on the ground. They had Valerie play her gyil with them on their next piece, which isn't traditional at all, but it sounded great.
Then Valerie played a gyil solo on marimba. I guess I should probably explain what a gyil is.
A gyil (say jeel or jeeli) is the main instrument of the Dagara and Lobi people from Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. It's very similar to a marimba, but the bars are in the pentatonic scale and spans three octaves. It's low to the ground and uses gourds for resonators. The distinctive part of this instrument is its buzz sound, which is created by drilling little holes in the sides of the resonator gourds and fastening dry spider eggs, which rattle around. Traditional gyil music is very polyrhythmic, polymetric, and a brilliant display of right and left hand independence. I'll put a link up:
Valerie has studied with Leigh Howard Stevens, Gordon Stout, and lots of other big name marimba players, and most importantly Kakraba Lobi. Kakraba was a gyil master, and he was Valerie's gyil mentor. Her study intense study of the gyil led to a chiefly declaration in Ghana that women could be allowed to play the gyil in Ghana for the first time.
So, generally, she's the cream of the crop.
The marimba solo was her mentor Kakraba Lobi's favorite tune, Banda Jel, which means lizard's egg. Whenever Kakraba got sick of practicing or couldn't understand, he would think of how the lizard's egg can't be cut or smashed because of its thick shell, and it can't be broken when thrown or dropped because it will bounce right back. A good philosophy, I think.
Then she played and improvised on the Fra Fra Song with Jose Aponte and the Brazilian Ensemble, and led the Afro-Cuban Ensemble in Kaang Kuon Kpar (The Oil has Spilled). The Fra Fra Song is the Baiao people of N.E. Brazil making fun of the Fra Fra people, their next door neighbors. Kaang Kuon Kpar's moral essentially states "don't cry over spilled oil;" if you're carrying oil to light your fire in your bucket, and you trip and fall, don't cry because you lost your oil, you can't do anything about it, just keep going about your day and something good will happen.
She took a break while The Bridge, UNT's Advanced South Indian Ensemble, played two songs. The Bridge currently consists of two drummers, two guitar players, and another percussionist, today he played vibraphone. They played a song Sriji wrote that was in some ridiculous time signature with easy audible mora and tihai, and then performed a song the ensemble wrote as a whole. It was in 105/8, or 52 1/2 / 4, because the two drumset players, Colin (from lessons) and Zack (plays in Singers), kept different patterns of 3, 5, and 7 going.
Colin's bass drum played X - X X -, common khandatala subdivision.
Zach's bass drum played XX - X -, not khandatala.
Ride cymbals
C: X - X - X - X X - X - X - X
Z: X - X X- X - X - X X - X -
And Colin's hi hat played X - X, Zack's played X X -
Since 3 5 and 7 don't have any LCM's lower that 105, that was when they all lined up, that was the measure. It was pretty crazy.
Valerie came back on and played a little solo with some call and response stuff for the audience to enjoy. So I sang in some crazy African language today, Mom.
Her last piece was with the African Ensemble, called Kpanlogo, which had more call and response stuff. It was cool to see the kaganu and kidi strokes still played, even though the song was from a different tribe in Ghana, the Ga people. It was pretty awesome. That's all I have to say. It's indescribable.
After she received a well-deserved standing ovation, the Indoor Drumline came on and played the music they'll be playing when the go on tour to Belgium in March. It's not typical indoor music either, it was Alberto Ginastera, Debussy and Bartok, so maybe they're doing a clinic on classical music applied to the percussion ensemble. But it was perhaps the cleanest I've ever heard a percussion ensemble play before. All of the mallet runs, the tenor solo, the bass splits, and the impacts were spot on, even through tempo changes and funky meters. I wish I made it so I could go to Belgium, but I see why I didn't make it.
Indoor was an excellent conclusion to an very diverse concert. I made sure I came home ASAP so I wouldn't forget anything.
I hope this suffices for what I was supposed to be doing today. Except you don't even know what I was supposed to be writing about today. ...muahahaha.
M
Let me just start by saying UNT is a pretty sweet place for diversity and covering all your bases as a percussionist. Not only do we have a drumline and three classical ensembles, but we also have two steel drum bands, beginning and advanced South Indian, African, and Afro-Cuban ensembles, Brazilian, Gamelan, and the indoor drumline. And a plethora of jazz bands, concert bands, and solo opportunities. I believe that is quite literally all of the bases to be covered.
But, on top of all of this beautiful madness, Valerie Naranjo, an expert gyil player and percussionist of SNL, came and performed with most of the ensembles.
The concert started with Gamelan, and they played a very traditional piece. The ensemble consisted of a gong ageng and siyem player, a kethuk player, a full bonang barung, a 5 gender and 5 saron, and the leader played a hand drum, probably a kendhang. There was also a dude playing something similar to finger cymbals but with a buzzy sound, in fast rhythms on the ground. They had Valerie play her gyil with them on their next piece, which isn't traditional at all, but it sounded great.
Then Valerie played a gyil solo on marimba. I guess I should probably explain what a gyil is.
A gyil (say jeel or jeeli) is the main instrument of the Dagara and Lobi people from Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. It's very similar to a marimba, but the bars are in the pentatonic scale and spans three octaves. It's low to the ground and uses gourds for resonators. The distinctive part of this instrument is its buzz sound, which is created by drilling little holes in the sides of the resonator gourds and fastening dry spider eggs, which rattle around. Traditional gyil music is very polyrhythmic, polymetric, and a brilliant display of right and left hand independence. I'll put a link up:
Valerie has studied with Leigh Howard Stevens, Gordon Stout, and lots of other big name marimba players, and most importantly Kakraba Lobi. Kakraba was a gyil master, and he was Valerie's gyil mentor. Her study intense study of the gyil led to a chiefly declaration in Ghana that women could be allowed to play the gyil in Ghana for the first time.
So, generally, she's the cream of the crop.
The marimba solo was her mentor Kakraba Lobi's favorite tune, Banda Jel, which means lizard's egg. Whenever Kakraba got sick of practicing or couldn't understand, he would think of how the lizard's egg can't be cut or smashed because of its thick shell, and it can't be broken when thrown or dropped because it will bounce right back. A good philosophy, I think.
Then she played and improvised on the Fra Fra Song with Jose Aponte and the Brazilian Ensemble, and led the Afro-Cuban Ensemble in Kaang Kuon Kpar (The Oil has Spilled). The Fra Fra Song is the Baiao people of N.E. Brazil making fun of the Fra Fra people, their next door neighbors. Kaang Kuon Kpar's moral essentially states "don't cry over spilled oil;" if you're carrying oil to light your fire in your bucket, and you trip and fall, don't cry because you lost your oil, you can't do anything about it, just keep going about your day and something good will happen.
She took a break while The Bridge, UNT's Advanced South Indian Ensemble, played two songs. The Bridge currently consists of two drummers, two guitar players, and another percussionist, today he played vibraphone. They played a song Sriji wrote that was in some ridiculous time signature with easy audible mora and tihai, and then performed a song the ensemble wrote as a whole. It was in 105/8, or 52 1/2 / 4, because the two drumset players, Colin (from lessons) and Zack (plays in Singers), kept different patterns of 3, 5, and 7 going.
Colin's bass drum played X - X X -, common khandatala subdivision.
Zach's bass drum played XX - X -, not khandatala.
Ride cymbals
C: X - X - X - X X - X - X - X
Z: X - X X- X - X - X X - X -
And Colin's hi hat played X - X, Zack's played X X -
Since 3 5 and 7 don't have any LCM's lower that 105, that was when they all lined up, that was the measure. It was pretty crazy.
Valerie came back on and played a little solo with some call and response stuff for the audience to enjoy. So I sang in some crazy African language today, Mom.
Her last piece was with the African Ensemble, called Kpanlogo, which had more call and response stuff. It was cool to see the kaganu and kidi strokes still played, even though the song was from a different tribe in Ghana, the Ga people. It was pretty awesome. That's all I have to say. It's indescribable.
After she received a well-deserved standing ovation, the Indoor Drumline came on and played the music they'll be playing when the go on tour to Belgium in March. It's not typical indoor music either, it was Alberto Ginastera, Debussy and Bartok, so maybe they're doing a clinic on classical music applied to the percussion ensemble. But it was perhaps the cleanest I've ever heard a percussion ensemble play before. All of the mallet runs, the tenor solo, the bass splits, and the impacts were spot on, even through tempo changes and funky meters. I wish I made it so I could go to Belgium, but I see why I didn't make it.
Indoor was an excellent conclusion to an very diverse concert. I made sure I came home ASAP so I wouldn't forget anything.
I hope this suffices for what I was supposed to be doing today. Except you don't even know what I was supposed to be writing about today. ...muahahaha.
M
10/27 - The Music-Culture of Japan
I told Zoe I'd be writing about South Indian or Navajo music today, but I couldn't find enough about Navajo music and you already know all the South Indian stuff. Even though it is a Wednesday. Sorry Zoe.
I'll bet that she will like this topic more, though.
Japan may seem like a pretty intimidating place. Don't let it be that way. Think of them as excited.
Japan was a pretty isolated place for a while. People have been living there since 30,000 BC, learning how to grow rice and make pottery and make music without help from the outside world which may have figured it out first, who's to say. But for over 30,000 years, Japanese people didn't have any influences but themselves. So they made their own style of music, which is truly uninfluenced Japanese classical music. Around 400 AD, Japan met China, and they fell in love and spoke each others languages and made each other porcelain and fancy silks and sang each others love songs to each other, and that's where Chinese influence trickles in. Soon after, some Koreans came over, and some other SE Asians, and some Mongolians, and brought their musical styles with them, and the Japanese people were really excited to play with their new toys. Japanese classical music history really revolves around when people arrived from different parts of Asia with new instruments and practices, and when they picked up on it.
Even today, when Western pop is going strong, the Japanese have put Western ideas to work for themselves. Japanese pop is similar to today's American pop, but in my opinion, overdone, which I guess is what makes it popular? If it were in English, American kids would eat it up and sit around all day listening to it. But they still play their folk music, our classical music, our country music (why?!), and even jazz. We learned about Toshiko Akiyoshi, a Chinese-born, Japanese-raised American citizen who arranges jazz charts and has her own big band, and some of them certainly have Japanese textures, melodies or tones in the music.
They're not just copycats though. They appreciate the music of the cultures surrounding them AND learn about their own musical heritage. Japanese children learn to play recorder (which is pretty similar to the shakuhachi, we'll get there) and sing Japanese, American, and European songs, and most of them also take private lessons on another classical instrument. No wonder they're all geniuses. They're being told to have a broad focus, and to take as much in as possible, as much as they can stand, while we just make sure our kids are meeting the standards.
Wow. Sorry this blog is kinda judgmental today.
Fortunately, the Japanese learned their scales from the Chinese, who used the 12 tone system like Europe did. So nothing like slendro or pelog today. But, sometimes the exact frequency intervals differ in traditional music depending on the genre and who you learn it from.
It is widely believed that there are three scales commonly used in Japanese traditional music, two for folk songs and one for koto and shamisen music, all three pentatonic.
In/or/Miyako-bushi - C Db F G Ab C (Eb and Bb rarely played)
Yo - C D F G A C (Eb and Bb rare)
Minyo - C Eb F G Bb C
I don't know why people always think of music played solely on notes in the Western pentatonic scale sounds Japanese; I guess Yo is close, but it's not C D E G A C, it C D F.
Japanese musicians often recreate the sounds of nature while playing melodies since, in Shinto (the indigenous Japanese religion), rocks and trees and mountains and rivers also have spirits that can be communicated with. So whether it's the shakuhachi player sounding breathy to imitate wind in the trees or the twang of the shamisen, they're doing it on purpose, remember that.
By the way, the shakuhachi is a bamboo flute, held like a recorder; it's known to be a more spiritual and meditative instrument. The shamisen is a lute, and it is emotional and dramatic. A koto is a 13 stringed zither, and it is graceful.
Japanese melodies are kinda hard to briefly generalize. They often contain short little themes that are often repeated, like a theme in a classical work or a raga in Indian music, and they use these quotes to inform audiences of the kabuki theatre of the thoughts of a character, or perhaps to foreshadow. Sometimes the melodies may seem to change rather slowly, while, to the trained ear, the dynamic and timbre changes very rapidly. Japanese music has little harmony before being exposed to Western music, and if there are leaps, they prefer to use perfect 4ths.
Japanese music usually has a very flexible pulse. Western music, which has dynamically accented, even notes in groups of two, three, four, or even six, tends to lend itself to having a time signature, and the patterns of accent dictate which one. Since Japanese music has more irregular intervals between beats, it would be hard to describe a time signature, so they don't use one, therefore there's little need for a pulse.
- If it does have a pulse though, it will be in duple meter. Triple meter is most commonly found in children's songs. The pulse ranges from very slow to very fast, and in kabuki music, tempo builds when excitement or tension builds.
Common Japanese musical form is Jo-ha-kyu.
Jo "introduction", slow beginning section.
Ha "breaking apart", the falling apart of the beginning slow tempo, tempo escalates
Kyu "rushing", tempo reaches its peak, then slows to the end of the piece.
Here's a little example:
Then the book talks about the music of the main three instruments for twenty pages. I don't have time for that, and neither do you.
Kabuki theatre music is traditionally performed by a shamisen player and a tayu, a singer-narrator, and if other instruments are needed, they sit on a smaller stage and appear from behind a rotating wall when they need to play. It's dramatic. The shamisen and tayu try to fill the puppets with life and human emotion so that the audience is moved by the performance. They don't use microphones, so full fortes are only achieved with years of practice, training, and stamina.
Japanese folk song is similar to any other place's folk songs. They are songs of the people, for the people by the people, in the past used to accompany daily tasks while in the present used as a romantic vision of what it would be like to get out of a desk job; Japan is a very desk job-y place, to be honest. Folk songs sound different according to region of the country, and can be categorized as such, but no matter where they're from, they're still enjoyable today because they were traditionally sung by workers, not professionals, and Japanese people can still easily learn and appreciate them. They have a version of American Idol where the panel of experts judges a singers rendition of a folk song and tells them if their vibrato is too broad or if they're being too dramatic. It's funny to think about.
Japanese pop fits these five characteristics, which could probably sum up all pop music:
1. It has a set time limit (3 to 5 minutes). The longest Ke$ha song I can find is 3:57, and you're still making me pay $1.29 for it? I should be paid to listen to Ke$ha.
2. It focuses on themes relevant to a broad public, see "You Belong With Me" (though sometimes regions or specific groups are targeted, see "California Girls")
3. Stanza form and a steady beat, making the music more accessible. See "Golddigger"
4. Performers' attempts in live performance to duplicate recorded performance so as to fulfill audience expectations. (Usher might want to look into that, actually...)
5. Dramatic rise and fall in popularity in time. Side note, Justin Bieber doesn't have a song in the iTunes Top 100. Not even close.
Karaoke is a Japanese style of music, since it was invented by a Japanese man. Karaoke songs were originally and still are predominantly "enka" in Japan. Enka were political songs about the tyrannies of other parties at the start but it slowly progressed to nostalgic, longing tunes. So I guess those old people you see singing on cruise ships are doing it right. Traditionally, of course.
Fortunately, the chapter has run out of information important to us at approximately the same time that my patience and energy have worn out, if you can't already tell in my writing, hehe.
I'm going to bed. I hope you enjoyed your little break from South Indian Wednesdays. This was a lot of info to read though. Dang. Congratulations, you intelligent, charming character.
Oh man.
M
I'll bet that she will like this topic more, though.
Japan may seem like a pretty intimidating place. Don't let it be that way. Think of them as excited.
Japan was a pretty isolated place for a while. People have been living there since 30,000 BC, learning how to grow rice and make pottery and make music without help from the outside world which may have figured it out first, who's to say. But for over 30,000 years, Japanese people didn't have any influences but themselves. So they made their own style of music, which is truly uninfluenced Japanese classical music. Around 400 AD, Japan met China, and they fell in love and spoke each others languages and made each other porcelain and fancy silks and sang each others love songs to each other, and that's where Chinese influence trickles in. Soon after, some Koreans came over, and some other SE Asians, and some Mongolians, and brought their musical styles with them, and the Japanese people were really excited to play with their new toys. Japanese classical music history really revolves around when people arrived from different parts of Asia with new instruments and practices, and when they picked up on it.
Even today, when Western pop is going strong, the Japanese have put Western ideas to work for themselves. Japanese pop is similar to today's American pop, but in my opinion, overdone, which I guess is what makes it popular? If it were in English, American kids would eat it up and sit around all day listening to it. But they still play their folk music, our classical music, our country music (why?!), and even jazz. We learned about Toshiko Akiyoshi, a Chinese-born, Japanese-raised American citizen who arranges jazz charts and has her own big band, and some of them certainly have Japanese textures, melodies or tones in the music.
They're not just copycats though. They appreciate the music of the cultures surrounding them AND learn about their own musical heritage. Japanese children learn to play recorder (which is pretty similar to the shakuhachi, we'll get there) and sing Japanese, American, and European songs, and most of them also take private lessons on another classical instrument. No wonder they're all geniuses. They're being told to have a broad focus, and to take as much in as possible, as much as they can stand, while we just make sure our kids are meeting the standards.
Wow. Sorry this blog is kinda judgmental today.
Fortunately, the Japanese learned their scales from the Chinese, who used the 12 tone system like Europe did. So nothing like slendro or pelog today. But, sometimes the exact frequency intervals differ in traditional music depending on the genre and who you learn it from.
It is widely believed that there are three scales commonly used in Japanese traditional music, two for folk songs and one for koto and shamisen music, all three pentatonic.
In/or/Miyako-bushi - C Db F G Ab C (Eb and Bb rarely played)
Yo - C D F G A C (Eb and Bb rare)
Minyo - C Eb F G Bb C
I don't know why people always think of music played solely on notes in the Western pentatonic scale sounds Japanese; I guess Yo is close, but it's not C D E G A C, it C D F.
Japanese musicians often recreate the sounds of nature while playing melodies since, in Shinto (the indigenous Japanese religion), rocks and trees and mountains and rivers also have spirits that can be communicated with. So whether it's the shakuhachi player sounding breathy to imitate wind in the trees or the twang of the shamisen, they're doing it on purpose, remember that.
By the way, the shakuhachi is a bamboo flute, held like a recorder; it's known to be a more spiritual and meditative instrument. The shamisen is a lute, and it is emotional and dramatic. A koto is a 13 stringed zither, and it is graceful.
Japanese melodies are kinda hard to briefly generalize. They often contain short little themes that are often repeated, like a theme in a classical work or a raga in Indian music, and they use these quotes to inform audiences of the kabuki theatre of the thoughts of a character, or perhaps to foreshadow. Sometimes the melodies may seem to change rather slowly, while, to the trained ear, the dynamic and timbre changes very rapidly. Japanese music has little harmony before being exposed to Western music, and if there are leaps, they prefer to use perfect 4ths.
Japanese music usually has a very flexible pulse. Western music, which has dynamically accented, even notes in groups of two, three, four, or even six, tends to lend itself to having a time signature, and the patterns of accent dictate which one. Since Japanese music has more irregular intervals between beats, it would be hard to describe a time signature, so they don't use one, therefore there's little need for a pulse.
- If it does have a pulse though, it will be in duple meter. Triple meter is most commonly found in children's songs. The pulse ranges from very slow to very fast, and in kabuki music, tempo builds when excitement or tension builds.
Common Japanese musical form is Jo-ha-kyu.
Jo "introduction", slow beginning section.
Ha "breaking apart", the falling apart of the beginning slow tempo, tempo escalates
Kyu "rushing", tempo reaches its peak, then slows to the end of the piece.
Here's a little example:
Then the book talks about the music of the main three instruments for twenty pages. I don't have time for that, and neither do you.
Kabuki theatre music is traditionally performed by a shamisen player and a tayu, a singer-narrator, and if other instruments are needed, they sit on a smaller stage and appear from behind a rotating wall when they need to play. It's dramatic. The shamisen and tayu try to fill the puppets with life and human emotion so that the audience is moved by the performance. They don't use microphones, so full fortes are only achieved with years of practice, training, and stamina.
Japanese folk song is similar to any other place's folk songs. They are songs of the people, for the people by the people, in the past used to accompany daily tasks while in the present used as a romantic vision of what it would be like to get out of a desk job; Japan is a very desk job-y place, to be honest. Folk songs sound different according to region of the country, and can be categorized as such, but no matter where they're from, they're still enjoyable today because they were traditionally sung by workers, not professionals, and Japanese people can still easily learn and appreciate them. They have a version of American Idol where the panel of experts judges a singers rendition of a folk song and tells them if their vibrato is too broad or if they're being too dramatic. It's funny to think about.
Japanese pop fits these five characteristics, which could probably sum up all pop music:
1. It has a set time limit (3 to 5 minutes). The longest Ke$ha song I can find is 3:57, and you're still making me pay $1.29 for it? I should be paid to listen to Ke$ha.
2. It focuses on themes relevant to a broad public, see "You Belong With Me" (though sometimes regions or specific groups are targeted, see "California Girls")
3. Stanza form and a steady beat, making the music more accessible. See "Golddigger"
4. Performers' attempts in live performance to duplicate recorded performance so as to fulfill audience expectations. (Usher might want to look into that, actually...)
5. Dramatic rise and fall in popularity in time. Side note, Justin Bieber doesn't have a song in the iTunes Top 100. Not even close.
Karaoke is a Japanese style of music, since it was invented by a Japanese man. Karaoke songs were originally and still are predominantly "enka" in Japan. Enka were political songs about the tyrannies of other parties at the start but it slowly progressed to nostalgic, longing tunes. So I guess those old people you see singing on cruise ships are doing it right. Traditionally, of course.
Fortunately, the chapter has run out of information important to us at approximately the same time that my patience and energy have worn out, if you can't already tell in my writing, hehe.
I'm going to bed. I hope you enjoyed your little break from South Indian Wednesdays. This was a lot of info to read though. Dang. Congratulations, you intelligent, charming character.
Oh man.
M
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
10/26 - Indonesian Gamelan (ooooh....)
Caution: heavy reading forecast for today.
Indonesia is a pretty diverse place. They have more than 200 different languages, spoken on a whole lot of islands, with a lot of different cultures from island to island, sometimes a few on the same large island. Why is it such a diverse place? Well, the Dutch had to go colonize that whole region and when they left, they were like "okay, you guys are pretty close, you can be a country now," even though they were not only spread out across a huge body of water, but also had different languages, arts, belief systems and conceptions of the world. Really, Dutch people?
The music of Indonesia certainly reflects this crazy diversity. Most people are familiar with not only Indonesian pop music, but also Western pop (my textbook says "such Western stars as Britney Spears and NSync, haha) and their own regional "classical" music traditions. This reflects both the diversity of the population but also the receptiveness, probably because of centuries of outside influences. The city of Jakarta at night overflows with the sounds of nightclubs and discos, gamelan percussion ensembles of all sizes, traveling theatre troupes and even ridiculous 8-hour puppet theatre shows. I'll explain later.
Outside of Jakarta, in Yogyakarta, a smaller city, is where the indigenous, uninfluenced classical music is predominant; home to the gamelan, the ultimate percussion ensemble.
Gamelan refers to a set of instruments unified by their tuning and usually their decoration. The gamelan usually consists of metallophones, which are kinda similar to vibraphones, and tuned knobbed gongs, often with at least one drum and sometimes including wind, string, or wooden percussion instruments (think xylophone).
Gong is truly an Indonesian word.
Trivia real fast: what are the other two English words derived from Indonesian?
ketchup and amok.
Gongs in the gamelan are large, always hung. Not like a little tam-tam or the "gongs" we'll talk about later.
The two scale systems used in the Javanese gamelan are "slendro" and "pelog". Most ensembles have enough instruments to have a full sound on either scale.
Do - Re - Mi Fa - So - La - Ti Do
Slendro: 1 2 | 3 | | 4 5| 6 | 7 | 1
Pelog: 1 |2 | 3 | |5 | 6 | 1
So slendro is essentially C, sharp C#, D~D#, F~F#, flat G, flat G#, A~Bb, C
And pelog is 5 equally spaced notes, C, sharp D, flat F, sharp G, flat Bb, C
Sharp D is not D#, it's just barely off, maybe a quarter of a semitone, and D~D# is the quarter tone between D and D#.
It sounds like it would hurt, but it's actually kind of cool. The scale systems were most likely developed this way because no one knew about the 12 tone scale or the Pythagorean method, they hadn't heard of anything like it yet.
Instruments:
Gong ageng: big gong, hanging
Siyem: middle gong, hanging
Kempul: smaller gong, hanging
Kenong: largest kettle gong, in sets of 2 to 12 (kettle gongs are smaller than hanging gongs)
Kethuk: small kettle gong, one for each scale system
Kempyang: two small kettle gongs for pelog.
Bonang barung: 10, 12, or 14 kettle gongs in two parallel rows, one set for each scale system.
Bonang panerus: Same as bonang barung but tuned an octave higher.
Saron demung: 6 or 7 metal keys resting over a resonator
Saron barung: "" an octave higher
Saron panerus: "" another octave higher
Gender slenthem: 6 or 7 metal keys strung over cylindrical resonators, like a vibraphone.
Gender barung: 13 or 14 keys, more octaves available.
Gender panerus: "" an octave higher
Gambang: A an extended range version of the gender.
Celempung: a zither, with 20-26 strings playing 10-13 notes (two strings per note)
Siter: smaller zither, 10-26 strings
Suling: bamboo flute
Rebab: two-stringed fiddle.
Kendhang: hand drums of various sizes
Bedhug: Stick-beaten drum.
These instruments require a great deal of work to produce; large gongs can take a month to make and can be ruined with just one poor strike.
Wow.
There's no standard arrangement of all of these on stage, but players almost always sit at right angles. The ensembles often perform with singers, like a men's chorus or female soloists, and they sing tunes to Javanese poetry. Most everything is sung instead of read in Java, even letters to nobles were written poetry style and sung.
Each gamelan has its own unique sound, since all of the instruments are handmade and probably aren't tuned exactly the same. It's not that the craftsmen are lazy though; they just have their own sense of the sound they want to produce, and tune precisely to it. The great gamelan are highly respected, given a proper name, and given offerings every Thursday evening, the beginning of the Muslim holy day.
Performances of the gamelan are traditionally not focused on the gamelan. The ensemble usually accompanies other performers (dancers, puppet shows, etc.) or plays at a social setting, like a funeral or a wedding, or to mark important events like birth.
Shadow puppet theatre is the bee's knees in Java. In the early evening, the gamelan plays an overture, and afterwards they accompany the puppeteer (yes, just one) in an 8 hour performance. The puppeteer controls the puppets, provides all of the narration and the dialogue, and "conducts" the gamelan with various signals for a third of an entire day with no intermission. Dang. The play the puppeteer produces is his own rendition of a basic story, so it's related to versions from other puppeteers, but with its own quirks. The music performed by the gamelan during the show is drawn from a repertoire of hundreds of songs, none of which are specific to a single play, and many of which are not fixed to a specific rhythm or precise melody.
I'm not even going to go into the actual written out music. It would probably take me into the wee hours of the night, and I don't really get it yet anyways.
I hope this was a little mind opening. UNT has a Gamelan and I think I'll join it next year.
M
Indonesia is a pretty diverse place. They have more than 200 different languages, spoken on a whole lot of islands, with a lot of different cultures from island to island, sometimes a few on the same large island. Why is it such a diverse place? Well, the Dutch had to go colonize that whole region and when they left, they were like "okay, you guys are pretty close, you can be a country now," even though they were not only spread out across a huge body of water, but also had different languages, arts, belief systems and conceptions of the world. Really, Dutch people?
The music of Indonesia certainly reflects this crazy diversity. Most people are familiar with not only Indonesian pop music, but also Western pop (my textbook says "such Western stars as Britney Spears and NSync, haha) and their own regional "classical" music traditions. This reflects both the diversity of the population but also the receptiveness, probably because of centuries of outside influences. The city of Jakarta at night overflows with the sounds of nightclubs and discos, gamelan percussion ensembles of all sizes, traveling theatre troupes and even ridiculous 8-hour puppet theatre shows. I'll explain later.
Outside of Jakarta, in Yogyakarta, a smaller city, is where the indigenous, uninfluenced classical music is predominant; home to the gamelan, the ultimate percussion ensemble.
Gamelan refers to a set of instruments unified by their tuning and usually their decoration. The gamelan usually consists of metallophones, which are kinda similar to vibraphones, and tuned knobbed gongs, often with at least one drum and sometimes including wind, string, or wooden percussion instruments (think xylophone).
Gong is truly an Indonesian word.
Trivia real fast: what are the other two English words derived from Indonesian?
ketchup and amok.
Gongs in the gamelan are large, always hung. Not like a little tam-tam or the "gongs" we'll talk about later.
The two scale systems used in the Javanese gamelan are "slendro" and "pelog". Most ensembles have enough instruments to have a full sound on either scale.
Do - Re - Mi Fa - So - La - Ti Do
Slendro: 1 2 | 3 | | 4 5| 6 | 7 | 1
Pelog: 1 |2 | 3 | |5 | 6 | 1
So slendro is essentially C, sharp C#, D~D#, F~F#, flat G, flat G#, A~Bb, C
And pelog is 5 equally spaced notes, C, sharp D, flat F, sharp G, flat Bb, C
Sharp D is not D#, it's just barely off, maybe a quarter of a semitone, and D~D# is the quarter tone between D and D#.
It sounds like it would hurt, but it's actually kind of cool. The scale systems were most likely developed this way because no one knew about the 12 tone scale or the Pythagorean method, they hadn't heard of anything like it yet.
Instruments:
Gong ageng: big gong, hanging
Siyem: middle gong, hanging
Kempul: smaller gong, hanging
Kenong: largest kettle gong, in sets of 2 to 12 (kettle gongs are smaller than hanging gongs)
Kethuk: small kettle gong, one for each scale system
Kempyang: two small kettle gongs for pelog.
Bonang barung: 10, 12, or 14 kettle gongs in two parallel rows, one set for each scale system.
Bonang panerus: Same as bonang barung but tuned an octave higher.
Saron demung: 6 or 7 metal keys resting over a resonator
Saron barung: "" an octave higher
Saron panerus: "" another octave higher
Gender slenthem: 6 or 7 metal keys strung over cylindrical resonators, like a vibraphone.
Gender barung: 13 or 14 keys, more octaves available.
Gender panerus: "" an octave higher
Gambang: A an extended range version of the gender.
Celempung: a zither, with 20-26 strings playing 10-13 notes (two strings per note)
Siter: smaller zither, 10-26 strings
Suling: bamboo flute
Rebab: two-stringed fiddle.
Kendhang: hand drums of various sizes
Bedhug: Stick-beaten drum.
These instruments require a great deal of work to produce; large gongs can take a month to make and can be ruined with just one poor strike.
Wow.
There's no standard arrangement of all of these on stage, but players almost always sit at right angles. The ensembles often perform with singers, like a men's chorus or female soloists, and they sing tunes to Javanese poetry. Most everything is sung instead of read in Java, even letters to nobles were written poetry style and sung.
Each gamelan has its own unique sound, since all of the instruments are handmade and probably aren't tuned exactly the same. It's not that the craftsmen are lazy though; they just have their own sense of the sound they want to produce, and tune precisely to it. The great gamelan are highly respected, given a proper name, and given offerings every Thursday evening, the beginning of the Muslim holy day.
Performances of the gamelan are traditionally not focused on the gamelan. The ensemble usually accompanies other performers (dancers, puppet shows, etc.) or plays at a social setting, like a funeral or a wedding, or to mark important events like birth.
Shadow puppet theatre is the bee's knees in Java. In the early evening, the gamelan plays an overture, and afterwards they accompany the puppeteer (yes, just one) in an 8 hour performance. The puppeteer controls the puppets, provides all of the narration and the dialogue, and "conducts" the gamelan with various signals for a third of an entire day with no intermission. Dang. The play the puppeteer produces is his own rendition of a basic story, so it's related to versions from other puppeteers, but with its own quirks. The music performed by the gamelan during the show is drawn from a repertoire of hundreds of songs, none of which are specific to a single play, and many of which are not fixed to a specific rhythm or precise melody.
I'm not even going to go into the actual written out music. It would probably take me into the wee hours of the night, and I don't really get it yet anyways.
I hope this was a little mind opening. UNT has a Gamelan and I think I'll join it next year.
M
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
10/25 - Africa, the sounds of the Ewe people
It's Monday, the first day of my (or our) adventures through this book I found at the library called "Worlds of Music." I started reading it to see if I really did want to get into ethnomusicology, and it turns out it's a pretty sweet book and a potentially awesome career.
We're starting with Africa, what most people think of when they think of ethnic or cultural.
The best part of this section is about the Ewe people and their music. The Ewe are from the coast of West Africa, in Ghana and Togo. These people were originally very spread out through West African kingdoms around the 1600's, but eventually they all moved and settled near the mouth of the Volta River. Family is a very important thing to the Ewe people; you're considered more powerful the farther back you can trace your ancestry, and their social life is spent most often with their extended families. They believe that their supreme being, Mawu, is separate from human affairs, but lesser gods not only are present on Earth but interact with people.
Ewe people believe that before a spirit enters a fetus, it knows how its life on Earth will be and how its body will die. The musicians believe that their source of their talent was the spirit of an ancestor that they inherited, and they believe it's their destiny to be a musician.
They have a style of song, dance, and drumming called Agbekor. It was originally used as a pump-up jam to motivate warriors before a battle, but since there aren't really any more tribal wars, it's more commonly used as a funeral dance, to celebrate the life of the deceased individual and the passing on of the spirit.
Agbekor is learned without formal training; if you wish to learn how to play the patterns, you have to trust your own eyes and ears to match what other people are playing. So, the great drummers are the people who can play extended passages after listening only once or twice.
Now, on to the music.
The backbone of the Agbekor is the bell, the gankogui. "Listen to the bell," they always say. It's the time keeper. It always stays constant.
The gankogui is similar to agogo bells, kinda like mini cowbells, one high and one low. They play a pattern commonly known to afro-cuban drummers:
X - X - X X - X - X - X|X - X - X X - X - X - X :||
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Once you've got that down, make sure you can feel the pattern in four beats AND six beats. The key to Ewe music is polyrhythm, and having these two feels overlap and feel natural together.
The axatse is a dried gourd with a net of strings with seeds tied around it, a typical loud African shaker. It plays the gankogui part on the thigh, while filling in the spaces with a strike of the palm:
T - T P T T P T P T P T|T
The kaganu, a high pitched drum, similar to a conga, plays the off-beats when felt in 4. This instrument fills in the spaces and makes the ensemble balanced.
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
- X X - X X - X X - X X|- X X - X X - X X - X X :||
The kidi, kloboto, and totodzi are the three other drums in the ensemble (from high to low). They each add their own flavor to the ensemble.
Kidi: X is stroke, Z is press
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Z X X X Z Z Z X X X Z Z|Z X X X Z Z Z X X X Z Z :||
alternate sticking
Kloboto:
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Z - X Z xxX Z - X Z - X|Z - X Z xxX Z - X Z - X
Totodzi:
Z - X - X - Z - - Z - -|Z - X - X - Z - - Z - - :||
So, all together, it looks kinda like this...
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
X - X - X X - X - X - X|X - X - X X - X - X - X :|| gankogui
T - T P T T P T P T P T|T - T P T T P T P T P T :|| axatse
- X X - X X - X X - X X|- X X - X X - X X - X X :|| kaganu
Z X X X Z Z Z X X X Z Z|Z X X X Z Z Z X X X Z Z :|| kidi
Z - X Z xx X Z - X Z - X|Z - X Z xx X Z - X Z - X :|| kloboto
Z - X - X - Z - - Z - -|Z - X - X - Z - - Z - - :|| totodzi
It's pretty cool. Most of the drums play on the bell pattern, except on beat 3, where the bell doesn't play but the drums do. Keeping the beat on 1 and 3 keeps the dance feel, even while all of the crazy syncopation is going on underneath.
They are all war songs, and yes, they have lyrics, but they're all about fighting and being champs.
Here you can hear the girl standing and singing (?) playing the atsimevu, more of a solo, leader drum. The man in the back is playing the gankogui. The man on the right is playing axatse, the person next to him kaganu, then I think kidi, and then the man next to the standing lady is playing a variation on the kloboto pattern.
This is the best example I've found of the beat described. The drumming society is called Agbekor, they call the beat Adjogbo. I don't really know who to trust. I'll ask our African adjunct professor, Gideon Alorwoyie, he's specifically mentioned in my book :)
This is what it probably looks like though:
It's pretty B.A.
I hope that wasn't too much of a brain melter. It didn't have any time shifting or quintuplets or anything, so it couldn't be too bad.
I hope you enjoy this ethnic, groovy week!
M
We're starting with Africa, what most people think of when they think of ethnic or cultural.
The best part of this section is about the Ewe people and their music. The Ewe are from the coast of West Africa, in Ghana and Togo. These people were originally very spread out through West African kingdoms around the 1600's, but eventually they all moved and settled near the mouth of the Volta River. Family is a very important thing to the Ewe people; you're considered more powerful the farther back you can trace your ancestry, and their social life is spent most often with their extended families. They believe that their supreme being, Mawu, is separate from human affairs, but lesser gods not only are present on Earth but interact with people.
Ewe people believe that before a spirit enters a fetus, it knows how its life on Earth will be and how its body will die. The musicians believe that their source of their talent was the spirit of an ancestor that they inherited, and they believe it's their destiny to be a musician.
They have a style of song, dance, and drumming called Agbekor. It was originally used as a pump-up jam to motivate warriors before a battle, but since there aren't really any more tribal wars, it's more commonly used as a funeral dance, to celebrate the life of the deceased individual and the passing on of the spirit.
Agbekor is learned without formal training; if you wish to learn how to play the patterns, you have to trust your own eyes and ears to match what other people are playing. So, the great drummers are the people who can play extended passages after listening only once or twice.
Now, on to the music.
The backbone of the Agbekor is the bell, the gankogui. "Listen to the bell," they always say. It's the time keeper. It always stays constant.
The gankogui is similar to agogo bells, kinda like mini cowbells, one high and one low. They play a pattern commonly known to afro-cuban drummers:
X - X - X X - X - X - X|X - X - X X - X - X - X :||
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Once you've got that down, make sure you can feel the pattern in four beats AND six beats. The key to Ewe music is polyrhythm, and having these two feels overlap and feel natural together.
The axatse is a dried gourd with a net of strings with seeds tied around it, a typical loud African shaker. It plays the gankogui part on the thigh, while filling in the spaces with a strike of the palm:
T - T P T T P T P T P T|T
The kaganu, a high pitched drum, similar to a conga, plays the off-beats when felt in 4. This instrument fills in the spaces and makes the ensemble balanced.
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
- X X - X X - X X - X X|- X X - X X - X X - X X :||
The kidi, kloboto, and totodzi are the three other drums in the ensemble (from high to low). They each add their own flavor to the ensemble.
Kidi: X is stroke, Z is press
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Z X X X Z Z Z X X X Z Z|Z X X X Z Z Z X X X Z Z :||
alternate sticking
Kloboto:
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Z - X Z xxX Z - X Z - X|Z - X Z xxX Z - X Z - X
Totodzi:
Z - X - X - Z - - Z - -|Z - X - X - Z - - Z - - :||
So, all together, it looks kinda like this...
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
X - X - X X - X - X - X|X - X - X X - X - X - X :|| gankogui
T - T P T T P T P T P T|T - T P T T P T P T P T :|| axatse
- X X - X X - X X - X X|- X X - X X - X X - X X :|| kaganu
Z X X X Z Z Z X X X Z Z|Z X X X Z Z Z X X X Z Z :|| kidi
Z - X Z xx X Z - X Z - X|Z - X Z xx X Z - X Z - X :|| kloboto
Z - X - X - Z - - Z - -|Z - X - X - Z - - Z - - :|| totodzi
It's pretty cool. Most of the drums play on the bell pattern, except on beat 3, where the bell doesn't play but the drums do. Keeping the beat on 1 and 3 keeps the dance feel, even while all of the crazy syncopation is going on underneath.
They are all war songs, and yes, they have lyrics, but they're all about fighting and being champs.
Here you can hear the girl standing and singing (?) playing the atsimevu, more of a solo, leader drum. The man in the back is playing the gankogui. The man on the right is playing axatse, the person next to him kaganu, then I think kidi, and then the man next to the standing lady is playing a variation on the kloboto pattern.
This is the best example I've found of the beat described. The drumming society is called Agbekor, they call the beat Adjogbo. I don't really know who to trust. I'll ask our African adjunct professor, Gideon Alorwoyie, he's specifically mentioned in my book :)
This is what it probably looks like though:
It's pretty B.A.
I hope that wasn't too much of a brain melter. It didn't have any time shifting or quintuplets or anything, so it couldn't be too bad.
I hope you enjoy this ethnic, groovy week!
M
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