I think I'm just going to make Wednesdays South Indian days, because of all of the cool stuff I always learn in that class, at least for this semester.
Remember the 8-beat cycle? Aditala? That's what it's called. It goes:
X X X X X - X - :||
That's basic tala. We learned three more today.
Roopaka tala, which in South Indian music is a three beat cycle (in the North, it's 7 beats):
X X - :||
Mishranadai tala, which is three and a half beats (no, not seven)
- - X X :||
And Khanda tala, which is 5 beats:
X - X X - :||
We did some crazy stuff with that, but I don't really want to transcribe it because my head would hurt and so would yours, and I have to get to a concert in half an hour.
So instead I'll put up some videos, if I can learn how to embed something...
This first one is of a dude named Suresh, and he plays the Ghatam, which is basically a clay pot. It's way cooler than it sounds. See if you can hear the tihai.
The next one is a little ensemble consisting of violins, tandura, morsing (jaw harp), and mrudangam, the drum thing. A couple things to note: the violins are tuned tonic/fifth/tonic/fifth, or in this case D#/A#/d#/a#. The morsing player is singing the drummer solfege while plucking the little thing. It's silly.
And this last example of South Indian music (for today, don't worry) is mrudangam and kanjira, the tambourine thing. The player bends the pitch by applying tension to the head with his fingers, just like a tabla player would with the heel of his hand.
The man behind the mrudangam player is keeping tala.
I also really dig the guy drinking.
And now, my favorite North Indian video: Zakir Hussain on tabla, and Ustad Hari Prasad Chaurasia on bansuri. My favorite part is the last fifteen minutes, approximately.
Enjoy!
M
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
9/28/10 2 - What should I really be doing?
I've been doing a lot of thinking about my life since I got to college. I can't really decide if I'm doing the right thing.
I was so excited to be a percussion performance major when I first got here. I was trying out for drumline and A-line and concert bands and jazz band and all sorts of crazy ensembles. I got into one. I didn't make a jazz lab, I didn't make a drumline. Neither of them.
Once I saw how ridiculous the jazz program was, I immediately started considering switching to being a Jazz Studies major. After all, UNT was the first one to offer a Jazz Studies degree in the nation, and it's one of the best jazz programs in the country. But after I didn't make a lab, watched all of the other drummers play, and took a lesson, I noticed I wasn't really as good as I thought I was. Not even close.
But I did make it into Jazz Singers II, which was exciting. What if I were a vocal jazz major? I would have to take two years of classical training, and then sing, not drum, the rest of my life. I don't know that I have that good of a voice. I don't think I could make it through two years of classical lessons. I can't really scat that well.
I really like all of the different multi-cultural ensembles here. My South Indian Ensemble is a lot of fun, and the Brazilian and Afro-Cuban ones sound like a blast too. Maybe I should be an ethnomusicology major. I would certainly enjoy traveling to distant places to learn about the world and culture of music. But that's also a lot of learning foreign languages, and social sciences classes, and moving away from the whole performing music aspect. I think I still want that, somehow.
Maybe I should just cook. I like cooking. I like eating. I love food. It's a lot of fun, creating something from nothing, experimenting, and knowing that people appreciate what you do. But I wouldn't have any music in my life. And culinary school's really expensive.
I wish I could be who I was in high school, but at a much higher level. I wish I could play in orchestras and jazz bands and sing in a Jazz Choir and learn about music that blows my mind, and cook and play ultimate and be in a ska band with my friends. But I don't think I can do that any more. I don't think the world will let me.
What do you think?
M
I was so excited to be a percussion performance major when I first got here. I was trying out for drumline and A-line and concert bands and jazz band and all sorts of crazy ensembles. I got into one. I didn't make a jazz lab, I didn't make a drumline. Neither of them.
Once I saw how ridiculous the jazz program was, I immediately started considering switching to being a Jazz Studies major. After all, UNT was the first one to offer a Jazz Studies degree in the nation, and it's one of the best jazz programs in the country. But after I didn't make a lab, watched all of the other drummers play, and took a lesson, I noticed I wasn't really as good as I thought I was. Not even close.
But I did make it into Jazz Singers II, which was exciting. What if I were a vocal jazz major? I would have to take two years of classical training, and then sing, not drum, the rest of my life. I don't know that I have that good of a voice. I don't think I could make it through two years of classical lessons. I can't really scat that well.
I really like all of the different multi-cultural ensembles here. My South Indian Ensemble is a lot of fun, and the Brazilian and Afro-Cuban ones sound like a blast too. Maybe I should be an ethnomusicology major. I would certainly enjoy traveling to distant places to learn about the world and culture of music. But that's also a lot of learning foreign languages, and social sciences classes, and moving away from the whole performing music aspect. I think I still want that, somehow.
Maybe I should just cook. I like cooking. I like eating. I love food. It's a lot of fun, creating something from nothing, experimenting, and knowing that people appreciate what you do. But I wouldn't have any music in my life. And culinary school's really expensive.
I wish I could be who I was in high school, but at a much higher level. I wish I could play in orchestras and jazz bands and sing in a Jazz Choir and learn about music that blows my mind, and cook and play ultimate and be in a ska band with my friends. But I don't think I can do that any more. I don't think the world will let me.
What do you think?
M
9/28/10 - Fog
Over the weekend it got kinda chilly here in Denton. Saturday night it got really foggy at about 2 in the morning and I was still wide awake, so I went on a bike ride. I don't think i'll ever be closer to floating in a cloud. And the fog made everything harder to see, which made it more beautiful once really noticed it.
Maybe somehow I can tie that into how mallet instruments work.
Marimbas and xylophones and vibraphones all have harmonics, just like any other instrument. There's your hint. Now, can you tell me what the difference is between the three?
Vibraphones are easy, they're made with metal bars, almost always aluminum. But the difference between marimbas and xylophones isn't range or company that produces it. It's the different harmonics each instrument produces when struck.
When you strike a typical marimba bar, you can hear the note it is normally known as (the fundamental) and the note exactly two octaves above it the loudest. There are more overtones, but that's all that really matters. Marimba producers spend a whole lot of time with a lathe or a chisel taking out parts of the bar to tune the rosewood (usually) to its specific frequency, then to add that second octave above.
Xylophones produce a different harmonic. In Europe, they sound the fundamental and the third directly above it, which is why it sounds brighter than a marimba. In the USA, they sound the fundamental and the 5th directly above it, which still makes it sound a little brighter. I can't really tell you why they're tuned differently.
Vibraphones, coincidentally, are tuned to the fundamental and the second octave.
So try it. Just like playing a harmonic on guitar, put your finger exactly in the middle of the bar, touch it lightly, just barely. Experiment and find how to bring out that harmonic, whatever the instrument is tuned to.
Vibraphones get their name from the vibrato produced by the fans in the resonators. Vibrato keeps ensembles from sounding out of tune, hence why the strings always do it (hehe), just a little bit of info. But that's not the only thing you can do to change a vibraphone's sound. You can press in from the edge to the center of the bar with a xylophone mallet (not brass) after striking it to bend the pitch down. You can bow it with a string instrument bow, and that's a cool effect. You can even mimic the vibrato of the fans with your hand by moving it up and down (toward and away from) the bars at whatever speed you desire, or Mark Ford can do it with his mouth. It's crazy.
Anyways. You thought percussion instruments made one note and were always struck. Psh. That's just the beginning of it. When you're forced to look hard, say, through a thick patch of fog, you see things differently when you see them again. And it's pretty great what you can discover when you don't know what to expect.
M
Maybe somehow I can tie that into how mallet instruments work.
Marimbas and xylophones and vibraphones all have harmonics, just like any other instrument. There's your hint. Now, can you tell me what the difference is between the three?
Vibraphones are easy, they're made with metal bars, almost always aluminum. But the difference between marimbas and xylophones isn't range or company that produces it. It's the different harmonics each instrument produces when struck.
When you strike a typical marimba bar, you can hear the note it is normally known as (the fundamental) and the note exactly two octaves above it the loudest. There are more overtones, but that's all that really matters. Marimba producers spend a whole lot of time with a lathe or a chisel taking out parts of the bar to tune the rosewood (usually) to its specific frequency, then to add that second octave above.
Xylophones produce a different harmonic. In Europe, they sound the fundamental and the third directly above it, which is why it sounds brighter than a marimba. In the USA, they sound the fundamental and the 5th directly above it, which still makes it sound a little brighter. I can't really tell you why they're tuned differently.
Vibraphones, coincidentally, are tuned to the fundamental and the second octave.
So try it. Just like playing a harmonic on guitar, put your finger exactly in the middle of the bar, touch it lightly, just barely. Experiment and find how to bring out that harmonic, whatever the instrument is tuned to.
Vibraphones get their name from the vibrato produced by the fans in the resonators. Vibrato keeps ensembles from sounding out of tune, hence why the strings always do it (hehe), just a little bit of info. But that's not the only thing you can do to change a vibraphone's sound. You can press in from the edge to the center of the bar with a xylophone mallet (not brass) after striking it to bend the pitch down. You can bow it with a string instrument bow, and that's a cool effect. You can even mimic the vibrato of the fans with your hand by moving it up and down (toward and away from) the bars at whatever speed you desire, or Mark Ford can do it with his mouth. It's crazy.
Anyways. You thought percussion instruments made one note and were always struck. Psh. That's just the beginning of it. When you're forced to look hard, say, through a thick patch of fog, you see things differently when you see them again. And it's pretty great what you can discover when you don't know what to expect.
M
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Day Seven - Silence
Hey.
Today after classes I came home and got on the computer. I fell asleep on the keyboard, and slept for 3 hours. I was pretty exhausted, even though a got a pretty good night's sleep and didn't do much that day. I was just worn out from being in a new place and going and going and going all the time. It felt good. I needed a nap.
We can't always be Energizer bunnies. We can't keep pushing ourselves and maintaining focus and studying all night without wearing ourselves down. It's physically impossible. We'll crash.
Musically, if everyone in an ensemble (save percussionists, hehe), plays a note for as long as they can at the same time, and then doesn't come back in after they breathe, sound won't always continue. You can't hold a note forever. You can't maintain a constant sound. Eventually you have to breathe.
So breathe. Take a nap. Sit down and relax. Stop thinking so hard. It seems a little crazy that not doing anything may be the best option if you want to keep doing something, but sometimes it's true.
M
Today after classes I came home and got on the computer. I fell asleep on the keyboard, and slept for 3 hours. I was pretty exhausted, even though a got a pretty good night's sleep and didn't do much that day. I was just worn out from being in a new place and going and going and going all the time. It felt good. I needed a nap.
We can't always be Energizer bunnies. We can't keep pushing ourselves and maintaining focus and studying all night without wearing ourselves down. It's physically impossible. We'll crash.
Musically, if everyone in an ensemble (save percussionists, hehe), plays a note for as long as they can at the same time, and then doesn't come back in after they breathe, sound won't always continue. You can't hold a note forever. You can't maintain a constant sound. Eventually you have to breathe.
So breathe. Take a nap. Sit down and relax. Stop thinking so hard. It seems a little crazy that not doing anything may be the best option if you want to keep doing something, but sometimes it's true.
M
Day Six - Equality
There is certainly such thing as too much of a good thing. I stay up too late (which can be a good thing), but then I get six hours of sleep and go to class tired. I practice too much, I chop out or hurt my wrists. I socialize too much, I don't do well at my lessons. I work on my right hand too much, my left hand suffers. You get the idea.
When I had my lesson with Brian Del Signore from the HSO, the first thing he said was, "you're very right handed." He told me to play what I had just played starting on the left hand. Not so good. The goal is to make your left hand sound identical to your right hand when you're drumming; always maintain a constant sound. So, every exercise and solo you play, take a minute to learn it with opposite stickings. No one cares if you can rip paradiddle-diddles of the right hand if you can barely play them on the left. A bass player doesn't sound better on two of his four strings, a brass player doesn't sound better on certain notes, drummers shouldn't sound better with certain stickings.
I don't practice much, remember? But since I got on my practicing streak yesterday, I got pretty motivated. I worked hard yesterday, and it felt good, but I worked hard today, too hard, and I burnt out. I couldn't improve anymore. I hit a wall. In these situations, you can't keep pushing yourself to improve. Take a break. It's useless to try and push through the wall; the wall's not going anywhere. So I talked to friends, rode my bike, ate dinner, and came back, and the wall was gone. I could improve again. Breaks are great.
Not practicing enough though can be dangerous too, especially if your private lesson teachers are quick to get angry. Mine aren't, but I still feel disappointed when I can't do what they ask me to.
It is important to know when to stop, because if you do overwork yourself, you could be doing more damage than improvement. When you go to the gym and work out for longer than average, and you feel like death afterwards because you pushed yourself beyond your limit, try to do your average workout the next day. It's harder. Your body doesn't like things that hurt it. Don't train your body to dislike things that it should enjoy on accident.
Get some sleep. Writing a blog isn't the most important thing you could be doing at 1:30 in the morning. (ahem. me.)
With that wisdom I'll leave you. Sweet dreams.
M
When I had my lesson with Brian Del Signore from the HSO, the first thing he said was, "you're very right handed." He told me to play what I had just played starting on the left hand. Not so good. The goal is to make your left hand sound identical to your right hand when you're drumming; always maintain a constant sound. So, every exercise and solo you play, take a minute to learn it with opposite stickings. No one cares if you can rip paradiddle-diddles of the right hand if you can barely play them on the left. A bass player doesn't sound better on two of his four strings, a brass player doesn't sound better on certain notes, drummers shouldn't sound better with certain stickings.
I don't practice much, remember? But since I got on my practicing streak yesterday, I got pretty motivated. I worked hard yesterday, and it felt good, but I worked hard today, too hard, and I burnt out. I couldn't improve anymore. I hit a wall. In these situations, you can't keep pushing yourself to improve. Take a break. It's useless to try and push through the wall; the wall's not going anywhere. So I talked to friends, rode my bike, ate dinner, and came back, and the wall was gone. I could improve again. Breaks are great.
Not practicing enough though can be dangerous too, especially if your private lesson teachers are quick to get angry. Mine aren't, but I still feel disappointed when I can't do what they ask me to.
It is important to know when to stop, because if you do overwork yourself, you could be doing more damage than improvement. When you go to the gym and work out for longer than average, and you feel like death afterwards because you pushed yourself beyond your limit, try to do your average workout the next day. It's harder. Your body doesn't like things that hurt it. Don't train your body to dislike things that it should enjoy on accident.
Get some sleep. Writing a blog isn't the most important thing you could be doing at 1:30 in the morning. (ahem. me.)
With that wisdom I'll leave you. Sweet dreams.
M
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Day Five - Organizing Life
I don't practice enough. I'm just going to say it. I wish I could practice for three hours, but that's just not how I trained myself. I never really enjoyed practicing, unless it was for something I personally was interested in.
But, after a bad lesson on Monday (not your fault, Jake), I decided I need to get on my horse and practice more. A lot more. But I couldn't really decide how.
Before today, I couldn't ever really decide what to do with my 5 hours I have in between class in the morning and tango on Tuesdays. Usually it ends up being lunch, google something.... facebook... mess around on Sibelius... oh crap it's 5 o'clock. But today I tried something different.
I got done with lunch at 12:30, and sat down at my computer to decide what I really needed to get done that day. Two hours of practice, learn 30 measures of marimba solo, gym, library, dance class, study group, write this. I always go the the gym at 11, cuz no one's on my stationary bike, dance class is at 5 and study group is at 6:45. So that leaves at least two one hours blocks of time for snare and mallet practice, and a half hour somewhere to learn my solo.
And guess what? I got it all done. I scheduled my day and took a nap til 3, ran to the library, practiced and learn my solo for an hour, went to dance class, study group, learned snare stuff for an hour, went to the gym (with my snare books, haha), and now I'm writing this. Mission accomplished. Check marks all around.
I found out that if you don't have a plan for something, a specific set of goals or benchmarks for the things you want to accomplish, it's much less likely to ever happen. Now, this doesn't mean, when you're trying to relax, think about how you're going to relax. That's against the point. And sure, I guess you can get a little neurotic about it and map your day out to the minute, but that's not necessary.
Set goals for the day, set goals for the week, and find certain times of day you can do things every day. Find whatever helps you get things done when you need to get things done, and do them.
You are the best motivation you can ever have. You can only become what you work hard to be.
M
But, after a bad lesson on Monday (not your fault, Jake), I decided I need to get on my horse and practice more. A lot more. But I couldn't really decide how.
Before today, I couldn't ever really decide what to do with my 5 hours I have in between class in the morning and tango on Tuesdays. Usually it ends up being lunch, google something.... facebook... mess around on Sibelius... oh crap it's 5 o'clock. But today I tried something different.
I got done with lunch at 12:30, and sat down at my computer to decide what I really needed to get done that day. Two hours of practice, learn 30 measures of marimba solo, gym, library, dance class, study group, write this. I always go the the gym at 11, cuz no one's on my stationary bike, dance class is at 5 and study group is at 6:45. So that leaves at least two one hours blocks of time for snare and mallet practice, and a half hour somewhere to learn my solo.
And guess what? I got it all done. I scheduled my day and took a nap til 3, ran to the library, practiced and learn my solo for an hour, went to dance class, study group, learned snare stuff for an hour, went to the gym (with my snare books, haha), and now I'm writing this. Mission accomplished. Check marks all around.
I found out that if you don't have a plan for something, a specific set of goals or benchmarks for the things you want to accomplish, it's much less likely to ever happen. Now, this doesn't mean, when you're trying to relax, think about how you're going to relax. That's against the point. And sure, I guess you can get a little neurotic about it and map your day out to the minute, but that's not necessary.
Set goals for the day, set goals for the week, and find certain times of day you can do things every day. Find whatever helps you get things done when you need to get things done, and do them.
You are the best motivation you can ever have. You can only become what you work hard to be.
M
Day Four - Taking advantage of free things
Over the weekend I found out I am severely out of money. I have a hundred dollars. That has to last me for a while. That's a scary thought. I can't just go out and buy food from anywhere whenever I want it, or have coffee with a study break, or eat out with friends all the time. It kinda sucks, to be honest.
But at the same time, not having any money makes you look harder to find things that are still available to you, and to appreciate what you already have.
- Food at Bruce isn't bad when you can eat as much as you want from early to 8 pm. As much as you want.
- Saltines and ramen and Uncle Ben's Ready Rice are great. Saltines were great anyway.
- Thanks to free rec center, I am going to have massive legs when I come home.
- Thanks to free music library, I am going to have massive megs (and gigs) of music when I come home.
- Instead of looking for ways to spend cash, I can spend time practicing. There's a good investment. *wink*
- Even a four dollar cover charge is a lot. That's sad.
- I would love a job. As long as I can get there on my bike, and it doesn't interfere with my already kinda busy schedule. Hm.
- I love my bike.
- Free jazz is so much worse than a jazz show that doesn't cost any money to get into. (Unless it's free free jazz)
Somehow I've just been happier without all of the unnecessary sandwiches and mochas and lollygagging and fro yo. Maybe it's cuz I'm taking advantage of the time I have with the people around me, and the things that are already mine.
Maybe the best things in life really are free.
On a slightly more musical note, I went to a show at the Greenhouse tonight (it was free.) The band was pretty good, especially the pianist and the drummer. I talked to the drummer, who I saw at another concert I'd been to before, and asked him if I could take lessons with him some time. He said sure.
So I may be taking lessons with the drummer from the 2 or 3 O' Clock Lab Band. I don't remember which.
That's about it. I'm sleepy.
But at the same time, not having any money makes you look harder to find things that are still available to you, and to appreciate what you already have.
- Food at Bruce isn't bad when you can eat as much as you want from early to 8 pm. As much as you want.
- Saltines and ramen and Uncle Ben's Ready Rice are great. Saltines were great anyway.
- Thanks to free rec center, I am going to have massive legs when I come home.
- Thanks to free music library, I am going to have massive megs (and gigs) of music when I come home.
- Instead of looking for ways to spend cash, I can spend time practicing. There's a good investment. *wink*
- Even a four dollar cover charge is a lot. That's sad.
- I would love a job. As long as I can get there on my bike, and it doesn't interfere with my already kinda busy schedule. Hm.
- I love my bike.
- Free jazz is so much worse than a jazz show that doesn't cost any money to get into. (Unless it's free free jazz)
Somehow I've just been happier without all of the unnecessary sandwiches and mochas and lollygagging and fro yo. Maybe it's cuz I'm taking advantage of the time I have with the people around me, and the things that are already mine.
Maybe the best things in life really are free.
On a slightly more musical note, I went to a show at the Greenhouse tonight (it was free.) The band was pretty good, especially the pianist and the drummer. I talked to the drummer, who I saw at another concert I'd been to before, and asked him if I could take lessons with him some time. He said sure.
So I may be taking lessons with the drummer from the 2 or 3 O' Clock Lab Band. I don't remember which.
That's about it. I'm sleepy.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Day Three
I don't have very much stuff for today.
Brian Del Signore from the Houston Symphony Orchestra came in to the percussion departmental and did a little lecture on digital recording and its uses in the practice room. It was pretty cool to see how you can use modern technology to improve your technique and accuracy and the like. But a lot of it seemed kinda neurotic and it's certainly not something I would do every day.
Brian used a program called Audacity to record his playing, then analyze it by slowing it down and listening to what he recorded and by looking at the sound waves to see if he was playing strokes accurately and evenly. Audacity is pretty easy to figure out and you should look into it, at least download it: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
To be honest, I'm kinda scared to see if i'm terribly inaccurate or need a lot of work. But, in this case, what you don't know can indeed hurt you.
In my jazz records class the other day we listened to a composer/arranger named Don Ellis and the band he put together. His band was 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 saxes (they all doubled on everything), 3 basses, a piano, 2 drumset players, a percussionist, and a sitar player. Certainly not your run-of-the-mill jazz band. Don didn't like normal things very much; he wrote all of his songs in compound meters, like 9/8 or 7/8 or something crazy like that, and he really liked quarter tones, which are kind of disgusting if you aren't very familiar with them. I've only heard two instruments built to play quarter tones, one was a quarter tone marimba I heard at PASIC, and the other was Don Ellis' trumpet (in the solo) in this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrsNOSewwAM
Don't mind the album cover.
That's about it for today. I miss home. But it's fun here :)
M
Brian Del Signore from the Houston Symphony Orchestra came in to the percussion departmental and did a little lecture on digital recording and its uses in the practice room. It was pretty cool to see how you can use modern technology to improve your technique and accuracy and the like. But a lot of it seemed kinda neurotic and it's certainly not something I would do every day.
Brian used a program called Audacity to record his playing, then analyze it by slowing it down and listening to what he recorded and by looking at the sound waves to see if he was playing strokes accurately and evenly. Audacity is pretty easy to figure out and you should look into it, at least download it: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
To be honest, I'm kinda scared to see if i'm terribly inaccurate or need a lot of work. But, in this case, what you don't know can indeed hurt you.
In my jazz records class the other day we listened to a composer/arranger named Don Ellis and the band he put together. His band was 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 saxes (they all doubled on everything), 3 basses, a piano, 2 drumset players, a percussionist, and a sitar player. Certainly not your run-of-the-mill jazz band. Don didn't like normal things very much; he wrote all of his songs in compound meters, like 9/8 or 7/8 or something crazy like that, and he really liked quarter tones, which are kind of disgusting if you aren't very familiar with them. I've only heard two instruments built to play quarter tones, one was a quarter tone marimba I heard at PASIC, and the other was Don Ellis' trumpet (in the solo) in this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrsNOSewwAM
Don't mind the album cover.
That's about it for today. I miss home. But it's fun here :)
M
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Day Two - A Little Music History
Hi everyone!
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I technically only have two classes, and they're ten minutes apart in the same classroom. So I go to class at 9:30, take notes about composers for an hour and a half, and then learn about cadences and stuff til noon. And then I'm done before I eat lunch.
My first class, Music in the Human Imagination, is basically a music history class with a fancy name. Things you should generally know about music history:
There are six periods of musical history:
Medieval (before 1400)
- Little known, very Christianity centered
Renaissance (1400-1600)
- Similar to Classical music, music was balanced and contained order.
Baroque (1600-1750)
- Ornate, expressive, over-the-top, certainly not balanced.
Classical (1750-1820)
- Back to order and balance
Romantic (1820-1914)
- Emotional, very expressive.
Modern (1914-present)
- Started with marches, evolved into more contemporary music.
Notice how things shift back and forth from balance and order to over-the-top and ornate. Each time period was a reaction to the time period before it.
Cool things about composers, because other than that everything else is really nerdy:
- Vivaldi wrote over 400 concertos, most of which were for the children who played music at Seminario Musicale dell'Ospedale della Pieta, a school he taught at.
- Bach was the Holy Grail of the Baroque period. When he died, the Baroque period ended. Simple as that.
- Mozart began composing when he was 5 years old, and played keyboard (harpsichord, probably) and violin like a boss, but he didn't make it into the Mannheim school, the big music conservatory of his time.
- Haydn wrote 108 symphonies, but he lived a pretty long time too. He worked for the Austrian royal family for 30 years.
- Beethoven didn't go deaf until his later years. He was one of the first to transition from the 3rd and 4th movements instead of taking a little break in between. And he was so good other people were scared to write symphonies because, relatively, they sucked.
- Brahms took 20 years to write his first symphony. He said he didn't want it to be compared to Beethoven's symphonies, even though it was in C minor, like Beethoven 5, and sounded a lot like Ode to Joy. Some of the critics called it "Beethoven's 10th" as a joke.
- Berlioz was the first major composer to not play an instrument. All of the previous composers were classically trained on at least one instrument. Perhaps as a result of his lack of training, he was innovative in techniques used to make sounds (using the back of the bow, mutes, etc.) and brining in new instruments.
- Tchaikovsky was a professor at the opening of the Moscow Conservatory, which was later renamed the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory. His "Romeo and Juliet" follows the form of Shakespeare's original play but also somewhat sticks to the basic sonata and ritornello forms of composers before him.
So. That's enough nerdery for today. Wanna hear a shreddin' harpsichord player? Listen to the cadenza about 6 minutes in to this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49IOKnhX0Sk
Happy Thursday!
M
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Day One - South Indian Ensemble
So, first of all, a dedication. When worst comes to worst and I only have two readers, at least I know I'll always have two readers. My mom, and Zoe. Thanks. :)
Anyways, let's get down to business. I made this mostly to keep track of what I do in school, all of the crazy stuff I come across, or things that I don't write down that I would otherwise forget about. But I figured it would be a cool way to see what being a UNT music student is like, and it's almost like getting a free music class, except I'm not getting paid, so it's not really a class.
I'm certainly not against getting paid though...
Today is Wednesday, and in my life, Wednesdays mean the second day of tango class and South Indian Ensemble. South Indian Ensemble is the cooler than the other side of the pillow. My teacher, Sriji, has this awesome Indian accent and is just a badass in general, complete with iTabla and iTandura iPhone apps. We all sit and a circle and speak nonsense and clap and it's a fun time for everyone!
The Basics of South Indian Music:
- All rhythms can be subdivided in to 1, 2, or 3 notes, but for convenience's sake, we sometimes subdivide four. Subdivisions are "ta", "ta ka", "ta ki ta", and "ta ka di mi", respectively.
- Time signature is called "tala". It works basically the same way any other time signature does but some beats are stressed and others are not, depending on which time signature you're in. Stressed and unstressed-ness just depends on what hundreds of years of tradition say to do.
- Just like western solfege, S. Indian solfege has eight notes; they are Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ni, and Sa (again). Unlike western solfege, whenever you flat or sharp a note, the word stays the same - no mi/me, la/le business.
- A raga is a melody, in the simplest of terms. They are all based upon the 72 "melakartha", which are every possible combination of notes from Sa to Sa without skipping notes.
- The first (Sa) and fifth (Pa) note never change. No flat fifths.
- In the first 36 melakartha, Ma is natural (F in the key of C); in the second 36, Ma is sharp (F#)
- Then, the 2nd/3rd and 6th/7th notes follow a pattern:
flat - double flat
flat - flat
flat - natural
natural - flat
natural - natural
sharp - natural
- Since notes can never have the same frequency as each other, you can't have double flat - double flat, that would make C Dbb, which is just C C.
- To find what melakartha you are using, decide 1. F natural or F#? 2. which pattern does the 2nd/3rd follow? 3. Which pattern does the 6th/7th follow?
- So, the first melakartha is C Db Ebb F G Ab Bb C; the 27th is C D E F G Ab B C (2/3 is the fifth pattern, 6/7 is the third)
The difference between a melakartha and a raga is the use of gamekas, which are inflections or ways of hitting a note, like sliding up or vibrato or the like.
It's kinda confusing and took me a while just to get the solfege down. But I got it eventually.
Fun fact: ragas are only sung at certain times of day or for certain occasions. Since all the little indian boys and girls have their music lessons early, the all sing the same raga when they're learning, the morning raga. At concerts, sometimes musicians play long enough to play past midnight, so they can play a morning raga. They get sick of the night time ones.
--------------
Now, rhythmic stuff.
What we've been doing has been based around and 8-beat cycle, with the 6th and 8th beats unstressed. So clap on 1-5, don't on 6, clap on 7, don't on 8.
||: clap / clap / clap / clap / clap / rest / clap / rest :||
So far we've spent two weeks composing variations on a basic pattern, which is this: 7 sets of four sixteenth notes (ta ka di mi), followed by a set of 5 (ta ka ta ki ta). Three times. Then a 6 sets of four, and a set of 5. If you add them all you get 128 sixteenth notes, or 32 quarter notes, or 4 8-beat cycles.
Clap the cycle while trying to sing the basic pattern.
Now, if you thought that was crazy, there are other variations. Try it with eighth notes, dotted eights, quarter notes, 5-lets, 7-lets. I'll write it all out and show you if you're really interested.
That should be it for today. That's a lot of stuff. Thanks for reading, if you made it all the way, I really appreciate it.
M
Anyways, let's get down to business. I made this mostly to keep track of what I do in school, all of the crazy stuff I come across, or things that I don't write down that I would otherwise forget about. But I figured it would be a cool way to see what being a UNT music student is like, and it's almost like getting a free music class, except I'm not getting paid, so it's not really a class.
I'm certainly not against getting paid though...
Today is Wednesday, and in my life, Wednesdays mean the second day of tango class and South Indian Ensemble. South Indian Ensemble is the cooler than the other side of the pillow. My teacher, Sriji, has this awesome Indian accent and is just a badass in general, complete with iTabla and iTandura iPhone apps. We all sit and a circle and speak nonsense and clap and it's a fun time for everyone!
The Basics of South Indian Music:
- All rhythms can be subdivided in to 1, 2, or 3 notes, but for convenience's sake, we sometimes subdivide four. Subdivisions are "ta", "ta ka", "ta ki ta", and "ta ka di mi", respectively.
- Time signature is called "tala". It works basically the same way any other time signature does but some beats are stressed and others are not, depending on which time signature you're in. Stressed and unstressed-ness just depends on what hundreds of years of tradition say to do.
- Just like western solfege, S. Indian solfege has eight notes; they are Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ni, and Sa (again). Unlike western solfege, whenever you flat or sharp a note, the word stays the same - no mi/me, la/le business.
- A raga is a melody, in the simplest of terms. They are all based upon the 72 "melakartha", which are every possible combination of notes from Sa to Sa without skipping notes.
- The first (Sa) and fifth (Pa) note never change. No flat fifths.
- In the first 36 melakartha, Ma is natural (F in the key of C); in the second 36, Ma is sharp (F#)
- Then, the 2nd/3rd and 6th/7th notes follow a pattern:
flat - double flat
flat - flat
flat - natural
natural - flat
natural - natural
sharp - natural
- Since notes can never have the same frequency as each other, you can't have double flat - double flat, that would make C Dbb, which is just C C.
- To find what melakartha you are using, decide 1. F natural or F#? 2. which pattern does the 2nd/3rd follow? 3. Which pattern does the 6th/7th follow?
- So, the first melakartha is C Db Ebb F G Ab Bb C; the 27th is C D E F G Ab B C (2/3 is the fifth pattern, 6/7 is the third)
The difference between a melakartha and a raga is the use of gamekas, which are inflections or ways of hitting a note, like sliding up or vibrato or the like.
It's kinda confusing and took me a while just to get the solfege down. But I got it eventually.
Fun fact: ragas are only sung at certain times of day or for certain occasions. Since all the little indian boys and girls have their music lessons early, the all sing the same raga when they're learning, the morning raga. At concerts, sometimes musicians play long enough to play past midnight, so they can play a morning raga. They get sick of the night time ones.
--------------
Now, rhythmic stuff.
What we've been doing has been based around and 8-beat cycle, with the 6th and 8th beats unstressed. So clap on 1-5, don't on 6, clap on 7, don't on 8.
||: clap / clap / clap / clap / clap / rest / clap / rest :||
So far we've spent two weeks composing variations on a basic pattern, which is this: 7 sets of four sixteenth notes (ta ka di mi), followed by a set of 5 (ta ka ta ki ta). Three times. Then a 6 sets of four, and a set of 5. If you add them all you get 128 sixteenth notes, or 32 quarter notes, or 4 8-beat cycles.
Clap the cycle while trying to sing the basic pattern.
Now, if you thought that was crazy, there are other variations. Try it with eighth notes, dotted eights, quarter notes, 5-lets, 7-lets. I'll write it all out and show you if you're really interested.
M
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