Cool Stuff Part 3!

Having Dr. Weeks talk to us about his adventures to Sri Lanka was very informational. Towards the end of his presentation he showed us prayer wheels, singing bowls, marble plates etc. Then I began to realize that I have seen a prayer wheel or something similar in a movie. The movie is called The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy. As I was re-watching the movie I realized that one of the monks had a singing bowl. (Side note, this movie is really funny and it is on Netflix)

I have always been fascinated with Geishas ever since I watched Memoirs of a Geisha when I was little. I never really understood the concept of the movie: only thing I knew was that she wanted to be a Geisha which had great responsibilities and she did everything to impress a man. So, with a little researching I found out that a Geisha is much like a performer. They are highly trained women in dancing, singing and playing instruments. Traditional Geisha’s begin training at the age of 6 but todays Japanese students must stay in school until 15. Many students begin training at the age of 16-18 years old. Here is a scene from the movie Memoirs of a Geisha where the young girl is going through training.

I wanted to learn more about the particular Gods in Hinduism. I chose Shiva the destroyer, I honestly thought this was women because of the name but look at me being judgmental (Shame on me). Looking up the history of Shiva was quite interesting. He is known as the most powerful of the Hindu pantheon and of course one out of the three Godheads in the Hindu trinity. He is known to be the core of the centrifugal force of the universe and his responsibilities are death and destruction. Even though he is known as the destroyer, his destruction later results to creation.

 

But he looks like a nice God ! He looks like he would ask you how your day went. Just saying.

Music and Familia =D

Where did you grow up?: I grew up at a lot of places. The last place I grew up in was in

Spartanburg

(My Grandmas dad was in the army, so she traveled a lot when she was little)

What decade were you growing up in?: I was born in 1951

What was your first memory of music?: I cant say that because I heard a lot of little things when I was a little kid growing up. I heard little music in school but talking about something that I cared about or something that I paid attention to..uhhh. A summer place by Percy faith orchestra.

What musical influences were present in your life?: Lets see, Im going to say Rhythm and blues and R&B

So do you know about Bessie Smith?:Yes I know about her music but I was not a big fan of her music

What genres of music did you like or dislike?:  Oh my gosh..I like some of everything. I like some country music that I like. Just like I don’t like jazz but I like smooth jazz.

(I know my Grandma likes Kenny G and a jazz singer named Kem. This is one particular song I know that she likes by Kem.)

Did you play any instruments or sing?: I used to sing in my High school choir. I loved to sing

Were you involved with any music groups?: No.

Did religion play any part in the music you listened to or performed?: No

(I was surprised by her answer because my Grandma’s Grandma was a STRONG Jehovah witness so I would think her Grandma would have a lot of influence.)

Were you exposed to music through television? What was it like?: Yes, they had American band stand and The Ed Sullivan show. I can’t remember all of those shows.

Who was your first Celebrity Crush: Troy Donahue

Oooo he is a cutie.

What was your first live musical experience? Like, what was your first pop concert?:  I was in Jr. High school. It was Linda Jones but I do not remember the big name that my friends and I went too.

What did your parent listen to as you were growing up?: Rhythm and Blues

How did you learn about new music?:Listening to the Radio

What was the first sort of music you owned? What was the format?: Let’s see, “But It’s all right” by JJ Jackson in 1966. I was in the 8^th grade and it was a vinyl record.

Where and when Did you listen to music?: At home  and whenever I had some free time

What types of social issues influenced the music of your time?: The civil rights movement you can say in the 60’s. (After she said that my Grandma started played “But its all right)

Cool Stuff Part 2!

In the beginning of this week we had a guest speaker Dr. Chris Vaneman talk about African American blues. One thing that I found interesting was a statement he said about Robert Johnson. It was around the terms of that he set the prototype for great musicians dying at age 27. I decided to look up one artist that died at 27 and I found Amy Winehouse.

                She was born on September 14^th, 1983 in Southgate London and unfortunately died on-July 23^rd, 2011 in Camden London. She was best known for her powerful vocal range and her mix of musical genres. Such as Neo-soul, rhythm and blues and Jazz. One of her famous Songs were “Rehab”. I remember singing this song when I was younger but I never really knew what it was about. I just knew it was catchy and made me want to dance. It breaks my heart to see so much talent go to waste because of alcohol, drugs etc. Plus, the fact that she was incredibly talented even makes it worse because she brought so much art into the world. When I hear her sing for some odd reason she reminds me of Billie Holiday but just a modern flavor of her.  Here is a little video to lighten up the mood a little bit=)

The Goblet drum best known as the Doumbeck drum and it is a single headed membranophone with a goblet shaped body. There are two types of Goblet drums, the Eygyptian and Turkish. The video below is a like a Drum orchestra. I find the video fascinating because the drum beating reminds me of Africa.

One thing I love about Latin America are the dances. I remember taking a small dance class at my High school and we did the rumba. I find the Latin culture sexy, colorful and lively. One area of Latin America I am very fond of is the Brazilian Dancers. The Lambada and Samba dances originally came from Brazil. I think the Brazilian dancers are so beautiful and I would love to be one. However, I don’t know if I would like it if my bottom was being exposed. I do love their outfits though, they are very colorful and sparkly!

Gender Roles

   My first musical experience was at my old Baptist church. As some of you know there is usually a leader or a master conductor who is over the band and choir. Well now I that I think about it, there was always a man controlling that whole system. He was usually the piano player and he would ALWAYS get the solos..always..no exaggeration. He would run the rehearsals, told us what to wear, who had a solo (ha!) and what songs we were going to sing. I never really payed attention to that until now because maybe when you were 10 or 12, you never really payed attention to gender roles. I know I didn’t, I was too busy worried about friends and boys.

    As most of you know, I am a vocal performance major but I also played the viola in high school. Before I wanted to play the viola I wanted to play the drums but I had to play the xylophones first…no mam. So I decided to play the viola. Majority of the boys played in band of course, the boys mostly played brass instruments and very few played the percussion. As for the orchestra, we only had one boy play the violin. When I started middle school I begin to realize that boys were not playing in the orchestra because I had raging hormones and there were no boys to look at! We only had like three boys out of 20-25 people. When I got in High school nothing seemed to change with the boy to girl ratio. My senior year in High school, we only had about 6-8 boys out of 50 people playing in the orchestra.

    I was also in chorus and of course we had more females than males. I enjoyed being in a mix choir because it’s so nice hearing baritones and tenors. Male singers have a different timbre so it’s really exciting to hear something completely different. The males acted immature for the most part when it came to learning music. However, they learned their music quicker than the females. I did state chorus also and its like an audition for singers.

    Being in State chorus kind of changed my life. I was in the mixed chorus and there were more men than women. (score!) When we practiced a piece of music we always split apart from the men and practiced. I remember one rehearsal when the men came in and they finished before us. They performed their solo part in a piece called Qui Sedes. The tenors did their part towards the end of the song just by themselves. I thought I died and went to Heaven because it was so beautiful!

    Being at Converse, I now appreciate mixed choirs because I am in Chorale and it’s all women with no men singing. I missed hearing low notes from men or when the tenor section sings and it’s like “whoa..how can you sing that high and you’re a man”. I feel like when men are in a choir they are stable and they create such balance between women.  It’s so hard to explain. But I enjoy being in the chorale but sometimes I would like to hear and be around some testosterone.

Cool Stuff !

On Wednesday night I was talking to my Grandma about my Diverse Cultures class. I told her that we were learning about Native Americans and then she interrupted me and said “Oh my goodness I love Indians so much and I would love to see them dance and in their outfits”. I was like yeah Grandma the Native Americans have an event called the Powwow and different types of Native Americans get together and celebrate. I mean she was so excited about the conversation that she interrupted me again (of course). Then she said “Have you heard of a group called Redbone “Come and Get your love”?”. I was like maybe? “I used to play it all the time!” Then I started thinking and then I begin to hum it but I did not know the words. So my Grandma found this on You Tube and I thought it was pretty cool.

I decided to look up women from the Comoros. To my surprise the women are evolving just like the women in the United States. You would think that the women in Africa would not have as many rights or privileges as we do in the U.S. The women in the Comoros owns their house, they work more than men and they also work in a political offices. The women in Comoros are Muslim and it can be a little difficult for non-Muslim women. A Catholic physical therapist lives in Comoro and everyone will not visit the physical therapist because she is not Muslim. Another fun fact, Comoro used to have a Queen or was also referred as the Muslim Queen.

Reading Dr. Vaneman’s blog I became interested in the Navajo Pageant. The Pageant consist of Navajo women coming together and are preserving their community/clan and the Pageant winner represents womanhood and fulfills the role of their Grandmother, Mother aunt and sister. I love the principles this Pageant brings because it is not just about beauty or “if you could rule the world for day, what would you do”. It is about keeping a tradition and embedding the cultural into young women since the Navajo culture is gradually disappearing. I love that the winner of Miss Navajo goes around and educates other people about the culture, language and the Tradition.

Music and Religion

Music and religion is such a weird subject for me to talk about because I am not a religious person. I would not categorize myself in a religion but I am spiritual person. Before I decided what my place was with religion I was forced to go to church when I was little. I grew up in a Baptist church and my Grandma thought it was an abomination because she grew up as a Jehovah’s witness. So I was kind of in a tug of war when it came to believing in what.

                Going to a Baptist Church was bitter sweet to me because first of all, I was getting up early like I was going to school. Secondly I did not understand everything the pastor was saying because it was too difficult for a 4year old to understand. Lastly I do not know if it was just black churches but we got out SUPER late in the afternoon. However, when I was sitting out in the congregation and the choir started to sing it was like angels telling a story.  The choir made me want to attend to church because of their singing.

                The first song I remembered till this day is called “Total Praise”. (By the way it took me FOREVER to find this song). I think in every religion music is used to send a message out to people or to whomever you praise. I know when I was little, people usually sung for God and was thanking him and even sung to people when they are going through bad or good times. At my old church when the choir comes out on the balcony they sing a hymn for the hymnal book. Nothing out the ordinary and then sometimes the congregation will sing also and then the ushers will come down and get tithes. But as soon as giving tithe ends the choir gets up and sing. Majority of the church will “feel the spirit” or “catch the holy ghost” while the choir is singing.  I find this fascinating considering that as soon as the Choir sings people begin to catch the holy ghost and this is a normal thing. Out of everything in the schedule in church, people feel the spirit as soon as the choir sings something uplifting or relatable. There are no rules, no guidelines when it comes to giving praise to God. I think the only rule my old church had was to give praise to God in your own way.

                Growing up in a Baptist church I fully believe my old church had a part in my musical choices.  I love listening to slow songs and within the songs everything starts to build and at the end it’s like fireworks. I think music in my church was not only built it was also based off of experienced. I know almost every black gospel song there is always somebody that starts off saying a statement about life. Either It is good or bad or even if you are having a good day. I do not think music and religion is not just built, the music is built from the experience.

Welcome to my Music World

Ever since I was little my Grandma always played music from her time. One song she used to play all the time is called “Sound of music” by Dayton and it came out in 1984. Listening to this music really brings great vibes and makes you feel good. I cannot forget about Earth, Wind and Fire because they always put me in a good mood!  I consider myself an old person because I still listen to music from the 1960’s-1990’s. Ever since I was little I have always listened to older music and till this day I still listen to older music. From time to time my grandma always plays her music on her old vinyl record player.

As I got older I begin to realize or understand what type of music my Grandma was playing. Every day she did not play cheerful or dancing type music. Some of the music was a little depressing looking back on it. One song that I actually enjoy is called “Walk on by” by Dionne Warwick. It is just another sad love song. Majority of the music my Grandma listens to is sad love songs from the 1960’s-1980’s. Music artist such as Lenny Williams, Al Green and Donny Hathaway played a big part in the extreme sad love songs! They were like the three kings of sad love songs. I always spent time with my Grandma however, other people lived in her house as well. My aunt and uncles also had their own style of music.

Since I spent majority of my childhood at my Grandma’s house I always spent time with my Aunt.  Now my aunt to some members of my family thought she was extremely eccentric. Honestly I find my Aunt very smart and adventurous. Walking into my Aunt’s room was like a world of music experience. My Aunt listened to different genres of music from Jazz to House music or Country to Indian music. I never found her listening to different genres of music weird because I thought it was insightful. With her thinking outside the box made me want to do the same thing. My Aunt started the foundation for me to appreciate and grasp an understanding of different types of music.

Being a music major, I think it is so funny how people think that on a daily basis I listen to classical music ALLL day….no.mam. If I do listen to classical music all day, it is because I am studying for a listening quiz.