Thursday, October 18, 2007

"When it rains, it pours."

This is a phrase in English we use for when everything goes wrong at the same time.

Events today conspired to prevent the Language Of Music Class from taking place. :-(( A big wind storm hit the Seattle area in the afternoon and made traffic very slow to get from Microsoft to BCC. So I arrived 15 minutes late, at 4.45pm. And then I discovered that the door to the room was locked! No students were waiting outside the room, so I guess anyone who came to class had left. How frustrating!

The fact that class didn't happen today was justdue to a one-time series of bad luck events -- class will be held as usual, starting at 4.30pm next Thursday.

Steve

Thursday, Oct 11, 2007

After a break of a few months a new session of The Lanaguage Of Music English conversation class started again -- now at Bellevue Community College! I am doing it at BCC now because it is close to Microsoft and on Thursdays I can leave work a bit early to do class in the afternoon.

Kara at BCC was very helpful in getting a room reserved and promoting the activity with BCC's English teaches, but I had no idea how many people would show up for class...

On this first day there were 18 students! What a great turnout! From the teaching standpoint it is hard to keep so many people interested and talking, but I am glad to have so much interest in the class. Past experience tells me that the regular class size will stabilize around 8-12 people and as those people get to know each other the conversations will flow. I remain in touch with some of my students from past sessions and I know that some of them have found new friends in this class.

It took a while to get the computer and internet access set up this first time so we got a little late start. I started with an introduction about myself and how the "class" works. I then asked the students to each give their name, where they are from and their favorite kind of music. Most students are from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea, but there are some from other places, too.

Without any more delay I asked who wanted to hear a song. There were a lot of shy looks, but soon a student from Russia raised her hand and suggested "Wishmaster" (video, lyrics) by Nightwish (bio).

As we watched the video I asked the student (Marianna) why she picked this song. She said she likes the power of the woman's singing.

I asked if any of the other students knew this band and song but no one else did. Indeed, I think that a lot of the other students were a little dismayed by such heavy music -- especially those who said in their introductions that they like classical and pop music. I hoped that the next choice of songs would have a wider appeal among the students.

The next songs chosen was "Alcoholic" (video, lyrics) by Starsailor (bio). Definitely a song with broader appeal, though I think it was a still a unfamiliar to most students. The student who chose it said he likes the melancholic mood of the song.

I saw Starsailor in a small club in Paris back in 2000(?) when the toured for their first album. That night the singer wore a t-shirt with SEATTLE printed across the chest. That was pretty funny for me.

Though this song was more palatable to the group, I could still see that a lot of the people were not engaged. I hoped the next song would be more widely known among the students.

I called on the student who in his introduction said that he liked R&B. He chose "21 Questions" (video, lyrics) by 50 Cent (bio). The student who chose it said he likes the way 50 Cent sings. When I asked the group who of them knew this song quite few knew it, but not that many seemed passionate about it.

But now the students could see how the class runs and the next student was ready to pick a song -- I didn't even have to ask someone specifically to choose one. He chose "Beautiful Girls" (video, lyrics) by Sean Kingston (bio). He said he likes the song because the lyrics are easy to understand and it has a happy feel to it -- like how he felt when he first heard it.

The next song was "True" (video, lyrics) by Ryan Cabrera (bio). The student who picked it said he likes it because it is a simple song and the voice fits the song very well.

It was coming up on 5.30pm and I could see people getting ready to go. I said I would play one more song, then people could leave. I chose a song I have chosen many times before: "Isla Margarita" (video) by my friends Children Of The Revolution (bio). I chose this for two reasons:

1/ I know from past experience that my students really like this band's music and like the salsa dancing in the video.

2/ I use COTR as an example of local music that I take my students to see. The next time the band plays an all-ages (most of the students are under 21 and can't go to pubs/bars/clubs in Seattle) concert I will tell the students about it. Indeed, after my last class ended I took three students to see COTR play at the Folklife Festival and all three of them *loved* it! Part of that concert can be heard here.

Speaking of concerts coming up, one of my students from Spring Quarter (Hyunjin) wrote telling me how much she loves Irish music and asked me if there are any places to see Irish music. Perfect timing! -- there is a very cool concert called "Celtic Nights" happening at the end of October.

Most of the students left after the COTR video. I hope many will return next week.

A few students stayed so we kept playing more songs. Inspired by the Children Of The Revolution latin-flavored music one student asked to play "Bossa Nova" (video) from the film Black Orpheus (information). Here is information about bossa nova music.

Marianna, who had chosen Nightwish at the beginning of class was still there and hearing the acoustic guitar of the bossa nova reminded me of this fantastic duo from Mexico that I saw play live this summer called Rodrigo Y Gabriela (bio). They are fantastic musicians -- former metalheads who now play traditionally-inspired acoustic music -- and the live show is very engaging, even though they are just two people and they don't sing. I played a couple of videos for the last few students: "Diablo Rojo" (video) and the "Guitar Lesson" (video) where Gabriela explains how she gets so many textures of sound out of her guitar. I think these guys are amazing and I recommend checking out *all* their videos on YouTube -- especially "Tamacun" (video) which features Gabriela playing with her knuckles on the guitar!

Rodrigo Y Gabriela are playing a concert in Seattle October 31st. I'd love to see them again but I won't be able to go because I will be attending a concert by two bands from Mali, Vieux Farke Toure (bio) and Tinariwen (bio) that night. What a great night for music in Seattle Halloween will be this year!

With that, at about 6pm, the class ended. I look forward to next week's meeting!