18 July 2012 (Wednesday)

7 students again today.

As I was setting up the projector and computer for the class somehow I started talking with one student about his nickname. So I started the class asking which nicknames my students have in their home countries/languages. I could tell by their reactions that some of them were embarrassed to tell their nicknames. But some of them shared theirs with the class.

As usual I asked if anyone had any musical adventures/experiences in the past week. One student said she had gone to see Spellbinder (website) at the White Rabbit (website) in Fremont.  I was surprised to hear that she had discovered this band: the drummer for Spellbinder is Michael Shrieve (info), who was the original drummer for Santana (info), including playing in his band at Woodstock (info). He is considered one of the best rock drummers. And he plays *every* Monday at a bar in Fremont! I must say again, Seattle has amazing opportunities to see great music!

Speaking of opportunities to see great music in Seattle, the evening after class I was headed down to the Crocodile (website) to see a musician from Mali, Sidi Touré (info). I loved the concert, but I doubt any of my students would have really liked it as it was very traditional Malian music. Here's an example of what it was like: "Mali Song" (video). I love the intricacy of the music between the instruments, but I can understand that some people don't like the tones of the instruments.

To start with the students' choices of music, the first song selected was "5am" (video with lyrics in notes) by SomethingALaMode (website). I can't remember exactly why the student chose this song; maybe because it is popular in France?

The student from Austria wanted to show us an Austrian folk band he likes. Like my explanation for liking Sidi Toure, he said he likes this band for its many textures and its energy.  He really likes seeing them live.  The band is Hotel Palindrone (website) and the song he showed us was "An Dro 'Samo Riba'" (video).

The music style changed for the next song: "OSCA" (video) by Tokyo Jihen (info). (Actually, we watched a different version of this video, where there are dancers and the band is in the background called "Dance Chapter", but that video has been removed from YouTube now.) I like this song!  The student who chose it says she likes that usually the singer (Ringo) sings with a sweet voice, but in this song she screams and sings rawly. And my student likes how in the video she is so emotionless as she sings wildly.

The next song was "Fall For You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Secondhand Serenade (info).  The student who chose this song discovered it on the iPod that her sister gave to her as a present when she came to Seattle.  She likes working out to this song.

The next song chosen was an oldie: recorded before any of the students in the class were even born!  It was "A Horse With No Name" (video, lyrics, song info) by America (info).


I asked the student how he knew of such an old song!  He said he had heard it when he was young and was somehow reminded of it when he woke up this morning.

One of my students is really interested in learning about local Seattle bands.  He played "Until The Day You Die" (video) by Abney Park (info) for us. The student is interested in this this "steampunk" style of music. I didn't know about this band or "steampunk" music, but I like this song!

That song reminded me to tell the students that one of Portland's most popular bands, Pink Martini (info) will be playing at the Seattle zoo this summer.  Every year they have concerts in the park at the zoo; it's called ZooTunes (website). It's a very relaxed atmosphere with people sitting on the grass watching the concert.  Lots of children around! 

To show what kind of music Pink Martini do I played their most famous song, "Sympathique" (video).  Our student from Belgium/France translated the chorus for the class: "I don't want to work, I don't want to eat lunch, I just want to forget, So I smoke." 


I think attending the Pink Martini concert would be a fun experience for my students, besides being expensive both concerts are sold out, so unless they really make an effort to buy tickets from Craigslist or something, no chance.


A student asked me what "ska" music is. That's a hard one for me to describe, so here's the Wikipedia definition of ska.

The next song chosen was "Airtap" (video) by Erik Mongrain (info). I had never heard of this guy, but he is amazing!


For some reason seeing someone so talented on guitar made me think of the famous video of North Korean children playing guitars (video). But we all agreed that video is weird and looks more like child abuse than actual joy of playing music.

To clear our minds of that last video we watched "Payphone" (video) by Sungha Jung (info), another YouTube guitarist phenomenon.


At this point we got kicked out of the room by building maintenance: normally we stay and talk until about 6pm but during the summer quarter they are closing the building at 5:30pm.

As the class left the room I promised to send an email to organize a "field trip" for the following Tuesday to go to Gasworks Park to watch sailboat races (they happen every Tuesday evening in the summer) plus going to a flamenco performance.