23 January 2013 (Wednesday)

5 students came today, including 2 new students.

One of the new students, from Japan, said he likes Japanese rap. As an example we played "Grateful Days" (video, song info) by Dragon Ash (info). In particular he likes the combination of the man's voice with the woman's voice in this song.

The next song was "Look At Me Now" (video, lyrics, song info) by Chris Brown (info).  The student who chose this song had heard it in a club and liked it in that environment. But none of us can understand the raps without looking at the lyrics -- Busta Rhymes (info) just raps too fast!!

Next we heard "Imagine Me Without You" (video with lyrics, song info) by Jaci Velasquez (info).  Since this song is about love and being with or without a person's love I asked the students whether they think it is better to:
a/ "love but then lose love"
or
b/ "never love in the first place" 

Most students in the class are romantic and believe it is better to know the feeling of love, even if it is followed by pain, then to not know love at all. Let's hope that the suffering for love is minimal for all of us!

The next song chosen was "All The Right Moves" (video, lyrics, song info) by OneRepublic (info). The student who chose this song thought the band is from Seattle, but Wikipedia says they are from Colorado.

The music in that song made me think of the song "Crystal" (video, lyrics, song info) by New Order (info). My favorite part of this song is the background vocals that go "woo hoo" and "yeah".

Speaking of "woo hoo" I had to play another of my favorite songs which has this background vocal: "Maybe Tomorrow (video, lyrics, song info) by Stereophonics (info). This is one of my favorite songs, partly because of the "woo hoo's" throughout the song as well as the subject of "finding home".  

As a person who has lived abroad a lot I have often thought about where "home" is.  We talked in the class about where each student feels "home" is and where they would like to raise a family. I also asked if they would be open to marrying a person who is not from their home country. Most said they are open to marrying someone from a different country.

The next song was "Welcome To The Black Parade" (video, lyrics, song info) by My Chemical Romance (info). The student who chose it said his friends like singing karaoke to this song.

I asked the student what his favorite song to sing karaoke to is. He said he likes singing to "She's Gone" (video, lyrics, song info) by Steelheart (info), which is one of the most popular karaoke songs in Korea -- people like to sing the high notes.

Back to the subject of "home" that we had talked about before, one of the students chose the song "Home" (video, lyrics, song info) by Michael Buble (info). 

The last song of the day was "Do You Hear The People Sing" (video, lyrics, song info) from the musical Les Miserables (info). (But now I'm not sure if this is the same version of the video we watched in class...)

With that we were done for the day -- I hope to see everyone again next Wednesday!

16 January 2013 (Wednesday)

14 students today, 8 of them new to the class.

The first song we listened to was "I Got You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Leona Lewis (info).  The student who picked it said he heard the song for the first time in a club and it reminds him of that time. 

The next song was "Set Fire To The Rain" (video, lyrics, song info) by Adele (info).  The student who chose it said he likes the melody of the song a lot.

Next was "We Belong Together" (video, lyrics, song info) by Mariah Carey (info).

I mentioned that last week we had been introduced to a traditional Egyptian singer, Om Kalthoum (info). One of the students said that a current singer who sings in Arabic that he likes is Nancy Ajram (info). We listened to the song "Enta Eih" (video, song info) as an example of one of her songs.

Her style of singing reminds me of an Israeli singer I heard back in the 1980's, Ofra Haza (info). I became aware of her song "Im Nin'alu" (video, song info) because part of it was used in a rap song, "Paid In Full" (video, lyrics, song info).

The next song chosen was "Somebody I Used To Know" (video, lyrics, song info) by Gotye (info).  This song was a huge hit around the world this past year. The student who chose it said she discovered it when she saw Gotye play at the Bumbershoot music festival (info) at the end of summer. 

[Bumbershoot is one of my favorite events in the world -- I go all three days whenever I am in Seattle. I was there this year, too. But instead of going to see Gotye I watched the local rock guitar player Ayron Jones (website) at that time. Here's an example of his music live -- he's the best rock guitarist in Seattle right now!]

The next song chosen was "Starships" (video, lyrics, song info) by Nicki Minaj (info).  The student who chose this song said he likes the beat and to dance to the song -- but at home, not in a club!

The next song was "Unfaithful" (video, lyrics, song info) by Rihanna (info). 

The next song was a big change: "French Navy" (video, lyrics, song info) by Camera Obscura (info).  The student who chose this song is learning to play the ukelele (info) and plays this song on the ukelele.

I mentioned that a musician from Seattle, Eddie Vedder (info) made a whole album of songs played on ukelele called (surprise, surprise!) "Ukelele Songs" (info). An example of one of those songs is "Can't Keep" (video, lyrics).

The next song chosen was "Falling Slowly" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Swell Season (info) from the film Once (info). I realized as we listened to this song that almost all the songs we had listened to so far today had been women singers: this was finally a duet. 

With that class had to break for the day. 

By the way, last week on of the students asked about which Seattle bands/musicans are good. Here's the list of top selling Northwest albums for last week:

1. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist

2. Soundgarden - King Animal

3. Brandi Carlile - Bear Creek

4. Sera Cahoone - Deer Creek Canyon

5. Caspar Babypants - I Found You!

6. Helio Sequence - Negotiations 

7. The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart

8. Allen Stone - Allen Stone

9. Pickwick - Myths

10. Ben Gibbard - Former Lives