Language Of Music class on break until Spring Quarter

Attendance for the past few weeks of The Language Of Music conversation class was very low so I have cancelled class for the remainder of Winter Quarter. We will start again in Spring Quarter (April 2013).

13 February 2013 (Wednesday)

Today only 1 student showed up! :-(  We talked for a little while generally, but didn't talk about music specifcically.

Since no one was there to share their favorite love songs for Valentine's Day, for this week's blog entry I will offer a few of my favorite choices:

"In My Life" (video with lyrics, song info) by The Beatles (info).

"Songbird" (video with lyrics, song info) by Fleetwood Mac (info).

I find this song to be very sweet: "Somersault" (video, lyrics, song info) by Zero 7 (info).

One of my current favorite love songs, which emphasizes longing: "You Do Something To Me" (video, lyrics, song info) by Paul Weller (info).

"Forever In My Life" (video, lyrics, song info) by Prince (info). Note, this video is the live version which is about 7 minutes longer than the studio version (on the Sign O' The Times album), and while it's a great version, it lack the intimacy of the studio version. But I couldn't find a link to the studio version online.


Of course, Valentine's Day can sometimes include heartbreak.  Here a couple of songs for "difficult" Valentine's Day:

"Love Of My Life" (video, lyrics, song info) by Queen (info).

"Wicked Game" (video, lyrics, song info) by Chris Isaak (info). 

6 February 2013 (Wednesday)

Only 2 students came today(!).  We had a fun chat but it was a short class: I had to leave a bit early to go to the Chinese New Year celebration at the Triple Door anyway.

I was telling the students that I know one of the performers at the Chinese New Year celebration this evening. My friend is Lucy Wu, who was trained at the Beijing Opera but now lives in Seattle. She plays jinghu and is a wonderful singer. I showed a short video of a collaboration that Lucy did with another friend of mine, Geoffrey Castle (video). In that video are examples of both Lucy's playing and singing but also of Geoffrey's unique style of playing electric violin -- he makes the violin sound like an electric guitar!

One of the students said that a few years ago a woman, Vanessa Mae (info) became popular in China playing violin over pop music. As an example of one of her song's we watched "Red Hot" (video, song info).

I mentioned that Geoffrey Castle (website) is a good showman and he got that flair by busking in the New York subway. "Busking" means playing music on the street and putting a hat or something in front of you so people can throw money into it.  To get people to give you money in New York City you have to put on a good show and that's what Geoffrey learned to do!
  


Speaking of "street art" I showed a couple videos of a "street magician" named David Blaine (info). I like seeing the reactions of the people he surprises. Here's a full tv special about him. (If that link doesn't work, search YouTube for: David Blaine Street Magic.) 


With that I had to go celebrate the Year of the Snake. It was a good show and fun to learn more about Chinese culture. Happy Chinese New Year everyone!  

Since next Thursday is Valentine's Day, the theme for songs next class will be love songs: think of your favorite love songs or the song(s) you will/would dedicate to your boyfriend/girlfriend.

30 January 2013 (Wednesday)

6 students came today.

With Chinese New Year coming up I asked the students if they will be doing any special celebrations. No one has any plans, though it sounds like a couple of people will go to the Seattle International District (info) where the Chinese restaurants will have specials.

Actually, *I* will be attending "Snake - A Chinese New Year Celebration (info) on Wednesday, 6 February at the Triple Door downtown. One of the performers, Lucy Wu is a friend of mine. Here's a video of her performing with another friend of mine, Geoffrey Castle.

The first song we watched today was "Beautiful Ones" (video, lyrics, song info) by Suede (info).  The student who chose it said this song is very popular in China. I was surprised that such a typical "Britpop" (info) song from the 1990's is popular in China!

I suggested that if she likes the band Suede, she should listen to other Britpop bands. For example, I played "Common People" (video, lyrics, song info) by Pulp (info). But no one liked that song.

I then jumped to a band from Portland, Oregon, that I like a lot: The Dandy Warhols (info). They are more popular in Europe than in the US and I think they have a kind of European sound. I picked the video "Plan A" (video, lyrics, song info) because it sounds European and also because the singer is skinny, like the guys in the Suede video were. The students seemed to think this song was ok, but nothing great. Someone said they couldn't understand the lyrics and I said that was fine: the lyrics are just babble anyway.

By the way, here's another band that sounds like Britpop: Interpol (info), "C'mere" (video, lyrics, song info).

Oh, there are *tons* of bands that have that sound! To discover more create a channel on Pandora (website) with the name of one of these bands and you'll hear a lot of similar bands. 

One of the students noted that the Dandies singer was singing in falsetto and said her favorite song with falsetto singing is "Take On Me" (video, lyrics, song info) by A-ha (info).

The next song chosen was *another* song from the 80's: "Every Breath You Take" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Police (info). I asked the student who chose this song why he chose it and he said it's because he has heard it played in the greatest number of places of any song he knows. 

I asked the student what he thinks the song "Every Breath You Take" is about. He said it's about love and always being together with the person you love. I said that many people think that, and this song is often played at weddings, but the song is actually *not* a song about love, it is about jealousy and possession! If you look at the lyrics, they are all about someone watching the other person to see everything he/she does.  The author of the song, Sting, even explained this in interviews (Sting quote).

In fact, Sting later wrote a song which is the opposite of "Every Breath You Take", one which he says is how a person who is truly in love with someone should act: "If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free" (video, lyrics, song info). 

The next song chosen was "1979" (video, lyrics, song info) by Smashing Pumpkins (info).  The student who chose this song said that Smashing Pumpkins is her favorite band and then told a story about missing a chance to see them play near Seattle :-( .  

The next song was another one with falsetto: "Fantasy" (video, lyrics, song info) by Earth Wind & Fire (info).

As we watched videos there was an advertisement on YouTube for "tax software" so I told the students that this is the "tax season" in the US where people have to pay their taxes to the federal government. Taxes for money earned in 2012 are due by April 15th, so for the next few months there will be a lot of advertising online and on TV for assistance in doing taxes. I also explained how extremely complicated the US tax system is and how much I -- and probably every American! -- wishes it were simplified.

The next song chosen was "Price Tag" (video, lyrics, song info) by Jessie J (info).  The student who chose it likes it because it is a happy song and "smiling keeps you young."

Next we watched "Sunday Morning" (video, lyrics, song info) by Maroon 5 (info). The student who chose it said this song is a perfect song for Sunday mornings. I then went around the students asking them what they usually do on a Sunday morning back in their home countries.   



With that our time for the week was over. I look forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday!