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.