17 April 2013 (Wednesday)

After two weeks of large groups, today only 3 students showed up. I was surprised at how small the group was, but it was a fun conversation nonetheless.

I had been curious to see the new Psy (info) video, "Gentleman" (video, lyrics, song info) to see how he followed up the smash of "Gangnam Style".  None of the the students in class had seen it, either, so we watched is all the way through. We all agreed that it sounded too similar to "Gangnam Style" and therefore is a little boring. But on the other hand, the masses of people around the world are probably generally happy to have another song that sounds a lot like "Gangnam Style".

I remarked to the class that the style of trousers Psy wears in the video remind me of the trousers worn by MC Hammer (info) in his hit "U Can't Touch This" (video, lyrics, song info) from 1990 (23 years ago!).

At this point our conversation left music and we talked a little about tattoos (how Americans seem to have so many tattoos compared with Asian societies) and what are "brave" things that people do in their everyday lives.

One of the students said she recently joined a UW Japanese taiko (info) drumming group as a creative outlet for her mind. As an example of what kind of drumming she now does each week she showed us "O-Dalko" (video) by Kodo (info).

The next song chosen was "Loving You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Minnie Ripperton (info).  Even though it's a very old song the student who chose it said it is one of his favorite songs.

I mentioned that this song would be a good one for a "mixtape" (songs or playlist put together by someone for the girlfriend or boyfriend).  I asked the students if they had ever made or received mixtapes. One student had made a VCD for his high school class when they graduated with pictures + songs  from their time together. That's a very creative, nice thing to do for your school classmates!

The next song was "The Legend" (video) by Faye Wong (info). Faye Wong is this student's favorite Chinese singer.

As we were talking she mentioned that her goal is to learn English well enough to sing "I Was Born To Love You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Queen (info) .

The next song was "Clearwater Stomp" (video) by the local violinist Gil Kiesecker.  He is 97 years old!

To contrast Gil's traditional style of violin I played a clip of one of my friends who plays *electric* violin: Geoffrey Castle (website) playing a Jimi Hendrix song (video, go to 10 minutes).  I also showed a little bit of a clip of Geoffrey playing with Lucy Wu, who plays the traditional Chinese jinghu (info), to show how they combine East and West music (video, go to 3minutes 15 seconds).


With that our time was up for the week. It was a fun conversation!

10 April 2013 (Wednesday)

19 students came today!!  

Because there were so many new/first-time students I did a quick introduction of the class again and had the students introduce themselves to the rest of the class.

I asked if an student would pick a first song for the group. The song chosen was "One More Day" (video, lyrics, song info) from the musical Les Miserables (info). 

As the group talked one of the other students mentioned he likes the song "Waka Waka" (video, lyrics, song info) by Shakira (info). After we watched a bit of that song I had to show the group the original version of that song from Cameroon (video), followed by the video clip of Shakira claiming to have written it herself! Apparenly Shakira's not the first to steal the song: here's another Latin American version of it.

The next song chosen was "Sad Tango" (video, song info) by Rain (info). The student who chose this song chose it because he likes the mix of strings with hip-hop.

Rain is actually from Korea, but he sings this song in Japanese. In fact, there is probably not a Korean version of this song; the Japanese version is the only one Rain did. The reason he sings this song in Japanese is that he can sell many more cds in Japan than in Korea. Apparently many Korean artists make songs just for the Japanese market.

One of the students this quarter is from Thailand and I asked him to pick a Thai song.  He chose "Live & Learn" (video with lyrics).

At this point a student raised his hand and said he has a song on his phone that he recorded from the radio but he doesn't know the name of the song. While he played the song off of his phone I used the Shazam app (info) to "listen" and figure out which song it is. The song was "Ho Hey" (video, lyrics, song info) by the Lumineers (info). Even though he can't understand the lyrics, the student who picked this song says he likes how the song makes him feel positive. It makes him think about how everything will be easier when he goes back to his home country.

The next song chosen was "Let It Go" (video, lyrics) by Wiz Khalifa (info) featuring Akon (info). The student who chose this song said he likes Akon a lot and this is his favorite Akon song.

Time was running out and we only had time for one more song.  The last song was chosen by an American woman who was visiting the class. I am glad to have additional American voices and perspectives to my own. She chose "Summertime" (video, song info) by Leontyne Price (info) because summer is coming. (Apparently there are over 25,000 recorded versions of the song "Summertime"!)


Unfortunately I had to end class a little bit early because I had an evening appointment. But next week I can stay longer and I look forward to learning more about the students' favorite music!

A note: some students have said they like jazz. This week, from 17 - 20 April, there is a jazz festival in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle (info). It will be a good chance to hear excellent jazz music and see the some local bars.

Speaking of jazz, here are some of the best places to see jazz music in Seattle:


Jazz Alley
The Triple Door
Tula's
Serafina (perfect restaurant for a romantic date!)
Egan's Ballard Jam House
The Royal Room (excellent jazz club, but you need a car to get there) 

3 April 2013 (Wednesday)

The first class of Spring Quarter! 15 students came -- it seems like an interesting group!

First I introduced how the conversation group works, then asked each student to introduce themselves by name + home county + which kind of music they like.

To show how we use songs for starting conversations I showed the video for "The Story" (video, lyrics, song info) by Seattle musician Brandi Carlile (info).

Next, one of the students played "365 Days" (video, song info) by her favorite Japanese group, Mr. Children (info). She said this is a good song to listen to when she's sad, particularly at night. She has seen this band in concert four times.

One of the other students mentioned that she was going to see the Rihanna (info) concert in Seattle tonight. We played a bit of her favorite Rhianna song: "Only Girl (In The World)" (video, lyrics, song info). It is a very interesting experience to go to concert in foreign countries and I look forward to hearing the student's review of her concert experience in Seattle next week.

Speaking of concerts, that same night I was going to a concert of a completely different type: Fatoumata Diawara (info), a singer from Mali. She was great! Here's an example of a song by Fatou: "Bissa" (video, song info).

Fatou was previously backing singer to my all-time favorite woman singer, Oumou Sangare (info). Here's an example of Oumou singing with Alicia Keys: "Fallin' (live on French TV)".

One of the returning students from last quarter suggested the song "Thrift Shop" (video, lyrics, song info) by Macklemore (info). I was glad he suggested that song because Macklemore is from Seattle and this song was #1 on the US charts a couple of months ago -- it was a good choice to show a successful Seattle musician.

The lyrics to "Thrift Shop" are really funny, but very colloquial: It would take a long time for people learning English as a second language to understand all the words and references. I also explained what a "thrift shop" is: it's a place where you can buy used clothes cheap. A lot of people like shopping at these kinds of stores (ex. Goodwill) to find interesting clothes. Here's a Wikipedia article about thrift shops.

If you like hip-hop, a couple of other currently successful Seattle hip-hop bands are Blue Scholars (info) and Shabazz Palaces (info).

Actually, Seattle has a lot of great musicians and bands. In the 1990's it was famous for hard-rock bands like Nirvana (info), Pearl Jam (info), Soundgarden (info) and Alice In Chains (info).

More recently it has become known for more pop bands, like Death Cab For Cutie (info), The Head and the Heart (info), Fleet Foxes (info) and Brandi Carlile (info). 

One of my favorite older Seattle bands -- which is still active today -- is Heart (info); the singer for heart, Ann Wilson, is one of the most powerful singers in the world. And her sister, Nancy, is an excellent guitarist. Here's an example: "Crazy On You" (video, lyrics, song info).

I had to end class just a little earlier than usual today because I was going to the Fatoumata Diawara concert. I look forward to learning more about which music and songs the students like next week!