2 October 2013 (Wednesday)

11 students today, all new!

Most of the time in the class was spent with me introducing myself and the class, then the students introducing themselves. So today's class was a bit light on actually listening to music. 

Once the introductions were over we listed to some songs. We started with "Change" (video) by Monkey Majik (info). The student who chose this song likes that it mixes traditional music and rock. I like how the Yoshida Brothers (info) do this! But the story of the band is also very interesting: apparently the band is two Canadian guys who moved to Japan and as a way to learn Japanese they decided to write songs in Japanese! Great idea!

The next song was "Govinda" (video, lyrics, song info) by Kula Shaker (info). The student who chose it like how the song mixes cultures, in this case Indian and UK rock.

The next song was "Somebody I Used To Know" (video, lyrics, song info) by Gotye (info). This song was a big hit over one year ago, but the student who picked it had only heard it recently -- at karaoke! She was intrigued by the video.

The last song of the day was "Don't Break My Heart" (video, lyrics, song info) by UB40 (info). The student who chose this songs has liked this song for many, many years. He feels the singer is truly singing the song from his heart.


With that our time for the week was over. I hope to see the students again next Wednesday!

PS. After class I saw that a Japanese band is playing a small club (Chop Suey, website) in Seattle this Tuesday, 8 October. The band is "Guitar Wolf" (info). I don't know if they are popular in Japan, but the club they are playing in is very small -- might be a great chance to see a famous Japanese band in a small club. You have to be 21 years old or older to get into Chop Suey, though!