15 October 2014 (Wednesday)

Today 8 students came to talk music. The theme was "songs about rain or songs for a rainy day". 

But class started out with technical problems: In the unfamiliar room I couldn't get the laptop to display on the screen. As I kept trying different things to get it to work I taught the students the term "Murphy's Law" (definition), which basically means "Anything that can go wrong at the moment is going wrong." 

So a lot of time was wasted with technical problems before listening to music :-(

One of the students brought a guitar! But she is just at the beginning of starting to learn to play so she didn't have any songs to play for us yet. Perhaps in the next weeks?

Before listening to songs I clarified another couple of terms that often confuse students: "classic" and "classical":

"Classical" is music with an orchestra like Mozart or Beethoven or Bach.

"Classic" is a term that is used more broadly. For music is means songs or music that everyone likes. As an example of a "classic" song I played "Hey Jude" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Beatles (info).

There are also "classic" movies like "The Sound Of Music" (info + more on that below) or "It's A Wonderful Life" (info, which Americans traditionally watch during the Christmas holidays).

But colloquially "classic" is also used as an adjective to describe things that most people like. We often talk about "classic cars" like a 1967 Mustang (info).  

Or even among friends if someone tells a story that is typical of that person you can say, "That was a classic Steve thing to do (or say)".

Using the word "classic" in conversation will impress your American friends! But if you are talking about Mozart, say "classical"!

At this point I also had to do another of my classic Language Of Music explanations: define the word "cheesy".  This is a term Americans use *a lot*! It is hard to describe exactly what cheesy is, but I always say it is trying too hard to be creative. Here is one definition of it. 

The best way for me to define "cheesy" is to show this video: "Said I Loved You...But I Lied" (video, lyrics, song info) by Michael Bolton (info). Look how hard he is trying to impress us with his emotions and voice while standing on a mountain and fire all around him. Super-cheesy!

I also think Celine Dion (info) is cheesy in general, and especially the song/video for "My Heart Will Go On" (video, lyrics, song info), but this is where the subjectivity of what one person thinks is cheesy another feels is evocative.

Two students were talking about the guitar in class and asked me how the scale is sung in English. I told them we learn it from this song in the classic film "The Sound Of Music": "Do-Re-Mi" (video, song info with lyrics)

Finally we listened to a song on the "rain" theme: "Set Fire To The Rain" (video with lyrics, song info) by Adele (info). The song text is pretty self-explanatory and Adele has a great, classic voice.

I forgot to ask in class, but I should have posed this question: Why is Celine Dion cheesy but Adele isn't? Or is Adele cheesy, too?

The student who picked that song said Adele's voice reminds her of an Arab singer's voice, Asala Ad-El-Horouf. Unfortunately I can't find the song the student chose and I don't want to just guess. But I do remember hearing the similarities of her voice to Adele's!

At some point in the discussion the same student mentioned that she always listens to the singer Fayrouz (info) in the morning. It's "morning music" for her. Here a playlist of songs. 

(As an example of how much I personally learn from this class, I looked for Fayrouz's music in the Seattle Public Library and found out there is a DVD about her influence called "We Loved Each Other So Much" (info). I will watch it!)

This Middle Eastern music made me think of a singer's voice I loved when I was in my 20's: Ofra Haza (info). Specifically I loved her song "Im Nin'Alu" (video, song info). (Here's the traditional version of the song.)

But I explained to the class that I actually discovered her voice and that song in a rap song where it was sampled: "Paid In Full" (video, lyrics, song info) by Eric B & Rakim (info). It's always interesting to me to see how one song or artists leads people to another song/artist.

Now back to the rain theme: "November Rain" (video, lyrics, song info) by Guns N Roses (info). Again, the choice is pretty self-explanatory. While Guns N Roses is considered a hard rock band, the student who chose this song said he prefers their mellower songs, like this one.

I mentioned that the original bass player for Guns N Roses, Duff McKagan (info) is from Seattle. He moved to Los Angeles around age 18, joined Guns N Roses, got famous, left Guns N Roses and moved back to Seattle where he now lives. And he plays in a very cool new band from Seattle, Walking Papers (info). I showed the class their video for "Capital T" (video, lyrics). I also really like "Two Tickets And A Room" (video, lyrics). But they also have mellow songs. They are a good band, on their way up!

Because I had so many technical problems at the beginning of class that was all the time we had for the day. :-(  

Next week we will be in the same room (HUB 332) but this time I know how to make the equipment work, so we will have more time for music!  The theme for next class will be songs you listen to while studying. Or any other song you want to share!