21 January 2015 (Wednesday)

Today I had a great turnout -- 12 students, six of whom were new! 

Unfortunately we had bad luck with getting a room to meet + talk in. Our assigned room was double-booked and we were the ones who didn't get to keep it. We moved to a room in the basement of the HUB, but this was not a good place to meet as there was a constant stream of people who were used to the room being empty coming in and wondering why we were there.

I did want to show the new students how the class works, so we watched + talked about a few songs, but we kept class short this week. I hope the new students were intrigued to come back again next week to have a proper music conversation!

To learn about one of the new student's taste in music we watched "Bailando" (video, lyrics, song info) by Enrique Iglesias (info). The student who chose it like the dance and he likes the rhythm of this song. I like this song, too. And apparently so do nearly 700 million people!

Another new student chose the next song: "Joah" (video, lyrics, song info) by Jay Park (info). The video for this song was shot in Seattle! Apparently Jay grew up in Seattle but he moved back to Korea and is a big star over there. 

Apparently "Joah" means "I like you" in Korean.  One of my favorite songs is "I like you" in Spanish: "Me Gustas Tu" (video, lyrics, song info) by Manu Chao (info). This song always makes me happy when I hear it.

The next song was "Young And Beautiful" (video, lyrics, song info) by Lana Del Rey (info). This song is from the movie "The Great Gatsby" (info). The student who chose it likes the melody and loved it from the very first time. 

The last song we heard this short day was "Cleptosaurios" (video) by The Plastics Revolution (Facebook page). This was introduced by our student from Mexico City. I am glad he is sharing about these Mexican bands because I have never heard of them, but I can't remember exactly why *he* said he likes this band and song. Sorry!


I want to thank all the students who came to class last week. I hope you will give it another chance this Wednesday (28 January) at 4:30pm in HUB 337. 

Since we weren't really able to do the planned theme for this class, theme for the next class will again be "Your favorite song in 2014". This doesn't necessarily have to be a song released in 2014, rather the song you listened to the most or the one which describes best what 2014 was like for you.

14 January 2015 (Wednesday)

The first meeting of Winter Quarter! I was curious to see how many students would return from last quarter and what the new students this quarter would be like. 9 students showed up, 5 from previous quarter and 4 new students.

As is the custom for the first class of the quarter I introduced the class quickly to the new students and had everyone tell where they are from and what kind of music they like.

To start talking about music I asked one of the returning students to tell me which song he listened to most while traveling around the US during the break. His answer was "Drive My Car" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Beatles (info). He likes the song because it is danceable.  

He heard this song the first time while seeing the Cirque du Soleil (info) production of "Love" (info) in Las Vegas. I envy him for seeing "Love" as I have long wanted to see Cirque du Soleil in general and I would especially love to see the show with the Beatles songs. Here is the official commercial for Love (video).

Speaking of Cirque du Soleil, they will be in the Seattle area doing their "Kurios" show (info) in Redmond, just outside Seattle from 29 January to 22 March. Tickets are not cheap, but if you can afford one I'm sure it's a great show.

Now I asked the new students to choose songs so we can get a sense of what they like. 

The first song was "'Cause You're My Zing" (video, lyrics) from the Hotel Transylvania movie (info). The student who chose it heard watching the movie. She likes horror movies but is afraid to watch them by herself.

Since she likes animated horror movies I suggested The Nightmare Before Christmas (info). In this class we have often watched the video for "This Is Halloween" (video, lyrics, song info) around Halloween.

The students started talking about scary video games, but it all went right over my head as I don't know anything about video games.

The next song was "Thinking Out Loud" (video, lyrics, song info) by Ed Sheeran (info). The student who chose it likes the dancing in the video. I asked how she discovered this song: she sometimes looks at the Billboard list of top songs and watches the videos.

Because she mentioned that she like the dancing in the video I told the class that there is a movie featuring dancing that every American knows, it is a classic piece of American culture: Dirty Dancing (info). The most famous song from that movie is "The Time Of My Life" (video, lyrics, song info). If you want to see a piece of true American culture, watch the movie (even though it's from the 80's).

Coincidentally, a musical production of Dirty Dancing will be in Seattle 20 January - 1 February (info). 

A student asked why it's called "dirty" dancing. "Dirty" is sometimes slang for "sexual".

The next song was "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" (video, lyrics, song info) by Air Supply (info). The student who chose this song said his English teacher in Japan introduced the song in English class.

The next song was "Everybody's Changing" (video, lyrics, song info) by Keane (info). The student who chose it said this is his favorite song ever. Normally he doesn't like rock bands because he doesn't like guitars, but he loves this song because it doesn't have guitar. He discovered it by seeing the lyrics, then he listened to the song.

The first song by one of the returning students was "Cold Girl Lost Fiction" (video, lyrics) by Tesla Doesn't Know How To Cry (sorry, I can't find their website) [SZ note: that is a loooong band name!]. The student who chose it discovered it through YouTube suggestions and it is her "song for the start of 2015".

At this point some people showed up to use the room so we have to quickly pack things together without hearing more choices from the other returning students. :-(

Next week's theme will be "Your favorite song in 2014". This doesn't necessarily have to be a song released in 2014, rather the song you listened to the most or the one which describes best what 2014 was like for you.

3 December 2014 (Wednesday)

This was the last class of Winter Quarter. 5 students came to share songs.


One of the students is learning piano and I saw him playing on the public piano in the HUB before class. I asked what he was playing. It was "Je te veux" (video) by Erik Satie (info).

This was the first class after Thanksgiving so I asked the class what they had done for the holiday. One student had gone and sang karaoke. He sang "Friday I'm In Love" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Cure (info).

I played a little bit of "Easy Money" (video, lyrics, song info) by Johnny Marr (info), because I was going to his concert the next Monday (but the concert got cancelled :-(( ). 

One student said he will go see the big annual holiday indie concert "Deck The Hall Ball" (info). The band he is most excited to hear at the concert is Royal Blood (info) "Figure It Out" (video, lyrics, song info).

The next song was "Somerset" (video, song info) by Baths (info). The student who chose it had only heard it 1 week ago.

I mentioned that the band Mogwai (info) does similar kinds of music. Mogwai has many albums but the one I always relate to them -- even if it's not my favorite music by them -- is the soundtrack they did to a film which was one soccer game where the camera's just followed French great Zinadine Zidane the whole game. Very cool concept! As a sample of Mogwai's music, here is "Take Me Somewhere Nice" (video, lyrics, song info).

Next we had a big surprise: one of our students, Dorian from Mexico City, played a song he recorded! It is called "Ritual de Amor" (At the moment I am not sure if I found the right link and I don't want to risk posting the wrong song -- send me the link, Dorian!). We were all impressed by his talent and his motivation to not only write the song, but to record it and put it online!

The last song we listened to before Winter break was "Needing/Getting" (video, lyrics, song info) by OK Go (info).


With that we ended Fall Quarter. Class will continue in January!