8 May 2013 (Thursday)

Another beautiful sunny day in Seattle. Six students came to talk music.

As I was setting up the class I explained the word "supposedly" (definition) and then asked each student to use it in a sentence.

When it came time to ask for song suggestions I realized I had not suggested a topic/theme for songs for the day. Everyone was scanning their minds to think of a song when one students suggested "Beautiful Girls" (video, lyrics, song info) by Sean Kingston (info). 

Do you hear the sample of the song "Stand By Me" (video, lyrics, song info) by Ben E. King (info) in that song? I love that original song!

Following the theme of beautiful girls I played a bit of a song by INXS (info) that I like a lot: "Beautiful Girl" (video, lyrics, song info). I like the melody as he sings "Beautiful girl, stay with me".

The next song chosen was "Goodbye Hook(?)" (video with lyrics). The student who chose it likes it because it is a cheerful song, though cheesy ;-) .

The next song chosen was "Nothings Gonna Change My Love For You" (video with lyrics, song info) by Khalil Fong (info). This is a cover of a song originally by George Benson (original version) but made famous by Glenn Mederios (video).

I can't remember now why I decided I wanted to tell the class about the Blind Boys From Alabama (info), but I wanted to show how they harmonize. I played a little bit of "Amazing Grace" (video, lyrics, song info). However I wanted to show how these old guys can make modern music sound really cool so I played "Well, Well, Well" (video, lyrics, song info), a song they did together with Ben Harper (info).

We talked a little about how blues music led to rock n roll music. Someone asked what the first rock n roll song was. It is debatable which song was the first rock song, but it is generally considered that "Rock Around The Clock" (video, lyrics, song info) by Bill Haley & His Comets (info) brought rock n roll music to the mainstream in 1954. It is funny now to think that at that time the music and the look of the musicians was outrageous. 

Speaking of outrageous at the time, I played a clip of Elvis Presley (info) doing "Hound Dog" (video, lyrics, song info). This video shows Elvis doing all his moves, but on a later TV show they only filmed him from the waist up because they way he danced was considered indecent.

One student asked if a person's spoken accent in English can be heard when he or she sings. This was an excellent question! Basically, the answer is that all English-speaking people sing with the same accent; it is pretty much an American accent. Here's an article which supposedly explains the phenomenon. 

As an example of the accent question I played a bit of "Can't Stand Losing You" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Police (info). Notice how he sings "I can't" like an American, not "I cahn't" like a Brit. (This song was banned by the BBC because it talks about committing suicide.)

One of the students mentioned that his favorite song is "Every Breath You Take" (video, lyrics, song info). I asked him why he likes this song so much and he said it's because the lyrics are easy to understand. 
  
At this point I went into my usual explanation about the song meaning, that it is *not* a love song, rather it is a song about possession and obsession(!) and that Sting later wrote the song "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (video, lyrics, song info) as an antidote to "Every Breath You Take".

The last song we heard for the day was "I'll Be Missing You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Puff Daddy (info), which uses a sample of "Every Breath You Take".


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

1 May 2013 (Wednesday)

May Day! Another sunny day in Seattle. 7 students chose to talk music rather than work on their tans.

As we talked before class started someone mentioned the word "cheesy". This word is used a lot in US English but it's hard to define. Here's a definition.

Somehow we talked a little about Portland, Oregon (3 hours drive from Seattle). Portland is a nice city to visit. It has the world famous books store, Powell's Books (info, website). There's a cheap bus service between Seattle and Portland: BoltBus (website) . Prices start at $1 for the trip!

The first song of the day was "Close To You" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Carpenters (info). The student who chose this song said she has a lot of tests this week and this song relaxes her.

One of the new students said he likes "cheesy" music. I asked him for an example and he chose a song from Brazil, "Vida" (video) by KLB (info).

At this point one of the students mentioned that her Seattle Taiko club would be playing on campus on Friday. The Brazilian student said he knows some Taiko players in Brazil! Apparently Japanese culture is very popular in the part of Brazil where he is from.

Next we listened to a Japanese rapper: D.O. (but the student found the video by typing in Japanese and now I can't find the video!). The student who chose this song says that before this song Japanese rap was lame. She's not a big rap fan, but she likes D.O.'s style.

I asked a Korean student who likes rap a lot for an example of good Korean rap and he chose "Monster" (video, song info) by Drunken Tiger (info).

The next song was totally different: "Yellow" (video, lyrics, song info) by Coldplay (info). The student who chose it likes the lyrics and finds it relaxing. 

The next song was "Owaranai Uta" (video, song info) by The Blue Hearts (info). It is an old Japanese punk band. 

They sound a lot to me like The Clash (info). But no one in the class knew about The Clash so I played "White Riot" (video, lyrics, song info).


With that our time was up for the day.

24 April 2013 (Wednesday)

It was the first really sunny and warm day of Spring in Seattle and I wondered how many students would show up... 6 students today.

I started by telling the class that I was going to a concert that evening: Shuggie Otis (info). He is most famous for writing the song "Strawberry Letter 23" (video, lyrics, song info). The bells in this song are the ring tone of my mobile phone!

In describing Shuggie Otis I said, "Shuggie was Prince before there was Prince". But it seemed like no one in the class knew who Prince (info) is, so I tried to think of what his most famous song is and played "Purple Rain" (video, lyrics, song info). Only a couple of people know that song and I don't think the class was impressed.

Since it was such a nice day I asked the class for suggestions of "sunny day" songs.  The first choice was "Time After Time" (video, lyrics, song info) by Cyndi Lauper (info). When I asked the student who chose it why it reminds her of the sun she said it's because the melody is cheerful and makes her want to go out.

The student actually knows the song "Time After Time" through a Japanese cover version:  (video) by Chihiro Onitsuka (info).

Another great cover version of "Time After Time" is from Eva Cassidy (info). Her story is tragic: she has a wonderful voice but only became known after she died of cancer at age 33. Here's her version of "Time After Time" (video).

I mentioned that the melody of "Time After Time" is cheerful, but the lyrics are kind of sentimental. I noted that putting sentimental lyrics over a happy melody is a pretty common thing in music. As an example I played "No Woman No Cry" (video, lyrics, song info) by Bob Marley (info).

But this whole theme was getting kind of sad for such a nice day in Seattle!  The next song chosen was "Soak Up The Sun" (video, lyrics, song info) by Sheryl Crow (info). This song is self-explanatory on a sunny day!

As we talked about "Soak Up The Sun" one of the students in class mentioned that she is from Shonan in Japan (info), which has the best beach in Japan. In other words, it is the California of Japan!

As another example of a "beach song" I played "Better Together" (video with lyrics, song info) by Jack Johnson (info).

The next song chosen was "Santorini" (video, song info) by Yanni (info). The song is about a beautiful and famous Greek island (info), which is always sunny, too.


One of the students is from Thailand and he said that his family goes to Koh Tachai Island (info) for vacation. There's a crab there that sounds like a chicken.

The next song chosen was "What's Going On" (video, lyrics, song info) by Marvin Gaye (info). Again, the lyrics of the song are very serious while the music is upbeat and happy. I am a big Marvin Gaye fan but had never noticed how happy the music is because I always concentrated on the lyrics.

The last song of the day was "Mickey" (video, lyrics, song info) by Toni Basil (info). The student chose this because he saw cheerleading practice.


With that I went to the Shuggie Otis concert, which was great, one of my favorite shows in a long time!

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!

Language Of Music class on break until Spring Quarter

Attendance for the past few weeks of The Language Of Music conversation class was very low so I have cancelled class for the remainder of Winter Quarter. We will start again in Spring Quarter (April 2013).

13 February 2013 (Wednesday)

Today only 1 student showed up! :-(  We talked for a little while generally, but didn't talk about music specifcically.

Since no one was there to share their favorite love songs for Valentine's Day, for this week's blog entry I will offer a few of my favorite choices:

"In My Life" (video with lyrics, song info) by The Beatles (info).

"Songbird" (video with lyrics, song info) by Fleetwood Mac (info).

I find this song to be very sweet: "Somersault" (video, lyrics, song info) by Zero 7 (info).

One of my current favorite love songs, which emphasizes longing: "You Do Something To Me" (video, lyrics, song info) by Paul Weller (info).

"Forever In My Life" (video, lyrics, song info) by Prince (info). Note, this video is the live version which is about 7 minutes longer than the studio version (on the Sign O' The Times album), and while it's a great version, it lack the intimacy of the studio version. But I couldn't find a link to the studio version online.


Of course, Valentine's Day can sometimes include heartbreak.  Here a couple of songs for "difficult" Valentine's Day:

"Love Of My Life" (video, lyrics, song info) by Queen (info).

"Wicked Game" (video, lyrics, song info) by Chris Isaak (info). 

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.

30 January 2013 (Wednesday)

6 students came today.

With Chinese New Year coming up I asked the students if they will be doing any special celebrations. No one has any plans, though it sounds like a couple of people will go to the Seattle International District (info) where the Chinese restaurants will have specials.

Actually, *I* will be attending "Snake - A Chinese New Year Celebration (info) on Wednesday, 6 February at the Triple Door downtown. One of the performers, Lucy Wu is a friend of mine. Here's a video of her performing with another friend of mine, Geoffrey Castle.

The first song we watched today was "Beautiful Ones" (video, lyrics, song info) by Suede (info).  The student who chose it said this song is very popular in China. I was surprised that such a typical "Britpop" (info) song from the 1990's is popular in China!

I suggested that if she likes the band Suede, she should listen to other Britpop bands. For example, I played "Common People" (video, lyrics, song info) by Pulp (info). But no one liked that song.

I then jumped to a band from Portland, Oregon, that I like a lot: The Dandy Warhols (info). They are more popular in Europe than in the US and I think they have a kind of European sound. I picked the video "Plan A" (video, lyrics, song info) because it sounds European and also because the singer is skinny, like the guys in the Suede video were. The students seemed to think this song was ok, but nothing great. Someone said they couldn't understand the lyrics and I said that was fine: the lyrics are just babble anyway.

By the way, here's another band that sounds like Britpop: Interpol (info), "C'mere" (video, lyrics, song info).

Oh, there are *tons* of bands that have that sound! To discover more create a channel on Pandora (website) with the name of one of these bands and you'll hear a lot of similar bands. 

One of the students noted that the Dandies singer was singing in falsetto and said her favorite song with falsetto singing is "Take On Me" (video, lyrics, song info) by A-ha (info).

The next song chosen was *another* song from the 80's: "Every Breath You Take" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Police (info). I asked the student who chose this song why he chose it and he said it's because he has heard it played in the greatest number of places of any song he knows. 

I asked the student what he thinks the song "Every Breath You Take" is about. He said it's about love and always being together with the person you love. I said that many people think that, and this song is often played at weddings, but the song is actually *not* a song about love, it is about jealousy and possession! If you look at the lyrics, they are all about someone watching the other person to see everything he/she does.  The author of the song, Sting, even explained this in interviews (Sting quote).

In fact, Sting later wrote a song which is the opposite of "Every Breath You Take", one which he says is how a person who is truly in love with someone should act: "If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free" (video, lyrics, song info). 

The next song chosen was "1979" (video, lyrics, song info) by Smashing Pumpkins (info).  The student who chose this song said that Smashing Pumpkins is her favorite band and then told a story about missing a chance to see them play near Seattle :-( .  

The next song was another one with falsetto: "Fantasy" (video, lyrics, song info) by Earth Wind & Fire (info).

As we watched videos there was an advertisement on YouTube for "tax software" so I told the students that this is the "tax season" in the US where people have to pay their taxes to the federal government. Taxes for money earned in 2012 are due by April 15th, so for the next few months there will be a lot of advertising online and on TV for assistance in doing taxes. I also explained how extremely complicated the US tax system is and how much I -- and probably every American! -- wishes it were simplified.

The next song chosen was "Price Tag" (video, lyrics, song info) by Jessie J (info).  The student who chose it likes it because it is a happy song and "smiling keeps you young."

Next we watched "Sunday Morning" (video, lyrics, song info) by Maroon 5 (info). The student who chose it said this song is a perfect song for Sunday mornings. I then went around the students asking them what they usually do on a Sunday morning back in their home countries.   



With that our time for the week was over. I look forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday!