13 November 2013 (Wednesday)

9 students today.

As usual I started by asking if anyone had any music-related adventures this past week. One student had gone to a used CD store and bought a lot of CDs, but no one had seen any live music.

Speaking of live music I mentioned that on Saturday I was going to see a concert by Andy Allo (website), who has played with Prince (info). I actually don't know her music and played the first clip of her I could find: "People Pleaser" (video). That's a cool song, but the concert I was going to was just Andy playing solo with an acoustic guitar, more like this: "Yellow Gold" (video).

One student said he is really excited that Paul Simon (info) will play a concert, opening for Sting (info) in Seattle on 19 February 2014.

I can't remember why we played a Sting song at this point rather than a Paul Simon song, but we listened to "Shape Of My Heart" (video, lyrics, song info).

The next song chosen was along the theme of the day: "One hit wonders".  The song was "Look At You Girl" (video, lyrics, song info) by Chris Ledoux (info). I think it's cool that international students can hear American music with fresh ears and without any judgement. Many Americans tend to have a love-or-hate relationship with country music. Many Americans just don't like country music. It's hard to explain why; here's a blog post which tries to explain it. It's very common in Seattle for a person to say "I like every kind of music except country and opera." Sounds like a quote from me...

The next song chosen was "Have A Nice Day" (video, lyrics, song info) by Bon Jovi (info). The student who chose it likes it because it's about loving life.

The next song was another one-hit-wonder: "There She Goes" (video, lyrics, song info) by The La's (info). The student who chose this song likes it because The La's influenced many of his current favorite bands. The La's only released one album, but he (and many music fans and critics) feel it's a great album.

The next song was "Enter Sandman" (video, lyrics, song info) by Metallica (info). Most people in the class already know this song so I asked why it's a "one hit wonder" for her and she said she doesn't know any other Metallica songs, she only knows this one. Which is fair enough -- for her it's a one hit wonder!

Because "Enter Sandman" is about nightmares I asked around the class if anyone has dreamt in English. Some have, some have not. I asked what the situation in the dreams were where they were dreaming in English. Very interesting answers!

The next song was "Bad Day" (video, lyrics, song info) by Daniel Powter (info). The student who picked this song said the song and the lyrics pick him up. He mentioned it was used in a Japanese commercial.

Speaking of commercials, that reminded me that Sting had a hit with the song "We'll Be Together" (video, lyrics, song info) but he had originally written the song as a "job" for Kirin beer: the company paid him a ton of money to write a song that included the lyric "together", so he wrote the song, made a lot of cash from Kirin *plus* had a hit single in the charts. That Sting sure knows how to maximize his writing talent! Here's the Kirin beer commercial that was shown in Japan for the song. 

The next one hit wonder was "What's Up" (video, lyrics, song info) by 4 Non Blondes (info). That's a perfect choice for the theme! I mentioned that the singer for 4 Non Blondes, Linda Perry (info) is now very influential from producing hit records by Christina Aguilera and Pink among many other female artists.

If you've been reading this blog for the past weeks you are asking yourself "Why wasn't there a Wiz Khalifa song this week?" Well, there was: "Roll Up" (video, lyrics, song info). This was the first Wiz Khalifa (info) song our friend ever heard by his favorite rapper.


With that we ran out of time for the day. I like the theme of "songs used in commercials or on tv" so that is the theme for next class.

6 November 2013 (Wednesday)

10 students today, + 1 song sent in by email!

Today there was no theme -- I just asked students to share the songs they have been listening to lately.

As usual I started class by asking if anyone had any "musical adventures" during the past week. One student said she heard one of the most beautiful songs she has ever heard played by the piano player at Nordstrom. The song was "Chuckanutt Drive" (video) by Joseph Rojo (Facebook page). 

I asked the student what items she was shopping for and she said her friends were shopping for shoes. I told the class that as a guy, I just don't get womens' obsession with shopping for shoes and bags...

The next song was from our friend who always chooses a Wiz Khalifa (info) song. This time it's the song Wiz does with Miley Cyrus (info): "23" (video, lyrics, song info). 

I mentioned something about Miley's father and most of the class did not realize her father, Billy Ray Cyrus (info) had a big hit back in the 90's: "Achy Breaky Heart" (video, lyrics, song info). This song had a cheesy dance that went with is (you can see it in the video). It was a one-hit-wonder, which means he never had any other hits in his career. But he did have Miley, who is keeping America entertained [groan].

The next song was "Counting Stars" (video, lyrics, song info) by OneRepublic (info). Nice song! The student who chose it has simply been listening to it a lot lately. We talked about how this song is about being young and wondering which path a person's life will take.

The next song was "Cool Guys Don't Look At Explosions" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Lonely Island (info). The students were laughing before I played this video so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it is a funny parody.

That parody inspired the next choice: "The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?)" (video, lyrics, song info) by Ylvis (info). The student who chose this song had heard it while driving in the car and he used Shazam (website) to find out the name of the song. It cracks him up (="makes him laugh a lot").

The next song chosen was "Angel" (video, lyrics, song info) by Sarah McLachlan (info). The student who chose this song had also heard it in her car for the first time. She was driving home and the song came on and she loved it so much she kept playing it over and over, driving around her neighborhood, not going home. This song is kind of the opposite part of life from "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic.

The next song was chosen by a student who was not in class today. He had sent me an email before class saying he couldn't attend class, but he wanted to suggest a song. So we played it: "Just The Way I Am Feeling" (video, lyrics, song info) by Feeder (info). I read his explanation for why he chose it to the class. Here it is:
   "There are two reasons why I'm listening to this song. The first reason is simply because I found out this band recently (specifically, about 2 months ago, before I came to Seattle). The second reason is because I thought this song is perfect. The harmony of melody, lyrics, vocal and backing chorus seemed to be so beautiful and perfect for me. These kind of songs are really good refreshment for my ear, which frequently listening to fast, loud and noisy music!"

The next song was "The Breeze" (video, lyrics, song info) by Dr. Dog (info). The student who chose this song said he likes it because the lyrics are very poetic, the harmonies are great, like the Beatles, and the song picks him up.

The next song was from one of the new students today: "Open Arms" (video, lyrics, song info) by Journey (info). The student who chose this song said he sang it once in a talent competition! Very impressive! I mentioned that there is a movie out about the new singer for Journey, who is from the Philippines. The movie is called "Don't Stop Believin'" (info). I'd like to see it some time.

The next song was "Whatever Happens" (video with lyrics, song info) by Michael Jackson (info). I had never heard this song, but I like it!

The last song of the day was back to Miley Cyrus, this time "We Can't Stop" (video, lyrics, song info). Today's class gave me enough Miley Cyrus to last for a year.


Inspired by Miley's father, the theme for the next class is "one hit wonders" -- bands that only ever had one hit. An alternative is "songs where I like only this one song from this band, all the others I don't like". As always, of course, you can share any song with the class that you have been thinking about lately.

30 October 2013 (Wednesday)

The day before Halloween -- today's theme was "candy" and "scary songs". Spoiler alert: the last video we watched was Thriller! 5 students today -- a small class.

I started the class by playing a couple of American "classic" Halloween songs: "Monster Mash" (video, lyrics, song info) and "The Time Warp" (video, lyrics, song info). The latter is from the movie "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (info), which is an underground favorite of young people across America. People love that movie and it is traditionally shown at midnight in a theater and the audience come dressed like the characters in the film. I have always wanted to take my students to see it, but haven't been able to coordinate it yet. One day I'll show my students this uniquely American experience!

However, none of the students today were very impressed with either of those two songs. So I quickly asked them which songs they had in mind.

The first song was the "Piano Duet" (video, song info) from the movie "The Corpse Bride" (info). That was a good choice!

It reminded me of the animation in the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (info), which is by the same director. We watched the song "This Is Halloween" (video, lyrics, song info) from that movie.

We then talked for a while about traditions in the students' countries for honoring dead relatives.

I asked the class if they like scary movies. Most of the class are not big fans of scary movies. But they said Japan makes great scary movies, like Ring (video, info). The Japanese movies are scary because they build tension, which is a different kind of scary than American movies which seem to rely on blood.

The next song chosen was "Cemetery Gates" (video with lyrics, song info) by The Smiths (info). The student who chose this song said he likes how it is about the lives of all people in a cemetery, as opposed to being sad they are no longer living. I personally love visiting cemeteries for that reason: I think of all the lives there within my sight.

The next song was "Beheaded" (video with lyrics, song info) by The Offspring (info). This was a great choice for Halloween! But it's pretty gross! I only know the hits by The Offspring (ex. "Pretty Fly For A White Guy" (video, lyrics, song info) and didn't know they had such a hard song.

The last video of the day was, naturally, "Thriller" (video, lyrics, song info) by Michael Jackson (info). We've all seen that video a thousand times and the beginning can be a bit boring so we skipped to the zombie dance, which *never* gets boring! :-)


With that class was over for the day. I look forward to hearing what adventures the class had over Halloween. Theme for next week's class is... no theme -- let's just listen to any songs you have been listening to lately!