11 February 2015 (Wednesday)

With Valentine's Day coming up on Saturday today's theme was obvious: love songs! 8 students came to share their choices for the most romantic day of the year(?).

To start the class we talked a little about the Grammy Awards the previous Sunday evening (list of winners).

The first song for Valentine's Day was "Liebesleid" (video) as transcribed for piano by Sergei Rachmaninoff (info) performed by Daniel Berman. The student who chose this song likes the contrast of the feelings of romance and melancholy.

The next song was "Angel To Me" (video, lyrics) by McKay. If you read the lyrics the choice of this song is pretty obvious -- a very romantic song! :-)

The next song was "Love Song" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Cure (info). The student who chose this song also likes the contrast of sad/happy in it. And he likes the guitar sound. He said he likes songs which are not that direct in describing love or a breakup.

The next song chosen was "Love Song" (video, lyrics, song info) by Sara Bareilles (info). The theme of this song is pretty obvious: you can't "demand" love from a person, it has to come naturally. But the student who chose the song told an interesting story about this song: Ms. Bareilles's record company wanted her to write a love song so she'd have a hit for her (and them) so she wrote the song saying you can't demand love (songs). And ironically this song went to #1.

The next song was "Labios Rotos (Unplugged)" (video, lyrics, song info) by Zoe (info). This is the most popular pop/rock band in Mexico and South America. Apparently there is no studio version of this song, only this live unplugged version. I really like the music to this song, even if I can't understand the lyrics. I like the humming -- sometimes hums are as good as lyrics!

The next song was "Like You"(?) (video) by G.E.M. (info). The song is about memories of a relationship. The girl is asking the boy to come back. I noticed in the video that the singer has tattoos so we talked a little about tattoo culture in the US versus in Asia. And I asked the students if they would ever consider getting a tattoo.

The next song was "You Don't Miss Your Water" (video with lyrics, song info) by Craig David (info). The student who chose this song heard it on the radio and chose it because she likes R&B music and his voice. She finds the song relaxing and makes her want to dance. I explained that the song lyrics are about how when you have something (for example, water) you don't miss it until it's gone. That concept can be applied to love, too.

The student mentioned her other choice for the day would have been "Drenched" (video with lyrics) by Wanting (info). 

Speaking of getting wet, a student suggested the song "Rain" (video with lyrics, song info) by Motohiro Hata (info).

Continuing the theme of rain I played a little bit of a song I find very powerful about love: "Love Reign O'er Me" (video with lyrics, song info) by The Who (info). I like the dual meaning of "reign" (definition) and it's homonym "rain". I particularly like the vocal performance.


With that our time was over for the day.

However, after class one of the students posted a choice on our Facebook page: "You're Beautiful" (video, lyrics, song info) by James Blunt (info). 

And previously another student shared "69 Love Songs" (album, album info) by The Magnetic Fields (info)  on the Facebook group page.




I don't have a good idea for a theme for the next class. Free choice of songs! I'd be curious if some Chinese students can share songs related to Chinese New Year.