8 April 2015 (Wednesday)

The first class of Spring Quarter! 7 students came, 2 of whom were new.

I started class by asking each student what they did during the Spring break. And I asked what music was the soundtrack to the break.

One student said she started listening to a lot of jazz during the break. An example as "Adria Blue" (video) by bohemianvoodoo (website). She said she likes the music to start the day because it's relaxing.

There are many "kinds" of jazz from traditional to relaxing to challenging. I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded was Miles Davis's (info) "Kind Of Blue" (videos, album info). 

Another student discovered the band Silversun Pickups (info) over the break. He heard song "Panic Switch" (video, lyrics, song info) in a Starbucks in Portland, OR and Shazamed (website) it to find out which band it is. He said that so far he has only listened to the one Silversun Pickups album: he wants to become very familiar with it before moving to one of their other albums. Maybe he'll find a new favorite song later.

SZ note: the drummer in the "Panic Switch" video looks to me like Animal from the Muppets (video). I wonder if he does that on purpose?

One of the new students is from Italy so a student asked to hear a typical Italian singer/song. The song chosen was "I Belong To You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Eros Ramazzoti (info) with Anastacia (info). Interestingly, Anastacia is American but nobody in America knows about her while she is a huge star in Europe.

The next song was an other Italian group: Il Volo (info) singing "El Triste" (video, lyrics, song info). 

Two students from class were going to see a concert tonight: Stone Temple Pilots (info). I asked one of the students to pick one of his favorite STP songs. He chose "Sour Girl" (video, lyrics, song info). Which is a nice song! But I think of the band as being more loud than that song: I think of them more like their first single, "Sex Type Thing" (video, lyrics, song info).

Now we asked the other new student to choose a song he likes. He chose "You Raise Me Up" (video, lyrics, song info) by Westlife (info). There can hardly be a bigger difference between Westlife and Stone Temple Pilots, but that's one reason I love hosting this conversation group!

The next song chosen was "Put The Gun Down" (video, lyrics) by ZZ Ward (info). The student who chose this song heard it first on the TV show The Voice (info). I have to admit, I kind of like The Voice.  Here's the version of "Put The Gun Down" from The Voice that the student originally heard; she prefers this version to ZZ Ward's original.

Speaking of The Voice, there's a contestant originally from Seattle in the current season: Kimberly Nicole (info). "The House Of The Rising Son" (video).

The rhythm of "Put The Gun Down" reminded me of the song "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree" (video, lyrics, song info) by KT Tunstall (info). My favorite version of that song is the one where she plays it live on a TV show in France and builds the parts of the song up piece-by-piece using a sampler on stage, see link above. I could never keep track of all those parts!

The last song of the day was "Hostiles (live)" (video, lyrics, song info) by Damon Albarn (info).


With that, the first class of the quarter ended. Next week's class will be in the same room, HUB 307. Theme for next class will be "Songs About Springtime".