Music In My Life
Videos
Movie Clips
Teaching
The first movie clip I chose was from Boy Choir, a movie about a rebellious young boy who goes to a boarding school and joins their famous choir. I chose this clip because I have a lot of experience in choir rehearsals, and this movie portrays the life of a chorister, so seeing it on the big screen was very entertaining. In this clip, the teacher leading the rehearsal goes through different techniques for singing, such as using your diaphragm, using air when singing, and matching vowels in a choral setting. Although he is teaching these concepts in interesting ways, such as having partners sing at each other, having students push books up with their air, and balancing folders on their heads, the teacher insulted one of the students, saying that “don’t sing from your throat, it sounds like you got a frog trapped in there”. Personally, as a singer, it takes a long time to grow confidence with your voice, and when someone of a higher power puts you down or embarrasses your voice, it can be very detrimental to your musical journey.
The second clip I chose was from Freedom Writers, a movie about an English teacher who uses unconventional tactics to break through her students, who live in a marginalized part of Long Beach. This movie is based on a true story. The context behind this clip is that the teacher is telling the students that they should believe in themselves, and not lose their own self-worth or potential. The teacher is named Ms. Gruwell, and I picked this clip because Ms. Gruwell demonstrates what a lot of teachers did for me when I was younger when I needed someone to tell me that I had the guts and power to go places, even if it felt like I was powerless. What I’d like you to take away from this is that the words of teachers can have a very lasting impact on us, all the way through adulthood. I still remember every motivational speech that my teachers gave to me when I felt worthless.
Reading Response #1
Shelemay, K. K. (2017). Sound: The materials of music. In K.K. Shelemay (Au.). Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World. Ch.1. Pp. 26-76. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc. ISBN- -10: 0393918289 ISBN-13: 978-0393918281
In this reading, Shelemay uses different types of world music to illustrate concepts such as pitch, form, and texture. For me, the Inuit voice game was very interesting because I can’t think of any other culture that has the same type of game, where the goal is not to laugh while singing. I think the function of music as a game is also interesting because that is something that is something used across all cultures. For example, we use peekaboo with babies. Sometimes I think because of the way we are taught, we get caught up in the “western bubble” and forget that other cultures may use music in the same way as we do. There's also the assumption within us that there is only one function of music, to play it perfectly and to listen to it intently, but in the Inuit voice game, it breaks that assumption.
Another type of world music that I found intriguing was the Indian Sitar. I was amazed that the artist was able to play for that long, without music as well. Although to the average listener it might sound messy or weird, I think understanding context is important when appreciating different types of music. To our western ears, it might not sound very grounded because a raga is a specific mode, but this type of music is used for entertainment and meditation. A regular listener might think that there is no structure and it can be quite random, but after listening to the example in class and clips online, I found the pieces to be quite beautiful. Additionally, I think that the fact that sympathetic strings exist on sitar is kind of like overtones, the fact that other sounds vibrate in relation to another sound.
Hi Jenny,
Thank you for your reflection focusing on the Inuit voice game and the Indian sitar. I appreciate how you mentioned the “Western bubble” that we may get caught in sometimes and forget that some cultures actually use music in the same way we do. I’ve been thinking lately about the differences between music in different traditions, but there are some similarities that are also helpful to recognize as well. Do you think if we spent more time focusing on the similarities rather than the differences between music in different traditions that we could become more accustomed to “non-Western” music? Could it become more of a part of our “musical vocabulary”? Why or why not is this important? I would like to challenge you to expand on this point and also consider why we tend to call “world music” anything that is not part of our Western classical canon. What implications may this have? Thank you for your bibliographic citation.
Thanks,
Laura