Intervals Roasting

Hello all! I saw this piece a few days ago and thought it fit both the holiday season, and the theme of this blog. It is a parody of “The Christmas Song” by Bob Wells and Mel Tormé but with original lyrics by David Rakowski, narrating the movement of the notes in music theory lingo. I think it is very funny and educational so you should accept my beliefs as truth and blindly click on one of these links:

The sheet music: http://www.swensongs.com/musictheorysong.pdf

A video of the sheet music:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF074CL5vjI

Both wonderful selections but I personally suggest the video as it comes audio.

Until next time…dun dun dunnn.

Proper Choral Perfomance Etiquette

Hello all! I thought this was a really important thing to share with all choir students. Before my little sister showed me this, I never knew it existed! It is a video that explains all the proper performance etiquette that students should follow. It has three guys, all demonstrating what not to do during a choir concert, which is pretty entertaining! They go through all the "lessons" which I will list here and go more in depth on. These are all things that Ms. Hughes has told us, now they are all compiled into one document! :) (The video is attached below!)

1. Lesson 1. Keep your eyes focused on the director; stay focused. (Wandering eyes don't look good during a performance, they are distracting, and people in the audience will be focused on you then. Also, the director will queue you when to come in if you watch!)
2. Lesson 2. Never put your hand on your face (during a performance); let that itch go. (This is important during a concert, not during rehearsal, as it is very distracting and draws attention to you.)
3. Lesson 3: Never chew gum in a performance. (This applies to rehearsal too, it is distracting, and you can't sing with gum in your mouth!)
4. Lesson 4: Be sure to always have proper concert attire. (Don't be the one who shows up in bright orange shorts and neon colored shoes- I think Ms. Hughes told us a story about this.)
5. Lesson 5: Blending is super important. Super. Important. (This one is pretty funny in the video. Not everyone is a soloist during a choir concert. Listen to each other and try to blend using similar vowel shapes, and match the volume the conductor is indicating !)
6. Lesson 6: Never laugh during a performance, including after a mistake is made. (This only applies to when you're singing in a performance, if you make a mistake, just continue normally, and the audience will never know!)
7. Lesson 7: Don't text during a performance. Turn your cellphone off and leave it offstage to avoid distractions. (Well this one is just common sense. It applies to rehearsal too! It's rude and disrespectful when we are trying to learn something.)
8. Lesson 8: Always hold your folder up- but don't block your face! (You want to hold your music, during rehearsal and during a performance, so that you can see your music and the director!)
9. Lesson 9: Never lock your knees; bad things happen. (We have all heard Ms. Hughes say this one, if you lock your knees, then you will get light headed and possibly faint!)
10. Lesson 10: Never talk during a performance, even between songs. (This doesn't look good.)
11. Lesson 11: Don't look like death. (Alright, I added this one in! But we have all heard this before. If you look like a deer in headlights, or expressionless, it makes you look less engaging, which makes it boring for the audience. Try to convey the meaning of the song instead through your eyes and face.)

And there ya' go! This is a nice little compilation of proper Concert Etiquette, isn't it? I think we did a pretty good job of doing these things last concert, but just a reminder. :)

Mohini Batish

The Paris Music Scene Post Attacks

       With the recent attacks in Paris, you could imagine that their day-to-day lives would have dramatically changed.  This is most definitely the case, but Paris citizens are not afraid to still have fun.  This article talks about how three weeks after the ISIS attacks in the club Le Bataclan, the people of Paris are continuing to go to clubs and concerts despite their recent fears.  They say, since they have been in a state of mourn, all they really "wanted to do was to watch live music with [their] friends."  I think it is really great that they are coming together over a mutual love for music after such a horrific event.  It is truly remarkable what music can do for and to people.  How it reflects and changes people's emotions.  How it can make people feel certain feelings that have been unfelt or haven't been felt in a long time.  Music is a beautiful thing that I think is essential to anyone's life.

To read the article click here.

Evolution of Music

If you go back, like not yesterday or last year but way back, and think about how music has evolved over time, it blows your mind (well at least mine)!!! 

1. So when I looked on google I found a really old song and it sounds nothing like today's music!!

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viMbnj_Ei2A

2. Then  I looked at a couple centuries past that and churches started to mass produce music:

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2j_t1o_g5U&index=14&list=PL4fPl4YZK6YgDdIZbgANnTNoJK6nmIqzK

3. Then Opera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32_xh6fndqE 

3. Then Bach fuges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddbxFi3-UO4

4. Then a couple centuries later big swing bands with trumpets and pianos:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddbxFi3-UO4 

5. Michael Jackson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_D3VFfhvs4

5. Backsteet Boys and other boy bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug88HO2mg44

6. Britney Spears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-u5WLJ9Yk4

7. The Wanted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ggzxInyzVE

8. Songs of 2015 includes many different styles of music.

Pentatonix Evolution of Music

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lExW80sXsHs

Music has changed my life as well as many other people and triggers feelings and emotions that can only be felt through listening to music with the heart. Feel your music :)

Singing

Yes, the title is vague. Yes, the title probably doesn't give many hints as to what I'm going to write about, but the title is also the answer to being happy and healthy. I've been singing every since I can remember, and I don't mean "professionally" or taking voice lessons. I mean I've been singing along to every song that I ever hear since I can remember-- it's part of who I am; I don't think there's been a day in my life that I haven't sung for at least five minutes. I didn't know what I was going to write for my blog post, so I googled what I love doing most: "singing." The first link that I clicked on was exactly what I was looking for, even if I didn't know it. I think/hope everyone knows what buzzfeed is. And if you don't where have you been, living under a rock? This particular buzzfeed article was called "15 Reasons You Need To Start Singing Every Minute Of Every Day." While, this website isn't  the Huffington Post or New York times, it does give links to actual scientific research that proves each point they make. Some of the things the article says are:

• Singing releases endorphins, which make you instantly happier
• You'll sleep better
• Your posture will straighten, and make you more confident
• It's a good workout

And many more. 

Aside from making some very good points, the have some KILLER gifs that really just completed the article. 

Here's the link: http://www.buzzfeed.com/juliapugachevsky/reasons-why-you-need-to-start-singing#.koDnqynnA

I hope everyone can take 5 minutes out of their day, and if not read it all the way through, at least look at the fantastic choice of moving pictures. 

Stage Fright!

Recently, I have been asked a very nerve racking question, Are you going to audition on the voice or X factor? I answered No, I have too much stage fright to do that! But, people keep telling me, if I want to be a singer I have to have courage, and believe in myself. So I started to look at youtube for any stage fright videos. Then this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVS_LR1AoIA)  helped me and I’m getting better at not being scared to sing in front of people. This is also helping my brother. Soon, I will be playing my first “gig” or to sing karaoke at a restaurant and want to invite a friend that has stage fright, but I’m afraid she will say no, so I haven’t asked her. Anyway’s this is a really good way to get rid of stage fright and also help with it. I really hope people who have trouble with stage fright look at this and try it because it is helping me become a better singer. If you have courage you can accomplish anything even singing, stage fright, or even presentations. I also encourage people who don’t have stage fright to still try it. I hope you like it! Please try it! Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVS_LR1AoIA

Pandora

As a person who loves discovering new music and artists, I find that Pandora is my go-to place to listen to new music. I have a huge amount of likes on it, and have been using it for several years now, but I have never bothered to pay for it? Why? I simply think that the free version is just fine. While the occasional annoying ad or two pops up when I’m on a road trip or at school, which effectively pushes me into real life, I enjoy the service. However, the payment that is requested by Pandora isn’t too much a month (only $3.99). The company has to pay royalties for the songs that I listen to, and I don’t pay them a cent. The service has been upping the amount of ads in recent years, up to the point that, with repeated ads and the frequency that I listen to music, I can recite them word-for word when they come on. The company has been losing money, and I think I should be paying. I feel like I’m mooching off of Pandora’s freedom to let its customers do what they want. I know that by listening to the ads, I’m paying them a bit, but I feel like if anyone has used a music streaming service as much as I have, they should pay the monthly fees.

Ola Gjeilo

My original thought for this post was to write about another choir singing Tundra that I thought did sung it really well. While I found a video that I enjoyed (link below) with really amazing dynamics and an absolutely beautiful soloist (which was sadly difficult to understand the words), I ended up watching video after video of other Ola Gjeilo pieces.

The piece I’m writing about which is my new absolute favorite is called Ubi Caritas (unaccompanied). I listened to a version performed by CWU Chamber Choir with and without accompaniment and the acapella version was much more interesting to listen to. Similar to Tundra, this piece is very slow, smooth, soft, and sweet. Haha so many s words! But it has gorgeous dynamics that give it amazing color so you want to listen all the way to the end (and so you don’t fall asleep haha!). In addition I think this piece sounds really nice with both men and women. It surprisingly stays soft and isn’t harsh as I would have expected. It begins very soft and then slowly becomes very dramatic but only for a short amount of time near the beginning, and slowly gets calmer and calmer. It reminds me of the ocean, right when there is a swell and then the waves settle down. (WOW SO DEEP). I can’t even describe how gorgeous the harmonies are. How do people make this stuff? Goals. But please check it out if you love Tundra. Also CWU Chamber Choir is extremely talented, both their mixed and women’s choir. ENJOY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LilsZr5hFvQ Choir singing Tundra AWESOMELY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvI5sNucz1w CWU Chamber Choir

Empire

Everyone seems to be doing a post about the holidays and their favorite Christmas carols and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that but I want to take this blog post as an opportunity to talk about one of my favorite shows on television right now. Empire is a prime time show about the Lyon Family, a family in the music business with their father, Lucious Lyon, as head of their successful record label. However, when Lucious is diagnosed with ALS he is force to come to terms with the fact that his days were now numbered and he must choose a successor to take over the record label when he is gone.
This show touches every emotion in you and is absolutely amazing but for me, the best part of the show is the music. Each episode there is new music that is inspiring and empowering and yet, the songs are up beat and happy even if it is delivering a message so powerful like the one from the link below where the one of the sons is coming out to the public and the song is conveying the message that being who you are is the most important thing even if not everyone supports you.

Here is the link to one of my favorites from the show:
"You're So Beautiful"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krlxHu6pAA0

The little drummer boy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFvgBvZcUKQ

With Christmas coming up I thought I would pick something festive for my choir blog. The little drummer boy is one of my favorite Christmas songs and I love all the energy that they put into this number so I thought everyone might enjoy this version. Although the vocal part of the song is very short, I though the soloist did a wonderful job. I really enjoyed how smooth the tone of his voice was. Although he did not choose to add many vocal variations, the song was simple and delightful which was perfect because the song soon escalated into a big number. Also, I thought he did a great job hitting the high note at the end of the song. I know that the violinist’s name is Rebeca Jackson and I thought her work was flawless. I am not familiar enough with the violin to judge, but I thought that her note transitions were extremely polished. As for the percussion, I thought they really stole the show. It was a little hard to tell in the video but the drummers were drumming on metal trash cans. The drummers managed to stay in sync which seems difficult to do while changing positions and being blasted with the fog machines. The young girls with the trash can lids also seemed to be having a bunch of fun which was adorable to watch. The thing I most enjoyed about this song was the way the drummers were able to create a really nice sound when it all came together. Although it does not seem like drumming on metal trash cans and violin would create a nice combination, the overall sound is pretty delightful. Although nothing compares to seeing it live, this video did a pretty good job of encompassing the sound of the show.  

Stairway to Heaven

Continuing my theme of writing about 40-year-old music, this quarter I'll be talking about Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven." It's not my favorite song, and it hasn't been on my radar for too long, but it's pretty good. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's "pretty okay." Sorry to all you hardcore Zepplin fans out there.
It has been called the most famous rock song ever, although I'm not sure I believe that. Surely there are some Beatles tunes that are more famous? They were kind of well known.
"Stairway to Heaven," has a slightly creepy, very eerie tune and lyrics which at least sound meaningful, which is the main thing after all.
Because of Rock 'n' Roll's one-time stigma of rebelliousness and generally immoral shenanigans, "Stairway to Heaven" has been (and still is in some quarters) accused of having demonic influences. In particular, there have been (slanderous!) allegations that if one plays the song backwards satanic messages can be heard.
I am not particularly interested in the occult--it seems silly and possibly psychologically harmful if false and definitely harmful if true, so what's the point? But I really wanted to know if there was any truth in it, and anyway it sounded amusing to listen to a song backwards. I decided to investigate.
So I mentioned it to a friend. A friend I knew had recording-manipulation software. He promptly took his "Stairway to Heaven" and loaded it into the program. We listened to it forwards and then he flipped it around and we listened to it backwards.
The result was interesting. It turns out that songs are generally listened to front to back for a good reason, vis, that they sound really odd the other way. Backwards Robert Plant is an interesting sound. It still sounded like music, which I suppose makes sense: notes are essentially the same forwards and backwards. But it sounds like really, really weird music. This was no doubt partly caused by the fact that backwards words are gibberish, but there was other stuff also. My friend, for instance, recalls that the sounds started quiet and 'faded' into loudness. One could definitely see how this could be played in an evil temple deep underground, the odd resonance and sinister harmonies being reflected in the flickering of the flaming skull lamps. I must admit that I thought it sounded
But you're all wanting to know whether there was real Satan stuff, not just atmosphere. Well, there was one part where we could kinda hear the words, "My sweet Satan," but 'Satan' was fairly indistinct and you  really had to want to hear 'sweet'. There was a 'j' sound which didn't belong there at all. That was it. There was nothing else in the song at all.
If one did want to encode subliminal messages into a song, one could do a better job than this.
It was a fun investigation all around, made better by the fact the I now realize my music library could be twice as big as it currently is if I just also listened to all of the songs backwards.
That's my Christmas (or other winter-centric holiday of your choice) present to you all. Happy Holidays.

Christmas Songs and Hanukkah Songs?

 Around this time of year, I have been listening to quite a bit of holiday music. I have enjoyed spending time looking for holiday music that I like, as well as playing a random mix, and finding new songs. I have to admit, I am a bit crazy when it comes to Christmas music (and listen to it a lot), so I’ve at least heard most of the music that I have been listening to this year. I have noticed, though, that with all my listening to all this music, Christmas music is most of what there is. Although I do not celebrate Hanukkah, I have noticed that there is very little music relating to this holiday. When I was about 6, I was in a children’s choir at my elementary school. I remember that for our winter/holiday concert, we would always sing lots of Christmas music like “Silent Night” or “Jingle Bells,” and usually “I Have a Little Dreidel” to be inclusive of the Jewish families, as well. But over the three or four years that I participated in the choir, we would always sing “I Have a Little Dreidel,” and vary the Christmas songs from year to year. I hadn’t really noticed it at the time, but there are very few songs written explicitly for Hanukkah.

I did a little research and it turns out that a lot of Jews in the mid 20th century joined the music business to get away from the jobs where they would be bothered by anti-semitism. So, these musicians composed and wrote music, and that music was Christmas carols. Many songs that are commonly heard today (“White Christmas,” “Let it Snow,” “Santa Baby,” etc.) were all written by Jewish composers. In reading this article, I noticed that the songs they were talking about were not religious, though. So as the composers wrote the music, they created songs about winter, and ones describing modern traditions.

Article: http://www.religionnews.com/2014/12/11/jews-skipped-hanukkah-wrote-beloved-christmas-songs/

Stone Cold by Demi Lovato

  This performance of Stone Cold by Demi Lovato is incredible. My mom showed me this video the other night and after watching it (and a minute of silent shock) I said "I knew she had it in her". Ever since I saw Demi Lovato on Camp Rock I knew she could sing. Then she sang the typical not actually music that everyone sings right now. But now she's getting to the good kind of music. This performance on SNL is flawless. It's so gut wrenching and emotional. I can feel her pain when she's singing and that's really personal and beautiful in a performance. When I listened to it the first time I was floored.She gave me goose bumps for more than half of the song. I would also like to point out the couple of seconds and the end of the video when Demi puts her head on the mic and is trying not to cry, because for me that was a sweet moment. More technically speaking I love her powerful range. She can belt pretty high in my opinion. I also love when she sings and she almost lets her voice crack, it like a soft squiggle in the music which I think is pretty unique to her. Demi Lovato proved herself to me by this song(not like she cares but...).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U9S9k8jJp0

my music

A few days ago I was downloading some new songs and decided to scroll through my music, and WOW! the songs that I saw on my computer were shocking. I had a bunch of old songs that are no longer heard of anymore. But the cool thing (for me at least) was that I realized that I have a very diverse collection of music. Know this probably sounds stupid but for me I always thought I was only into Hip hop and R&B and rap, but when I was scrolling through my music I found that I listened to alternative stuff (which I had no idea what it meant until know), I listened to some rock, some screamo, and some oldies. Y’all probably think it lame but it cool to see how as time goes on and we get more matured, our taste in music changes so much. It cool though because even if we grow out of a phase we still enjoy the past genres of music that we listened to (at least that’s how I feel about it). In generally music for me at least, is an extension of myself, I can express myself through the music I listen just like when you express yourself through the clothes you wear. Its cool to experiment with music and find the things you like, but also I wouldn’t restrict myself from exploring different genres and styles.