Improv Music Blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOCZrrLqZ7E

This video is just two guys IMPROVING at RAAAAANDOM. This video relates to what we are currently doing in class, because we as an entire class are improving/improvising on the spot trying to mesh together our individual beats and rhythms to create a united and flowing abstract piece of music.

Stomp!

I would say that the video is pretty self explanatory as to how it relates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXD76CSpfc0&feature=related

The Culture and Influence of the Mbira

This is a mbira (also known as a sanza or a thumb piano). This instrument has been used in African culture for about 800 years. Essentially, it is a sound box with metal keys attached that are plucked with the thumbs. It can be played alone, but it has traditionally been used as an accompaniment to voices or other instruments.

I chose to talk about this instrument because not only is it taken straight from African culture (Babatunde Olatunji used on in the Drums of Passion album because of its cultural significance), but it has also had a direct impact on music as a whole. The mbira is an early representation of the concept that the length of a certain material is indirectly proportional to frequency at which it vibrates (i.e., longer means higher pitch). The mbira was essentially the precursor to modern keyboard instruments.

What I also find really cool is that people are still coming up with ideas for simple instruments like this one all the time. The guy in this video fashioned his own keyboard instrument out of various lengths of PVC piping, which he uses to play a medley of popular music. On an even simpler level, in the drum closet, we have a set of boomwhackers, which are just plastic tubes of different lengths that sound different pitches when hit.

For more information on the mbira, visit the following sites:
http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textm/Mbira.html
http://www.nscottrobinson.com/mbira.php

Salsita Rica

If you go to any good salsa club in Latin America, you'll find everyone letting all troubles go on the dance floor.  There might be a few professionals, but mostly you'd find regular people having a good time.  Salsa, like the drum circle, is about feeling the music, and connecting with your partner.  It doesn't matter if you lead or follow as long as you move along with your partner.  When you're about to dance salsa or participate in a drum circle, its essential to go into it with an open mind, thats the only way you can truly lose yourself and find meaning in the experience.  Like drum circles, you don't have to be a professional dancer to enjoy yourself.  Just learn a few simple steps, get lost in the music and you're good to go!

Samba Batucada

I used to have a CD with this song on it (by a different group) and I always really loved the parts where there is one person leading the entire group on one drum. Not only is this a really cool way to do improv, but I feel like that would be a fun way to do drum circles. The whistle, to my knowledge, serves to sort of call attention to the group, like "Alright, enough jamming, back to business everyone!" I just really love this song and think it can teach us a lot about drumming and the way we conduct drum circle.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? Improve Masters

For those of you who are not familiar with this show, it is called Whose Line Is It Anyway?. It is a show that is completely improved. The actors play multiple different games and this one game they play here is called scene to rap. All they are given is a topic from the audience. They make up all of this on the spot.

Comment Required: Homework for Monday 10/1

Here's the excerpt from the syllabus (on your Google drive) with our agenda for tomorrow (Monday 10/1):

Facilitating community drum circles

• review of earlier facilitation techniques

• leading call and response

• leading subsets of the circle

Intro to Music for People (MfP) philosophy

• Discussion of the Music for People “Bill of Musical Rights”
http://musicforpeople.org/rights.html

• Discussion of “Introduction” and “It’s You” (should be tracks 1 and 2) of
The Darling Conversations at http://audio.depauw.edu.  

So by 1:00 PM on Monday, be sure to add a comment with:

• at least three short paragraphs
• addressing similarities/differences between the Arthur Hull/Babatunde Olatunji approaches to group drumming and the Musf for People philosophy
• discussing what you found most interesting in the Darling Conversations tracks.

Remember that to access  http://audio.depauw.edu, you log in with your network/Moodle username and password. If you've forgotten/lost that information, go in person to the Help Desk with your ID.

This video talks about "how" to improve and the guidelines for Jazz improve. It really just is good advice for everyone, Jazz player or not. Also Louie Bellson is one of my favorite Jazz Drummers of all time! Clark Terry Rocks Too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUZhE7A3BMU

Okay this will have to do with some explaining. First off we talked about how when playing music with others sometimes you can just feel connected with others at certain moments, and how that connection can make you want to do music later on so you can have that feeling again. This is the piece that made me become a music major. The ballad section, when the trumpets first enter (4:16), and to the end (5:24), I felt like my band was all connected, that there we were just one as a group and just producing the most beautiful music possible. This was one of the best feelings I've ever experienced and I wanted to experience it again. That's a lot of why I became a music major.

Secondly, and more relevant to the everyone else, the ending section, starting at 7:07. We talked about how we bring all our different rhythms together to make music. They are all different, but the still work. At the end of this piece everyone is playing something different. Trumpets have a melody, horns saxes and baritones have a different melody, high woodwinds are doing things on top of it all and low brass and woodwinds have running 8th notes to keep a nice steady pulse going. None of those are really related to each other, but somehow that doesn't matter. The two melodies happen to fit perfect with each other, which sounds perfect with the high woodwinds on top, which sounds perfect with the low instruments on bottom. We each bring out own little melody, motif if you will, to our circle. Some are simple, like just running quarter notes. Some more complex, but all different none the less. They all fit together to form nice beautiful music, just like at the end of this piece when all the different motifs and one new one come together just to make some beautiful music.

Comment Required: Homework for F 9/28

Here's the homework for Friday 9/28 (due any time before class):

1.  Read and take notes on:

• “Change the World” (Interview with Babatunde Olatunji)
http://www.drumcircle.com/articles/baba.html

• “Arthurian Philosophy”
http://www.drumcircle.com/articles/philosophy.html

• “Arthurian Philosophy”
http://www.drumcircle.com/articles/philosophy.html

• “Drum Circle Etiquette”
http://www.drumcircle.com/articles/etiquette.html

2.  Listen to any three tracks from Babtunde Olatunji's historic album Drums of Passion.  

• Go to audio.depauw.edu 
• Log in with the username you use for Moodle and the DPU network (i.e., your "network password," which may be different than your Gmail password).
• If necessary, select this class (MUS 130 A).
• There will be a Drums of Passion playlist with 8 tracks.

3.  Write a comment here (Go down to the bottom of this post.  If there isn't a window for posting a comment, click on "X comments").  Your comment is in essence a short, informal response paper.  If there are other comments already posted, read them before writing yours, and feel free to address points others have made--we want to have a conversation.  

Your comment should:

• be at least two paragraphs long;
• discuss at least three key points from the articles above; and
• describe your reaction to listening to the Drums of Passion tracks

If you want to discuss how the ideas in the articles relate to our activities in class today, please do!

Comment required: Welcome and how to blog

Welcome to the class blog for our rotation together!

Some important information:

Accept the invitation: To access all the features of the blog, including writing an original post, you need to accept the invitation that was sent to you earlier today. This works most easily if you:

1. Sign into Google apps using your DEPAUW, not personal, username.
2. Open the invitation in the web version of Gmail.  (From: Eric Edberg Subject: "You have been invited . . ")
3. Click the link in the message.
4. If need be, log in again with your DEPAUW, not personal, account information.
5. That will take you to the Dashboard for your DePauw Blogger account.  You'll see this blog listed.

Your screen name: If you haven't already established a profile on your DePauw Blogger account, you'll need to choose a screen name.  This must be one which both I and the rest of the class can recognize as you, so it should include at least a portion of your name in recognizable form. 

To write a comment (five each week/partial week):

A comment is a response you write to someone else's post.  

1. Click on "view blog."
2. Click on the title of the post you wish to comment on.
3. Write your comment and submit.

You need to write 5 comments each week.  The five include those you write on "Comment required" posts by me.

To write an original post:

An original post is a new topic for discussion that you initiate.  It should be relevant to the course:  things related to drumming, drum circles, improvised music, practicing, life as a music student, musical relationships, etc., are all welcome and encouraged.  Your post may include a a description of an experience you've had and your thoughts about it, a video, a link to an online resource (such as an article or website), etc.

To write an original post:

• From the dashboard, click on the icon with a pen/pencil in it on. 
• From the blog itself, if and only if you have accepted the invitation in the email AND are logged into your DPU Google Apps account, you can click on "New Post" link in the upper right hand corner of the screen, just to the right of your username.  

If you post a video, you can embed it (make it viewable within the post) by clicking on the little video icon at the top of the box where you enter text.  It looks like a movie clapboard.  If you hover your mouse over the various buttons, you'll see text pop up describing each one.

If your post is a video or link, be sure to describe it, explaining what you find interesting about it and why it's relevant to the class (if that is not self evident).

You need to write one original post each week/partial week.  

Have fun!