Movie Music

I watched the movie 300 to listen to the movie's soundtrack for this entry and I found that the music made a huge impact on the way I watched the movie. I found that I would be more excited as climatic parts approached. I also felt that it made the scenes seem more thematic and more exciting, even for parts that were nothing but walking or talking, I found to be more interesting. I definitely think that music plays a huge role in the way that people watch movies and enjoy the experience.

Music Video Journal

For this blog entry, I watched the MTV-U channel which actually played music and music videos, which absolutely shocked me considering it's a subsidiary of MTV. I watched a couple videos and watching the videos helped me realize who the music is targeting. The one that I remember well is the song "5 Minutes to Midnight" by Boys Like Girls. The video was a "candid" video with occasional scenes of the band playing/singing the song. This video made it clear the video was for the late high school into college crowd and the idea of having fun on a summer night. The lyrics stated it as well, but the video added a nice element to the song and made it an enjoyable song to watch and listen to, a rare occasion in today's musical world.

Magnetic Tape Manipulation

I listened to "Pendulum Music" by Steve Reich and though it's not the type of music I would usually listen to, I do consider it to be music. The definition given at the beginning of this year regarding music was an organized pattern of sound and silence. It sounded exactly like a heart beat on a terror movie track. I then listened to the radio to get a sample of what is considered "popular" today and from what I could tell, the majority of the garbage...I mean music....that is played is recorded using multi-tracking which essentially allows anyone with a computer to create a song that would most likely be considered popular. Multi-tracking allows for a lot of unique (not always good) sounds to be produced.

Historical Recording

I couldn't figure out how to search the Library of Congress so instead I listened to a recording of Frank Sinatra's "My Kind of Town" that was an original recording. I noticed that the sound was a little fuzzy but I felt it enhanced the song because it gave it a quality that could only work for music from before the Beatles. I know the explanation is confusing, but it feels like to me that after the Beatles, the sound of music improved and that's how it should be for that music, but Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby all sound so much better when it's an original recording. There was little amount of bass and was short on the treble which gave it almost a neutral tone in a way. I definitely enjoy the sound quality of the song.

Alternative Music Notation

When given this assignment, I sat for awhile thinking about a way to notate music differently and make it easier to read, learn, and play. I thought of using numbers or letters originally, but I felt that it was too similar to the way it is currently. I sat for awhile longer and thought, and I think that using colors for the brass instruments might work the best. Assigning the three primary colors to each valve and then notating it on either standard sheet music or going high tech and having it on a screen seems to me to be a relatively easy and effective way of notating music. As for instruments like flutes or clarinets, I think that a color system would be too complex, so I would think that maybe doing letters and numbers could potentially work, but making it easy to read could pose some big problems for those that have to play the instruments.

Organization of Music

For this assignment to determine the rhythm I listened to the song "Sunday Afternoon" by Lucky Boys Confusion. It didn't take me very long to decide what form the rhythm was in, and very quickly I determined that it was in duple form. This didn't surprise me because almost all the music today and all the music I listen to is in duple form. I then chose Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 as my classic piece. The time is in 3/4 time so I would consider the rhythm to be in tuplet form because at times it sounded like 6/8 time and tuplets are commonly found in 6/8 time. The structure of the 2nd movement sounded like it is in A-B-a-C form because it was essentially the same theme, just repeated and varied just enough to make them different.

Guitar in Music

Doing this assignment was a lot easier to do than listening to the classical music. Not because I dislike classical music, but being able to pull the sound of a guitar out from the standard instruments used in country, rock, pop, and jazz music (the four categories that I chose to listen to) is a lot easier than trying to differentiate between a flute and a piccolo. I first listened to the pop station because that type of music is hands down my least favorite to listen to and the hardest for me to attempt to enjoy. The songs I heard were a lot more based around beats and whatever could be produced on a computer, so in the time I listened, I heard few songs that actually used a guitar. The times the guitar was present, it was used to attempt to make the song "rock" in the most vague sense of the word, and only playing two chords makes it difficult to say the the guitar played a very big role. I then listened to jazz next and it was refreshing to hear music played with actual instruments. The guitar's role in the jazz music was not very in your face but it was definitely a crucial role in making the music sound the way it does. The guitar enhanced the tone and rhythm of the piece, helping create at times a sadness in some songs, or conveying the joy in others. Getting into both the rock and country genres, there was no doubt as to what role the guitar played in them. The guitar is a very necessary tool in those types of music as can be heard with just a few moments of listening to either. In songs such as "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC, it is hard to argue that the absence of a guitar would ruin the song. In various country songs too, the guitar is what can make or break the song. In my findings of what I consider to be music, the guitar is a very integral role into the song. Three of the genres I listened to were improved by the use of the guitar, with the fourth genre just being awful to begin with. Eric Clapton or B.B. King could play their hearts out, but that still wouldn't make the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana good.

Keyboard Effect on Music

Since the beginning of recorded time, music has played a very large role in the progression of mankind, and that was how it was for the longest time, but with the invention of the keyboard man played a role in the progression of music. The keyboard originally started as a very basic instrument that sounded very similar to a harp more than the piano we know today. The keyboard allowed for more diverse types of music to be produced and allowed for far more complex music as well. When the keyboard was first introduced, it was a very basic sound and instrument, but as time passed and the keyboard progressed, so did the music. Without the keyboard, classical, jazz, rock and roll, even techno music would not be around today.

Classical Music 2

I listened to the hour of classical music today, again on dpr.org, to listen for what chordophones would be present in the different pieces I heard. Of the 4 pieces I heard in the hour, I am pretty confident of the fact that I heard a couple different chordophones that I was able to identify for sure. In the first piece, the dominant instruement I heard was the piano, seeing as the piece was Piano Concerto No. 3 in C-minor, but I also heard other stringed instruments, namely the violin and a cello. The other 3 pieces sounded similar to me in that the chordophones were the "standard" instruments, again like the violin, cello, concert bass. I'm sure there were other instruments that were present, but I am not too sure of what I heard.

Classical Music

After listening to an hour of classical radio today online on dpr.org, I only listened 4 different pieces seeing as 2 of the songs were over 20 minutes apiece, but I heard many different instruments in each piece. I heard numerous woodwind instruments including numerous flutes and clarinets, but I am pretty confident I heard all types of woodwinds in the pieces I heard. I also heard very strong brass sections in the pieces, namely trumpets and tubas standing out to me because I used to play those 2 instruments, so I could tell their sounds easily. I also think that I probably heard french horns and trombones, though their sound was not as apparent to me. The woodwinds had the warm (obviously) woody sound, and the brass had a very (you guessed it) brassy sound. I enjoyed listening to the classical music a lot actually because the overall sound of orchestras playing together is something I find to be very complex but very intruiging.

Tone

The tone I created sounds to me like a bad hard drive in a computer, or at the right volume if you stand in the other room, sounds like the landing gear on an airplane being put up.

Favorite Song

For this assignment, I had a tough time choosing one song that I would consider my favorite. I enjoy so many different types of music that choosing just one proved to be near impossible, which is why it has taken me until now to write this entry. I listen primarily to country artists and bands like Lucky Boys Confusion and The Dog and Everything, bands local to Naperville, IL (where I'm from) but after awhile, I opened my search to bands such as Something Corporate, 311, and O.A.R. but I was still at a loss. I then moved onto King, Clapton, Hendrix, Van Halen, AC/DC and before I knew it I was back to square one of searching my iTunes library to find what I would consider my favorite song. It's a little unconvential considering the time of year and the weather outside, but I would consider "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra to be one of my top songs of all time. I could list the subjective reasons for liking this song and write this entire entry listing them, but talking as objectively as I can, this song is amazing. The timbre of the orchestra by itself is very colorful as each instrument obviously sounds different and adds a different feel to the piece, but specifically the noticeable difference in timbre and texture begins roughly 30 seconds into the song when the sadness of the cello, guitar, and flute are replaced with the intensity of the electric guitar playing one melody line and the rest of the string section playing another, as the bells play and add even more range to the piece. To me, it sounds as though the song is played in a minor harmony because it doesn't have a very happy feel to it. The melody comes off to me as sad because of the song starting off minor and continuing that throughout the piece. It follows a very stepwise pattern of notes as there isn't much, if any, major skipping of notes/octaves in the song. The song is very rythmic and is in 3/8 time, which makes it have a quick feel. I would consider it to be homophonic (though the many sounds make it seem polyphonic) because though there are many different sounds, they are all playing the same melody. The absence of lyrics makes it so much easier to hear individuals instruments too. Although it is August and 80 degrees outside, this song is really transcends the weather outside and the time of year which makes it one of my favorite songs of all time.

Music in 24 hours

In the past 24 hours that I have been aware of the music around me, I have heard a variety of music in a variety of places. My day starts out with my alarm clock, my phone, my roommate's alarm radio, and his phone all going off starting at 8 a.m. and going until 8:05 a.m. Then, after the 4 different songs ranging from "Crazy Train" by Ozzie Osbourne to Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" stop playing, I get ready for my day and have a relatively music free morning up until after my first class when my phone rings and "Fred Astaire" by Lucky Boys Confusion starts playing and my friend is on the other line asking if I've eaten. I meet him at KU and over the speakers, an artist unknown to me is singing a song that I've never heard. I tend to block it out as the opening music for Sportscenter begins to play and I turn my attention to the TV in the corner. I'll watch until after the top 10 plays segment at which point I have to get to class. I pay attention for the first 30 minutes of class, but my mind starts to wander and I start to sing the nameless song from KU. That doesn't last long considering I don't know the words and I realize that I have no idea what is going on. From the time my class is over to the time I get back to Campus South, 10 minutes has passed of not hearing any music which I don't notice when I am talking to people around me. Back in my room, I listen to some Eric Clapton and fall asleep as I become very calm and relaxed. I wake up an hour later not to a song but my roommates telling me to do something with my life and get some food with them, so it's back to KU where I don't know the songs and the artists are just as unknown. After getting some food I go and work out where I hear whatever songs come on my iPod at that point, usually consisting of rock or rap. I get back to my room around 10 and watch TV until 11:30 when I start to fall asleep and make myself go to bed. I don't need anything to put me asleep, but when it comes time to wake up, those 4 alarms do the trick.

Listening in Silence

This morning at 11:05, I sat up in bed for 40 minutes listening to the silence around me. I chose this time because it was a point when all my roommates were out of the room so I knew there would be a lot less noise in and around the apartment. For the first 10 minutes I heard the air conditioner fan blowing and the air coming out of the vents, but I soon didn't hear those sounds anymore and I soon became very relaxed as the only sounds I heard were my deep breaths and the occasional car pass by outside on Irving. Exterior noises were very minimal which made it much harder for me to keep my eyes open. I probably would have fallen asleep had it not been for the noise of the engines of a KC-135 coming in to land and my roommate throwing the door open announcing his presence.