音楽について/about music

Hello!

How are you? Today I will show you again the four pieces of music I played for you in class last time before the festival break. Listen to these as many times as you want or need.

We are going to think about what we wrote to this music - and select one piece of music you particularly liked and add more to your writing about it!

Here is the first one - Erik Satie's "Ragtime Parade":

Here's the second one - "Dog Trot," by Moondog:

Here is the third one: Frank Zappa's "Little Umbrellas":

Now here is the last one - "Green Onions," by Booker T. & the MGs:

What did you think of these pieces of music? 

Activity/homework

Now look at your writing about this music from the first time you heard each one last week. Choose one (1) piece of music you felt was the most interesting to you and add another paragraph about it. Write more about the characters and scenario you had about it, and make it into a little story. 

Have fun with this! I'll look forward to seeing what you wrote about the music you chose to write more about.

See you next time!

Image: personal photograph. All rights reserved.
Videos uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the videos or the musical compositions. Uploaded for educational purposes only. No copyright infringement intended. All rights reserved to the copyright owner(s). 

音楽を書いている (Part 2)/writing about music (Part 2)

Hello!

How are you? Here is Part 2 on writing about music.

Here's more on the other two pieces of music I played for you in class. First, here's a video file for the third piece of music I played for you - "Stop," by Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield:

If you would like to learn more about these artists, click here and here. 

Now, here's a video file for the last piece of music for you - Frank Zappa's "Little Umbrellas":

If you want to learn more about Frank Zappa, click on this link to read the Wikipedia article (in Japanese) about him.

This may be very different music for you, but I hope you enjoyed these.

See you next time!

Image: "Electric Guitar" (courtesy of dan)/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Videos uploaded from YouTube. Videos uploaded strictly for classroom use. I do not own the rights to the musical compositions or videos. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). 

Words on Music (Part 4): Frank Zappa - "Little Umbrellas"

Hello to my students,

Image "Colorful Puppets On A Market Stall In Kathmandu, Nepal" courtesy of think4photop/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here is the last post - Part 4 - of our collection Words on Music. This is what you wrote to the Frank Zappa piece you heard in class - "Little Umbrellas." 

Here is the video for the song:

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to this video. No copyright infringement intended. 

It is uploaded strictly for classroom use.

Here are your thoughts and feelings on this music:

I imagine many a place with many adrenaline and laughs in the air. Many lights, many people, many feelings, many dramas on the stage and many hopes and dreams delivered for children and teenagers! But also for adults, it breaks the common sense that adults do not have dreams because they lived long time to give up their dreams for "real life." In this place, those type of people can learn that dreams are also real! This place is a circus.

This is strange music and a fun mood. I image cats are dancing at open space. Cats stand with two legs. Cats are talking, eating and something drink, and they look human. Today is the cat's dance party!

The mood of the music is weird and the music makes me lazy. It expresses depression, for example, when I go to the university in the morning, I don’t want to go to there because of sleepiness.

At first this goes slowly but one the way was bitter sound. I am good to listen to sound of this type. It is in a restaurant or tearoom. Especially, tearoom is a good place to listen. I think the story is that some people are a dancing at a party. This party is the anniversary party of something. Everyone burst with fun. But this party is coming to an end.

This is such a mature kind of dance. It is fun for pleasure. I think that anyone begins to dance to it. Because many people likes to fun or dance to music.  Of course I will dance. Anyone can feel fun that your body adjusts to this music, and begins to move to it naturally.

This piece of music is most bright, but at the same time, it may be mysterious. This gap may create a unique atmosphere. I think this atmosphere cannot be imitated. How mysterious this makes it! 

I see a snake charmer appearing. Here, it is India. He handles his snake on the street as he sits cross-legged.

Another great collection of some great reactions to this music!

To see more, click on here for Part 1. Click here for Part 2. Click here for Part 3. 

Good luck on your final writing projects! I hope Words on Music can help you in writing your final projects.