Morning Show Music

I started watching the morning show at Eight O’ Clock on November 28th. When starting they began with a song by Alicia Keys as they ran the camera through the crowd. This is because Alicia Keys was playing at the show. About two minutes in they played Christmas music when they were talking about giving to some charity for kids. Next at 8:09 they closed for a commercial and played random morning show music. Then a commercial for Bon Jovi playing on the morning show came on next with his music. Next were an assortment of commercials; one for McCormicks, Walmart, I-hop, Samsung, Toys R Us and Old Dogs. All of these commercials consisted of music that would appeal to their customers. For example, Toys’ “R” Us had upbeat exciting music.
Then the show returned from commercials at 8:12. They did one piece that lasted till 8:16 and went to another commercial. There were commercials with music from Big Lots, Invictus, Honey Bunches of Oats, Kay Jewelers, Nikon and Toyota. All which had background music.
They returned at 8:19 which a segment on Al Roker’s book. This book was a mystery/thriller; and they played a haunting type of music throughout the entire segment. It was called “The Morning Show Murder.” At 8:26 they took their next break. A commercial for the local news channel, Great Clips, The Biggest Loser, a funeral home, Cheerios, Oprah, Dr. Phil and more local news commercials. All of these were the commercials with music.
They returned with more music from Alicia Keys at 8:30. They spoke with someone from the biggest loser, which during they played inspirational music. At 8:35 they return to commercials and returned back at 8:37 with a story about a man who builds “Smart Houses. ” One home’s was a tree house at which time they played fairytale music because they say these houses are a fairytale that comes true because of how cheap they are. At 8:41 they went to another commercial which consisted of the typical commercials consisted of car dealers, fast food restaurants, the local news and clothing stores.
At 8:45 they returned with Alicia Keys actually playing a concert and then went right into another commercial. When they returned again at 8:49 Alicia Keys played another song. After talking with her they ended the show at 8:58

National Treasure

I stumbled across a pretty good song to use for this blog when I overheard my roommate watching the UD movie channel and heard the same song over and over again. The song I chose was "Ben," by Trevor Rabin; from the movie National Treasure. In this movie "Ben" is played many times all throughout the film. It is first heard in the beginning of the movie during an action scene. It is somewhat loud and energetic. The next time you here it is when the main character, Nicolas Cage, appears to be thinking about clues to find the treasure. In this instance the music builds from soft to loud the closer he gets to the right answer. This is kind of where one would hear a theatrical build up. The closer the clues would get him to the treasure the louder and more energetic the music would get. At the very end once he finds the treasure the music is at its most triumphant sound level. This is the climax of the movie. This is also the resolution because the movie kind of ends on that note being that he found the treasure. This song is also played in the credits at a more mellow sound.

Music in Wedding Crashers

The scene I chose was from the movie "Wedding Crashers." Typically you would not think to watch a comedy for a quality song used in a movie; but since this movie has a romantic side to it there were several songs available. I chose the song "I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today" by Guster. This song is played in the movie when the two characters are faced with the struggles of falling in love with one another. The reason for such struggles is because the female character, Rachel McAdams, is engaged. As you could probably guess this song is used to put emphasis on the sadness and troubles both of them are facing at this point. The lyrics actually go along with the movie quite well. The line "i hope tomorrow is like today" goes in sync with the movie because previous to this scene the two characters spent the entire day together. This song does a really great job at displaying the emotions both characters in this movie are dealing with. Had this song not been playing during this scene I do not think it would have nearly as much impact on the viewer.

Paul Lansky

I listened to "2 by 2" by Paul Lansky. This peice really could not have had a story line to it because it really sounded the same the entire time. It was hard to determine what exactly the sounds were in this peice. I would imagine that most of this peice were generated by a computer. There was one sound in this song that reminded me of water trickling. I listened to a couple more of his peices and found that this is in several other songs also. This and something that sounded kind of like a bass drum beating seemed very common in his peices. These computer generated sounds gave his music a kind of mystical sound to it. That is the only word I can think of to describe it.

Sound of the 1800 and 1900's

I listened to Captain Pearl R. Nye's "Life on the Ohio and Erie Canal." The track I listened to was called "Take a Trip on the Canal if You Want to Have Fun: part 1." I think to get the full expereince of the old recording technology I would need to heard a song with some instrumentals in it. Finding a song that had some instrumentals was quite a task, so settled for this song which is all vocals. It started off with just with a bunch of static playing. I was not sure if it was working but found that all of the songs start this way. I noticed that the song has pretty poor quality being that the static goes throughout the entire song. The one thing I think is interesting is that there is no retakes. When Captain Nye makes a mistake he pauses and then starts singing again. In todays music you obviously would not have that. I would imagine this was something that was common when they were using this old recording system.

Notation

When thinking about new ways to notate music I just thought of what I would find easiest if I were trying to read music. The biggest change I would make would be to change the notes into numbers. It seems that this is a much more simplistic way of going about things. Rather than seeing a circle with a hole in it for a half note, the musician would just see a 2; in which they would hold the note for two beats. As for the pitch of the notes I think the only way to make things easier would be to do it as they do for guitar tabs. The only reason I think this would be easier is because it seems that this is how most upcoming guitarist learn to play music; thus it must be easier. It may seem confusing to have two sets of numbers to read music, but if you just put the number for the pitch on the botton amd the value of the note on top it would not get to confusing.

Song Rythym

The first song I listened to was from the archives in the library. The peice was called Hipster Harvey and was played by theBrooklyn Sax Quartet: Way of the Saxophon, conducted by Fred Ho. This peice was a little more upbeat. The rythym of this song was a little faster than moderate, possibly 90-110 beats per minute. It was a happier song at most points which indicated that it is major. It was a very interesting song; the baratone sax was playing the bass beat the whole time and the tenor or alto sax was playing the melody of the peice.

The next song I listened to was from my collection; I chose Iron and Wine's "Someday the Waves." Like most of their music this song was in minor. Althogh the meaning is positive and happy, the tone of the song is kind of sad sounding. The reason I chose Iron and Wine was because most of their music is at a slower rythym. This song is at a very slow rythym, maybe 50-60 beats per minute. It is similar to the rythym of a lullaby. This song is homophonic being that it is just one singer and a melody in the background.

Electrophones

I listened to four different radio stations to compare and contrast how different genre's use electrophones. I first listened to rock 104, modern rock. I listened to several different songs in this 15 minute span; Kings of Leon, Muse ("Uprising") and Linkin Park ("New Divide"). All of these songs consisted mainly of electrophones. They all had electric guitar. Two songs used the electronic keyboard, Linkin Park and Kinds of Leon; and the last song, by Muse, used a synthesizer throughout the entire song. The next station, WHKO, was a country station. All three of the songs I heard consisted of just the electric guitar. I heard "Boots On" by Randy Houser, "One Boy One Girl" by Collin Raye and "American Ride", by Toby Keith. Although there really was not much electric guitar. I found that the acoustic guitar is more popular in country. The next station I listened to was a hits top 40 station. The first song I listened to was by Jason Derulo. There were several sounds displayed in this song that sounded like some sort of synthesizer. It also sounded like a distorter was used on the singers voise. The next two songs I heard were Miley cyrus, "Party in the USA", and Jordan sparks. These songs both used keyboards. Last, I listened to a Jazz/Blues station. I had trouble finding a station on the Dayton Radio stations so I streamed off an online site, KKJZ. The first song I listened to had no electrophones, it was called "Now and Then." The next song sounded similar to elevator music. It had no words and also had no electrophones. The last song I listened to was called "Hole in My Heart",by Melody Gardot. This song also had no electrophones in it.

Aerophones

I listened to an hour of WGUC and found that unless the piece is performed by a soloist, there will more times than not be an abundance of aerophones playing. The first piece I listened to was written by Charles Gounod,Petite Symphony. The piece started with clarinets, french horns and what sounded like a bassoon. It was a very cheerful song that had flutes all throughout it to make it even more lighter. The one part of this song sounded like the flutes and piccolo's where playing back and forth with the clarinets. The next piece I listened to, Maskarade Overture, was written by Carl Nielsen and performed by Swedish Radio Symphony. It started out with a lot of french horn and then eased into flutes playing. Throughout the entire song there were flutes and oboe's playing together with the clarinets. The brass, that played separate from the woodwinds, were; trumpets, trombone and what sounded like a tuba. The ending of this song was very strong sounding with all of the brass taking a crescendo to forte. The next piece I listened to did not have a whole lot of airophones in it. It consisted of mainly piano and violin.
Capriccio Brillant, written by Felix Mendelssohn, was played by the New York Philharmonic. As mentioned before, this song mainly consisted of the piano soloist. The next peice was Horn Concerto, arr. for flugelhorn, composed by Reinhold Gliere. This peice had a soloist, Sergei Nakariakov, playing the fulgelhorn. I found that the flugalhorn actually means horn with wings. Needless to say this song consisted of a lot of flugelhorn in it. Other than the flugelhorn the other main aerophone was the flute.

The Keyboard

The Keyboard has become a very popular instrument over the past 30 years and has played a drastic role in music today. One reason for its popularity is because it is much more portable than a normal piano. And although it is smaller it still has a way of achieving close to the same sound as a standard piano. It does not stop there though. The electronic keyboard can produce many different sounds; such as a standard piano, an organ and even drums. Another reason the keyboard is so practical is because it is much less costly vs a standard piano. This has made it so most anyone can produce a sound on an instrument similar to a several thousand dollar baby grand piano. Lastly, the keyboard is so popular because it can make one musician sound like an entire band. Some keyboards have the capability of recording what is played and can then play that recording while the next verse is being recited.

Guitar Role

The first station I listened to was a pop station, most of which were rap/hip-hop songs. The first song I listened to was "She Wolf" by Shakira. This song used guitar to keep the rhythm of the song. A guitar and a sound board of sorts played along with the vocals in this song. Most of the other songs had little to no guitar in them. But the next song I heard that used guitar was by Taylor Swift, which kind of falls into country. This song had quite a bit of guitar playing in it. After the pop station I listened to a country channel. Some of the songs I heard on this station were "She's Country", "There Goes My Life" and "What Hurts The Most." Between all of these songs there was a lot of guitar being played, with and without the vocals. There were even songs that sounded like they had banjo in them. The next station I listened to was a blues station. Several of the songs played on the blues channel were "Crossroad", "How Many More Years" and a song by B.B. King. Blues had by far the most guitar out of all four stations. There were songs that went at least 30 seconds of just guitar and harmonica. There was a lot less vocals in blues music, yet there was always a guitar playing. The last station I listened to was an oldies rock station. The songs I heard were "Living On a Prayer", "Ride The Wind" and "You Shook Me All Night Long" by ACDC. I found that like blues, rock also had a lot of guitar. The thing I noticed about rock was that there are very few moments were there is no guitar playing; whether it is the lead guitar or just a guitar playing in the background. Also it sounds like there is always more than one guitar.

Listening to DPR: David Braman

The first song I listened to was by the group Emogo Moody, singing "Spanish Gypsy's." This song was fun and energetic sounding. The main instruments I heard were the violin and a ukulele playing. These were the only two that stuck out in this song. The next song was by William Sincock. The piece was called "Contours." I found in this song consisted mainly of instruments from the viol family. There were violins, cello and also what sounded like viola's. The other cordophones in this song were the bass and piano. The part of this song that I felt added texture was when they plucked the strings on the violin in the song, which was quite often. Next was a song that had a really interesting story to it. The peice, "Francesa Da Rimini", was written by Peter Chiykowski. This story/song is about two people who are madly in love with one another, but the woman is in love with her husbands brother. The two have an affair which ends up getting them sent to hell. The song is the couple's journey through hell and the nine circles of suffering. There were many instruments in this song, but the cordophones I noticed in it were mainly the bass, violin and the piano. Although it is not a cordophone the flute was used in this song quite often to add light to the story or song. The last piece I listened to was done by Leonard Bernstain, the piece is called "The New York Phil Harmonic." In this piece, just like the others, there was a lot of piano and violin. The violin in this song was very fast and it played with the flute throughout a lot of the song.

Making a membranophone: David Braman

A membranophone consist of a streched membrane, such as a timpani. So I thought to myself what could replicate something such as this. I figured my best bet would be a material that is durable and can be stretched very tight. This is when I found glad press and seal. I stretched it tightly over the two bowls, just like in the commercial and they were ready to go. I decided to test it on two different bowls just to see how the size would affect the tone. I found that this material worked well but wore out very fast.

Glass bottle Playing w/ attatchment: David Braman

attachment

Glass bottle Playing : David Braman

The reason I decided to use glass bottles was because we had an excess amount of them in our recycling bins. I found that to get the best results I needed to fill up each bottle 1/8 more than the one before it. The more water in the bottle the lower the pitch. Starting from left, the empty bottle, and going to the right, the full bottle, you will notice that the pitch goes down. This demonstration shows how the resonance is affected by the volume obtained in the bottles.

Swing Life Away by: Rise Against

I have always enjoyed this song but I have never really listened to it in an attempt to pick it apart. I found that for this song it has both a monophonic and homophonic sound to it. Granted most of the song is just the lead singer's vocals with a soft acoustic beat playing. I decided though that it is also homophonic because there are occasional parts where there are more than just one person singing. Several versus in this song include a chorus singing the line "swing life away". I think the overall message this song was trying to convey was to live life simply, happily and to live life to the fullest. This is the reason I think the song was written in a major harmony. It is an overall happy/ feel good tone. It does not have a very fast tempo which sets kind of a relaxed tone. This rhythm was what made the melody so fitting for the lyrics of the song. It just allows people to listen and relax; just how the song was intended to be listened to. The overall form of this song was repetition with some change. The only repetition that was heard in this song were the homophonic versus. I have never been able to look at so many different key elements to a song. It really does help you see the meaningfulness of the song.

24 hours later

I awoke on Saturday morning to the unpleasant sound of my phones alarm clock. Once I rolled out of bed and decided what to make for breakfast, the music began. It started with the noise from making the eggs. A sound erupted as I cracked them in a dish to stir them up. I finished it off with the all too familiar sizzling sound from pouring them in a hot skillet. Along with the noises of me cooking I had the sounds from the TV in the living room playing in the background. Once this was all over, I sat around for a while and listened to the noises on campus from my house. Sounds from the cars passing by and the music from the other houses filled my ears. As the day went on there was various noises from outside; such as the birds chirping and the people playing sand volleyball. Another noise that you could hear from several blocks down was the game of corn-hole. As the night approached the music got louder and louder. Music from home stereo's where blaring and you could hear people chanting from their front porches, enticing the underclassman to come join them. As the night progressed the sounds got louder and louder. Every so often I would hear a fire alarm from a house down the road reminding me of my alarm. As the night turned into morning the noises calmed down. Finally the campus of UD took a rest for the night and I did also, to humming of my air-conditioner.

30 minutes of music

I was sitting at my desk in my room when I decided that it would be a great time to sit and listen to the music of UD for 30 minutes. I knew before I started I would hear a lot of sounds that I had never paid much attention to, but I was overwhelmed at just how much you could hear. The first thing I noticed were the cars that would drive through the Ghetto. Some sounded like a simple breeze of wind and others sounded more like a semi-truck. Music from other people's houses and cars was another main contributor to the noise on campus. A variety of country, hip-hop and rock all mixed into one single harmony. Another prime source to the noises that I was hearing was my computer and my air-conditioner. I normally would not put these two in the same group but since they seemed to be in harmony with one another's humming it only seeemed right. Along with this relaxing humming noise were the noises being orchestrated from my roommate cooking. Clanking from pots and pans and the sounds or words resulting from my roommates mistakes in the kitchen; lyrics that would normally be bleeped out in music. There was a symphony of sounds as my other roommate walked through our squeaky door in to our well-aged house and trundged up out creaky steps. His noise finally ended with his tossing around of papers and such in his bedroom. As I said before; I was surprised by the noises I would heard in just a 30 minute period.