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

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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.