Thursday, March 11, 2010

Musical Roots

I must be bipolar XD But this is going to be a happy post. Know why?

I FINALLY DECIDED ON A MUSIC LECTURE IDEA. AND I FREAKING LOVE IT.

The assignment: Pick three different styles of music and analyze and compare them.

Deciding was my biggest hurdle. I couldn't settle on anything. I thought of doing three things that I thought would have nothing in common like Classical, country and death metal. I really wanted to do, like, subgenres of metal. Lots of people (especially the people in my class) think it all sounds the same. I thought it would be really interesting and fun to analyze some different types. Unfortunately, my teacher and most of my classmates would hate that -_- Also, to do the idea justice, I felt like I'd need more time than I had.

Then my mom had the idea to take three kinds of music that built on each other. I liked that idea, but I still didn't know what to pick...

(The project is due Tuesday by the way. We've had all semester to work on it. Heh.)

I began researching stuff like "music family tree" and "roots of music" and "music genome project". I was coming up blank and getting more frustrated by the second. Finally, I'd had it with the whole thing. I decided to pray. I probably should had done that earlier, but I'm never sure how much time God wants to spend on my petty little academic issues...

Anyway, while I was asking God for suggestions (XD), I got an idea.

"What if I take Classical music, trace that through, like, Stravinsky, and then...I wonder if there's a kind of metal that comes from that..."

I did some research. There is a direct line from Classical, to Neo-Classical (Stravinsky), to Neo-Classical metal.

How. Perfect. Is. That.

I actually kinda screamed for happiness. (No one was home, so it was okay XD) I spent the next two hours completely fascinated and excited about my project. This stuff is so fascinating, people! Oh my gosh! I can't remember the last time I enjoyed school so much! I might do this in my spare time!

I got a little sidetracked with my keyboard, though. I do not play the keyboard, but before long I had "Happy Birthday", "What Child Is This?" and some of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" figured out. I was really excited :D

My dad says I have all this natural music talent. I'm not sure. I don't think I'm particularly gifted, but maybe. *shrug* It's interesting me more and more for sure.

And guess what? I'mma have another ring soon. So yay.

*doesn'tgrindoesn'tgrindoesn'tgri--okay, GRINS*

I'm really thrilled about the music lecture. I can't even tell you how excited I am. I'm just really pumped :D :D :D

~Kendra

3 comments:

Achieve1dream said...

Nice! Sounds like an interesting project. I hope you finish it in time. I'd be a wreck if I waited until that late to work on such a big project lol.

I self taught myself to play the keyboard too, but because I did it that way my timing sucks, so pay attention to your counts and notes. That way if you decide to take lessons later like I did you won't be hammering through that stuff instead of moving on to more advanced pieces. I also have no ear for music and if your dad says you have natural talent then you probably do, which will make it a lot easier. :) Have fun!!

Einar said...

I know what you mean about how cool it is that music links. Did you know that country music is a descendant of Traditional Irish music?

Basically, the line goes, Trad Irish- Bluegrass- Country.
Pretty cool, but it gets cooler if you realize that Country is influenced by rock, which has it's own tree.
History is so fun sometimes :)

Katie said...

Hey! I tagged you over at my blog!

www.basketballer4him.blogspot.com

God bless!

~Katie G.