Keyboard's Affect On Music

The keyboard has definitely put its own trademark on the world of music. It helped provide music to the masses in the fact that no special skills were required to play it, and anyone could attempt to. Once it had been established, and music was available to the masses, then the keyboard style of playing music really took off.

The piano has really taken hold in modern music as well. It exists in most forms of music and is a focal point in some. Whether it be in modern, jazz, pop, or even rock, the piano plays an integral part in each. The electric keyboard has only amplified its impact in recent years. Past piano makers would marvel at where technology has taken us. If one wants to play a piece including synthesized brass instruments or an organ, they are able to do. It has broadened so many horizons and enabled people to become even more creative while writing music and delve deeper into themselves in order to express themselves even more. One can accurately tune the instrument's tone, pitch, or volume at any point of their music. The size of the keyboard is also an important aspect of it because it becomes a lot more convenient to anyone on a budget or with limited space. Its truly amazing how this technology has advanced over the years and it will take us in the future.

Music Genres

For this assignment, I listened to jazz, rock, country, and hip hop stations.

On the jazz station, the guitar provided smooth melodic riffs to accompany usually a saxophone or a piano. One song I heard was by George Benson (I believe it was called Breezin'), and he dominated the song with his prowess on guitar, which was simply unreal. Hammer-ons and slides appear to be his forte. There's a distinct feel of jazz that separates it from guitars in other genres. Its more fluent, smooth and soothing.

On the rock station, the played music that I am more accustomed to. Along with a good jam from Bruce Springsteen, they also played the Fray and Green Day. Most of these songs have distinct and noticeable guitar riffs that people can identify with. While the guitar is a primary part of each song, without the other instruments rock would not have its unique sound.

On the country station, the guitar dominated the scene. It sounds a lot more twangy, and is accompanied more often than not by a deep male voice, but there are exceptions. I feel with country that there a lot more hit or miss songs out there, partially because of the guitar. It is featured so heavily in country that if the melody does not feel right, then the song can be lost. Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, and Taylor Swift were featured when I listened.

Finally, on the hip-hop station, there was not a guitar featured at all. Songs by Kanye West, Kid Cudi, and others were played, all using what I suppose to be synthesizers creating their beat. No giuiars were heard.

DPR Chordophones

For this blog, our assignment was to listen to DPR and pay particular attention to chordophones. I tuned in at the top of the hour in order to listen to the entire progression of the pieces.

The first piece that I listened to was dominated by what appeared to be several violinists. They made up what seemed to be most of the melody that accompanied wind instruments like the flute and oboe. As I was distinctly listening for chordophones, it was surprisingly easy to focus on how they affected the mood of the certain pieces. The violins were able to meld the music smoothly from transition to transition. They differed their tempos frequently, offering fantastic changes of pace throughout the piece.

The next piece I listened to predominantly featured the piano, this time accompanied by violins and cellos. The piano was my primary focus in this piece because it simply was the focal point, and I could not help but focus on it. The piano started off slowly in what sounded like a minor key, and quickly transitioned into a faster paced melody that was quite intriguing.

The final piece I heard was a mixture of I believe violins, cellos, and double basses. For the most part, the song was lower in pitch. It was very smooth, and transitioned well in and out of different rhythms. It also sounded like a harp came in towards the end and brought things to a climax as well.

Membranophone

I decided to make a membranophone for this blog assignment. I discovered the perfect item to use, my roommates partially finished can of pringles. I took the top off and put some wax paper that we have on top of it and taped it down with some duct tape. It actually sounded better than I anticipated. I then decided to see what would happen if all of the chips were out of the container, so I emptied them, and the sound was distinctly different, sounding more hollow and somewhat bigger. I decided to make a little beat out of it using a pencil from my desk. Unfortunately, since I am technologically inept, I was unable to upload video of this.

Idiophone

When first presented with this assignment, I had no idea what do use for my idiophone. Once I started to think about it, I discovered that there are quite a few things at my disposal in everyday life to use as an idiophone. I am a big drinker of gatorade, and had several empty bottles laying around my room. I decided to fill one of the to the top, the other about halfway down, and the other almost completely empty. I then adjusted each one to how I saw fight so as to create a better sound. I used a pencil as the device to strike the bottles. I fooled around with it for quite a while, and actually came up with some pretty good beats that I enjoyed.

SHMRF Analysis

The song I chose to analyze using SHRMF is Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen. The song starts out with a clearly nostalgic feel, using a harmonica to set the mood. It accompanies the piano, which provides the main melody and rhythm throughout the song. Guitar riffs come later in the song to provide more buildup periodically. The beginning of the song starts out slowly and definitely gives off the feel of a more reflective mood, and gradually picks up pace further and further into the song. For this reason I would classify it as a minor key, as it gives off feelings of lamentation and regret. The rhythm starts out slowly in the beginning and gradually builds until the end. The melody used throughout the song is a step, and as far as contour goes, I would say it starts out rising in the intro, comes back down during the first verse, and then fluxuates throughout the rest of the song. The form of the song is clearly unique, and there appears to be no chorus at all. As far as I can tell, its just verses strung together with the climax of the song (the solo) coming at then very end of the song.

24 Hours of Music

Over the last 24 hours, I have been concentrating on listening to the music around me. When I awoke yesterday, I decided to turn on Pandora Radio and listen to whatever they chose for me while I ate breakfast and checked my email. Music was again playing when I stopped in the cafeteria for lunch. After class that day, I decided to go to Wal-Mart with a few friends to pick up some food for the coming week, and we listened to a diverse subset of songs to and from the store. Upon arriving back at my apartment, I could hear music playing from the floors above. When I stepped off of the elevator, I discovered that at least one of these culprits were in fact my roommates playing some classic 90's jams. When I was going to bed, I turned on my iPod to help me drift asleep.