Bands and songs I have discoverd lately

Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls. PLEASE LISTEN TO THESE SONGS AND BANDS: THEY ROCK!!!!

Goldfish - Soundtracks and Comebacks

Hold Tight

This South-African duo creates a different type of dance which even I enjoy listening to when not dancing. They mix beats with influences from Jazz and R&B, and it all sounds great.

Michael Jackson - Workin' Day And Night

This quite unknown song from the Jackson's first solo album is incredibly good. It grooves a lot and really makes you wanna move.

John Legend - This Time

This song from Legend's latest album 'Evolver' is one that I really like. It is quite a classical soul song, and I find it really enjoyable and sometimes even touching.

More advises to come!

Elvis Rockin' The House

Dear all,

During the lessons after Klassiek & Unplugged we watched a documentary on the recording of his first album. I must say that I found in very interesting and inspiring. It was interesting to see how a white man dared to sing black music in that time.

Elvis' music was an indication that the times were changing. Before, the lives of black people and white people were completely apart. There was a lot of racism between the two groups. But, there came Elvis: A white man, with a black man's voice singing black people's music: the Blues. This new thing, showed that the differences between the two races were changing: they were coming closer together.

Also, Elvis really developed Rock 'N Roll. Then, I must say that all the factors were there. For the first time children and teenagers had money. Also, they for the first time wanted to differentiate from the parents, rebel against them. And there came Rock 'N Roll: A new style of music, with screams and shouts, subjects which at the time were very rude, and dancing moves that came with it that shocked the public. So what do teens do? They buy the records, to be different from their parents.

Still, Elvis of course also had an amazing voice and a real sense for music. Pity that he died so young, and the last years he had to sell himself so badly. Well, "only the good die young" to quote Queen...

Klassiek & Unplugged

Dear all,

On the eleventh of December the yearly musical event Klassiek & Unplugged took place at our school. Klassiek & Unplugged is an event for classical- and unplugged music, only this time there was not much classical music in it.

With our class we did the songs 'Because' and 'Blackbird', both by the Beatles, with in between a medley of Beatles songs by the utterly talented guitarist Andrew Riezebeek. I must say that I felt that the performance, besides Andrew's solo, was horrbile. We were of the notes and our timing was not good either.

I did several other songs too: I played saxophone in Watermelon Man and sang in Zing-Vecht-Huil-Bid-Lach-Werk en Bewonder by Ramses Shaffy, Is She Really Going out with him (acapella!!!) by Joe Jackson, JCB Song by Nizlopi. I especially liked the last two, because they are really cool songs. The Ramses Shaffy song was meant as a tribute to him, for he past away a week earlier. The crowd did go 'wild' during this song, for everybody sang along, and this was a great feeling.

Then, at the end, I won the encore, which was quite special to me. I am looking forward to the next event: 80 Db

An excurision to Zwolle is not as boring as it sounds...

Here I am again,

From the title you might understand that this post is about our excursion to Zwolle on the third of December. All the people from our class were supposed to go to Zwolle, to see the final rehearsal of the opera that our music teacher, Mr. Weisser, had composed. Unfortunately, some of the people in the class did not come because they thought that they were not obliged to. But, I have to say, that on the excursion I did not mind, because the nciest people from the class were with us.

We departed from Hilversum by train. On the railwaystation we met Mr. Weisser's wife, Sylvia. She was very kind and in the train to Zwolle we had pleasant conversations. When we arrived in Zwolle we met with Mr. Weisser, and walked to the theatre. We first sat in the foyer, and talked to the boss of the theatre for a while about opera in theatre.

When Mr. Weisser stepped in, we went with him to the theatre itself. I was suprised by the size of the theatre, for it was quite small. We sat on the chairs, and the performance began. The genre was, to my opinion, contemporary classical music, with a lot of influences from the jazz. I must say that I enjoyed the opera, and especially the intensity with which the lead sang her part.

After the performance, we talked with all the members of the orchestra, as well as with the director and the set designer. They latter explained to us their intentions with the design of the setting and the entire feel around the opera. The musicians showed us their instruments and told some things about their part in the score.

After the opera, we ate at an italian restaurant. we all sat together and it was really nice. The food was nice too, and so we sat in the train home with a nicely filled stomach. in the train we found the director of the play too, and we had great conversations on all kinds of topics, while I was also writing poems for the St. Nicolas celebration. They were not for my own, but for the presents of classmates, which they were going to give to their friends.

When we got off at Hilversum again, I felt that I had a really nice day. We found Christine's bike had been stolen, and so we took her on the ack of our bieks and cycled home. i felt the excursion was great, and the people that did not come really missed something!

No, I have not died....

Hey you guys, Happy Newyear! (only 20 days late but whatever),

I just saw that my last post was on November 12. I feel ashamed, and apologize to all my followers: I am sorry, but have been extremely busy with school etc. Today and mostly tomorrow I will try to get you updated on all the things I did in the last few months, and boy, that were a lot of things.

First of all I will get started with telling you about the playing tests we had. In groups, we had to play the song Funky Town, by Lipps Inc. Now you're probably wondering what is so special about this. Well, the special part was that we got to grade our classmates. For my group I did the vocals, whilst other people played a drum, did percussion, and several others played the keyboards. Our performance went quite well. We had three shots at it, and I feel that the second one was the best.

After doing our own test, we looked at the others. It felt somewhat strange, judging upon your fellow classmates and friends. It made it somewhat hard to stay objective, but I believe that in the end I was. Most people listened more closely to the music probably, paying attention to right notes and grooves etc. I have to say that I did not listen more closely, because I always listen very closely already. This is a hard thing to explain, but to say it very bold, I listen to songs in a much more technical way. This method of listening is exactly what you need when grading.

Having the power in the classroom sounds very nice. It was somewhat odd though. In a way, I felt that I was in the wrong place, even though I had already graded other people before. It did feel good though. I thought that the way of grading was fair, because we grade people of which we know how hard they are trying: we have done the same thing. I do feel that I was fair in grading others, because I did look at it quite critically, and in the end my grades also corresponded with the grades of Mr. Weisser. I also must say that I feel that my classmates graded me fair too.

The rubric that we used for grading was created by people from our class, as they got the most grades. I did not really like it though, even though my own grade might have been lower when using the rubric I created. The one we used focussed a lot more on effort than on quality, and I feel that this does not make sense. Our rubric on the other hand did focus on the quality of the piece, and I therefore feel that it was better.

More posting soon to come, so keep your eyes open.

Use Somebody

Dear All!

I thought let's not keep my readers from a great song. I hereby tell you that you all should listen to the song Use Somebody, originally by Kings of Leon. This is a great energetic song, which can be defined as rock, but as pop as well. Therefore many people will like it. The song is very much worth listening to in the Kings of Leon version.
Another great version of Use Somebody is the (almost) acoustic version by the Dutch singer Laura Jansen. She is, at the moment, one of the greatest vocalists we have in our little country with a great sense of music. Please look them up on Youtube, and I wish you a lot of listening pleasure.

Why Do We Need Music In The World?

Well, to be honest the immediate answer to this question was: "Why don't we?" If someone could seriously agree with this statement, I would be stunned. Why? Because, I am sorry, it is absurd.
Music is the, very cliché but true, universal language that the entire world understands. Music is the 'force' that binds us all. If you let an African person listen to a song that is considered to be sad in Europe, he will call it that too.
Music is communication. African tribes used the sounds and rythms of their drums to communicate with each other over enormous distances. Nowadays commercials are full of music that communicate a certain feeling. Lyrics of songs communicate certain messages to the listener, whether it is serious or not. That does not matter, the fact is that a message get across.
Music is our history. In almost every event in history, music is in some way involved. When important people were buried, people always mentioned the music played. When colonisers entered a new territory they had a band or a small orchestra with them to impress the people. Slaves managed to escape due to hidden messages in music, etc etc.
Music is a bottomless well in wich you can place emotions, and from which you can get them too. You can leave your sorrow behind by making music. The Blues and Soul are all about getting rid of emotions, sing about your sorrow and the things you have been through instead of keeping it inside you.
Music is in everything. The beating of your heart is a rythm, as is the sound of someone walking, the hammering of a woodpecker, the sounds from a construction site, the sound of yout typing, your breating. All are rythms. Then the music. It is in the sounds of birds, of elephants, of cats, of dogs, of car horns, of a coin falling, of a bee buzzing, of the wind blowing through the leaves of a tree, of whisteling etc etc.
Music is the best thing to spend time on. You are training so many things at the same time. You are in contact with art, you aretraining your dexterity, your breathing, you learn to work together in a group, you train your rythm, your hearing, you train social and communication skills etc etc.
Imagine that all of this would not be there. This is IMPOSSIBLE! That is why we need music in the world: to keep it together