Week 5

Since I feel like everything has been crazy lately, I'm going to go to my comfort zone with my familiar music. Country, some love it and others can't even stand the thought of it. I listened to a few different artists, I listened to Hunter Hayes, Tim McGraw, and Josh Turner. Not a bad trio. I listened to Josh Turner's "Your Man" (3:32) and "Long Black Train" (4:16). I listened to Hunter Hayes's "You Think You Know Somebody" (4:27) and "Tattoo" (3:18). I also listened to Tim McGraw's song "Shotgun Rider" (4:03) which is the song I am choosing to talk about. I personally love Tim McGraw's voice. I think his voice would be classified as tenor. His voice is low but not bass Josh Turner low. Although I am not sure how high he can sing either. Maybe he is a bass? I love this song and I've said it before but, it is so hard not to sing along. I have always enjoyed Tim McGraw's voice. In fact, one of his older songs was my first favorite song as far back as I can remember. The main instruments are definitely a bass and a guitar accompanied by the percussion.  I think this song is full of incomplete cadences and that the tempo is moderate but speeds up just slightly as the chorus begins. The song is not a slow song by any means but no where near what I consider fast either. The melody repeats with different lyrics accompanying it. The songs texture is polyphonic, containing a main rhythm with vocal and instrumental accompaniment.

LINKS:
"Shotgun Rider" https://youtu.be/BkpuLMsDn48
"You Think You Know Somebody" https://youtu.be/e4KEAq1ZPrM  
"Tattoo" https://youtu.be/Q0d33qutetQ  
"Long Black Train" https://youtu.be/PyRZTAmcW7c  
"Your Man" https://youtu.be/nADTbWQof7Y

For unfamiliar music I decided to listen to four piano pieces by Antonin Dvorak. The total time of these four pieces equals fifteen minutes and thirty seconds. The first called "Impromptu" (0:00-3:32) is homophonic and beautiful. Its moderately fast and has two different melodic lines. It sounds almost like a chase scene from an old cartoon. It does slow down about a minute into the piece after an incomplete cadence. It becomes calm and peaceful, making it harder to focus for me. The tempo quickens at about two minutes and thirty seconds, returning to the older chase scene and then slowing even more to remind me of a very sad and grim scene from a movie. Maybe a funeral? It to is an incomplete cadence quickening just slightly before coming into a complete cadence and ending the piece. I wonder why Dvorak alternated between these two tempos? The second piece is called "Intermezzo" (3:39-7:01) is slow paced in the beginning and is also homophonic. It begins to get louder and for just a second makes you think it is going to speed up. But it returns to its slow tempo. It does this a couple times, altering the tempo ever so slightly. This piece sounds so familiar and I cannot for the life of me remember where the familiarity comes from. It is truly beautiful though and it is calming without sounding grave and heartbreaking. The third piece "Gigue" (7:16-9:49) it is moderately fast paced and happy. It sounds like a piece that would be used in a ballet of some sort. It has a few incomplete cadences that alter the tempo very little but make you think it is going to end because the notes are slow and the last note played is soft but prominent and then it starts to quicken again. The fourth piece "Eclogue" (9:55-15:26) begins soft and moderately slow. Although the notes (that are what I see as accompaniment) are fast, the main melody seems slow. I get a relaxing feeling from this piece, even through the quicker paced parts. It does have a grim feeling to it though through the slowest parts. It has the same few notes being played as the main melody throughout most of the piece.

 LINKS: 
"Four Piano Pieces" Dvorak https://youtu.be/QvQe4SX8oiY

Week 2

For my familiar music I listened to two songs by Scotty McCreery, "I Love You This Big" Duration: 4 minutes 9 seconds and then "See You Tonight" Duration 3 minutes 50 seconds. However I am only going to talk about "See You Tonight." The song starts off with a guitar playing and the bass of course. Scotty has a really deep bass voice. The drums accompany his low voice almost like a punctuation on some of the lyrics. It sounds like an acoustic guitar through the song mostly but the bass takes over a bit too. I do believe that an electric guitar is played too. The beat isn't slow in the beginning, its moderate and then it takes off. I have heard this song so many times that I just want to scream the lyrics with the music up loud.

Link: http://youtu.be/dFlv4O7VE-A

For my unfamiliar music I listened to "Unexpected Melody (Miles Mix)" by Von Mondo. Duration: 4 minutes 10 seconds. The music started with a slow tempo and began to speed up but it doesn't increase a ton. It sounds like they are using a maraca like instrument but I think its probably the drums, in the back ground and a keyboard over it. Then a few more instruments are added in. A female vocal and I believe a trumpet but I am horrible at trying to decide what instrument it is off of sound. Its got a calm feel to it and the notes flow together.  It has an incomplete cadence where the note seems final and then the female vocals begin again and the music trails off  to its finish. The melody is beautiful and it makes you think that it could pick up the tempo at any time but it really doesn't increase a lot from the beginning.

Link: http://youtu.be/Bp3nE5km0hU

Week 1

For my familiar music I listened to a cover of the song "Just a Dream", originally by Nelly, but the cover is by Sam Tsui and Christina Grimmie. The cover's duration is four minutes and twenty-nine seconds long. I have always liked the original song and a friend showed me the cover and I liked it even more. I like the idea of the song being performed by a male and female vocalist. To me it adds something to the song, whether that is just a spin on how the lyrics sound coming from a female voice, or if it just makes it easier to sing along with because its a girl and I'm a girl. Christina Grimmie is a talented singer and she likes to sing and I think that it shows in her voice. I also believe the same with Sam Tsui. They both have so many covers of popular songs on their YouTube channels. Hearing them sing together is not an unpleasant experience. I like the tempo of the music and how there are points within the song that the tempo is faster and others where it slows down. The piano notes don't increase in the tempo, I think it's just the other instruments being added to it that make it sound that way. I also like the use of the piano as the main instrument, the piano makes the notes sound beautiful and its played with a lot of heart and obviously skill. Kurt Schneider, who plays the piano for the two artists, is truly talented. The percussion like beat is probably my favorite part of the song because anything with a beat is worth listening and when it starts it just kind of pulls you into the song anyway.  The only thing I dislike about the cover is the echo of the singers that plays in the background. I'm okay with it in some parts but in others I can't help but think, was this necessary here? Overall, I like this version of the song best.
A link to the cover: https://youtu.be/a2RA0vsZXf8

I hope that if you choose to listen to the cover above that you enjoy it too! :)

For my unfamiliar music I chose to listen to something completely random. I typed  "classical music" in the search bar on YouTube and found a piano melody, which also happened to be from the video shown to us in class. I listened to "Gymnopedie No. 1" played by Erik Satie. It lasts for about three minutes and thirteen seconds. It starts with this beautiful slow tempo from a piano. It sounds like the main melody, which to me, is the two notes he plays in the background throughout the song, are the same note within the octave. I think he also plays a higher octave as a scale over that melody. As I listened it sounds like he is using a large instrumental range. Some notes are relatively high and others relatively low. I wonder if Satie is really just repeating the same notes over and over or if I'm just not listening to it close enough. Either way it was really a great piece to listen to. Its calming and soft. It ends on a moderately soft low note. I had a little trouble listening to it in the beginning because I can't sit still long enough to truly listen so I struggled to do so. But I am really glad I continued to try because it wasn't a piece I was disappointed in. 

A link (please note the piece starts at 53:27 and ends at 56:40):  https://youtu.be/jgpJVI3tDbY