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
