Drum machine

The sound of the netted string of beads rattling against the hollowed gourd as the player passionately shakes it rouses the entity to take control of its “horse”. Anyone can clearly see that some of the dancers have indeed been taken over by what certainly seems to be a force separate from themselves. What begins as a violent shaking eventually refines itself to an elegant dance that extends from the contractions of the pelvic section all the way to the toes and fingers. Conga drums simultaneously resonate their staccato beats mimicking the tones and inflections of the human languages of Africa. Soon the dancers’ moves start to evoke a particular feeling of refinement and elegance, even coquettishness and seduction. The dancers’ hips sways, and perhaps one dancer’s hand will move in pantomime over the head simulating flowing hair. As the while, a singer is calling out an assortment of praises and insults in a creole version of the Yoruba language to the Yoruba deity of love, Oshun. This will hopefully get her attention enough to completely descend upon the dancers. The dancers that are being affected in this manner are initiated priests or priestesses of the Afro-Caribbean religion commonly known as Santeria. Eventually, these dancers…

continue living a life without his wife. The poet begins his poem and states, “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone”, which is an immediate sign that he is frustrated. He orders the clocks to stop and the telephones to be cut off which points out that he wants to be alone and separated from the rest of the world. The poet is overemphasizing how sad and hopeless he is without his loved one. The poet wants everything to stop so that they too can mourn his wife’s death. The poet’s strong…

an approximation of sound and nonpitched instruments generally adhere to high, middle and low pitches. However, musicians can't name specific pitches, such as the specific pitch middle C. These instruments typically employ specific effects and dramatic stimulus to the music. For instance, a cymbal crash using a mallet helps increase the power of a crescendo. Musicians often refer to nonpitched instruments as instruments of indefinite pitch. Membranophones Membranophones use a stretched…

One of the main reasons why I chose this topic is that Japan is where my father is from but I was born in Korea so I was always curious on the type of music they would listen to especially in Canada. As a thesis statement I will argue that taiko drum performance scene has emerged in Toronto to sustain Japanese identity and to embrace their tradition of music culture. In the body of an essay, I will briefly examine the history of the music, techniques and the environments of the genre taiko.…

Steel drum music has the ability to move an audience like no other type of music. From the first note, the songs exude a happiness from within each pannist. Even with the slower pieces, you can close your eyes and imagine yourself in a tropical surrounding. The AISD concert, conducted by CJ Menge, which took place April 14, 2012 certainly did not disappoint. The concert was performed in Austin, Texas and featured steel drum bands from seven middle and high schools in the area. The first piece,…

Jones’s book, ‘Studies in African Music’ in the late of 1960. Since he had studied rudimentary drumming when he was 14 years and had been fascinated by jazz music and percussion in his youth, his enthusiasm for African music that was concealed in his mind, had increasingly grown up through listening to recordings and corresponding with A. Jones. In February of 1970, Steve applied western rudimental drumming pattern, what is called ‘Paradiddle’, into his composition. This fundamental drumming…

After a while, as Alfonso began his recovery from his illness, he attributed his miraculous recovery to the grace of the Virgin Mary. Soon after, Alfonso was inspired to create this collection of songs in the honor of the Virgin Mary. All of the songs in the Cantigas have refrains and danceable rhythms, indicating that there may have been dancing along with their performance. 1 Throughout listening to some the Cantiga collections, I have recognized certain instruments and types of percussion…

Terence Fletcher. This is the final scene of the movie that makes every curse word, every humiliating comment, and every blood and sweat shed worth it. But once Andrew shows up prepared and confident for the show he is humiliated once again by Fletcher when he decides to play a song Andrew didn’t have the music sheet for. During this last scene Fletcher gives one of his smirks indicating him thinking he has defeated Andrew for good. When the song is over there is a moment of tension between the…

This concert was performed at the Memorial Union theatre. The stage was set with 3 small sections of seating that could fit around 200 people. The seats were arranged in a way that created an atmosphere that felt much like an amphitheater. The stage is set with 3 small sections of instruments that all face the audience. One section is the Conga drums, the second is the piano and cello, and the last section is the drum set. The stage and the performers are set to a black backdrop that provides…

So I continued to scroll through the menu until I saw a program playing called “Drumline”. I knew what the word drum was because I saw a picture of one on the alphabet line that my teacher had on the wall, so I went right ahead and clicked it. It turned out to be a movie and not a TV show, I found that kind of cool because the only channels that we had available in the house were only channels that broadcasted TV shows like telenovelas and not movies, Drumline became the very first movie I ever…