A Three-string Instrument

In China, there is a three-string music instrument called sanxian. It is a Chinese lute with only three strings. It has a long fingerboard and the body is usually made from snakeskin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in different sizes for different purposes. The instrument has northern and southern version. The norther sanxian are larger in lengths compared to southern version.

The sanxian has a dry and percussive tone and loud volume. It can be used as a solo performing instrument, but it is usually used as an accompanying instrument in ensembles and orchestras of traditional Chinese instruments.

In Japan there is a music instrument called shamisen which is derived from the Chinese sanxian. They are basically same and the only difference is some shamisen use cat or dog skin cover the rectangular resonator.

I think this music instrument is quite amazing of only three strings. It once was a popular Chinese folk instrument. But since some Chinese orchestras exclude sanxian, its rich playing traditon has been lost gradually. But recently in addition to traditional and classical Chinese music, some popular and rock musicians use sanxian in their music. I think this is a good phenomenon and hope that the tradition of this unique music instrument not lost.

The picture I attached is a northern large sanxian.

An Idol Group

I think it will be interesting to talk about a Japanese idol group here. The name of this group is Morning Musume (Musume means girls). They were formed in 1998. What makes this group interesting is the difference in their group formation. The group is formed by a pretty large number of members. There are 9 grils in the group right now, but there had been 16 grils in the group before. Members in the group are not unchanging. Every year some members in the group graduate from it (leaving the group and re-debut as a single artist) and meanwhile some new members are chose through audition and added into the group. The age range is also significant in this group, members right now are from 13 years old to 21 years old. With a large number of people in the group, these girls are always be divided into small units and release different styles of singles to compete.

This group has been formed about 10 years and they have released about 33 singles and 8 albums. I think the reason that they can be succeed is they always reforms and competes. This brings freshness to audience. Their works are not restricted to singing, they do musicals and some members appear in drama or film.

Actually I don't really see this kind of idol group in North America or any other country. So it seems quite interesting. And by the way recently there going to be 2 Chinese members join the group. I am quite curiou about what kind of style their next single will be.

A Different Way to Learn

Hey guys,

I have a neat story. My chiropractor was born and raised in China, but immigrated to Canada. When he came here, however, he could not speak English, not even one word. Even worse, he had no money to take classes to learn English, because he did not have any money when he arrived here. So, what did he do? Well, he knew that he would have to learn English to make a living, but in a way that he could afford. So, he went and bought a stack of cheap music CD’s. When he bought the CD’s, he made sure they contained a booklet with all of the lyrics inside. The idea was to hear the pronunciation of the words in the song. He listened to the singers and how the words were supposed to be pronounced, and then tried the pronounced word himself. While he listened to the words, he was looking at the booklet to see what each word looked like. This way, he could not only begin to recognize the spoken words, but also the written ones. I thought that this was a very clever way of learning a language. Today, after having learned the English language through music CD’s, he runs a successful chiropracting business and can speak English quite well. Talking to him now, you can tell he has a bit of an accent, but you would never have known he did not learn English the traditional way. Hope you enjoyed this little story.

Kristen Kerr

The sun is shining...

The weather is sweet, yeah… Make you wanna move your dancing feet now… To the rescue! You know, I’ve been playing this, my most favourite of all Marley tunes every morning these past few months. And finally, today, I looked outside, and it was true! The birds were chirping, the squirrels were going bananas for a couple handfuls of peanuts I left out in the back yard, and the crows had finally skedaddled from the jungle maze of telephone wires in our back alley – unfortunate for my BB gun target practicing, but other than that, nothing to complain about…

Reggae is what gets me through the rough times, you know, and the last couple months have definitively been challenging for me, in many departments. I won’t go into the sordid details, but, man, was I glad to see that things are starting to come around in all departments. You just gotta keep your head held high, keep listenin’ to those mellow tunes, and eventually things start to take a turn for the better. I’m not someone who’s deep into this karmic, holy granola view of the universe, but, man, I gotta say, keeping the reggae tunes flowing makes the difference between a good day and a great day. So, no matter what your tastes, just make sure to keep those musical juices going, day in and, especially, day out.

Peace & all that good dissociating happy-stuff,

-Gabrielle

Radio?

Does anyone even listen to the radio anymore? I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer was no. Now that every car has a CD player in it and iPods rule the world, no one has time for poor old radio. But it’s not like there’s a whole lot of stations to choose from, good ones anyway. Every morning that I get a ride to school (which is about three times a week this semester) is when my friend and I listen to the radio on the way up to the mountain. And even though there are hundreds of stations to be heard, we always end up switching back and forth between the Beat 94.5, Z 95.3, and 99.3 the Fox. Although technically the radio is about voicing an expression and not necessarily all about the tunes, a major part of it is dedicated to the musical aspect. In this department, I must say they are failing quite miserably. I think I’ve memorized the Beat’s song roster that is played every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. They start out with a little Nelly Furtado, Gym Class Heroe’s “Cupid’s chokehold”, throw in anything by Beyonce, and maybe some Avril Lavigne. Everything is going fine until, god forbid, they forget to play JT’s “what goes around comes around” and all hell breaks loose. Can we say variety? The only reason why we even listen to the radio is because my friend likes to listen to Z 95.3’ s battle of the sexes, and sometimes the hosts talk about an interesting event or subject in the news. Other than that though, when the music comes on there is no doubt that we switch to his iPod because I for one, have had enough “to the left, to the left”. There is so much good music out there and while radio stations still have listeners, I don’t see why they don’t take advantage of it and play a little variety, something unexpected once in a while.

A Few Inches Shy of a Concert

Everyone always raves about these amazing concerts that they’ve gone to: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lupe Fiasco, and most recently, Wolfmother. It must be exciting I’m sure, to be in a room with hundreds of people, if not thousands, taking in the true musical experience of a live show. Unfortunately for me, (all 4’11” of me), I am bound by my vertically restricting chains to a lifetime of tamed, Jack-Johnson-Ben-Harper-esque, sleepy music live shows where everyone is sitting down. Surely I could find a way around this problem, you might think to yourself. But really, I’ve tried. All the fun concerts have mosh pits and dancing fans and in a world where everyone old enough to attend is taller than you, things just don’t work out the way you want them to. A friend of mine was talking about how her sister, who had attended the last Wolfmother show, got pushed to the ground and incidentally had her arm broken by jumping fans… ouch. And I know that my love for music should be the prevalent factor in this dilemma, but consider with me if you will, the obstacles in my way. A $200 ticket for the best spot in the house, front row middle seats, would get me a good view of the show, but at the risk of getting my little self pushed to the back and unable to return until the band takes a break is not worthwhile. Option#2: Find a 6-foot tall muscle clad man friend to hold me above the crowd at every concert. Or simply tough it out, break a few bones and possibly die. I dunno guys. So in the mean time…10 inch heels? Rocket-shoes? Okay, I think I might need some help with this one.

Going Back to the Classics

While writing this blog, we have focused on musicians and singers from our time, but we have forgotten to talk about the classical artists. I was in an elementary and high-school band from grades five through twelve, and spent time studying the classical composers. One of the classical composers I found most interesting was Ludwig van Beethoven. Many people believe that he was one of the greatest composers of all time. Not only did he compose some wondrous pieces of music, but he composed some of those pieces while he was deaf. I find it unbelievable that he could write music for a symphony without even being able to hear what he was writing. Another brilliant composer I would like to mention is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was a composer in the 1700’s. As a child, he played the piano. In fact, he was so talented at playing the piano that he actually had a professional tour playing the piano when he was six years old. He must have been one heck of a pianist. That is not the only reason he is regarded as one of the greats of history. He was also known for composing over 600 pieces, and these pieces are not your average two-minute five-member-band songs, either. Mozart’s pieces were written for entire symphonies or operas. These two composers were very talented in their time, and are still studies today. Even though we have great musicians and composers today, I can’t help but wonder how they would compare to Beethoven or Mozart. I don’t know how many bands today could say they had a professional tour when they were six, or that they had composed a song that has amazed the world for hundreds of years while deaf.

Well I hope you enjoyed this time travel through music :)
Kristen Kerr