Amber Discovers a New World of Music

  In my family, my dad is the one of the most influential people on my taste in music. I remember dad driving my sister and I to soccer practice/games when I was younger. there was no telling what music would be playing because he listened to so many genres. I do remember when he would play rock or rap really loud and I would be in the backseat asking him to change it or cut it off, because most morning it was just too much that early. . He usually would, but if he hadn't been so completely different than my mom in his music taste, I don't think I would have ever been exposed to the different genres. When coming up with questions to ask him, I asked the usual "did you play an instrument?" If so, did you like it or did your mom make you?" and some of this I had already known because he's talked about it before. And yes, he played piano and trumpet growing up as a kid. His mom made him learn piano because they had bought a really nice piano for the house and sh...

   This blog took a lot of deep thought for me. Growing up in the early 2000s, personally I feel that many music genres armor inclusive of women singers, but that doest mean that there weren't any gender bias/ expectations. For example, I'm a huge pop music fan. Often, I remember reading magazines or watching MTV about some of my favorite artists, and although I didn't think about it then, I have certainly realized that the expectations of female singers versus male singers were so very different. Now, we all know I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan, and no matter how much bad publicity she got, no one can ignore how relatable her songs were to a preteen girl. Taylor Swift was often getting bad publicity about her songs and which ex-boyfriend she was referring to in them. in reality, herrings were mainly just about how she was feeling at the time. But what about male artist who did the same thing. But what about Ed Sheeran or Bruno Mars? Both of them are historically known for ...

History The Doo-Wop is a musical genre of rhythm and blues that originated amongst African-American youth in the 1940's mainly in larger cities like New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. According to Wikipedia, the doo-wop was developed in the United States post- World War II and was the most popular form of rhythm and blues music among African American teenagers. Some of the first groups that performed this style of music specialized in romantic ballads often appealing to the sexual fantasies of teenagers during this time. By the mid 1950s, the smooth romantic ballads turned into entertainment style performances with bass vocalists including "non-sense" syllables. The Five Keys The Five keys were one of the first American groups to sing the rhythm and blues style. They played a major role in shaping the genre in the 1950s. According to Lodergan, originally the Five Keys was called the Sentimental Four, but later decided to rename the group when a member of the group left a...

Learning about African Music was a bit hard for me to understand. Maybe because, this music I am not used to listening to. It is definitely not Taylor Swift! None the less, I can still appreciate hard work and effort that is put behind each musical creation. While pondering what I should write about and just googling random topics, I did come across a couple of items that I thought was interesting and wanted to share with you. 1. New Wave Dance Music From South Africa I am not going to lie, this one I had to listen to a few times to really appreciate it. But first, let me give you some background. This music is traditional South African music compiled with electronic sounds to create this fast paced, exciting sound all together. According to the Shangaan Electro Album, this type of music is popular between Johannesburg, Limpopo and Mozambique. This fast paced music creates a highly energetic sound that makes many people want to dance. When Listening, at first I almost wanted to know wh...

The South American culture is a unique and diverse culture. Because of the mix of indigenous people, European  and Asian colonizers, and the African slaves, the culture is a great representation of how all of these different styles of living combined into one beautiful culture. As I have mentioned before I am a flute player so obviously, I decided to research some about the flutes of South America.  Pan Flute Vs. Quena Pan Flute: The pan flute is made up of pipes ranging in diameter some smaller, some larger. The pipes are usually wooden and made up of bamboo or cane. However, now they can be made of plastic. Normally, the pipes are lined up horizontally and played like a harmonica. A sliding motion is used to create a new pitch. The timbre of this instrument is a lot more breathier than that of a Quena.  Quena Flute: The Quena flute is the traditional flute of the Andes. Traditionally, it is made of wood and normally has about 6 holes and 1 thumb hole. There is an openin...

  Growing up, I vaguely remember going to church with my whole family. There was a time where my family was going regularly but only for a short period. Mostly, I hopped from church to church just trying to find the one that I felt most connected to. Unfortunately, most of the time I was walking in to a church with by myself. Ive been to Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, back to Baptist and then to Unitarian. And, although I do not currently attend a church at the moment, Unitarian is where I felt more like I was accepted for who I was and one step closer to spiritual growth. With that being said, worshipping is probably the time where I feel the most connected to the God. Some days, I prefer the more contemporary music and then other days, I take it back to the classic hymnals especially when I need a gentle reminder of some particular topic! So, I'm going to share with you two of my favorite worship pieces and hopefully you can experience the love and comfort they remind me of! #1...