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Music of Mongolia

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Across the entire world one of the most unique musical cultures you will find is Mongolia. With rich history and vast cultures with many different groups of influence it becomes one of the greatest melting pot for music cultures. From the long songs to the overtone singing and morin khuur the music cultures of Mongolia have a lot to give to us. So without further ado I hope you enjoy! We begin our trip through Mongolia talking about the Morin Khuur which is the national Instrument of Mongolia. A plucked chordophone that's origin begins in the 13th century. The origin of the instrument is so old that legends have been created to describe the origins. One legend is deeply rooted in Mongolian tradition and describes how a shepeard is gifted a flying horse. He would mount his horse at night and fly to his beloved. The end of the story states that a jealous women cuts off the horses wings and it falls and dies and the shepeard takes whats left and turns it into the Morin Khuur. Another ...
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My moms musical experience

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So for this blog I will be doing something a bit different compared to my usual style. I will be interviewing my mother and sharing her musical experience in this blog. The format I will be using is like a script. So without further ado lets begin. Me: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to do this interview Mom: No problem :) Me: What is your earliest memory of music? Mom: Oh, that's easy...my earliest memory of music was in bible school when i was little. The first song we learned was Jesus loves me. Me: Would you like to delve deeper into how that experience went, if you can remember? mom: Sure, at my church we had a little missionary group called GAs which would be all girls and in that group we would sing at bible school and begun with Jesus loves me and built upon that during bible schools and then performed in front of the congregation Me: Do you remember any of the other songs that you learned?  Mom: (Enthusiastically) YES, there was this one song that we sung...
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Instruments of Arabic/Asian muisc

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Not knowing much of anything about either Arabic or Asian music I was excited to begin researching these topics and expanding my knowledge. I started my research wanting to learn more about the instruments of these countries and there importance not only in there fields but also there influence on other music's of the world. I started my journey wanting to learn more about instruments in Arabic music. Then I changed paces to go to India to discover the instruments they have to offer and finally I decided to find an instrument in China that I found interesting and holds a lot of meaning in there culture.  The oud, having from 10 to 13 strings is a plucked Chordophone that is the ancestor to the lute. The first record of an oud appears in the old testament from a story by Lamek, the sixth grandson of Adam from Genesis. The story states that Lamek hung his sons remains in a tree and made the first oud from his desiccated skeleton. Regardless you believe this or not this proves that th...
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The Glory of Gospel

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Gospel music in the united states is one of the defining features of not only America culturally but socially. To know more about why gospel music is important you have to go back to before Colonizers came over to America and when Gospel music was created in Europe. When colonizers came over to the new world they brought with them influences from European protestant churches. A big overview of what im gonna talk about is the History of Gospel music, people involved in gospel, how gospel impacted culture, and a few specific artists.  Second Great Awakening  We begin the history of gospel music in America during the 19th century. At the time there was a great resurgence of religion and with that religious music. This was later called the second great awakening and begun  in the south in the 1790s and early 1800s among the Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists. This awakening led to major growth in protestant beliefs and was a sense of comfort in America during the changing...
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Music Of Africa

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Africa has over 1 billion people spanning across 1000s of tribes and over countless languages making it one of the most culturally diverse place in the world. Due to this music in Africa could also be seen as extremely diverse. In Africa music is more than just something that people listen to, it is considered a part of everyday life. Traditions in Africa has made music an integral part of their society and culture. In this blog I will be only scratching the surface of music in Africa and how important it is for the people of Africa. If you are interested in learning more I highly recommend looking through these websites. They help give you a direction to start learning more about African music. Enjoy! Britannica Real World Africa Guide We begin our journey through Africa in the farthest south you can go, Madagascar. Malagasy is the name of the natives of Madagascar. Just like mainland Africa Madagascar is very diverse consisting of people from different tribes. Most traditional Ma...
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rites and ceremonies

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From mundane tasks like listening to the radio on your way to school or more eventful tasks like a religious ceremony, music is ingrained into every aspect of of our lives. Throughout your life you will experience moments of music that are both of happiness and mourning. The thing you should remember from them is that these moments have powerful emotions behind them. For this blog post I will be explaining my opinions on music involving rites. Rites are events that have a social aspect and usually hold a special meaning to them. Usually this involves some sort of ceremony or special event. These rites can range from having a religious background to just originating over time for a celebration of a milestone in a persons life. Rites usually only happen on special occasions of someone's life and could happen multiple times or only once.  Some examples of rites in North America that are not based off of religions are Graduations from schools, proms, marriage, and more. A way that you ...
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MUSIC OF INDIGENOUS AMERICANS

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1. One of the points that I wanted to learn more about was the drums that native Americans used, specifically how they were made. So I did a little research and googled "native American drums" and found out all sorts of fascinating info on how they are made and what they were used for. For instance they believed that the drums contained the power of thunder and lightning inside and were used to connect to the heavens and have spiritual connections to the gods. Drums were an important aspect not only in there music culture but there social culture because of this. Most native American tribes that used drums have there own unique way of making one and was passed down in there tribes. ( Source ) This video explains how a Hand drum traditionally was made... 2. One ceremony that I found interesting by doing research that we never mentioned is ceremonies for a sweat lodge. Sweat lodges are very sacred to native Americans and was used for rituals and ceremonies for healing. Sweat lo...
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