I felt kind of depressed after the first test I gave this semester - nobody seemed all that happy about it and it was just a downer in general. So when I gave the Unit 2 test this morning I tried to be helpful - at least to people who pay attention in class - by playing possible resolutions of sonorities, an occasional extra hearing, and reminding them of common patterns. But the best part was when I got to play real music. This was for the meter identification exercise, so I had a lot of flexibility with what I could play. I ended up playing Robot Parade by They Might Be Giants first, which I think was appreciated by the students. The lyrics are as follows, in a bizarre electronic voice:
In a future time
Children will work together
To build a giant cyborg
Robot Parade
Robot Parade
Wave the flags that the robots made
Robot Parade
Robot Parade
Robots obey what the children say
There's electric cars
There's electric trains
Here comes a robot with electric brains
Robot Parade
Robot Parade
Wave the flags that the robots made
Robot Parade
Robot Parade
Robots obey what the children say
The minute the voice started singing, the whole class (especially at 10) burst out into laughter. The second example was Subterranean Homesick Alien by Radiohead (I guess I was really into sci-fi stuff last night when I picked these) - a perfect example of a rare "pop/rock" song in compound meter (though I have yet to find one in triple meter). Finally, I ended with CPE Bach's gorgeous motet "Bitten." I've already had two students send me emails wanting to know what the music was - one had been so excited by the CPE Bach that he'd gone online and ordered it already! Anyway, those moments are always really great.
On a completely different note, in keeping with the spirit of Lent, it's amazing where a contrite heart will get you. The second class's test technically ended at 11, but, as usual, a couple of people stayed about 10 minutes past that time. At 11:10, a performer burst into the hall and stated angrily, "I have this hall at 11!" (To be fair, someone had mentioned she was waiting, but in dealing with student questions, I had forgotten.) I was immediately apologetic, and she seemed somewhat placated - I told the students to finish up because we needed to get out of the hall, and went back and humbly apologized again. the performer, somewhat embarrassed, said, "oh. It's okay, it's only like 11:10."
Now if my students who don't follow course policies, miss their exams and hearings, and forget their homework, could only muster up a little of that contrite spirit, they might actually get somewhere...
5 comments:
One of my favorites to use for meter ID is Lindsey Buckingham's "Soul Drifter" which goes FROM compound (intro) TO simple meter. (hehe...I pulled this on my 151 sections last semester!)
Never a dull moment in your class! It's evident you put a lot of thought into every aspect.
Jeannie
So how did your piano audition go, anyway?
You use pop songs to demonstrate weird meters? Me too!
Triple meters? Drive, by Dave Matthews; Light Up My Room, Barenaked Ladies; Manic Depression, Hendrix; Millionaire's Waltz (natch) by Queen; and Norweigian Wood by the Beatles. I'm sure I could think of others.
Complex/mixed meters: Money, Pink Floyd; Four Sticks, Led Zeppelin; Here Comes the Sun and Good Morning, Good Morning by again the Beatle; Women and Men, TMBG. Again there are plenty more.
The best example of compound meter I can think of is Salty Dog by Flogging Molly. Fairytale of New York by the Pogues also comes to mind. Both are pseudo-Irish folk crossover, so it's not surprising.
This is obviously a sick sort of hobby of mine. We should trade lists.
Hey Tim, I thought I'd just let you know that you're showing up the AIs these days...I was playing a Tchaikovsky symphony before class (from the same CD set as the one I used the day you visited) and one of my students said, "Can we listen to They Might Be Giants sometime? Or some Radiohead!" :)
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