You might not have realized what my wrap was about since I got it done so late. A ethnic/folk music group had workshop at Onondaga Community College conducted by Simple Gifts. In the wrap I gave examples of the music the group played. Also, Karen Hirshon (the woman with the white hair in the picture) says people should listen to all types of music because there is too much beautiful music in the world. She used to be a traditionalist when it comes to music and only listened to classical American music but then she realized there is not enough time in a life to discriminate against certain types of music. The group writes their own songs, come with lyrics and some without. They gave examples of music from all over the world such as Greece, Macedonia, Quebec, West Virginia, Romania, Ireland and Scotland. They listen to a lot of CDs, many of which are never used, and write music based off of what they hear. They play over 10 instruments throughout there songs. They play instruments such as hammer dulcimer (basically the inside of a piano where the person hits the strings with hammers), fiddle, recorder, plugged flute, guitar and banjo guitar. Simple Gifts instructed music students in the workshop, so the used a lot of music theory. Luckily, I have a background in music, so this made it easier to see the differences in the types of music they played. One of the most interesting things I left out of my wrap was that they are not a full time group and do this more for the love of music. They hope to expand people's music horizons. They even go to elementary schools to try to get kids involved early. Another interesting aspect of the group is that the two that play all the instruments and write the music did not study music in college. Though only two of the member conducted the workshop, all three are giving a free concert tonight (Friday Nov. 2) at 7 p.m. at Onondaga Community College. If you have a free evening tonight, I definitely recommend this group.***Photo: This is a photo of Simple Gifts from their website***
1 comment:
Every time I hear about people who are good at music, but have never had any instruction, part of me gets jealous.
The group sounds really interesting. The clips you played in your wrap were really awesome. Good ob recovering from the lack of good SOT.
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