This course on experiences in music will explore diverse musical genres and styles from around the world. Students will develop skills in analyzing, performing, and creating music, as well as broadening their historical and cultural understanding of music. The goal is to equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills to become lifelong, passionate consumers and thinkers about music.

1. Experiences in Music
This course will traverse the musical landscapes of our
world through a diverse array of experiences and
explorations. These experiences and explorations are
designed and implemented in such a way that the
cultivation and development of skills pertaining to the
reception, dissection, analysis, emulation and creation of
music are equally addressed.
This course affords students the opportunity to broaden
their historical, theoretical, physical, social and
intellectual understanding of music. Ultimately, it seeks
to prepare students by equipping them with the necessary
skills and knowledge to become informed, life long,
passionate consumers of music.
This presentation is a brief overview of some of the
experiences implemented throughout the duration of the

2. Variations on a Cup Game
Great introduction to modifying something they know
into a meaningful learning experience.
The rhythmic sequence can be broken down into at least
7 parts.
Exploration into tonal qualities by using cups of various
sizes and materials.
Introduction to rhythmic dictation and the concept of
time line.
Example

3. Polyrhythmic Composition
&
Alternative Notation Project
Nurturing psychomotor skills through clapping, counting,
drumming and vocalizing.
Introduction to musical concepts such as steady beat,
tempo, dynamics, texture, polyrhythm, etc.
Individual, small and large group practice/performance.
Unconventional introduction to writing and arranging
music.
Opportunity to create something unique.
Experience in leading rehearsal and performance in
small and large group settings.

4. The Musically Inclined Dictionary
A compendium of words that may help one to become
adept at recreating a musical experience through written
and/or spoken commentary.
Combat a lack of fluency when describing music.
Incentive to read about music and hone in on words that
effectively describe music.
Opportunity to develop a larger vocabulary to use when
speaking or writing about music.
A website that students can access to peruse or add
words.
Listening and writing exercises.
Writing and Speaking Musically

5. What It Is
Guidelines
Choose 3-4 songs that you're really into. They could be
songs from back in 4th grade or ones that have been
playing over and over again on your portable music
device. Your objective is to take each piece of music
you've chosen and immerse yourself in it; to a point
where your relationship with it is strengthened and
you have come to a more thorough understanding of it.
There should be a connection between your What It Is
selections' objective musical elements and your
personal subjective affinities to them. Hence, the
challenge of this assignment is to create a written
analysis/review for each song that balances objectivity
and subjectivity, with a greater intention of and
attentiveness to drawing the reader into the music you

6. YOU MUST EMAIL TO
NCPHSWORLDMUSIC@GMAIL.COM THE
FOLLOWING:
1. Attachments of the selected What It Is mp3s
2. An attachment of Microsoft Word files containing
your 1-2 page analysis for each song/piece
3. In the SUBJECT field of the email, please type the
following: FULL NAME -- WHAT IT IS
Note: If applicable, please include lyrics. Lyrics are in
addition to the specified length of this assignment.
All of our previous review-oriented assignments were
in preparation for this What It Is project. I am
expecting substantive material that stretches your
ability to analyze and elaborate. Any submissions that

7. Example
Wilco
Jesus, etc.
It’s been some time now since I first heard Wilco’s Jesus,
etc. I’m still completely enamored yet haunted by it. I’d
venture to say that it is the only straightforward pop tune
on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The sweet harmonies in the
string arrangement, Jeff Tweedy’s raspy vocals, the
simple yet delicate percussion, the subtle pizzicato
articulation in the violin parts, and the glissando effects
of the pedal steel all play a resounding effect on the mood
of the piece.
While the great majority of the album is speckled with
esoteric sonic atmospherics, Jesus, etc. takes on a more

8. Primary Objectives
A means for students to delve deeper into the music
they are passionate about.
An opportunity for the teacher to create meaningful
classroom learning experiences that centers on student
submitted music.
A forum allowing students to share with classmates
their musical tastes.
An experience that encourages students to begin the
process of writing and speaking articulately about
music.
An approach that conveys to students that this is their
class and their music is important to how I teach and
they learn about music.

9. How can the teacher use the music students submit to
create substantive learning experiences?
Kanye West
Belanova
Tutorial

10. Sample Based Learning
The idea of sampling may be of great teaching value to
the music educator in that it offers an entry point into
other musical genres or cultures.
Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” is a very well known piece
of music in which the vocal sample is extracted from Ray
Charles’ hit “I Got a Woman.”
Charles’ vocalization is the melodic hook that holds the
tune together.
Did your students know that melody was composed by
Ray Charles? The majority of my students thought it was
Jamie Foxx.
Kanye West’s “Gold Digger,” specifically the sample he
uses, may be a reasonable entry point into the study and
exploration of the man who single handedly fused Gospel

11. Sample Based Learning
Sampling is an intriguing process because it requires the
listener to focus, in a very perceptive manner, on the
discerning qualities of a piece of music. It shifts the
approach to listening from whole to particular.
Using a sample to lay the groundwork for compositional
experiences challenges the composer to be flexible and
begin the creation process with an established tempo,
key, style, tonal quality, etc.
Teach students how to sample first.
Identifying accurate entry and departure points when
seeking out potential samples require deep listening
skills.

12. Ethnomusicology
In this time of global awareness, music is an aural
pathway for understanding the world in which we live.
-Patricia Shehan Campbell-
World Music in Films
-Music Educators Journal-
March 2009
Explorations into cultures less familiar to us through the
lens of music.
JVC Smithsonian Folkways Video Anthologies, National
Geographic Music, Multicultural Perspectives in Music
Education, Rhythms and Songs from Guinea, Drum Circle
Spirit, Worlds of Music,
Short of embarking on real life ethno-musicological

13. Ethnomusicology
A dream project that has been nestled in the back of my
mind for a number of years now involves coordinating an
ethno-musicological excursion with a group of students.
Equipped with on the fly recording equipment, a few
Panasonic DVX 100 cameras, and whatever rations that
can fit in our packs, we’ll head to some remote region of
the world and document the music and culture of the
people.
Project

14. Hip Hop as a Catalyst for Exploring
Non Western Music Traditions
To understand music that is unfamiliar, we must first
understand music that is most familiar
Begin with what they know in order to build upon
what they will eventually know
Hip hop’s music is rooted in rhythm (beat) and melody
(hook)
Non western traditional music is rooted in rhythm and
melody

15. Hip Hop as a Catalyst for Exploring
Non Western Music Traditions
Musical Examples
Japanese turntablist and producer DJ Krush is well
respected within the global hip hop community for
furthering the development of hip hop music and culture
He uses traditional Japanese instrumentation throughout
many of his compositions to create a broader, more
global, musical perspective for the western listener
In his composition, “Beyond Raging Waves,” Krush
layers an ominously foreboding backdrop of beats with
flurries of shamisen inflected pentatonic melodies

16. Hip Hop as a Catalyst for Exploring
Non Western Music Traditions
Musical Examples
Aesop Rock, from Brooklyn, New York, is a respected
master lyricist whose approach to rapping is
characterized by a meandering type of flow and stream of
consciousness wordplay
The piece called “Oxygen” makes use of the sarod - a lute
like instrument used in North Indian Hindustani music
and made famous by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
The sarod is characterized by a hollow tone quality and
embellished glissando articulations

17. Hip Hop as a Catalyst for Exploring
Non Western Music Traditions
Musical Examples
Now in their twenties, the Yoshida brothers, since the
age of 5, have devoted their lives to shamisen studies
They have become highly respected virtuosos
in their native country, Japan
The Yoshida Brothers have single handedly
revolutionized the use of the shamisen yet continue to
maintain and uphold the traditions of the instrument and
its music
In their composition, “Kodo,” the Yoshida brothers
juxtapose a more innately East Asian musical rendering
with that of a guitar driven rock and roll aesthetic

18. Hip Hop as a Catalyst for Exploring
Non Western Music Traditions
Musical Examples
The hip hop complexion or arrangement of “Kodo” is
rendered through the production rework of Inside the
Sun
His use of drums and various electronically produced
sonic renderings provides for a much more relevant hip
hop sound
You may be familiar with this remix as the accompanying
music
for the Nintendo Wii television commercial
Inside the Sun
Kodo
Remix

19. Hip Hop as a Catalyst for Exploring
Non Western Music Traditions
Musical Examples
---continued---
In Aesop Rock’s “Odessa,” we have what appears to be
an oud (Arabic lute) and possibly a shakuhachi (Japanese
bamboo flute)
In the Gift of Gab’s “Way of the Light,” we have what
appears to be a kalimba or mbira (West African thumb
piano)

20. Thank You
Leo Park
Northside College Preparatory High School
Chicago
iknowithink@gmail.com
ncphsworldmusic.blogspot.com
iknowithink.blogspot.com