Cool Stuff no. 1: Native American Music

 A number of our blog posts this semester are going to fall under the heading of "Cool Stuff!" For all of these blog posts, you're going to research further into the music-cultures that we're studying. Your job is to think of three things that you'd like to know more about concerning that music-culture---perhaps you want to know more about one of the instruments, or a different instrument, or you'd like to delve further into some of the dances, or into a particular musical genre, or there's a certain performer that you've liked and you'd like to know more about that performer, or find another performer in that same vein. Or perhaps you just have a question that you'd like to explore. Roam the web and find out more about those three things, and then post what you find here. As with all of your blogs, you'll want to post your findings in such a way that we can explore them fully: videos are great, as are links to whole websites. Pictures can also be quite useful, especially when exploring instruments or costumes. And do make sure that both you and your sources treat the material in a respectful matter. (Hint: if your source seems to be treating the music-culture in a less-than-respectful way, it's probably not a good source.)

A bit about length and content: 

Length: You'll want to make sure that your three things are three different things. Three videos by the same performer = one thing. Many of your three things will essentially be videos, but you'll you need to type up a hefty paragraph (minimum) about each video--100 words is a bare minimum, but you'll probably need to go over that to explain how you got from your idea to that video. Obviously, if you're not including a video, you'll need to type more. 

Content: At least two of your three things need to be musical topics, or to at least touch on music in some way--for instance, a costume isn't "music," but perhaps it's worn during a specific dance that is danced to a specific type of music. Or perhaps you're curious about a type of story-telling that includes music in it. Your third item can be something about the culture at play in general, though, of course, it can be about a musical topic as well. And please make liberal use of the vocabulary and concepts that we're learning in class. Feel free to reference your notes and the 7 Elements prezi for vocabulary and concept ideas. 

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, here is one thing (remember, you're doing three things):

I’ve long been fascinated by societies that are Matrilineal rather than Patrilineal, such as the Navajo Nation. Thus, as I was looking for new material a few years ago for our Native American section I found myself googling “Navajo Women,” and I came across information on the Miss Navajo Nation pageant, which then led me to Youtube. I was most fascinated by this video, which is a TED talk featuring Jolyana Bitsui, Miss Navajo Nation 2001/02. She speaks both English and Navajo during her talk. I think you’ll find that she touches on many of the themes of community and heritage that we’ve discussed in class. Towards the end of the talk, she sings a song in her native Navajo that includes several of these same themes and makes use of vocables.

Your blogs, as always, are due by Friday evening (September 4) at 11:59 pm. As a head's up, I'll be grading them a bit more strictly than the first blogs, since you've got that initial blog post behind you at this point. Comments will be done over the weekend. And in order to get credit for both Blog Entry and Comments, you'll need to upload the relevant info to Canvas. Finally, I do realize that you'll be doing this initial Cool Stuff blog before we've actually finished the unit on Native American music. That's ok. I'd suggest reserving some time between after our class on Thursday and when the blogs are due on Friday and doing your blogs then, and just work with the information we've covered up to that point. I look forward to seeing your Cool Stuff!