Native American Music
Something I was interested in learning more about was Native American instruments and how they are crafted. When I typed " Native American", flutes showed up. I wanted to see if their flutes look like the common metal flutes that we see in our bands and they don't. They're made from wood and have less holes. I began to wonder if they sound the same, but they have a different timbre. I also noticed they were played differently. With the metal flutes, the musician plays it lifted and horizontal to their bodies. Native Americans play their wooden flutes downwards.
Another thing I was interested in learning about was the modern Native American girl. I wanted to know more about how they feel about our society and what it's like for them growing up. I found that they're just as frustrated with stereotypes as any other race or ethnicity. In the video, I like how they make fun the misconceptions about them and correct them. There were some misconceptions I had no idea about such as people thinking they don't pay taxes. They mentioned the common illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes in their tribes and families that also plagues the United States as a whole. The girls in the video were very informative.
The final thing I was interested in was the children's role in music. I wanted to see how they get involved in their culture's music. I found a video of small child playing a hand drum and singing. He maintained a consistent beat and it sounds like he was using vocables and mixing words into the song. His drumming gets soft when his voice gets loud and he switches it to where his drumming gets louder and his singing softens. His drum has an interesting look, too. It's not fully closed and the backside of it is two sticks perpendicular to each other.
Something I never thought about until I listened to the flute concert video, whenever you watch a movie and it shows a vast desert (like the south west), that's the music you hear. You hear an echoing flute, I guess to represent the wind? I hope people know what I'm talking about. The teen vogue video was really enlightening, I had no idea that any of these stereotypes exists and I think it's ignorant that they do. Also, the kid singing was very entertaining to watch. He got so into it, power to him.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how different the flutes are not only is it the way it is played and the materials used but also the sound that comes out of the instrument. The video with the Native American girls was very good, those young girls are so aware of what is happening around them. I'm not sure how old they are but from guessing when I was about their age I was definitely not really knowing what was happening around me to the level that they do. I also thought that it was interesting when they talked about the head dresses, I did not realize that the feathers that were on it were earned, also that some tribes do not wear head dresses.
ReplyDeleteAfter all of the music we have heard or dances we have viewed, I have not really thought about how children play a role in the ceremonies or the music that they make. But now that I think about it, since everything is very community oriented it would make sense that children were to be involved. Children are the next generation, and since Natives never wrote anything down, everything had to be passed down by experience and word of mouth. I really like your article!
ReplyDeleteI never thought about how the flutes that Native Americans use is played differently than ones that we commonly see. After watching the flute concert, I realized how different the flute solo sounded compared to something you would hear in concert when performing with a band. I'm not sure why but that flute really hit different. I love hearing Native American music because it reminds me of things you find in nature. Like Sierra said, it sounds like it would represent the wind and it straight up sounded like something from a movie. I love it!
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