Alycia in Musicland

     This blog will explore traditional music in Hawaii. I chose this culture because with the stress of everything in world plus exams, I want to relax and Hawaii felt relaxing. We all deserve a trip to Hawaii after a year like 2020, but I think my blog will be as close as we'll get to Hawaii for awhile.      I want to begin with listing the instruments and explaining how they work and what type of materials they are made from. The first instrument is the Ipu; it is a percussion instrument made from gourds. It comes in two forms; there is the ipu and the ipu heke. The ipu is made from one gourd and has an opening at the top; the ipu heke is made from two gourds and it is closed. This instrument is typically played for hula dancing.  The next instrument is the kâ`eke `eke. It is described as a drum, but it doesn't look like the average drum. It's hollowed tube of bamboo and they are played by "striking the ground". The instrument comes in different sh...

     On my search for cool things in Arab music, I began with searching Arab music artists. Immediately Fairuz came up, but another person who came up was Fayza Ahmed. She was born in 1934 in Sayda, Lebanon. She was a singer and an actress in the 1950's. She acted in 6 movies total. Her career was cut short at the age of 48. One of her most well known songs is Set El-Habayeb. The song is dedicated to mothers. In the song you can hear Arab music elements that we discussed in class. Her voice commands attention and the instruments never outshine her voice. She does a lot of sliding as well. The next thing I wanted to know more about was dance in Arab culture. I came across belly dancing which always seemed so cool to me when I was a child. I decided to learn more about the origins because I have no prior knowledge on the subject. There are three theories on the origins of belly dancing. One of the theories is that it came from early Egyptian dances; another theory is that i...