Archive for the 'World Music Studies' Category

Honouring Kojima Sensei

Thursday, November 28th, 2013

A few months ago I posted a UBC blog entitled “Honouring Tanaka Sensei”. I described the revelations and adventures I experienced from my encounters with that very great man. Now it’s time drop the other shoe. At the same time I was studying with Tanaka Motonobu of the Dōmon-kai  (土 門 会) Kinko-ryū (琴古流) school of shakuhachi […]

Honouring Tanaka Sensei

Sunday, August 4th, 2013

In my classes, I often talk about experiences that arise from either reflective or reflexive research (including the results of class ethnography assignments). The former are moments that cause you to pause and quietly reflect on the discovery that has come into your life. The latter shakes you to the core, transforming you into an […]

May Day, again

Monday, April 29th, 2013

Hooray, hooray The first of May Outside s—x Begins today (anonymous) On Wednesday I’ll be making my yearly trek to Trimble Park in Point Grey to attend the annual May Morning celebrations of the Vancouver Morris Dance Community, staged since 1990. I’ll have to get there at 5:30 AM to take in the first event […]

Karaoke versus Folk Singing

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

The other morning I was walking down the main street of my neighbourhood, take-out coffee in hand, when I walked by my local karaoke store for the umpteenth time. I use the word “my” advisedly, because I’m not a karaoker. And I am not their target consumer, given that all the posters in the window […]

A Radical New Classroom

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

As I prepare for my summer class, it occurred to me that I could radically re-organize the classroom experience for the students. But at what cost? In the last few years I have worked inexorably towards an educational environment that moved steadily away from rote learning, and towards collaborative education.  The most vivid example of […]

World Music week at UBC

Saturday, April 6th, 2013

Last week Professor Hesselink of the Ethnomusicology Department announced an exciting program for a World Music Week. It will feature four dynamic groups representing traditional China, Bali, Korea, and sub-Sahara Africa. The week of special performances is a chance for the hard-working ensemble members to display their passionate commitment, wrested from their precious time normally […]

Your first shakuhachi lesson

Saturday, March 30th, 2013

You’ve decided to study the shakuhachi – a traditional flute from Japan. You know that it’s steeped in history and tradition, but what’s really grabbed your attention is its focus on meditation, using the sound of music. You have some prior experience with Western music instruments, and you can even read the notation of Western Art […]

Ethnomusicology in the band room

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013

One of the ethnomusicologists I follow closely is David G. Hebert, currently a faculty member at Bergen University of College in Norway, but in fact, born and raised in Seattle.  His specialty is the study of concert bands in Japanese high schools which on the surface, would be as far as you could possibly get […]

Fife and Drum: a different ethnomusicology ensemble

Friday, March 15th, 2013

One of the intense pleasures of attending a music school in a large university is the opportunity to actually play music from other cultures, thanks to a department of ethnomusicology. The most common ensembles are gamelan from Indonesia, drum circles from sub-Sahara Africa, and various chamber music ensembles from East Asia and elsewhere. If the […]

Learning to be an amateur

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

Although I was a professional musician who played the flute in a former life, I was flung into the world of the amateur, and a beginner at that, thanks to my anglomania, and my new ambition to play the cornet and become a full-fledged brass bander. Therefore my participation in a British Brass Band was […]

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