I grew up with music. I started playing the cello and viola at a very young age, around 3 or 4, and although I stopped the cello after a year, I never gave up the viola. I stopped in 6th grade, took it back up in 9th grade and then again in 11th grade. Also, for as long as I can remember, I sang. I had always dreamed of being a pop star, the next Shakira or Britney Spears. This is not a dream that I stopped following because it was too hard but because I didn't feel the need to become famous in order to enjoy my singing and share it with the people that surrounded me. I remember that every year I would accompany my mother to the Christmas Cantata rehearsals every Saturday afternoon at 4 starting mid-September up until the final concert in December and this taught me to appreciate different kinds of music, from classic Christmas Carols to Peruvian folk songs to Handels Hallelujah Chorus from The Messiah.
Over the course of the year I also started to realize that I always listen to the same music over and over again and never anything that's new. That's why I decided to make my 30 day habit to listen to a new song each day, preferably each day a new genre. After doing some research, I found out that there are about 250 different music genres, a number too shocking for me to believe. These range from the most common like Classical, Jazz and Rock to the most unusual like Tex-Mex, Surf and Klezmer, genres that I had never heard of before and knew nothing about. After 28 days of this habit, I am still in awe of the number of genres that exist. Over the past 10 days I have been traveling in Mexico and thanks to my trusty app Shazam I have been able to identify almost every new song that I hear on the radio, in restaurants, movies or even walking on the streets or in little bodegas. Although I have a slight range of genres in my new playlist 30DAYS, I know that I can do better and find songs that are a lot more widespread on the genre spectrum. All it takes is sitting down in front of my laptop, opening up YouTube and searching for different genres. Now that I have left Mexico and won't be touring for the next 13 days, I know I will have more time to do this and expand my musical library as much as I can. Another source that I can use are my brothers; they both have different taste in music than me and can help me with this habit. What I know will be difficult is listening to only one new song a day and I must confess that I've heard more than one per day. I know this is not a problem, as an avid musician, I like to expand my musical library as much as I can. What will be most difficult though is choosing only one song out of all the ones that I hear each day. Complete list of music genres http://www.musicgenreslist.com/
1 Comment
Corey Topf
7/28/2014 09:54:25 am
A week and a half ago I was in Omaha driving down the street when this song came on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYFz4pKclyA. I'd heard it before but never took the time to find out who it was. In that moment though, I did, because the song was so perfect for a summertime cruise through the city. With the electric guitar exploding at around 48 seconds, it's just awesome. Thanks for reminding me to pay closer attention to the music around me this summer!
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Author"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." Archives
June 2015
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