Week 1: First Song

Mississippi John Hurt, Jessie, Andrew, Ella Mae--Avalon, Mississippi 1963

Pictured here are Mississippi John Hurt, his wife Jessie, and their grandchildren. The year is 1963, in their share-cropper house in Avalon Mississippi. The photo was taken by Tom Hoskins... We'll talk about all of this--and why the picture shows what it does...

Rapidshare download: 

These are our primary 30 songs (in your tan song sheet set). Download, listen, and learn to sing them!

http://rapidshare.com/files/4148560062/Songs%20and%20Places%20CD%20%202.zip

You can download without paying to join Rapidshare. Takes longer, and sometimes a little patience, but the system works well once you get used to it. The .xml file included (import to your iTunes library) will give you information about each song. There will be more downloads as the semester progresses.

Project: 

1. FIRST SONG. What's the first song you remember singing? Or hearing someone actually sing? Where? What were the circumstances? What if the question had been, first lullaby? Or first love song...? Work from this!

Project should involve/touch on:
* Memory (your own?)
* A specific place & time
* A connection with another person  (someone older? family? someone close?)
* Emotional associations
* This is your main project for the first week!


2. MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. Make an instrument--simple and playable. Think in terms of families (Curt Sachs, the German musicologist came up with four: idiophones, membranophones, chordophones and aerophones) and the materials themselves. Traditional guitar players tell stories of starting out with a wire nailed to the side of the barn, the other end anchored in the ground, and a rock positioned as bridge to hold wire out from the wall. Think of "Pinetop Perkins" the great blues piano player (born in Belzoni, Mississippi in 1913).  His first musical instrument? The "diddly bow"--a piece of wire stretched between two nails driven into a wall. Also see "bones," "quills" and "spoons"...

However, for this first week, you can make a simple RHYTHM instrument and bring next time. I want you to be able to concentrate on the First Song Project.

BRING FOR NEXT CLASS:

* Your FIRST SONG project to pin up
* Comment sheets (your own making)*
* Bones (rhythm)--hand-made or found...
* Song sheets in folder (both Tan and Gray sets) ALWAYS bring your song sheet folder!