History of Christmas carols

  I guess since this is the last blog of the class, and Christmas is coming around soon, I will be talking about Christmas carols.

  Some of our songs about Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Baby Jesus, and the holiday of Christmas are probably older than you think. Can you believe that one of the oldest Christmas carols was actually put together in the 300s? According to Streetdirectory, It is believed that "Of the Father's Love Begotten," written by Aurelius Prudentius may have been the first recorded Christmas carol. Christmas carols became more popular when the famous inventor Johannes Gutenberg created his printing press around the year 1447. This machine allowed copies to be made fairly easily, so paper copies of Christmas carols could be rolled off by the dozens, even hundreds, and passed around to celebrators looking for song and fun.

  Puritans and other very stringent folks frowned upon carols, so they were not entirely popular. What’s worse, most of these paper copies were destroyed over time, by age or on purpose. From 1649 to 1660 in England, when the Puritans ruled the country, Christmas carols were banned altogether.

  “Silent Night, Holy Night,” was penned by Joseph Mohr, a priest in Austria, in 1818. He wrote the song one Christmas Eve after discovering that his church’s organ was broken. He put together a song that everyone could sing without the need for the organ, and Mohr saved Christmas for his congregation that year.

  Despite all of these early songs, many of our current Christmas carols didn’t start appearing until the end of the 1800s. That’s in part because the 1800s is when Christmas as a whole really started picking up steam as a holiday, and when puritanically dislike for Santa, carols, and anything fun with Christmas started to die down. It doesn’t hurt, as well, that technology now makes it so easy to spread the cheer with Christmas carols. First, there were records and radio, but now we have CDs, DVDs, MP3s, and the Internet to spread holiday cheer. Whether you favor classic carols like, “Silent Night, Holy Night” or new traditions like Bing Crosby’s recording of “White Christmas” (the best selling Christmas single of all time!), Christmas carols are a long-established way to help celebrate the Christmas season.

  Christmas fun facts (from Listverse): Tony The Tiger Sang ‘You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch’, ‘Jingle Bells’ Was A Thanksgiving Song, and ‘Do You Hear What I Hear’ Was Inspired By Nuclear War.

Calluses from guitar

A callus (or callosity) is a toughened area of skin which has become relatively thick and hard in response to repeated friction, pressure, or other irritation. A person may get calluses from a number of different things including weightlifting, playing stringed instruments, running, etc. Calluses mostly form on the hands and feet, but they can form wherever there is repeated friction. Some violinist will form calluses on their chin from holding the violin on their chin.

In the band I play in, we typically practice for an hour, eat dinner, and then perform for about 15 minutes. If we do not play songs the entire hour, then my calluses won’t form. Last week we played the entire hour without any breaks because we were learning a new song and we played it over and over. Within that hour calluses were forming on my fingers. It hurts to actually form the calluses because your fingers get tired and the skin hurts from the strings pushing on them from the guitar. Lactic acid can build up in your fingers from playing the guitar. After the extended period of playing guitar your finger will start to heal. Eventually, in a few days, the tips of the fingers start to become very hard and the skin feels way different. The next time you pick up the guitar, the callus will have formed and it won’t hurt anymore. Calluses are good for guitar players when they are built up. If you do not keep up the friction, it is possible to lose your calluses. In a week or two the calluses from the fingers will be gone. It is like you never had them. You would have to rebuild the callus to have it again for guitar. I have played guitar for many years now and I built calluses but then lost them many times.

There five things you can do to help the calluses when they are forming. 1) Soaking your fingers in rubbing alcohol a few minutes a day will dry out the area and help the calluses form faster. 2) Sometimes rest is the best solution. The fingers need time to heal and to build the skin tougher. 3) An obvious one: don’t push your fingers so hard into the guitar. 4) Buy light strings that are easy to push down on rather than heavy strings. 5) Try to avoid submerging your fingers in water, and moisturize your fingers.

Drum Sets

I play in a worship band for Teen Community Bible Study every Thursday night. I will usually play guitar or the cajon (a fancy word for a drum box). The cajon is a box with snare springs at the top of it, to create a bass and a snare sound (depending on where you hit the box with your hand).  We have been using the cajon in this particular band ever since we started because it was all we could afford, and it fit our playing style because we do not play loud. Just a few weeks ago a nice person donated a full drum set to the church we play in and hold Teen Community Bible Study. We talked to someone in the church and they said we are free to use it and fix it up if we would like. I was licking my lips at those words. I have never actually played a drum set before, but I knew what it was composed of and I knew how to play it, I just never had the opportunity before. I sat down and played a little and it sounded awful; and it wasn’t because I was bad at playing the drum set. The toms were unbearably out of tune and the cymbals sounded like cheap china cymbals.  Thankfully, I knew how to fix up the set because of my previous knowledge in my high school drumline.

                I first started fixing up the toms. The drum has many tension rods around the rim to tighten or loosen the drum head. You need a drum key to fix the drum head, which I have because I had to do the same thing tuning the tenor drums I marched with. So I tightened the tension rods in a star formation and eventually got the toms sounding much better. One of the other band members has a drum set at home and he said he could bring in one or two of his cymbals to put on the “new” set we got. The bass drum, hi-hat, and snare drum all sounded fine, so we made the old drum set as good as new.

                There are many different drum sets and brands. To start off, there are two different types of drum sets available: Acoustic and Electric. The acoustic is the one most bands have. They are louder and bigger. Electric drums are better for beginning drummers. They are quieter, smaller, and they have different settings you can use. There are literally about 75 different drum brands. There are a ton I have never even heard of, and I’ve had a lot of experience with drums and drum brands. The most common and quality brands are Yamaha, Vic Firth, Innovative Percussion, Pearl, Zildijian, Remo, and Pro Mark. 

How to change guitar acoustic guitar strings

                I usually never change my guitar strings. I have been playing guitar for about 8 years now and I have only changed my guitar strings about 3 or 4 times. It is recommended to change them once a month or so. Some people change them once or twice a week, or like me, I went 5 years or so without changing a string on my guitar. It all depends on how much you play. If you play a lot, you want to change the strings more often. It all depends for different people. Classic signs of needing to change the strings are when the strings become rusted or a little discolored, when the guitar won’t stay in tune for long, and the guitar will sound duller as time passes. There are other factors involved in how long strings will last. Different strings last longer and there are products you can buy to make the strings last.

                In my last restringing, I put Dunlop Medium Light 80/20 Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings on my guitar. This is my first time using these strings, but I have heard they are pretty good. So now getting to the actual restringing, I start off on the low E string and work my way one by one, rather than taking all the strings off at one time. The first step is loosening the string by lowering the tone of the string, until you can take the string off of the head stock. Then you take the peg off of that string, so the entire string will come out of the guitar. That is the process of taking the old string off of the guitar.

                Next, is putting the new string on the guitar. Take the metal end of the string and put it in the peg hole. Put the peg in to hold the end of the string down and then take the string up to the head stock of the guitar (the skinny part, above the neck). For the four lowest strings you put the string through the small hole (from the middle to the outside). Then start tightening the string by turning the tuning keys until the string is in the right pitch. Make sure that the string is wrapping down the metal part, while putting pressure on the string. The string will stretch out automatically once it is on, so the pitch will drop until it is fully stretched. Everything is the same for replacing the two silver highest strings expect when you put the string through the whole of the metal part, above the neck of the guitar. You are going to want to make sure that the string first spins around above the hole, and then you are going to want to move it down to go below the hole as well, so the string won’t come loose and pop out. It is hard to understand unless you see the process done, but that is how you replace the strings on your guitar.

Music classes you can take

Delta College alone offers a ton of different music classes. You can learn the history of music, learn how to read music, learn how to play guitar, and more. I saw 25 different classes available at delta in music. There are many opportunities to learn whatever you want at Delta.
 Delta offers Elements of music 1-2. This class is the basic fundamentals of music. It will teach you about time signatures, key signatures, rhythms, notes, and basically anything about reading music. The second half of the class is devoted to an introduction into composing music. This is the class I am taking and I would recommend it if you need a humanities credit.
 Another similar class is Music Appreciation. You listen to instrumental music and teaches you about them. It will also go over the different genres of today.
 Delta offers a variety of music history classes. I would not like this class much because I don't like history or memorizing dates very much. Jazz history and the history of Rock and Roll are an option if you like history and music.
 You can learn the piano and guitar through some different classes. There is piano 1-2 that will teach you how to play the piano. Guitar classes are fundamental of guitar, contempt guitar style, classical guitar, and guitar ensemble.
 There is a lot of music classes for vocals as well. You can take a music voice class or you can be involved in a group performance class. Other options are chorale 1-4, chamber choir 1-4, and jazz singers 1-4.
  My music professor has told our class that Delta is bringing in another class that he will be teaching. Music theory will be offered at Delta soon. Music theory is the study of the structure of music.
 Clearly there are tons of choices you can take at Delta if you want to dive into music. I really like the classes that are offered here and they are helpful for the future. I like my professor and he says that the other music professors are really good also. I would be very interested in taking the piano class to learn how to play the piano really well. If I had the time and money, I would take a lot of other music classes offered at Delta.

My college music class

I went to meet with an adviser about the classes I need to take. He told me that I needed a humanities credit. He started giving me more information on what I could take for the credit. He mentioned music and I was suddenly very interested. I was planning to take a lot of credits to start off my first semester at Delta. Taking a music class would be easy for me because of my background and the years of having band in high school. I loved the idea of having a very easy class so I wouldn’t have to do much to get the credit I needed. I decided to take Elements of Music.

                The course is made to teach students how to understand basic music elements such as rhythm, meter, form, melody and harmony through seeing, hearing and performing musical examples. I have previously learned everything described in the class, before I took the class because of band. The only new information I learned is how to determine different key signatures in music. I knew what the key signature did to music and notes before the class, but I didn’t know how to identify key signatures and their names.

                We just had our exam in that class last Tuesday. I made sure I was prepared for the exam, but I didn’t have to put much effort in to studying because basic music is a second nature to me at this point. Our professor told us we were done learning for the semester. The second half of the class will be dedicated to composing 8 measures of a melody. We have practiced composing music for homework, and we have been assigned composing a melody in group work. I don’t think it will be too hard to come up with 8 measures of a melody.

                I did think that the class might have been harder than what it is on the first day. Each class, we sit in front of a piano to take notes. I thought for sure that we would learn how to read the music and to play it on the piano. Unfortunately, that is not the case because we have not done it yet and we are done with our learning session. I also thought that we would have to play our final composition, but the professor recently told us to just turn it in for him to grade. I am glad I can take an easy class that does not take much time to get the credit I need.

My favorite music genre

    I do not listen to the most popular kind of music. No rap, or rock or anything you would probably guess. My favorite genre of music is contemporary Christian music. I grew up listening to it in the car all the time. My mom would listen to nothing but that. I actually encouraged it in the car. My older sister was never a big fan of listening to Christian music, especially when she got older. I loved it because I was born and raised listening to Christian music.

   Christian music first became popular around the 1950’s or 60’s. There was only country Christian music and gospel around this time. Christian music all together died down and didn't get too popular again until 1975 or so. As the Christian music started the increase, more genres of the music became popular. Christian music gradually got much more popular until it hit its highest popularity in 2010. Since its highest point, it has gone down from today. The graph below mainly focuses on Christian/Gospel music instead of every genre for Christian music

   There is a large variety of Christian music to satisfy different taste. Christian music is similar to all the regular genres. There is gospel, rap, alternative, metal, pop. The most I listen to is alternative. Radio stations that provide alternative Christian rock are AirOne (90.9 FM), KLove (89.1) and smile FM (88.3). Alternative Christian music is very encouraging music with a good message.

   Some of my top bands I like are: Third Day, Tenth Avenue North, MercyMe, Newsboys, Lecrae, and Jeremey Camp.  It is so cool to see these bands in concert because they connect with the crowd really well. Some of my tops songs are: Start a Fire, Tell the World, From the Day, and Just Say Jesus.

   It is very encouraging hearing some of the things that are on the radio stations. KLove has an encouraging story of the day around the same time every day. I love being able to hear some of the things that happen in peoples life. It brightens up my mood for the day. Callers may call the air and tell them that they are free of cancer, or some people may call about being drug free for a certain time. It is nice to hear positives in the world with all the negatives we hear on the news all the time. I love Christian music for its songs and encouragement in them.

Instruments I want to learn

The top instrument I would like to learn to play really well would be piano. I know a little bit of it from band and playing mallet instruments, but there is a lot I need to learn to play it efficiently. I know what the notes are on the keyboard and I can already read music, but it stops at that. I don’t know the chords on the piano, and I cannot read the grand staff well yet. It takes me a long time to sight read something on the piano because I am not used to seeing that kind of music. I have no idea what the pedals do on the piano. My goal is to sit down and read piano music very well with sight reading, and eventually learning to play famous songs on the piano. I would like to play famous piano pieces from Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart eventually.

An instrument that I would like to learn from the brass section would either be the trumpet, trombone, or tuba. I have never even attempted playing a wind instrument at all, but I find it fascinating how brass players make different sounds from air. The tuba would be cool because of the very deep notes that the tuba produces. Tuba is usually the bass part of songs, which is a bit easier to read. Trombone would be good to learn because of the slide. The farther your arm is on the slide, the deeper pitch is made. It would be good to learn the different positions and how to produce the sound from what note you need to play. The trumpet is a higher pitched instrument. The trumpet reads harder and faster music, usually having the melody in some songs. The trumpet has three different valves that can produce different sounds with a combination of the valves.

I would want to learn the saxophone if I were to learn a woodwind instrument. The saxophone is a good instrument to learn because it has many keys. It uses a reed that will vibrate once you blow air into the instrument. The saxophone has a lot of cool parts in band that would be fun to play. It is hard to hear them in a full band, but they occasionally will have the melody.

There are many instruments I would love to sit down and learn, but I have lost some opportunities to learn some of the instruments. It would be hard to learn any band instruments because I would have to buy an instrument to practice on. It is also hard to find time to learn all the instruments. I do have a piano that I can learn on, but the challenge is finding time to sit down and learn the piano. I would love to learn these instruments if I was given the opportunity.

My Favorite Songs

My favorite song right now would have to be one from Lecrae. Lecrae is a Christian rapper. You may be confused because you usually don’t associate rap with Christian music. I thought the same thing when I first heard it. The first song I heard from Lecrae was Don’t Waste Your Life. I was very hesitant towards it and I didn’t know if I truly liked the song or not after the first time I listened to it. It was so new to me that I didn’t know what to expect. I listened to that same song over and over again to get a feel for it. I looked up the lyrics to it and I made the decision that I really liked it. Don’t Waste Your Life is a fast song with a good beat. Most importantly to me I really like the lyrics that Lecrae puts in the song. I didn’t know what to expect at first, but once I gave the song a try it became one of my favorites.

    One of the newer songs from Lecrae is Tell The World. Thankfully, this is a slower song so I have a chance to rap the words once I learned them. I can’t decide which one of these songs I like more right now. My first favorite from Lecrae was Don’t Waste Your Life, but now Tell the World is competition to that. If I decided not to give Lecrae a chance then I wouldn’t have known about these two amazing songs, along with many other great songs from Lecrae. Once I stepped in and gave it a try I really liked it and I was glad I did.

     My favorite song that I played in band was Transcendent Journey by Rossano Galante. Transcendent Journey was a very happy and victorious song. I played the snare drum in this song. The entire band enjoyed playing this piece because it gave us a challenge, but it was fun to play. We played this my junior and senior year in band. My band director told us that it would be a difficult piece of music and that some college bands struggle with this piece. We were up for the challenge. We practiced and perfected the music and performed it for a huge festival at Western Michigan University my junior year. We got feedback from the performance and saw what more we could work on. My next year we played this piece at our festival, where our band would be graded based on how well we played. The results came back as all 1’s. This is the best grade a band can receive. We were so happy and proud of what we accomplished with this song alone. 

Most boring aspect of music

The most boring part of music is learning how to play it. It is very difficult to focus in class when you are in a band room with an instrument sitting in front of you. Naturally, you would want to pick the instrument up and start making noise with it. Unfortunately, the only way you will know how to play an instrument and read music is to understand what is written on a piece of music and what it means. There was a lot more I had to learn than what I thought starting out. As a 6^th grader, I learned about different time signatures, key signatures, accidentals, note values, dynamics, and the list goes on and on. The only way you can learn about it is through boring lectures. Our teacher had to explain what all of these concepts of music meant and how we can use that information to play in the instruments.  The first part of learning music is learning the information and the second part is applying what you have learned.

 I hated the boring lectures before we know how to play. I think I would have rather taken a class on British History rather than learning about what a time signature will do to read the music. I was close to quitting band because I didn't like it so much. I was in a tough situation because I really wanted to be a good musician but it was so difficult for me to focus in class. The only thing that kept me going was watching the high school band perform. I wanted to be in that situation and I knew the only way I could was if I learned the boring part of music.
 Halfway through the year we learned enough to start playing the music on our instruments. Band got so much better when I could apply what I learned. I was actually enjoying band rather than dreading going to class every day. We played several pieces of music and eventually, with a lot of practice, put on a concert for our parents. I was so happy I was done with the boring part of music, and now I could finally play it. All the hours and exams of the lectures were worth it once I would practice what I learned. Now that I know how to read music and I know what everything means I enjoy playing new pieces of music and learning new instruments. I am surely glad I didn't quit band because  I was bored learning about music at first. 

How I started playing guitar

My sister and I would go to see my dad every other weekend. While we were there we would love to listen to him play a song we know on guitar and sing to it. I was absolutely intrigued by his talent. I asked him one day when I was there how does one play the guitar. I was about 6 at the time. All I remember understanding from his long explanation was that there were chords you had to memorize. I tried out the chords and failed miserably. I gave up because it was way too hard for me to understand or to play because of my small hands. Even though I came to the conclusion that I couldn't play, I still loved seeing my dad play and I wanted to be like that.

I was shopping with my mom and grandma one day in the 6th grade and I saw a random blue acoustic guitar. I don't know what it was that caught my eye, but I absolutely loved the guitar. I wasn't looking for a guitar and I didn't have the thought of trying guitar again before this, but all I could think of is that I wanted that guitar. I showed my mom and she said that she wasn't going to pay for the guitar. I wasn't surprised. But my grandma said she would pay for it. I was shocked and I didn't know what to say. My mom said that was fine with her. I was so excited! I felt like the coolest kid walking out of the shop with my new, blue acoustic.

As soon as I got home I started playing some random notes that sounded horrible, just to get a feel for playing. I didn't have any way of learning yet, but I had a strong dedication to get good at playing the guitar. I couldn't pay for guitar lessons, so I just bought a book to hopefully teach me how to play guitar. I studied that book hard with my guitar in my hands. I practiced what the book told me to a lot. I put in many hours to learn guitar. Eventually I got to the chords that my dad taught me 6 years earlier… And I could play them this time! I took a moment to see how much I have improved and I proudly formed a big ol’ grin on my face from the improvement.

I kept practicing and getting better at what I learned, and eventually I could play one song after another once I learned more chords. I was almost where my dad was in playing. In high school I joined my band in youth group and learned a lot more stuff that the book didn't teach me. I went from that band to another when I joined teen CBS. At this point I could play most of the songs from top to bottom when I first saw them. I am proud for what I have learned in guitar. I used my dad for a role model to be as good as him on the guitar. Now I can do what he has done and play great songs to make good music. 

My favorite Instrument(s) to play

It is way too hard to pick what my favorite instruments to play are. Because I play so many instruments in the marching band and concert band, I will have to choose a list of my top 3 for the school band.

Tenors: I like the tenor drums because you read a melodic line. There are 4-6 drums (depending on what drum line you are in and what tenors you use). The drum line I marched in had 5 different drums that made up the tenors. It was challenging but fun once you got to learn the music. Switching between whichever drum you hit may involve a crossover or a sweeping motion. The tenors were nothing like any other instrument I have played in the line.

Snare: The snare drum is pretty easy in the concert season and marching season. The snare drum only reads one line, unlike the tenor drums. The snare drum focuses on rhythm rather than the melody. Marching with the snare drum was fun because we played with traditional grip. Traditional grip is where you hold the stick in your left hand so that you would play on a side angle, rather than a flat drum. The concert snare drum would have a regular grip and would usually be an easier rhythm compared to marching snare music.

Bass: The bass drum makes all the good beats. In marching season, the bass drums would start a beat to a cadence, and then the rest of the drum line would add on different parts to make a really good sound all mixed in together. In my drum line we marched 5 bass drums, each with a different pitch. These were called “split” basses. The bass drums would also read a melodic line, like the tenor drums. Since one player plays one drum, it would be a team effort to all play different parts where they add together. The bass drums were just a cool instrument to play.

Playing in a "rock band" setting, I prefer playing drums over guitar. I actually don’t play the drum set, but I play a cajon, or a drum box, for a smaller setting. This box has a snare (springs) at the top to make a sharper sound. If you hit more in the middle, it creates a lower sound, like a bass drum. You can get multiple different sounds from the drum depending on where you hit on the drum and the way your hand or fist hits the drum. It is a lot of fun making up your own beat, rather than playing what is written in the music. I think that the chords in a song for guitar are too repetitive. I like mixing the music up, and I can do that with the drums.

My music history

Music all started for me back in the 6^th grade. Actually, I was close never even being in band. Kids could decide if they wanted to learn an instrument in the 5^th grade. I was interested but I didn't know what instrument I wanted to play. I waited too long and it was then too late to be in band by the time I was going to pick. All of that year I regretted hesitating and not signing up to be in band. I thought I wouldn't ever get to learn how to play an instrument in school

I moved to a different school the next year and we found out we could join band for the first time there! I was so excited to have another opportunity to be in band. I was still nervous to join when I knew nothing about music and other kids have been playing an instrument for a year. I thought “what if I can’t catch on as fast as they do?” I asked my parents what I should do and they said I should go for it if I want to do it. So I did. I ended up really liking band that year. Later in that same year I slowly taught myself how to play guitar.

I learned to love music and I really enjoyed playing in the band all through middle school and high school. My favorite part of band was marching season in high school. I marched the snare and tenor drums in my high school band career. My senior year I was drum captain. I got to make the calls and figure out cool ways to make the drum line a lot of fun. I had a blast. I got to drum upside down, teach sweet visuals for a drum off, pick out a great new cadence, and a lot of more great things. Senior year was my favorite year of school just because of band.

Most recently I am playing guitar and drums in a band. We meet every Thursday night at 5:30 to practice and then we preform 3 songs (2 new songs every week) that night at 6:30. When our music coordinator is out of town I usually take over practice. This band is really nice because it’s laid back and there isn’t any pressure. We are all familiar with what we do and how to make the piece of music sound good. It is easy, but it is still a great way to keep playing music with others every week. Playing music has been a huge part of my life.

Why I Chose Music

The reason I chose music to blog about is because music has been a big part of my life. I started playing music 7 years ago. Since then I have actively been involved in band in high school and I taught myself how to play guitar. Being in band, I played music every day. I was fortunate to be able to play so many pieces of great music and so many different types of it. I listen to a lot of music in my spare time. It is fascinating how music can make us feel. For example, listening to classical music may calm us down. Listening to rock or screamo may get our adrenaline going and wake us up.
 If you think about it, music is important in a lot of aspects. Movies would not be nearly as engaging or dramatic without any music playing. Everyone has seen those movies where something sad happens and a slow, depressing song starts up to really set the mood. Or when a hero comes back successfully doing whatever they were doing and you hear the heroic music playing. Imagine a famous scene in a movie without music. It just doesn't have the same effect.
 Composers of music can really express their feelings into a piece of music. I've played music in band before and my band director reads why the composer wrote this music. I can feel what the composer feels just by hearing the tone of the music set. I like to really examine music when I listen to it. I like to look for time changes or key changes. I always ask myself: Why did the composer write this or add this certain thing? I really appreciate music and my life would be much different if I didn't have music to play or listen to.