Beyond the Classroom: Asia and the Middle East

Time for another Beyond the Classroom blog. The rules are the same as the last Beyond the Classroom: Think of three things about the music-cultures of the Middle East and Asia that you'd like to know more about, and go find out more about those things. Instruments, dances, musical genres, musicians, traditional music, modern music, religious music--that's just a small list of the possibilities. Here's a re-post of blog expectations from our previous Beyond the Classroom:

A bit about length, content, and sources: 

Length: You'll want to make sure that your three things are three different things. Three videos by the same performer = one thing. Many of your three things will essentially be videos, but you'll you need to type up a hefty paragraph (minimum) about each video--100 words per video/question is a bare minimum, but you'll probably need to go over that to explain how you got from your idea to that video. Obviously, if you're not including a video, you'll need to type more. Also, make sure that this post is a single blog post--don't separate it into three different blog posts--if you do that, it's tricky for your commenters.

Content: Your three things all need to be musical topics, or to at least touch on music in some way--for instance, a costume isn't "music," but perhaps it's worn during a specific dance that is danced to a specific type of music. Or perhaps you're curious about a type of story-telling that includes music in it. Please make liberal use of the vocabulary and concepts that we're learning in class. Feel free to reference your notes and the Elements of Music page on Canvas for vocabulary and concept ideas. 

Source Citation: You'll need to let me (and your other readers) know where you get your information from. If you wish to use traditional bibliographic citations at the end of your blog (using MLA, APA, or Chicago style--all are acceptable here as long as you're consistent), you're welcome to do that (like I've done for my Paul Simon sources below). Blogs are less formal than written essays or term papers, and more media-rich, though, so there are several other ways you can provide us with your sources. You can simply work it into the text ("I found myself googling Navajo Competitions and came upon this great website called Navajo Competitions are Awesome"), or you can provide a link as part of your text. If you're including a Youtube video (or similar thing), you don't actually need to give me a further citation--a simple click on the video will take me back to Youtube, where I can see whatever source info exists there. 

The one difference, obviously, is the part of the globe you get to write about. The entire continent of Asia is up for grabs, even though we've only talked about India. You can share information about Japan, China, Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Iran, etc.--and, of course, India. The Middle East, of course, is mostly part of Asia, but I include it here to make sure that you don't forget about that possibility. 

I'm only going to post one item on my blog here, so that I don't steal any of your ideas:

As we went through the world of Arabic music, you've heard me make reference to Tariq Jundi. He's the oud player whose music you listened to, and he's truly a force of nature in the music scene of Jordan. He's also a great teacher--the Arabic music theory lesson I had with him was just a little over an hour long, but it was priceless in terms of my understanding of Arabic music. I do try to keep up with what he's doing over time, and not too long ago I found this wonderful video on his youtube channel.

I'm sure it would surprise no one to hear the Middle East described as "volatile." It seems that there is constant conflict in that area, whether that conflict be border skirmishes or all-out war. Jordan is one of the most peaceful countries in the area, where people of different Islamic groupings and different religions altogether live in a fairly peaceful environment. Because of that, Jordan houses a huge number of refugees from the wars of other countries in the Middle East. And the Royal Conservatory in Amman has a significant music therapy program. Tariq has pulled from these resources and toward this need to create a wonderful afternoon music program for children in need. Check it out!