Caitlin on the Move!

 OUD - "King of Instruments" All of you know from previous classes how important the Oud is to the Middle East, but I wanted to learn more about it. So, while somethings will be repeated as said in class there will also be some new facts about the Oud you hopefully learn. Oud in Arabic  is al -ʿūd which means wood Praised for its healing powers by healers, musicians and religious groups Most known in the west because it is the predecessor of the European lute⬇ The Oud is made of several strips of bent wood glued together  As shown above all early plucked instruments has a rosette or rose, a decorative carved sound hole Since the instrument is named wood, it sure does seem super obvious, but some say it is because they want to show that it is not stretched animal skin Strung in courses (pairs of strings) made of gut, processed from the small intestines of sheep. Most string instruments in the medieval period were all made this way Four courses...

For this blog I will be interviewing my mom. I traveled all the way to Pennsylvania just for this blog, so I hope you enjoy it and find it interesting. Just kidding, I travelled home for Easter and this blog popped up at the perfect time to go home for it. My mom also grew up in Pennsylvania, in a small town called Fairchance, she is currently 54 and she's always loved listening to music and being involved. Down below is a dialogue of our conversation :) Me: What role did music play during your childhood? My mom: I've always loved music! As a small child I loved listening to nursery rhymes, church songs and especially the songs you would sing and hold hands with your friends and dance around like "Little Sally Ann sitting in the sand" and "ring around the rosie". Then in sixth grade I started listening to music on the radio and every Friday they would play oldies, which I loved, like the 50s and 60s at eight all the way to midnight and I would stay up late j...

 After listening to all the options listed for this blog for about a half hour the one, I decided to go with is the music genre soul ! When I was listening to example songs of each genre this is the one, I felt more connected to.  Soul music is originated in the United States from the African American community in the 1950s and early 1960s the term soul music has associations with African American pride and culture. During the 60s soul music transformed into an umbrella term for African American music. While just going over The Blues in class last week and seeing how it formed into R&B Soul music is actually a combination of R&B and gospel music. The reason for Soul Music being affiliated with gospel music is because after slavery ended in 1865, African Americans weren't welcome in the churches of white Americans, so they built their own churches and sang Christian songs their own unique way. They sang joyful, up-tempo gospel songs while clapping and moving to the beat...

1. Sona Jobarteh - The Gambia Academy       As we spoke about Sona Jobarteh the other day in class, I found all that she has done very fascinating. Some of her background again was that she was born in London and first started playing the kora at the age of three. After years of learning from her brother it was until she was eighteen, she realized she wanted to make this something more serious. Now Sona is known as the first professional women kora player from one of the five principal kora playing griot families from West Africa.      As also mentioned in class she created The Gambia Academy in 2015 to educate young Africans in their culture, traditions, history and overall academic education. Sona emphasizes in this article I found Sona Jobarteh is Performing in The Gambia on March 4  - The Point  "Education is key to changing mindsets and enabling the journey to self-determination and economic self-sustainability". With the population of t...

 The question I decided to go with was "are there gender norms in each of these cultures"... a few ideas came to me while reading over this question. Not only is gender stereotyped everyday by people while they see others do music the way they do it, but it is also equally stereotyped by the people making the music.  Like said in my previous blog I grew up listening to a good bit of R&B as I got older, I started listening to a lot more other genres like rap, indie, country, etc. Not too long ago was I told by my guy friend that he felt like women rapping sounded "horrible" and that women should not do rap songs. Yes, I'm sure others might agree with this comment, but this comment was not needed to be put out there. You are able to not like certain rap and not like the people who do that specific genre, but they completely talked down all women saying they were all horrible at rap when that is not always the case. There have even been times that I am told by ...

Hello everyone! For those who do not know me, I am Caitlin Michelangelo and am a freshman here at Converse University. I grew up in somewhat of a small town just an hour south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now you may be asking what made me go 8 hours away from home? Well running did! I am a part of the cross country and track team. I have been running ever since the summer of 7th grade. I do not have much music experience other than the year of taking piano lessons when I was younger. Although I do not have much experience, I am pretty much listening to music anytime of the day no matter what I am doing. I have always wanted to play the violin growing up, but I have been in sports instead my whole life. I did dance for 10 years and once I hit high school, I stuck with running and joined the soccer team and swim team. I am the youngest with two older brothers and I am a huge cat lover, thrifter and love doing anything adventurous.  (Picture of me☺)         -...