12 June 2010

Music in University

So it's been 2 months+ into my university life.... now let me share my story, what I've learn so far...

One thing I kinda like about my university is that I'm surrounded with lots of musical elements, from students playing instruments, to the exposure of different types of musical mediums.

Just discovered that in the library we're able to listen or watch CD/DVD/Blu-Ray with these great players!
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Although I plan to major in Sounds and Acoustics, studying in this field to requires a certain level of musical knowledge from different point of views as myself, can't really play any instruments well (I do hope to learn one or two in near future).

Currently am studying music from the point of view of the aesthetics (音楽美学), the recording process (音楽録音) and lastly musical therapy (音楽療法).
Haven't really get deep into the major Acoustics (音響) yet but will be doing so in 2nd and 3rd year in the university.

I do enjoyed the 3 music-related subjects as mentioned above so far. Good thing those are spread from Wed to Fri so I can look forward the following days to attend the classes after dreadful Tuesday's lessons hah.

The lecturer of the aesthetics is an interesting lecturer. I like the lecturer who not only talks about the main topic (which is music obviously), but also able to relate it with our modern life, how music had made impact in our human civilization since the ancient times.
It's a semi-music history lesson, but who will get bored when you can listen to different types of music from the ancient times to the current modern world?
Currently finished Renaissance and now we're into Baroque!

I do thought of working as a studio sound engineer so to learn about the recording process is an important part in the Acoustics department. This lesson is taught by 2 lecturers who're both successful musical producers and directors in respective fields.
While the younger one is more into rock and pop band, the elder one is more towards classical recordings, which make both of them invaluable figures to learn from.

Few weeks ago we were shown these music players like the classical phonograph/gramaphone and even try to play vinyl records on it!

A turntable phonograph and the classic gramaphone.
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According to the lecturer this is some of the earliest recording devices created during Thomas Edison's era. Kinda baffled what can a cylinder works eh? It's to record down the voices as shown on the pic below. Unfortunately there's no demonstration for this.
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Vinyl records which some might find it obsolete but still it packs with fantastic musical quality!
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Yep, this artwork is actually a playable vinyl record too!
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I was taken away by the superb quality of these analog music! I've long heard people talking about the sound quality of analogy and I'm lucky enough to experience it!

(Pics above were taken with my mobile phone. Forgotten to bring my camera along that day...)

Next up, is the musical therapy which I may have mentioned here before lately. It's purpose is to use music instead of drugs and treatments to help patients, or at least help them to feel better in some ways.
This is the interesting part to learn, how music can change, move people.

Weeks ago we had covered briefings on how music therapy is being applied to autistic, William's Syndrome children, and this week we're starting about musical therapy and stress.

This topic really interest me because to be honest, reading the text is like reading what I'm going through lately. During the class we're asked to measure our heartbeat before and after listening to a relaxing piano tune. Well to my surprise, the heartbeat actually increases a little after listening the music.

Seems like I wasn't the only one who had this issue, as some fellow students in the class also experience the same thing. According to the lecturer's explanation, it might be caused by the majority of students who had strong influence in music (granted, most of us are doing things related to music), so when we listen to the music instead of enjoying it, we will also listening it analytically (eg: identify the piano's timbre, tempo etc).
For some, it might brought back certain memories listening to song like this.

I think my beat rises because I'm kinda excited with it especially when I like the piano tune alot. Knowing myself the best, I knew that whenever I heard a song or tune for the first time, if I like it I'll easily get excited over it heh. I guess that's one of the main reasons why I chose to study in fields related to music, to discover new music that could excite me.

Although at this moment I haven't learn more in depth with the genre of music should be used, but I observed that instrumental, like piano songs work quite well as it basically works for the general public.
Orchestral or traditional music may not be that effective as the audience might interpret it stereotypically instead of enjoying the music for it's pure rhythms and melodies.

Below are a few samples I can find on Youtube, mostly are piano pieces.

Yanni "Whispers In The Dark" [link]


Yanni "Enchantment" [link]


David Lanz "Cristofori's Dream" [link]


Yiruma "River Flows In You" [link]


When Humanity reacts to Music~ :)

2 comments:

  1. Wow... the music of the youtube video are all very nice.

    I like music which give out sad/mysterious feeling very much.

    ReplyDelete
  2. hah sad and mysterious feeling eh, I can recommend u some if u want. :)

    ReplyDelete