Final Blog!

Music in Diverse Cultures has been a great class! I have learned so much information about the music in various cultures around the world. An important thing that I have learned is that even though we have learned much about the music in various cultures such as Indonesia, Japan, Native America, Africa, and Latin America and at times it might have seemed awkward to us to listen to it, it is very normal and accepted in their cultures. It is part of their lifestyle and tradition. One thing that intrigued me about these cultures would be how the instrumentation is similar to those of other cultures. There are a lot of similarities within each musically. One thing I found interesting in a culture would how the Native Americans high trilling voices, falsetto voice, call and response, timbre, pitches, and use of their rhythm are comparatively similar to the music of Africa. The only difference between the Native and Africa would be that the rhythm in Sub-Saharan Africa is extremely complex and layered compared to the rhythm of the Native Americans. The Native Americans have a steady beat whereas the Africans instrumentation is all at once. Its interesting how similar these cultures are than different!


One thing that I realized about my own culture through our discussions is that most of Western music is somehow linked to the music in cultures mentioned previously. There are various aspects of music that we have adopted and have originated into our culture today.

Lastly, this course has inspired me to want to learn about other cultures. I have enjoyed listening and analyzing the music from these cultures in class. Now I understand why music such as the rhythm, styles, genres, and texts are similar but yet different in some ways. This difference is what makes it so interesting though! Also, I look forward in other courses to develop the interest in the different kinds of ways of expressing music. It was especially fascinating to be able to see pictures from India and Africa presented by Dr. Weeks slide shows. Hearing from his experiences made me want to learn even more. I wish I could have been in some of the countries to hear and experience personally! I have learned to accept and have an open mind now of the music from these various countries from all over the world. I could not have done it without Dr. Vaneman's great teaching skills! Thanks!