1.4 MUSIC JOURNAL (ASSIGNMENT 2)

-MUSIC JOURNAL-

Note: This is an ongoing assignment!

During most classes/assignments, recordings will be played. It is your responsibility to keep a music journal and make an entry for every designated (I'll let you know) recording in class. YOUR MUSIC JOURNAL DOES NOT START UNTIL WORKSHEET 2.

For each recording, you need to list four points under the title:

# - NAME OF SONG

       (A) The artist,

       (B) the instrumentation (instruments heard),

       (C) the theme (what is this song about?), and

       (D) your impression of it (what is your feeling about it?).

Here is an actual example, from one of my students:

36. Manic Depression

       A. Jimi Hendrix

       B. Guitar, bass, drums

       C. Manic depression is hard to live with

       D. I am familiar with Hendrix’ music, and have heard this many times. I love the    jazzy feel of the drums and bass, while Hendrix sails above it all with psychedelic sounds. Still sounds great after all these years. The drum fills at the end are cool also. 

READ! Note the length of the letter 'D' entry. This type of response is what I am looking for! Don't just write "I like it," or "I don't like it." I find that boring. Try to be expressive in your entries. Listen to the song again, if needed.  Also, I know some of you might have trouble listing the instruments. Do the best that you can. 

It's interesting that the title, artist, and instrumentation are objective. 'C', or the theme, is a mix of objective/subjective, and 'D' is totally subjective, because those are your thoughts! Here are 2 examples of what your music journal should look like:

MUSIC JOURNAL EXAMPLE 1

MUSIC JOURNAL EXAMPLE 2

I need to see a decent music journal for you to get an 'A' in this class. In fact, this journal is worth 40% of your final grade.

From my years of teaching this class, I have noticed this: You simply cannot cram this into the last week. It is impossible to do this and turn in something of quality. It is in your interest to stay with this week to week. We will start our journal entries with the next worksheet (#2). The songs we heard on Worksheet 1 are NOT part of your journal. The songs for the journal are listed on each worksheet, beginning with Worksheet 2.

Note: The music journals are due the day of the final, Thursday, December 10.