The rhythm in John Mayer’s live version of Neon is very smooth. He plays it on an acoustic guitar and adds elements of drums by tapping the low E string of the guitar with his thumb throughout the intro and verse riff to maintain a beat like a drum would with its kick drum. It stay pretty much the same. He supports the rhythm with some finger picking. I think that it is a pretty groovy thing he does. Then when the chorus hits he just strums but the rhythm doesn’t really change a whole lot. He stays in the same rhythm but it just sounds different because he’s not playing individual notes. Right before he does his guitar solo there is this short transition where it seems like the rhythm slows a bit. It sounds a bit more vibey. That’s the best way I can explain it. Then he goes back to the chorus again and its the same and he ends with what he played for the intro/verse.

I was left a bit speechless seeing Joey play the piano so efficiently and so amazingly. It was incredible to see him play and I would definitely watch him play live if I got the opportunity to. You always see child stars become famous but very few of them are deserving of the fame in my opinion. Joey is one that is very deserving of it. He has worked hard and has challenged himself to be the musician he is today. I have heard of another young boy who once played with Ozzy Ozbourne on a tour and he absolutely shredded on the guitar. I think both of these boys have very comparable talents but it is not often to see someone who is that good. I have never met anyone so young and so talented at something yet, but I do believe that there is someone with the talent out there that just needs the exposure to things that they like and can be just as good as Joey.

Mozart was a genius from a very young age. By the time he was 6 years old he had already began writing his own pieces of music. Mozart also visited the Vatican in his life. While there he had heard a performance of Miserere and later wrote out the music from memory. This is impressive because before that, the music had never been reproduced outside of the Vatican. Mozart also had 6 children but only two survived infancy. Although Mozart made good money from his talents, but was in debt because he had exquisite taste in things and spent a lot of money. Mozart died in 1791 from kidney failure.

All information was found on Biography Online and Youtube.

La Boheme and Seasons of Love are both instances where vibrato can be heard. In the opera it is a lot easier to pick up on because it is happening very often throughout the performance. But in seasons of love, it is not as easy to pick up on unless the singers are really going for a long note. It is very subtle and hard to pick up on at times. I will say that I am not a huge fan of opera, so I did not like La Boheme all that much. I did like Seasons of love a lot though, I had never heard it until now but I heard a parody of it in an episode of The Office.

In my own music experiences I had never really payed a whole lot of attention to vibrato in voices. But now that I know exactly what it is like I can pick up on it and think back to some songs or times where I heard it. In John Mayer’s live performance of Neon, there are some parts where I believe I hear a bit of vibrato in his voice, it doesn’t happen a whole lot.

In John Mayer’s “Neon,” in the live version, the song is mostly the same volume. The dynamics do change a bit when the chorus hits because instead of just plucking single notes he starts strumming. The song also gets slightly higher. He also performs a guitar solo that starts out a bit soft and then gets a bit louder as the song progresses until he hits the chorus again. The changes in timbre come around the same time as the change in dynamics. The individual plucking of the strings and the strumming of chords are both very different timbres. The plucking has higher notes mixed with lower ones and the strumming sounds very rich and full. The changes in timber make it more interesting. Especially during the guitar solo that happens. There is different timbres and it makes it sound a bit funky. Something you would bob your head to.

Word music relationships are an important aspects to songs where a composer is attempting to have the listeners have a certain feeling or thought from listening to the song. In Justin Timberlake’s song, the line “what goes around comes around,” shows this by having the notes he sings descend down in the tone and eventually at the end of the phrase, he reaches the original note he had hit at the end of it to start the phrase again. Another example is around the five minute mark of the song when he seems to be going on a rant to a girl and he starts listing off things that she did or could’ve done differently. All the while the music seems to be picking up as he keeps “going off”.

These two pieces of Renaissance music were honestly a bit fun to listen to in moderation. It is interesting to see in the video how they make the sounds that they make and also watching just gives you a glimpse of how talented the people are. You hear the voices, but until you actually put a person to the voice I felt like it wasn’t as alive. The word painting helps understand the music a little better even though there is a sort of language barrier. But music is universal in the sense that if you understand the context of the song, you can feel and hear what the composer is trying to project out of the music.

Neon is a song by John Mayer that I will be writing about. There is a studio version and a live version of it. The live version from LA is the one that I will be writing about.

The main melody of the song repeats various times as the Intro of the song and also during the verses and again after the chorus. And once more to end it. It starts with a low note and then jumps up to a higher note, and then it steps over to a slightly higher note and then it goes back down slightly. That same pattern is mostly repeated over 4 different chords. The notes are played a lot faster when it reaches the 4th chord and then it resets to begin the melody over again. The melody then changes to a strumming pattern on the guitar for the chorus part. And then hops back into the main melody when it gets to a small interlude in between the chorus and the verses.

I would say that the texture of this piece of music is homophonic and monophonic. There are parts where John is both singing and playing his guitar at the same time multiple times during the song. He plays a melody on the guitar and his voice could also be considered a melody. However, an interesting part of this song is that not only does John play the melody on the guitar, but he tries to mimic percussion sounds on his guitar to make the song sound like there is more than just one instrument playing. There is also a guitar solo towards the end of the song that is monophonic because he is just playing notes during this time.

When listening to the Eagle Dance song I kind of enjoyed it because it took me back to a time when I was In Mexico City with my grandma and sister. We were watching some street performers do something similar to the Eagle Dance and it was kind of a fun atmosphere. The vocal quality of the Eagle Dance was not very good, at least not as good as what someone would expect when listening to a song. but it’s not really supposed to be something that is flashy or pleasing. It is more of a ritual than anything else. Seeing the dancers follow the beat of the drums is what I think should be the focal point because it is a ritual.

Listening to Bobby McFerrin getting a crowd going while he performs is very cool and exciting to watch. The vocables sound a lot better. It is something that you would want to listen to. It sort of gives me a funky mood as opposed to the Eagle Dance which is more interesting to watch than to listen to.

When listening to Hildengard’s Play of Virtues, I thought it was a bit odd. It is not something that I am use to listening to but after reading the translation and learning more about Hildengard, I came to understand it a bit better and appreciate the message behind the song.

When it comes to films, music can really help push a scene and make it better. It helps set the tone that the director is trying to push for. With this being said, Princess Leia’s theme from starwars is one that is pretty soft and smooth. It makes me feel like i’m in a movie scene where i’m falling in love with someone. It is very calm and relaxing.

When listening to the Imperial March theme, it makes me feel like something is building up, but i’m not quite sure. It grabs my attention. Knowing that it is Darth Vader’s theme helps a bit because I know he is a villain and that he’s kind of a big feared person and that music helps push that feeling.