Listening: Jazz Violin and Piano

One of my students asked me, do violins play jazz? Yes! Using the same instrument as we use to play classical music and fiddle tunes, there are all sorts of jazz violinists out there. Regina Carter is a leading jazz violinist, heard here in this video with the Ray Brown Trio (piano, drums, bass). When you listen, how can you tell this is jazz music?












Because jazz has so many different styles, there are also numerous styles or ways to play jazz violin. Here is a link to gypsy jazz, or "jazz manouche," that largely started in France influenced by the Roumanian gypsy population. Notice the different sound -- here the guitars get a real workout because they provide the rhythmic drive or pulse. If you compare this to the Regina Carter recording above, can you tell which two instruments are missing here? I'll give you a clue -- in this recording there are three guitars, a violin, and a bass.

Listening: Electric Music

Music is an amazing thing.  It is sounds, put together in a way that creates something enjoyable for us to hear.  There are thousands of instruments that we have invented to play music on.  In the last blog post you saw how thumb pianos, made out of wood and metal, can make interesting and beautiful music.  Did you know that we can make music with lightning?

A sound is really just the movement of air, which our ears pick up as vibrations in the eardrum.  Electricity moves the air in vibrations (or frequencies) that can be altered to move at a speed that our ears can pick up as sound.

In the following videos, you will see Musical Tesla Coils create lightning that we hear as well as see!

Popcorn performed by The Masters of Lightning on their "Zeusaphones".

The skinny poles in the middle of the stage are light bulbs that glow from the electricity in the air.

Here is another video by ArcAttack on America's Got Talent.  This group actually interacts with the lightning by wearing special suits that make the electricity go around them.

You can play all kinds of music with lightning....even J.S. Bach!  Here is Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor performed by The Masters of Lightning.

Want more information about how this works?  Click here for a brief explanation from ArcAttack members.

Get a really in-depth, technical explanation from Steve Ward, a man who pioneered this idea, here.  (For those parents or older students who really want to know.)