In my choice of music, crooked smile by J.Cole, there are many different examples of dynamics.  In the third verse of “Crooked Smile” J Cole says,

“But one more time for the ‘Ville and f*** all that beef shit, n****, let’s make a mil…”. 

When he starts to rap, these lyrics the instruments in the background gets very soft.  I think he did this to give more power to the words that he was saying.  This is also the part in the music video when the antagonist has just shot  his little sister, and he is handcuffed in the back of the police car.  There is also a change in the beat again when he says 

“I got money for the bail now, well now, if you asking will I tell now Hell nah I ain’t snitching cause..”

When he raps these lines he is putting inference on the the instruments in the background, especially the piano. 

I chose the song “Crooked Smile” by J.Cole to write my essay on.  In the song “Crooked Smile” by J.Cole the rhythm is steady and repeated throughout the whole song.  Although the melody may seem as if it going fast the rhythm and beat of the song its still at a normal pace and stay the same throughout the entire song.  The beat doesn’t have any sudden high pitches or no surprise beats.  The beat is repetitive throughout the whole song with minor changes.  For example after the hook at the beginning of the song he changes the beat a little to go with the meaning of what is saying in the song.

I was astonished when I listened and saw this kid play such amazing music.  I think it is more common then we may think, I just think some kids are not exposed to the same resources or chances as other kids might be.  I think everyone is born to do something, they just have to discover what it is.  In my opinion you can not measure talent.  I think Joey is different from other kids because he is living his dream, he has been nominated for Grammys.  I have not met anyone in that can do what Joey can do.  

I found this song by searching Mozart into youtube search bar.  I chose this song because I was listening to all the different options to choose from, when I came across one I’ve heard before.  I notice that the intro had the same intro as “Lacrimosa” by Mozart in one of Meek Mill’s song.  I thought it was really interesting that I was able to make a connection between old classical music with new rap music.  

Lacrimosa by Mozart 

I prefer “Season of Love” over “La Boheme.”  I would rather listen to “Season of Love” since I am familiar with that song already.  I have never notice the quality of vibrato in the type of music I have listen to. I didn’t notice vibrato in music before for the fact that i was not familiar with the word or what it meant.  Since, I now know the definition of the word, I can think of song examples that use some type of vibrato.  

In Crooked Smile by J.Cole I found many examples of text painting. In verse one, J. Cole said,

“And baby girl you’re a star, don’t let ’em tell you you’re not

Now is it real? Eyebrows, fingernails, hair

Is it real? if it’s not, girl you don’t care

Cause what’s real is something that the eyes can’t see

That the hands can’t touch

That them broads can’t be, and that’s you,”

in these couple of the lines, I can picture a woman looking in the mirror judging her self because she doesn’t fit someone else image.  The women he is referring to is today’s society as a whole.  We as society try to paint over or ignorer what is really going on around us.  We are giving people a job in office to the people that look the part instead of the people that are qualified for the job.  Another example I found in this song is in verse two J. Cole said,

“Killing yourself to find a man that’ll kill for you

You wake up, put makeup on

Stare in the mirror but its clear that you can’t face what’s wrong

No need to fix what God already put his paint brush on

Your roommate yelling, “Why you gotta take so long?,”

in these line I can almost picture the same thing. I see a women in the mirror putting on makeup, because they don’t like their skin.  This is also today’s society telling a women she must look a certain way before she comes out the house.  

I kinda enjoyed listening to the renaissance examples.  I think I would have enjoyed the music more if  they would have acted it out as they song it.  Even though the man at the beginning of the video, told us about what they were about to perform, the language was still a problem because I could not understand what the “ladies” were saying.  The only difference in watching the video and just listening was the man that set the scene.   

The song I chose to do for the research paper  is Crooked Smile by J.Cole.  This song is dedicated to a 7 year old girl that got shot during a DEA raid on her house. The melody throughout the song stays the same and is sharp, alive and high pitched.  The melody has an upbeat, happy emotion to it and is rising and a leaping from one to another. Sample line: “I’m on my way, on my way, on my way down, you’re the one that was trying yo keep me way down; but like the sun know I found my way back round”. 

The texture describes how the melody, rhythm and harmony come into one to create a main tune.  Crooked smile has a homophonic texture because the song has one melodic line but contains chords that move with it to make it sound different and not simple. 

I did not like the Eagle Dance example because it repeated all the same words/ chants and it wasn’t pleasing to my ears. The voices were very deep and rough sounding. This type of vocal sound we can expect to hear this in some type of music, like hard rock, punk rock, and some rap music. It did not help to view the dancers to experience the Native American music opposed to listening to the music by itself because it was not interesting, maybe if i understood the culture better I would like it.

I really enjoy watching and listening to the Bobby McFerrin in the youtube video. The vocables are different from the Eagle Dance because he doesn’t use any instrument. This music makes me feel happy and excited. When I watched this video I started to sing along, I would not mind going to see it in person. When I watched the Eagle Dance I didn’t feel the same way. I also thought it was really cool how he made all the sound with his mouth and his hand

I really loved the first excerpt “Play of Virtues” I felt as if it told a story. I think I would better understood the music if I knew the different instrument and knew the different melody of all the different notes. But simply for the fact of how beautiful all the instruments sounded together I loved it.

In the Princess Leia’s theme from Star Wars, composed by John Williams, the melody is super important to the movie.  This song makes me feel like I’m going on a trip.  I don’t watch Star Wars, but that intro makes me want to go watch all the movies.  It makes you feel excited, like even if you don’t watch Star Wars everyone knows the intro to the movies.  In my opinion the song is amazing and well put together.

The two excerpts from the Star War films do not have more of an impact on me then Hildegard’s musical excerpt simply because I am unfamiliar with all the pieces. Yet, I find them both beautiful ad well written.  I appreciate both composers and what they have written. In my opinion they cannot be compared because they are two different styles of musical selection.