October SOTW 1 - A Turtle's Heart

Mili recently released their first album opening with a new original: A Turtle's Heart.  At first I just simply liked the song for it's musical elements.  Not to mention Mili is currently my favorite group.
The thing with music by Mili is that the lyrics usually are not set to have a form that people are used to hearing in modern pop music.  The tunes are usually through-composed (no repeating verses or chorus) and the lyrics are not set to necessarily rhyme.  The composers are Japanese, so even though English pronunciation is good, the melody may sound strange for the words to most people.  Only hearing it a couple times, I just simply enjoyed what I could hear and interpret.  But then... I recently looked up the lyrics.  And decided that I should start posting again.  Now that I know what is being said, this song means so much more to me.  After my short period of silence, this song made me decide to keep posting.

I couldn't find the song just by itself, so here's the whole album.  (yay)

September SOTW 1 - END THEME

I've been playing a certain song over and over again lately over the past week, so I thought I should post it.

This song is beautiful.  If you've watched the movie 5 Centimetres per Second, you would know that the context in which this piece is played is quite powerful and moving.  It perfectly sums up the emotional state and being of the main character.

I find that this piece is extremely easy for me to express myself with.  Emotions that I can't get out in words or paper come out through playing this song.   When I sit at a piano with nobody around, this is what I play.  No one hears, but that's fine with me.  Sometimes it's better to say what you want to say when nobody hears.

August SOTW 5 - Oracion

This is the first time I've done five Song of the Weeks in a month!  This apparently isn't going to happen until May next year.  It's something really small and trivial, but I for some strange reason look forward to it.

Lately I've taken a deep liking to this song, for a couple reasons.
-It's the end theme of my favorite anime, No Game No Life
-I love this style of Japanese rock
-The key changes are a little strange but still work effectively
-Whispering is seldom done in music, and they nailed it's use in this song... it perfectly suits Shiro's character
-I really love the lyrics, they mean a lot to me (translation here)
-Shiro is adorable
-Shiro is adorable
-Shiro is REALLY TABLE-FLIPPING ADORABLE   (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

August SOTW 4 - St. Thomas

As you can see from the title, I've decided to rename my Song of the Week so it's easier to find them later.

So as seen in my last post, I attended a summer jazz camp.  On the first day, the piano and guitar teachers were still teaching their students when the faculty concert was supposed to start.  As a result, the guest teacher decided that they should start the concert with St. Thomas, a jazz standard by Sonny Rollins that didn't need a piano or guitar player.  The tune outlines the chord changes so a comper isn't absolutely necessary.

If you didn't understand any of that, I'll just say this: it's flippin catchy.  I heard it all week.  And sang it all week.  And played it all week.
And it's not just me.  I showed up 30 minutes early everyday, and I could hear people in practice rooms playing St. Thomas... whistling it in between classes... jamming out to it at the end of the day...
At one of the concerts, a combo even performed it.

August Song of the Week 3

One of my favorites from Imagine Dragons.  The best part starts at 6:46! :3

August Song of the Week 2

They should have more jazz clarinet players...

August Song of the Week 1

I actually wondered a bit on what I should post this week.  As you probably noticed, I haven't posted anything but Song of the Weeks for all of July. All month, I've been thinking (I won't bore everyone with details).  Maybe a little too much.  Right now I'm not entirely enthusiastic about anything, so the blog got neglected.  

I haven't been able to listen to this song a lot, but when I think of it and how it sounds, it eases my mind a bit.  Not to mention that Eric Whitacre is one of my favorite composers.  

Quick side note: I'm not in town and internet is a little hard to come by (at least, harder than at home).  Sorry if I miss next week's Song of the Week.

July Song of the Week 4

I've had this stuck in my head all week.  I really think Gumi's voice does this song really well.  The pronunciation of the words captures the image of the childhood friend stereotype perfectly.

If you don't know, Gumi is a vocaloid.  But I think in this song it's harder to tell a vocaloid is being used.

July Song of the Week 3

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate this song.  But I really don't like the story delivered.  "Can I have your daughter's hand in marraige?  No?  Then screw you, I'm going to marry her anyways!"

...sigh... if it weren't for that I would like this song so much better...

I just can't shake how unbelievably catchy this song is.  I listened to it once, and somehow managed to memorize the chorus hearing it once.  And sang it for the rest of the day.  And the next day.   And the day after.

July Song of the Week 2

Mili is one of my current favorite bands.  They have such a unique style.   The composers have obviously studied in the classical style, but bring Japanese contemporary music and modern electronic elements to their music.  And, their songs are quite diverse.
Here is one of the first ones I heard from them.

July Song of the Week 1

Remember the Alice in Musicland from the last Song of the Week?  I thought I would stick with that theme.

Again, it's not your typical Disney-formula song.  This is real good stuff for people to get into jazz.  Oscar Peterson is a piano beast.  

June Song(s) of The Week 4

Really this should be a June six songs of the week, mixed with a Beginner's Guide to Anime post.  This video is a short twelve minute long musical... performed completely by software and animation.  In Japanese pop culture, works like these are often collaborations of animators, composers, arrangers, and so forth.  First, let me explain the voices in this musical (I'll probably make a standalone post on it later):

Vocaloid: Software that emulates singing.  Practically a voice synthesizer.  There are many different models of Vocaloid; English, Japanese, and their own models within those languages.  The most famous of them is the Vocaloid 2 model Hatsune Miku (Alice in the video below).  Other Vocaloid models included in the musical are (in order of appearance): Kagamine Len, Kaito, Kagamine Rin, Megurine Luka, and Meiko.  

And without further ado, I present "Alice in Musicland"!  Enjoy!

June Song of the Week 3

Found this little gem three weeks back on Youtube, and wanted to post it.  After putting it off for other stuff, I'm finally getting it done. Yay for procrastinating...

It's a good break from Pharrell Williams XD
Incidentally, the following day I found a video of a couple dancing to this song.  Just watch it, they're really good...

June Song of the Week 2

On the complete different note than the last song of the week (Yes, laugh at my terrible puns), I decided to post this.  It's one of those that look just like any other a capella video... but at around 1 minute, elements get pretty interesting.  And the ending... oh the ending... just so powerful...

A great arrangement that should definitely be watched.

June Song of the Week 1

Prepare yourself for the weirdest song of the week yet.  I don't think there is anything I like that is weirder than this right now.
I found this a while ago on the trending videos of Youtube.  This a band called Babymetal; three Japanese teenage singers who sing metal/pop fusion.  Yes, metal and pop.  When I first heard it, I really didn't want to like it, but I ended up liking it...
By far this song has given me the most mixed feelings about music.  And culture, for that matter.

Just see for yourself...

Also, the Fine Bros did a Youtubers React episode to the music video:

May Song of the Week 4

Okay... So now I'm going to start giving out weird stuff.

I'm very picky when it comes to dubstep.  The first time I heard it, I thought it was terrible.  The song I was given to listen to just sounded like terribly chosen sound effects for electronic violins, playing way too many triplets.  I later deducted that I simply didn't like the repetition of what seemed like annoying noises for more than 2 beats.  I found out that if the music had a ton of variety and good taste in musical elements, dubstep could be one of my favorite genres of music.  I will say that out of all the newer modern genres of music, dubstep has the biggest potential of innovative music.  Of course, such good dubstep is hard to find.  Consequently, I don't like the genre as much as some others, since I can't simply enjoy 4 songs forever.

But when I found this... I couldn't help but laugh at joy for what I've found.  I looked absolutely ridiculous, headphones on, sitting at my computer moving my head to the beat, and softly chuckling to myself making the rest of my family wonder whether I should be sent to an asylum or not.  This song... is simply spectacular!  Jazz and dubstep... Who knew those two genres would go so well with each other?

May Song of the Week 3

I'm on top of the world 'ay! ~♪
I'm on top of the world 'ay! ~♪

Such a happy song ~♪

May Song of the Week 2

I'm not a patriotic American... But this is pretty flippin amazing.  I have never heard a more chilling and haunting melody than this. 

May Song of the Week 1

So I was told that the series-type posts were a good idea, and I got a ton of ideas for more topics!  For now, I'm going to do two: The Relatable Musician and this new one, Song of the Week.  The title being quite self-explanatory... every Friday, I'll (try) to post a song I like.  It might be my favorite song at the time, or a song I used to listen to a long time ago.  It might be something random I found that day.  I must warn you, I have some pretty weird tastes, especially in weird genres.   Right now, one of my favorites is post-classical rock and alternative... who has seriously heard of that?

But before we go all crazy, I'll share something that made me smile.  If you didn't know, I've had the most stressful week of my life so far.  I have never been under so much pressure.  Listening to this song made me feel a little better.  :3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n3fX-O4N_4

Unfortunately, the video is not popular enough to show up on the search results of Blogger's "insert a video" button.  Sorry!