Liam+St.'s+Assignments

Week #1 - Teaching Partner: Eric I don't have any media to share for this - had I had a little more foresight, I would have taken a short video documentation, but I suppose I was not thinking clearly during guitar class last week.

Anyway, I spent some time learning and practicing the other version of the finger picking part of the Tom Petty song( "Something in the Air" ), the one that starts with your fingers in the position of the D chord rather than the one finger sliding method. Once I figured out how it was supposed to work, it got a lot easier to do. I offfered to teach Eric how to do it, and he took me up on that.

It went...well. We had been showing each other things for a while, so really, it was nothing particularly new. I learned it, I showed him the way I had figured out how to do it, and he...did it. And we moved on with our lives.

Week #2 - Playing a song

Just a short song I leared and played. It's not particularly good - you can hear the wrongness of the chords, and I didn't use the capo that's called for to play the song, but its still alright, I think.

Sorry this is so late - Soundcloud wasn't working when I tried to upload it, and I completely forgot about it. media type="custom" key="12704964"

Week #3 - Musical Deconstruction of Don't Stop Me Now, by Queen

Musically, Don't Stop Me Now is a simple song. Comprising of no more instruments than a piano, drums, a guitar for a small portion of the song, and vocals(and perhaps a bass?), it manages to bring these pieces together to create a piece of music that is at once energetic, contemplative, and unified.

Like so many of Queen's songs, much of the song's success can be attributed to the incredible vocals. The lyrics are brilliant - and unlike some other songs, don't decline in quality the more you listen to them. But more important is the way they are delivered. Freddie Mercury, as a vocalist, has few peers. The emotion and power in his voice are palpable, and when combined with the rather inspirational tone of both the music and the lyrics, the vocals of this song have a solid, driving force that carries the song.

That is not to say the music does not stand on its own. Throughout the piece, the piano drives the song forward, complementing the vocals in the slower, softer sections and pushing them ahead in the more energetic parts. And like every good rock song, it has a spectacular guitar solo. All that, combined, with the excellent harmonies of the chorus(which I would classify more as music than vocals), makes for a piece of music that balances perfectly.

But perhaps the best success of Don't Stop Me Now is the unity of the piece. Every section is reinforced by the others, and there is no time when the listener feels that one part - whether it be the vocals, the guitar, or the piano - is overpowering the others more than is suitable. Don't Stop Me Now is a stunning example of just what can go right with music.

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