Foreign Instruments

Being that I'm a fan of an Armenian rock band (System of a Down), I decided to dedicate this post on Middle Eastern instruments. I feel nostalgic when I hear artists like Arto Tuncboyacian because the melody in their songs is somewhat hypnotizing. It makes me feel at ease, maybe even "one with music". Instruments like the ud, and the Qanoon are heavily used in Arabic orchestra.

The ud has the shape of a pear with five double courses of nylon or gut and metal-wound silk strings, and is also fretless, which makes it a little hard to play without the proper knowledge. The Qanoon, on the other hand, resembles a harp in the sense that you must pluck the strings to hear a note. Interstingly enough, the bridge of the Qanoon rests on segments of fish skin covering small square spaces on the wood top, which means that the strings are tuned with the basic notes of a given scale.

THE SYSTEM

In the early 90's Armenian native, Serj Tankian, would like to jam with his band in a local recording studio near Glendale, California. Next to their studio room was another band, that included Daron Malakian, whom which will eventually convince Serj to leave his band and join Daron's as their vocalist. They both formed a jam band called Soil, not to be confused with the Chicago based band of the same name. The bassist quit the band thinking that it wasn't going to take them any where so Soil was looking for a bassist and a possible record deal.
The band met bassist, Shavo Odadjian in '94 who was also Armenian, and was planned to be the band's manager, but seeing that they needed a bassist, he became part of the band.Then their drummer suffered a hand injury and was later replaced with John Dolmayan. For the meantime, their name was later changed to Victims of a Down, until Serj thought that the word "System" applied more to society as a whole.Since then, System of a Down has released five albums and earned a Grammy award for "Best Hard Rock Performance" for the song BYOB. Their last concert was on August 13,2006 in Florida. Currently, Daron started his own band called, Scars on Broadway, along with John, and Serj started a solo career. Shavo also created his own band, ACHOZEN.

Where'd You Go?

The other day I was tuning the radio when I suddenly heard a mix of guitars and brass instruments. The off-beat rhythmn intrigued me and I had to find out sang this peculiar song. Through rigourous trials and errors I finally found the band responsible for creating a unique mix of ska-core and punk music.

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones formed somewhere along the 1980's in Boston, Mass. where at first they were called The Cheapskates. They, however, didn't have a solid lineup and would change occasionally. Once they fixed the tweaks, they changed their name to the "Bosstones", in reference to their hometown. In the late 80's The Bosstones had to change their name once more to avoid any legal confrontations with the 50's a capella group of the same name. A bartender friend of theirs suggested the name "The Mighty Mighty Bosstones" to avoid such hassles. The band would later go on hiatus, but reunite once more in the later future.

Your music, your choice

Different people have different ideas.Through diversity we can find our own similatiries. It is through this similarity that I hope to share it with you. I am a very musical type of guy. My name is Juan and I enjoy music and musical instruments. Sometimes music helps us relieve stress and anxiety that we have been clinging on to for some time. People turn to medication or over the counter perscriptions. I always turn to music.

Different people listen to different music, and it is through these differences that we can relate to one another. For example, my favorite band to listen to is System of a Down. Your's may be AC/DC or maybe some other type of song. Depending on what you listen to is the very reason why you listen to it. But the similarities shared ( You and I ), are that we both listen to a specific thing ,at times, to set our mind free for a brief moment and live in a divine utopia. It is through this blogging that I hope to brief you on all types of music heard all around the nation. So pump up the volume America and LET YO SOUND BE HEARD!!!!!!!!