The Instrument: Zaramela

      The idea of instrumentation is clearly dynamic. There are so many factors associated with instrumentation that are integral to a musicians knowledge and skill. However, this vital concept is often hard to grasp to those that do not practice music and are not exposed to instrument experimentation. So, I want to personalize this concept by showing the intricacies of instruments through a story of a local band.

Inho Park, Jameson Brenner, Malcolm Engel, Kris Hansen, Mike Jang, Aaron Gamalinda, Josh Schwartz-Dodek

      This is Zaramela. This band was fully formed around three years ago when my brother Inho (yes, I guess you can consider this blog post a shameless plug for my brother's band) joined Zaramela. He had known a few guys in the band from Maple middle school, but they had gone separate ways, funneled into the separate sister high schools Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South. They all ended up being incredibly musically inclined, formed a band, and when Zaramela needed a full time bassist, they asked my brother to join even though he had no prior experience with the instrument. Although my brother has long surpassed my level of skill due to his incredible musical aptitude, as a bassist myself I can claim that I was the first person to teach my brother the ways of the bass guitar.

     My personal affiliation to the band aside, why is Zaramela a big deal? Why does this band embody the importance of instrumentation? Well, because of the instruments, of course. Count the number of people in the band. Seven members is much more than your standard four or five man crew, where someone plays the drums, rhythm and lead guitars, the bass, and vocals. That's because Zaramela has what your average band does not: a horn section. In fact, most of the musicians of Zaramela met each other through the Glenbrook South's high school band program, so the importance of the brass was known amongst the band. Therefore, the between all members of the band, they are able to utilize the trumpet, the alto saxophone, the baritone saxophone, the keyboard, the bass guitar, the drums, and the electric guitar in their musical performances. That's a whole lot of variety. This instrumental depth enables Zaramela to foray into a variety of musical genres, so the band considers themselves to be jazz/hip-hop/rap/funk fusion. Just take a listen. I implore you to watch the whole thing.

     That was Zaramela's live perfomance at the Metro in April of this year, playing an incredible rendition of Louis Armstrong's "St. James Infirmary". Zaramela's sound is distinct yet fluid, unique yet familiar. As you can see, this is accomplished through the bands incredible instrumentation. Not only are the musicians of Zaramela independently talented, they realize the importance of cooperative instrumentation as well. Especially in a band setting, musicians are at their best when they play off cohesively with their bandmates. From the raw, blaring trombone to the phenomenal voice of Kris Hansen, the sounds of the band complement one another in a very balanced way. The instruments are coordinated extremely well, as the band weaves in and out of different tempos and time signatures as one cohesive unit. Ultimately, Zaramela's music is interesting, and entertaining to listen to.

     The style and foundation of Zaramela is just one face of instrumentation. It is just one way that instrumentation works, and I hope that this story inspires you to be more curious about music and instrumentation. After all, music is a never-ending learning process. 

The Instrument: The Qanun

      If you walked around the streets of Chicago and asked anyone what they thought or knew about the Middle East, you would probably hear the following answers: violence, terrorism, and political instability. Now, you cannot blame the ordinary citizen for associating the Middle East with these ideas, as the Middle East is arguably the most tumultuous region in the world as of recent years. Alongside a very one-sided media coverage of the events unfolding in the Middle East, it is only natural for people to associate the region with violence and unrest.

     I have a feeling that people would perceive the Middle East very differently if they knew about the true intricacies of Islamic culture. Islam and the Middle East does not derive its importance from perpetual political unrest. In fact, Islamic society is considered to be one of the most important civilizations to have ever graced planet Earth, making incredible headway in the arts and sciences during a relatively chaotic and bellicose period in human history. This era of cultural revelations was known as the Islamic Golden Age, and it was defined as such due to the emphasis of amassing knowledge by various Islamic leaders. During this golden age, the numerous caliphates of the Islamic Empire sent scholars throughout the known world in order to collect all books and to translate them into Arabic. As a result of this efforts, intellectuals of the Islamic realm made leaps and bounds in mathematics, physics, medicine, architecture, and other schools of thought. Islam was undoubtedly the cultural center of the world during this time period, and with any cultural center, there was a bounty of music.

     Now, I consider myself to be relatively unknowledgeable in the realm of Islamic music simply because I had not been exposed to much of it before. However, after some research, it was clear to me that Islamic music was defined by a variety of unique instruments and theories that could not be found anywhere else in the world. There are many instruments that play an important role in traditional Islamic music, and I would not be doing Islam justice if I neglected to talk about all of these instruments, but for the sake of brevity I must focus on one specific one. This instrument is the qanun, a peculiar string instrument of the Middle East.

Drawing of the qanun in action

     The qanun belongs to the family of zither instruments, with a trapezoidal soundboard with parallel strings running at different lengths in order to produce different notes. This instrument is played with both hands, as all fingers are used to pluck at the numerous strings that line the soundboard. The best way to truly understand an instrument is the hear it in action, so here is a short video of a qanun solo.

     As you can see, the qanun produces a flurry of notes and tones as a result of a rapid plucking action by the musician. Undeniably, the qanun has a very unique and foreign sound. However, this intriguing sound is not only the result of the instrument itself. Remember that the instrument is only the tool. The musicality and theory that goes into playing every instrument distinguishes the almost infinite number of styles that the listener can recognize.

     The tune that the musician in the video is playing sounds very, well, Islamic, is because the musician is implementing the maqamat mode in his playing. To a person that is unfamiliar with music and modes, that probably made no sense whatsoever. However, modes are not a hard concept to grasp. Essentially, modes are alterations to basic scales that we all know and love, such as the basic major scale of do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do. These alterations take of the form of flat and sharp notes in specific parts of the scale depending on the mode. Each mode has unique melodic aspects due to these changes, and numerous historical cultures have implemented a specific mode in their traditional music. For example, everyone can imagine the tune of the traditional "Asian-sounding" song. All of these songs use the pentatonic or asian-pentatonic mode, and the prevalence of this mode in the traditional music of certain Asian cultures has created this association between the specific sounds of the mode and the culture. The maqamat mode is no different; it is most often found in the traditional Islamic musical context.

      The qanun played in the maqamat mode is just one aspect of the immense realm of Islamic music. Even after much research, I have only barely scratched the surface of the musicality of the Middle East. I hope that this depth of Islamic culture is recognized by more people, and I hope that people think about the beautiful sounds of the qanun when they think about the complex region that is the Middle East.

The Instrument: The Sounds of Music

     Instrumentation is everywhere, and through this blog, I attempt to extend this metaphor of the instrument to places where it takes on a whole new level of meaning. There are political instruments, educational instruments, artistic instruments, and even corporate instruments, such as the instrumentation of advertisement that I tackled last time. I plan on unpacking as many of these hidden instruments as I can, since I believe that viewing the world as a function of a million instruments sheds light on important motifs such as hidden intention, artistic expression, and role. However, as of right now, I think it would be incredibly beneficial to dig deep into the true core of the metaphor of the instrument. Specifically, I want to look at instrumentation in the most common sense, the instrumentation of music. After all, the primary use of the word "instrument" is in a musical sense, and when a person is thinking of an instrument, he or she would imagine a piano or a guitar and not a piece of advertisement or a political campaign. This definition of the instrument as a musical tool is the foundation for my extended metaphor. So, why don't we see what makes this metaphor tick?

      Starting with the basics, instruments create music. Quite simply, every song is a combination of sounds from a variety of instruments. However, creating music isn't as simple as compiling sounds on top of each other haphazardly. There are many intricacies to music that distinguish good songs from mediocre ones. An example of one such intricacy is role. In other words, what purposes do instruments serve in a song? What components are necessary for a dynamic and cohesive sound?

Bone Bass And Drums - Debra Hurd

      There are two primary roles that a musician must fill when playing playing or composing a tune: rhythm and melody. Now, I hope to avoid doing music injustice by oversimplifying the endless possibilities of sound and musical purpose by lumping everything into two categories, but I do believe that rhythm and melody are the fundamental roles of music, the roles that encompass most instrumental sounds. The rhythm section, illustrated by the painting above, usually consists of instruments that work with a lower range of notes, such as the drum set, the bass guitar, and the baritone saxophone. The purpose of these instruments and their sounds in regards to rhythm is to set a pace that the rest of the band can follow with ease, and to drive this pace forward relentlessly. Being a bassist myself, I am all too familiar with this instrumental role of music. The rhythm section is the map of the song. The bass and drums provide the tempo, the time signature, and the key of the song, the guidelines necessary for the rest of the band to create a full and dynamic sound. 

      Here is an example of the rhythm section at work through the hands of legendary funk bassist Victor Wooten. In this clip, Wooten utilizes the slapping-technique, a technique that literally requires the musician to slap the strings in a very coordinated way, in order to achieve that tight popping sound that you hear in the video. This slap style jam gets at what the rhythm section is all about, a tight foundation that digs out the groove that the rest of the instruments can slide into. Now, in this video, Victor Wooten skillfully forays into the boundaries of the melody, as it is clear that in a jam with only a bass guitar and a drums, a strictly rhythmic approach would be incredibly dull and boring. Imagine a house with a foundation and structure but with no furniture and decoration, no color and vivacity. This house is the rhythm without a melody. The melody is the detail, the flair that fleshes out the song. When it comes to creating a balanced sound, the melody is just as vital as the rhythm for the simple reason that nobody wants that lame house with no decoration.

      Ultimately, it is important to recognize the roles that instruments have to play in musicianship because they shed light on how musical expression is achieved. The ideal product of musicianship, a beautifully crafted song, can only be created when instruments are used thoughtfully. The mere presence and use of the instrument isn't enough. Each sound needs to be carefully designed to play their role perfectly, whether it be to drive the song forward or to create the detailed audial complexities that are just really pleasing to hear. Now when I extend the metaphor of the instrument to other worldly aspects, we will have a deeper metaphorical understanding of what the instrument should be accomplishing. Not every instrument will be the "rhythm" or the "melody", but there is an intrinsic purpose to each instrument that, when carried out successfully, drives the "musician" towards their goal. That is instrumentation at its finest.

The Instrument: Advertisement

Advertisement is a corporate instrument. I came to this conclusion while reading my fellow classmate's blog, The Power of Promotion, which describes the influence and implications of media-driven advertisement and other promotional tactics. Now, everybody knows about advertisements. We see advertisements everywhere; in her post, my classmate describes how the vast majority of information that a person receives on any given day from the media has been tailored to sell them something, a characteristic of our massive consumerist culture. However, the majority of the population merely consumes advertisements and fails to question how the advertisement is being played, how the advertisement has been crafted and designed to make the consumer believe that their product is the best of them all.

It is this aspect of advertisements that led me to believe that they were a form of instrumentation. In my previous post, I defined an instrument as any tool that could be used to express an idea, with the quality of the instrument depending on the possible depth of expression. Advertisements fit this definition to a point. You can complain about the negative aspects of a consumerist society all you like, but you cannot deny the fact that advertisements are expertly constructed in order to portray a favorable image or idea, almost like a work of art.

So, what are the "sounds" of the advertisement? There are many. Since advertisements come in a variety of forms, ranging from commercials to billboards, they could utilize a variety of appeals to attract the average consumer. However, the most common of these is the visual appeal, and this has been the case since the invention of advertisements.

This is a print advertisement for Newport cigarettes from 1947. This advertisement shows the product being smoked by an attractive and seemingly carefree man, sailing the waters with a beautiful blue sky and woman by his side. In this case, the visual appeal is the entirety of the image itself. The advertisement suggests that by smoking Newport cigarettes, the consumer can be like these beautiful, cigarette-touting individuals. Every visual component of this advertisement, from the attractive appearance of the people to the aesthetically pleasing color contrast of the blue sky and the man's stylish red shirt, was intentionally and instrumentally placed in the ad for this very purpose. 

Now here is a more recent example of the aesthetics of advertisements. In this advertisement, corporate giant McDonalds is promoting the availability of free wi-fi in many of their restaurants throughout the world. To highlight this service, this advertisement simply shows an arrangement of one of McDonald's most popular products, the french fry, in the shape of the symbol for wi-fi. There isn't anything particularly dazzling about this advertisement, but its simplicity is a part of its appeal. The simplicity of the french fries against the solid red backdrop of the advertisement is incredibly pleasing on the eye. 

Advertisements are so abundant and prevalent in our lives that we often feel bombarded by them and neglect the potential artistic value that they possess. Yes, there are many irrelevant advertisements that do no more than flaunt their products in a meaningless way, but there also many that are intricately designed to create and project a powerful image. Advertisements are a form of instrumentation that goes largely unnoticed in our lives, a manner of expression that deserve more recognition.

The Instrument: Intro

Anything can be an instrument. This thought came to me a couple weeks ago when I was drumming my fingers on my kitchen counter table while listening to an incredible tune. I realized that I could make a whole variety of sounds with just my hands and the granite of the countertop. By quickly rapping my fingers and knuckles against the counter, I could produce short staccato sounds. On the other hand, a gentle thud with the base of my fist could make a sound similar to that of a bass drum. And so, I had just made an instrument out of a stone cold granite countertop. Now this instrument is by no means practical for making music, but it technically is an instrument since it can be "played". This thought humored me as I imagined a granite top being played at a live show, but it also got me thinking...

What are the limits of instrumentation? In a musical sense, as my prior experience shows, there are no restrictions to the definition of an instrument. If you can physically produce a variety of sounds with an object, this object can be used as an instrument. As long as a person's musical knowledge can be adequately expressed by an object, it can be considered a dynamic instrument. Essentially, an instrument is a vehicle, a tool used to express pretty much anything.  

With this definition of instruments, they can be seen in numerous fields of study besides music. For example, the human brain might be the most dynamic instrument of all. The brain can translate information, knowledge, and experience into numerous forms of expression such as a funny joke or actual music. You can "play" the brain in a million ways. As my musically impassioned friends would say, the brain has jam potential. 

It are these facets of instrumentation that makes the topic so interesting. Every artists uses instruments for a reason. A writer uses instruments of language to craft characters and drive plots, a painter uses pallets and all the colors of the rainbow to paint a piece, and a drummer uses drum sticks and a drum set to lay down a foundation for a song. With the right artist, an instrument can be used in completely different ways to achieve diverse effects. As a musician that hopes to increase his scope of musical understanding and capability, this is extremely important to me. 

In other words, instruments are key, so in this blog, I will be analyzing material with a focus on the instruments involved. What is the instrument? What are the range of "sounds" that the instrument can make? How was this instrument utilized to express the artist? Instruments run this world, and so I hope to learn how to play as many as I can get my hands on. 

One blog post at a time.