A lot of things end, but at least keep the music playing

I thought that one of the most suprising things I learned about another culture was India's sense of pitch (svara) and scale system. The raga and the tala is such a foreign method to most Western classical musicians. I understand what it is, but I know it would take numerous days, months, years in order to play a complex Indian piece.
It's so cool how they have certain ornamentation for certain notes within certain scales. After rehearing the listening assigment from my first music history class fall semester, I now have a better understanding of what a raga and tala are and how they are so important to the art music of India. When going over it in class, it was hard to put into words what we were hearing because our music has no exact "translation" to a raga and a tala.

I know it may seem elementary, but I did not realize how Western classical music focuses so much on the harmonies, which is not as important is most of the other cultures that we discussed this month. Even the Blues have the "12 bar blues" which creates a harmonic progression, although it's not the main focus, it still has it! Our ears are drawn to the tension and release aspects of music. While listening to a lot of other cultures' music, I kept trying to hear in the music some sort of building tension, but the song almost always never ended up where I wanted it to go. Now I realize that that is not what is aesthetically pleasing to them.

I enjoyed learning about the role of langage/speech in the vocal music of other cultures. Classical singing in our culture takes lots of training, but for example, Native Americans sing because they can also talk, it's not about a question of trainging or experience.

A long time a go I saw the movie "The Constant Gardener" and the majority of the movie is filmed in Africa. I absolutely love the soundtrack to that movie, you should definitely check it out sometime. Needless to say, I was excited to learn about African music because it's a music of the people and not for the people, if that makes any sense. I love that the have worksongs and that it takes place outside of artistic events. (I was also REALLY enjoyed Dr. Week's slideshow, definitely something I think that needs to be shared with every class every year) I've always been a fan of African music, but I really got interesting in the BaAka of Central Africa, as well as the Griots. The yodeling style of singing that the BaAka people use is definitely something that I'd like to hear more of.