Essays on Harmonica

Rock and roll began to emerge shortly after the Second World War somewhere in the mashup of cultures and peoples that comprise the American South. It is a hybrid form whose mixed heritage is marked by poor blacks singing Delta blues, hillbilly descendants of Scots-Irish immigrants, working-class factory heroes, Christian country folk, and urban teens crooning a cappella on street corners. Its journey of 70 or so years has taken it from the margins of society to the center of today’s multi-billion dollar global music industry. Its course can be charted by examining a select handful of the ...

Billy Joel’s 1973 song “Piano Man” is one of the most popular pop songs of its era, and an endlessly catchy and fascinating song to listen to. A piano and harmonica-driven ballad about a piano lounge singer and the characters that inhabit that lounge, Joel provides wonderfully clear, tenor singing to back up sprightly instrumentation

The song begins with a piano solo that has its roots in jazz improvisation; syncopated piano playing starts out the song, uneven rhythms providing an explosion of music right at the beginning before the song settles into its harmonica-and-piano melody. A steady 3/4 tempo ...

Twang

Twang is a five-member traditional country and western band from Montana. Their sound is reminiscent of country and western music of the 1960’s and ‘70’s that was infused with steel guitars, and the rhythmic sound of foot-tapping guitar licks that people easily got up and danced to. As I watched the video I found myself tapping along to their sound and being taken back to the days when country and western music came from the real roots of the genre. Their music is upbeat and reminded me of the days of Porter Wagoner and Asleep at the Wheel. ...

English

Benjamin Franklin was born on the 17th of January, 1706. He was also known as The First American” as he was one of the founding fathers of the United States of America. In addition to this, he was also a dominant author and printer as well as a postmaster, politician, statesman, diplomat and most importantly, a civic activist. Franklin had made many discoveries and inventions in the field of science as well. The invention of the lightning rod, Franklin stove and bifocals were some of them. As a civic activist, he had founded and facilitated a university and Philadelphia’s fire department. He had ...

Introduction

When we think of blues songs, we relate them to misfortunes, break ups or other bad events. This is because blues is known to have originated from a bad period. Delta blues or Mississippi delta blues is a musical form that emerged in early 20th century in Mississippi. However, this music originates from Africa since slaves were captured from Africa and forced to work in plantations in the South. Slaves used music as a way of escape from the torture and oppression they faced. Slaves would sing to their favorite delta blues as they work in the plantations. Slavery and religion seem ...

Introduction

For the sake of this project, I chose to analyze the following literary and nonliterary works: - “The Death of Ivan Ilych” by Leo Tolstoy (Novel) - Death of a Salesman, directed by Laszlo Benedek (Film) - “Piano Man,” written and performed by Billy Joel (Music) All three of these works relate to the ways in which we live our lives, and the necessity to be able to view our lives much more abstractly and open-mindedly – the works feature characters who are either served well or could be served well by their capacity for critical thought ...

The Significance of Benjamin Franklin Inventions Benjamin Franklin was an American born in 1706. He was one of the founding fathers of the United States. He played many roles in the country such as statesman, publisher and diplomat. He was also an inventor whose theories form the foundations of the inventions that are used today in the world (Borlongan, 1999). The seven major inventions of Benjamin Franklin are:

The Lightning Rod: Benjamin Franklin heard a lecture on electricity in 1743 that inspired him to begin carrying out electric experiments. In the year 1750, he put forward the theory that lightning ...