Latest K-12 arts education Podcast Episodes

A Blue Melody, a Shufflin' Beat

Blues Journey - March 07, 2007 21:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratings
Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of blue notes—a note that is sung or played at a lower pitch than the rest of the song that gives the blues its characteristic, often sad sound. The lyrics usually have a predictable rhyme, and the music also has a repetitive patter...

A Lasting Legacy

Blues Journey - March 07, 2007 21:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratings
Blues musicians who moved north tailored their music to reflect their new urban surroundings. Acoustic guitars gave way to electric; drums and standup bass rounded out the sound. This "new" blues had a huge impact on modern music - influencing early rock and roll artists like Elvis Presley and 60...

Got Them Blues: A History

Blues Journey - March 07, 2007 21:00 - 6 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratings
As black slaves toiled in the fields, they often sang to communicate with each other and pass the time. These work songs, spirituals, and field hollers formed the basis of blues music as it became an important sound of the American South in the early 20th century. In the 1930s, faced with extrem...

Spreading the Joy

Blues Journey - March 07, 2007 21:00 - 5 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratings
The blues sound was captured by Alan Lomax, who was among the first to record folk songs in the 1930s. Because of Lomax's recordings, people across the country could hear the unique music of blues artists like Huddie Ledbetter ("Leadbelly") and Muddy Waters for the first time. In addition to Loma...

Creative Crossroads: Tan Dun

Sounds of China - January 25, 2006 21:47 - 9 minutes ★★★★ - 15 ratings
Composer and self-described “musical anthropologist” Tan Dun (perhaps best familiar for his Oscar-winning score to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) creates works that bridge time, place and culture through the fusion of ancient and avant-garde sounds Celebrating the vocal, instrumental, and envi...

Endangered Music: Yunnan Culture

Sounds of China - January 25, 2006 21:47 - 8 minutes ★★★★ - 15 ratings
Living in a remote, mountainous region of China’s “Land of Clouds” has buffered the Yunnan people from the outside influences of non-native cultures for centuries. With a wide range of voice techniques and instruments as unusual and diverse as the tree leaf, the moon guitar and the spirit drum, ...

Traditional Music: Chinese Orchestras

Sounds of China - January 25, 2006 21:47 - 9 minutes ★★★★ - 15 ratings
Despite China’s long musical history, Chinese orchestras are relatively new. The push for developing a distinctly Chinese performing arts repertoire came with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In the years after, Chinese orchestras mirroring the operational style of We...