THE SECOND ROOM
A chance to educate Japan's youth about our music
Far too much time has passed since I last posted, but I can offer only excuses about what kept me away. I've grown so weary of apologizing for being insanely busy that I just can't manage one with any sincerity. And excuses are like... Never mind.
No, the difference this time is that I have a really cool excuse, one that I hope both surprises and encourages you.
I have been handed the golden opportunity to educate a small segment of Japanese junior and senior high school students about psychedelic trance. The venue for this lofty adventure is The Japan Times Junior, a bi-weekly magazine for said youths who are studying English.
The text that follows is the first of six parts. These have to be written as close to their level of English as possible, and each installment can only be about 300 words long. Junior provides them with Japanese translations above the more advanced words and phrases.
The basic scope of this is really just to perk the kids' interest in reading essay-length articles in English. And since music is a typical interest of 12-16-year-old kids pretty much anywhere, a simply written article about a popular form of music might be one that they will want to finish. Possibly sparking their active interest in psychedelic trance will be an absolute bonus.
The Junior will unfortunately cease publication when the last one of the six is published on Dec. 18. So there won't be a natural process of feedback for me to know if I've had any effect on their future music choices. The fact that it's a one-of-a-kind chance makes it not so much difficult but time-consuming.
Writing at that level requires focus after you've been doing a freestyle gig like this for while. Plus, they're kids, so you have to make sure you can stay acceptably wholesome while still challenging their intellect. Let's hope we can get our dancefloors in Japan cleaned up in time for them to join us.
For better or worse, here is Part 1. The rest will follow soon.
Trance is the music in me, Part 1
(Published in The Japan Times Junior, Oct. 9, 2007)
Whenever I tell people about my music passion, they usually have no idea what I’m talking about, or they simply can’t believe my answer.
This is because I love electronic music of a very certain kind: psychedelic trance, which is the best kind of music to dance to. Of course I also love to dance, which some people just can’t imagine me doing this at my age. (I’m 46, and only “young people” are supposed to do this.)
Most of you have heard trance music before, but maybe you didn’t realize it. There are different kinds of trance, from very slow to very fast, but you almost never hear it on the radio. Instead, you may have heard it in video games, like “Gran Turismo 4,” or in movies, like “The Matrix” or “Man On Fire,” starring Denzel Washington.
Trance music has been around for thousands of years. You could say that it is humanity’s first music, starting from the time that ancient man first began to use the rhythmic beating of objects against objects in shamanistic ceremonies. We’ve come a long way since then.
Modern-day trance music is mostly all created with electronic instruments that can synthesize, or reproduce, almost every imaginable sound.
Just 10 years ago, making trance music required a roomful of equipment – synthesizer, effects controllers, drums or drum machines, or whatever the artist needed.
Today, with advanced computer software, all of this equipment and more can be re-created virtually on a notebook computer and taken anywhere.
Now the constant, mind-relaxing beats first inspired by the shamans can be reproduced endlessly, with endless variations, surrounded by endless possibilities of melodies and their infinite number of variations. But the purpose is still the same.
Unlike popular music, which forces predetermined images upon your brain though its lyrics, trance music relaxes the brain and lets your mind form its own images. It is in this way that trance music allows you to expand your own sense of consciousness.
So clearly, trance is music for the thinking person.
I'm in the middle of a crash-course on DVD production at the moment, an educational process that by nature involves hours of watching progress bars. This means I'll have time to catch up. Thanks!
A chance to educate Japan's youth about our music
Far too much time has passed since I last posted, but I can offer only excuses about what kept me away. I've grown so weary of apologizing for being insanely busy that I just can't manage one with any sincerity. And excuses are like... Never mind.
No, the difference this time is that I have a really cool excuse, one that I hope both surprises and encourages you.I have been handed the golden opportunity to educate a small segment of Japanese junior and senior high school students about psychedelic trance. The venue for this lofty adventure is The Japan Times Junior, a bi-weekly magazine for said youths who are studying English.
The text that follows is the first of six parts. These have to be written as close to their level of English as possible, and each installment can only be about 300 words long. Junior provides them with Japanese translations above the more advanced words and phrases.
The basic scope of this is really just to perk the kids' interest in reading essay-length articles in English. And since music is a typical interest of 12-16-year-old kids pretty much anywhere, a simply written article about a popular form of music might be one that they will want to finish. Possibly sparking their active interest in psychedelic trance will be an absolute bonus.
The Junior will unfortunately cease publication when the last one of the six is published on Dec. 18. So there won't be a natural process of feedback for me to know if I've had any effect on their future music choices. The fact that it's a one-of-a-kind chance makes it not so much difficult but time-consuming.
Writing at that level requires focus after you've been doing a freestyle gig like this for while. Plus, they're kids, so you have to make sure you can stay acceptably wholesome while still challenging their intellect. Let's hope we can get our dancefloors in Japan cleaned up in time for them to join us.
For better or worse, here is Part 1. The rest will follow soon.
Trance is the music in me, Part 1
(Published in The Japan Times Junior, Oct. 9, 2007)
Whenever I tell people about my music passion, they usually have no idea what I’m talking about, or they simply can’t believe my answer.
This is because I love electronic music of a very certain kind: psychedelic trance, which is the best kind of music to dance to. Of course I also love to dance, which some people just can’t imagine me doing this at my age. (I’m 46, and only “young people” are supposed to do this.)
Most of you have heard trance music before, but maybe you didn’t realize it. There are different kinds of trance, from very slow to very fast, but you almost never hear it on the radio. Instead, you may have heard it in video games, like “Gran Turismo 4,” or in movies, like “The Matrix” or “Man On Fire,” starring Denzel Washington.
Trance music has been around for thousands of years. You could say that it is humanity’s first music, starting from the time that ancient man first began to use the rhythmic beating of objects against objects in shamanistic ceremonies. We’ve come a long way since then.
Modern-day trance music is mostly all created with electronic instruments that can synthesize, or reproduce, almost every imaginable sound.
Just 10 years ago, making trance music required a roomful of equipment – synthesizer, effects controllers, drums or drum machines, or whatever the artist needed.
Today, with advanced computer software, all of this equipment and more can be re-created virtually on a notebook computer and taken anywhere.
Now the constant, mind-relaxing beats first inspired by the shamans can be reproduced endlessly, with endless variations, surrounded by endless possibilities of melodies and their infinite number of variations. But the purpose is still the same.
Unlike popular music, which forces predetermined images upon your brain though its lyrics, trance music relaxes the brain and lets your mind form its own images. It is in this way that trance music allows you to expand your own sense of consciousness.
So clearly, trance is music for the thinking person.
I'm in the middle of a crash-course on DVD production at the moment, an educational process that by nature involves hours of watching progress bars. This means I'll have time to catch up. Thanks!
posted by DJO at 12:26 AM
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