K-Pop Academy: Week 3 - K-Traditional Music
Aha I'm getting there I promise-- More like me writing up blogs at midnight because that's the best time my brain decides to productively function for blogs, but hey-ho! Although... My dad is questioning my ability to function and why I can't be "normal" and sleep early... Enough about me, moving onto Week 3 for K-Pop Academy!!
If I'm honest, I was quite hyped for this! Reason being is because I really enjoy singing as a hobby so I thought it would be a great chance to learn another genre of music. I heard the previous week that we would be singing and let's be honest... There were a lot of mixed responses aha...
I came to the class not knowing much about Korean traditional music other than Samulnori and the Gayageum. How do I know this? Well, I recently attended a Chuseok event where there was Samulnori performers which was very intriguing to watch. Also, I know about the Gayageum instrument because of the K-drama, "Heartstrings" featuring CNBLUE's Yonghwa and Minhyuk as well as Park Shin Hye. Although it may not be the best drama, I really enjoyed the characters and the fusion of modern band instruments with Korean traditional instruments. You can check out a clip of one of the Heartstring performances below:
I came to the class not knowing much about Korean traditional music other than Samulnori and the Gayageum. How do I know this? Well, I recently attended a Chuseok event where there was Samulnori performers which was very intriguing to watch. Also, I know about the Gayageum instrument because of the K-drama, "Heartstrings" featuring CNBLUE's Yonghwa and Minhyuk as well as Park Shin Hye. Although it may not be the best drama, I really enjoyed the characters and the fusion of modern band instruments with Korean traditional instruments. You can check out a clip of one of the Heartstring performances below:
Before I get side-tracked... Let's return back to the main purpose of the post aha...
Our lecture for this week was held by Anna Yates whom is a PhD student in Ethnomusicology from SOAS. Her assistant, Damiola Eniola has an MA in Musical and Performance Composition from SOAS. Damiola accompanied Anna during performances, playing the drum otherwise known as the "buk" in Korean. Anna taught us about the different Korean music types and much more. Here's a quick summary of what I gathered from my notes.
SUMMARY
K-Traditional music is collectively known as Kugak.
Court music is determined as "elegant music". The musical instruments and melodies incorporated into court music were imported from China in the Tang (ehhh my surname) and Song dynasty. Usually, if there was a new king, thus began a new principle - meaning a new dynasty determined a change in the musical system.
Folk music, better known as "minyo" which means "folk song" were performed during work and play time. However folk music then led to professional performances on stage.
There are different sounds for different regions:
- Seodo minyo - nasal voice, wide vibrato
- Gyeonggi minyo - clear and clean voice (usually quite high)
- Namdo minyo - tight throat and chest resonance
Pansori is known as storytelling through song.
There are 5 core stories, which last up to 8 hours long.
Pansori has links to shamanism which originally was only for lower class entertainment however was later "upgraded" for nobility. This was completed through incorporating Chinese literacy references and philosophical ideas.
However, pansori requires long years of harsh training to be able to obtain the right voice.
I hope you found that interesting to read. It's quite a lot for a "summary"... But being the person I am I have a tendency to write a lot... Even for a summary.. Oops.
Moving on, we began to learn how to perform the famous "Arirang" piece. However, there are many variations to Arirang, so we performed the "Jindo Arirang" from the Jindo County in South Jeolla province. We first had to learn the different tones varying from the core tone to vibrating tone. It was quite difficult but I think it really helped reading the music sheet and seeing where the notes were placed on the scale to see where a note needs to be dropped or held etc.
After we had learnt the gist of the piece, we all stood up and were all given a fan each. This was the prop we would be using to assist us with our performance.
After we had learnt how to incorporate hand gestures with our fans we began to split off into groups. The winning team would be awarded with an opportunity to pick hanboks first as we would be studying K-fashion the week after. I remember trying to loosen my fan so much by swinging it back and forth especially as one of the movements involved opening and closing the fan gracefully (after a week my fan was a lot easier to open and close but it wasn't when I needed it... T_T)
It was difficult trying to maintain the tones throughout the piece, I think a lot of us struggled with the first note for the verse. Or we had trouble trying to work out how long to hold certain notes whilst attempting to pronounce the Korean words in the Arirang piece.
Before we knew it, time had ran out and we were all getting seated to perform to one another. We were the last to perform despite debating when we should put ourselves up to perform. Either way, it was quite a fun performance! The winners had a special trump card for their performance, They decided to incorporate a wave effect by combining all their fans together which make it very unique from everyone else's. They definitely deserved to win, and their pronunciation and tones were on pointe!
I feel like as each week progresses, I can't help but regret not learning about this stuff before. It's never really boring. Although there's lots to content to take in, we always do some activities where we can try it for ourselves than just learn from listening to a lecture.
Homework of the Week!
As for every week, we are given 3 options to choose from. For this week, I decided to create a pitch for a new K-Pop group that combines K-Pop trends with Korean historical traditions. This meant considering the instruments, to the outfits of the groups as well as reasons why this group would stand out amongst the rivals in the industry etc.
I actually stayed up till 4AM in the morning just completing this pitch... I think I got way too into drawing all the designs by hand which left all the writing content quite last minute... I created a K-Pop girl band called J2H otherwise known as Journey to Harmony.
Other than the homework we were given for Week 3. We were also given the option to design our fans that we were given from the lecture. I took this opportunity to use watercolour pencils to create a flowery design inspired by cherry blossoms. Funnily enough, I brought my fan to the next lecture and it ended up matching my hanbok - This was unintentional but you'll find out more about the hanboks in the next edition! I'm sure my mother was criticising me constantly for my fan design saying stuff like "oh the branches are too dark", "make the flowers brighter" etc...
Our lecture for this week was held by Anna Yates whom is a PhD student in Ethnomusicology from SOAS. Her assistant, Damiola Eniola has an MA in Musical and Performance Composition from SOAS. Damiola accompanied Anna during performances, playing the drum otherwise known as the "buk" in Korean. Anna taught us about the different Korean music types and much more. Here's a quick summary of what I gathered from my notes.
 |
| Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK |
SUMMARY
K-Traditional music is collectively known as Kugak.
Court music is determined as "elegant music". The musical instruments and melodies incorporated into court music were imported from China in the Tang (ehhh my surname) and Song dynasty. Usually, if there was a new king, thus began a new principle - meaning a new dynasty determined a change in the musical system.
Folk music, better known as "minyo" which means "folk song" were performed during work and play time. However folk music then led to professional performances on stage.
There are different sounds for different regions:
- Seodo minyo - nasal voice, wide vibrato
- Gyeonggi minyo - clear and clean voice (usually quite high)
- Namdo minyo - tight throat and chest resonance
Pansori is known as storytelling through song.
There are 5 core stories, which last up to 8 hours long.
Pansori has links to shamanism which originally was only for lower class entertainment however was later "upgraded" for nobility. This was completed through incorporating Chinese literacy references and philosophical ideas.
However, pansori requires long years of harsh training to be able to obtain the right voice.
I hope you found that interesting to read. It's quite a lot for a "summary"... But being the person I am I have a tendency to write a lot... Even for a summary.. Oops.
Moving on, we began to learn how to perform the famous "Arirang" piece. However, there are many variations to Arirang, so we performed the "Jindo Arirang" from the Jindo County in South Jeolla province. We first had to learn the different tones varying from the core tone to vibrating tone. It was quite difficult but I think it really helped reading the music sheet and seeing where the notes were placed on the scale to see where a note needs to be dropped or held etc.
 |
| Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK |
 |
| Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK |
 |
| Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK |
 |
| Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK |
 |
| Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK |
 |
| Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK |
 |
| Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK |
 |
| Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK |
Homework of the Week!
As for every week, we are given 3 options to choose from. For this week, I decided to create a pitch for a new K-Pop group that combines K-Pop trends with Korean historical traditions. This meant considering the instruments, to the outfits of the groups as well as reasons why this group would stand out amongst the rivals in the industry etc.
I actually stayed up till 4AM in the morning just completing this pitch... I think I got way too into drawing all the designs by hand which left all the writing content quite last minute... I created a K-Pop girl band called J2H otherwise known as Journey to Harmony.
Other than the homework we were given for Week 3. We were also given the option to design our fans that we were given from the lecture. I took this opportunity to use watercolour pencils to create a flowery design inspired by cherry blossoms. Funnily enough, I brought my fan to the next lecture and it ended up matching my hanbok - This was unintentional but you'll find out more about the hanboks in the next edition! I'm sure my mother was criticising me constantly for my fan design saying stuff like "oh the branches are too dark", "make the flowers brighter" etc...
I actually enjoyed the homework... This actually says a lot because for once I didn't feel like I was suffering whilst trying to do the homework. Maybe because it was a homework about a topic which I was interested in... Which I can't say so much for a lot of the subjects I studied in school...
I hope you enjoyed the 3rd edition of my K-Pop Academy series. If you have any queries or whatnot, feel free to comment below. If you're enjoying this series so far, I'd appreciate any thoughtful comments but anyways before it gets to sunrise, I will see you guys soon! Look forward to the next edition of the K-Pop Academy series, featuring K-Fashion (Hanboks)!
I hope you enjoyed the 3rd edition of my K-Pop Academy series. If you have any queries or whatnot, feel free to comment below. If you're enjoying this series so far, I'd appreciate any thoughtful comments but anyways before it gets to sunrise, I will see you guys soon! Look forward to the next edition of the K-Pop Academy series, featuring K-Fashion (Hanboks)!
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