downtime North by Northwestern

Episode Notes
[The music in this podcast is titled “Aced It” by Ketsa. It is licensed for use under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.]
Jade Thomas: Welcome to downtime, the podcast where Northwestern students discuss their hobbies, passions, and other cool things they do in their free time. I’m your host, Jade Thomas.
Most people know about a cappella because of cultural touchstones like Pitch Perfect and Pentatonix. Northwestern students, however, know about a cappella, because in a way they are a cappella. There are a total of fourteen a cappella groups on campus. You’d think that with so many groups it’d be hard to thrive and survive amid all of the noise. 
But it’s not just noise. The sound of Northwestern a cappella is made from carefully-laid rhythms, staggering harmonies and close-knit friendships. In today’s episode you’ll hear from members of two different a capella groups. You’ll hear about the courage it takes to try something new, blends and deceptive chords. You’ll learn that the human voice is an instrument and that coming together can create the world’s greatest orchestra.
Thomas: Communications first-year and Soul4Real member, Seun Ayeni says she’s been interested in music ever since she was younger, so much so that it used to make her emotional.
Seun Ayeni: So I started singing in church when I was really little, I want to say, five years old. Yeah, for me, it was just something that I was naturally interested in. There's a whole little story about how, when the children's choir used to come up, I would start crying. I'd be like, “Mom, I want to join!” And at the time, my mom was already like, taking my older sisters to church for other stuff. But like, I mean, when I cry, I mean, it struck something in her heart, I guess. And so, she started taking me and that's how I started.
Thomas: Weinberg third-year Sarika Rao, says like Seun, she always wanted to pursue singing, but it wasn’t until she got to Northwestern, and encountered Brown Sugar, that her dreams could come to fruition. 
Sarika Rao: I grew up playing classical piano since I was like, five or so years old. And I did it up until my senior year of high school. As for singing, I kind of went through phases where I really wanted to be good at singing. I actually auditioned for acapella in high school, didn't get in. And it wasn't anything I was planning on doing but I got here and Wildcat Welcome, actually, my PA was in an a cappella group, which I thought was really cool. And I went to Aca-fest like the performance during Wildcat welcome, like for all the new freshmen. I thought it was so cool. So I ended up auditioning just on a whim because of that, and I ended up making it then and so now it's a part of what I do just randomly.
Thomas: Medill first-year and Brown Sugar member Pavan Acharya and Seun say that it’s not just the musicality that drew them to their respective groups, but culture as well. 
Pavan Acharya: Also, the culture, it's a South Asian oriented group, which was also very appealing to me as well. Being a part of the group has definitely helped me be more in touch with my South Asian roots as a young, South Asian person at Northwestern. So definitely the community was a very important aspect. And it's been great getting to learn many different arrangements that draw from Western styles and from South Asian styles as well.
Ayeni: Oh, I guess for me Soul4Real also connects to a part of my identity as a Black woman. Of course, Soul4Real is welcome to people from all different backgrounds, but from our very first rehearsal, they, they made the note, they made it note that Soul4Real is Northwestern’s premier black, a cappella group and when it comes to the issues going on in the world, that's the experiences we're going to center and so that is something I don't think you'll find in any other group. 
Thomas: While members of a cappella groups like Brown Sugar and Soul4Real find harmony in shared experience and backgro

Episode Notes
[The music in this podcast is titled “Aced It” by Ketsa. It is licensed for use under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.]
THOMAS: Welcome to Downtime, the podcast where Northwestern students discuss their hobbies, passions, and other cool things they do in their free time. I’m your host, Jade Thomas.
I know finding free time during college is hard, and even harder when we’re taking classes on the quarter schedule. But despite that, people still manage to make time for activities that enrich them, even activities that might not be academic or professional in nature. Hopefully, in listening to this podcast, you’ll feel empowered to make time for your own happiness and peace of mind.
In today’s episode, you’ll hear from all sorts of skateboarders - including two friends who met randomly on the street, a reformed snowboarder, a man who went flying on Sheridan, and more. You’ll learn about different types of boards, the transitory nature of memory, and why you should try out some wheels for yourself. 
THOMAS: Weinberg second-year Naomi Gizaw says she started skating from a really young age, but didn’t pick it back up until last year. 
GIZAW: So I actually started originally in middle school. Like we’re talking fifth grade, Disney XD – the primetime. It was really hard to get into it, especially because I didn’t really have any older siblings and my parents did not know how to skateboard or whatever. So, it was just taking me to the park and trying to figure it out for myself. It kind of plateaued after a while so I didn’t really get into it as much. I think like this past summer, and including spring quarter of freshman year  – so last year –  I really got into it. I kind of started with longboarding first. So I had a skateboard in middle school and I got into longboarding through my roommate, actually. So we would longboard all around campus. So this past summer when I went back home, I got a couple of my friends from high school and we just went all around the Detroit area, hitting up different spots and skating, and longboarding,you name it. It just felt a lot more comfortable. I felt like when I was going to skate parks when I was younger it was very male-dominated and I was also young at the time, too. It was very intimidating. I feel like when I approached it now I already had that community. 
THOMAS: Like Naomi, McCormick first-year Otis McCallum says he started skating when he was younger, but only started to take it more seriously when he was in high school. 
MCCALLUM: My first, I guess, brush with skateboarding was through my godparents. They were both really into that graffiti scene in the city. They both skated, and they're both  really good at it too. I got my first skateboard when I was a really young kid but I never kind of touched it. So, I didn’t actually come back to it until like, freshman year of high school, where I kind of met a group of people who were super into it and they ended up becoming my best friends in high school. And we just ended up skating all over the city. Going from place to place and just exploring new areas was like a huge part of my high school and just like, social experience growing up in New York City. 
THOMAS: Everyone’s path to skateboarding is a bit different, but sometimes it might not start with skateboarding at all. 
MA: So, I started it because I like snowboarding a lot. I started snowboarding at 11. I’m really into snowboarding, it’s like an addiction, but obviously you can’t do that unless it’s winter. So I‘ve found an alternative which is skateboarding. It’s actually pretty similar. Not that similar – snowboarding is more fun. 
THOMAS: Vanessa Ma is currently a first-year student at Weinberg. Despite her bias towards snowboarding, she says she still enjoys being on dry ground. 
MA: Sometimes, I just feel like doing it. Like it really makes me happier. It’s really helpful for relieving my stress.
THOMAS: On the surface,

Episode Notes
["Summertime," by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald]

Hi y'all, it's Tenny. Welcome to another episode of Tenny's Tunes.

I know it's way past summer at this point for most people living in the Northern Hemisphere, but whenever I come across good music, I share it with you.

When you think of summer, do you picture a desert with the midday sun hovering above it, an air-conditioned living room with board games and TV or the beach filled with people? Bottom line is, we all have our own versions of summer. It's an amorphous concept.

There is this popular mobile game called "Arknights," and it's more renowned for its soundtrack than the actual gameplay, which is basically tower defense similar to “Plants vs. Zombies”. For every major seasonal event like summer fest, Halloween and New Year, the game developer puts out music specific to that event through the hands of "Monster Siren," an in-game music producer.

Two summers ago, Monster Siren published a summer theme song called "Ready?" The fictional in-game artist who performed the song is called "DDD" and is modeled after Marshmello. The piece overall brings up imagery of a sunny day at the beach, people sunbathing, splashing water at each other, making some barbecue, whatever they are allowed to do near the beach. The misty piano sounds create a sense of "coolness" amidst the summer heat.

It's probably easier hearing it for yourself. But due to copyright issues, I won't be playing the original version, just a piano interpretation I recorded a while back. Hope you find it pleasing to the ear. This is NBN Audio. Peace.

["Ready?" DDD, piano version by Tenny Tsang]

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Episode Notes
[“clavar la espada” by Shiro Sagisu]

Hi guys, it’s Tenny. Welcome to episode 15 of Tenny’s Tunes. Hope everyone’s doing okay as we head into the final three months of 2020. I hope the worst times have passed, but yet I wonder if what is to come will be any better. I guess that sums up life in general.

I have a question for you. Do you think pianos can sound like other instruments? We often hear people commenting on how flutes can sound like birds chirping, or clarinets at high pitches can resemble kettles with boiling water. But those are comparisons between a strictly defined musical instrument and a non-conventional instrument - because one can certainly make music out of anything in this day and age.

With regards to piano, I often find it easy to emulate the sound of a choir from fugues by Bach with the distinct SATB voice lines. Step on the sustain pedal, and you have a Bach piece that sounds like it should be played in the church. More recently, I’ve started to take an interest in guitar, not in the sense that I have one and I am learning how to play it, but that I see similarities between the techniques used in guitar and piano performances. Specifically, the Spanish guitar, which is known for some of the most advanced techniques.

As an example, the Spanish guitar often features picado, which is an alternate picking between the index and middle fingers as you hold your thumb onto the E string. This results in a fast-paced rhythmic repetition that goes either up or down the scale and, quite frankly, serves as the soul of a flamenco performance. Of course, there are also claps and singing that accompany a flamenco dancer, but if you only want to go with the essentials, a guitar is what matters the most from my experience. But don’t quote me on that.

In this sense, piano and guitar are quite similar. Your fingers can move pretty fast up and down the keyboard, or repeat in a cycle of three notes to mimic that picado sound. There are limitations to how much a piano can try to reproduce a guitar piece, of course. For instance, traditional pianos can’t really do vibratos like guitars or violins, but I believe electric pianos can through certain functions.

With that in mind, I bring to you today an attempt at interpreting a guitar/violin piece with piano. The piece is called “La Distancia Para Un Duelo” and has a Spanish feel to it. Hope you like it. You can also look up the original version on YouTube as well. I am Tenny, and this is NBN Audio. Peace.

[“La distancia para un duelo” by Shiro Sagisu, performed by Tenny Tsang]

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Episode Notes
[“千本桜 (Senbonzakura)”]

Hi guys, welcome to Episode 14 of Tenny’s Tunes. I am your host, Tenny. Hope everyone is safe and healthy.

This was arguably the most popular Japanese song in 2014 (by Wagakki Band, a Japanese rock band that uses traditional instruments). I was still in middle school back then, and my range of preference for music was a bit narrow. The melody didn’t appeal to me for some reason, but at least it was pleasing to the ear. One thing I didn’t get was why people were so crazy over the tempo or speed of the song, creating their own versions and remixes that were even faster than the original piece. To me, showing off skills for the sake of it didn’t do the music justice at all.

Nevertheless, I decided to revisit this piece in honor of that era. If you wanna see me playing it, here is the link to the video. Hope you enjoy.

This is NBN Audio.

[“千本桜 (Senbonzakura)”]

Music performed by Tenny Tsang.

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Episode Notes
Hi guys, welcome to Episode 13 of Tenny’s Tunes. I am your host Tenny. Hope everyone is safe and healthy.

Inspiration: Back in high school, I volunteered at a local senior center and played piano music for the residents there. I would take requests to play certain pieces, but there’s one that I just did not take the time to learn. That’s right, it’s Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy, not the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata that some people might confuse it with. Even my good friends in college tell me, “You know Tenny, you really should know how to play this one.” Well, quarantine time means piano time for me!

Creation: It took a lot of tries to nail this one. I played at a slower tempo than usual. It’s actually harder to play classical pieces on my MIDI keyboard than on a regular piano.

Message: Haha, I was a bit lazy for the past few ones. We are all different people, but I will tell you what I got from the piece. How do you feel when you look at the moon at night? Do you prefer a crescent, a gibbous, a new moon or a full moon? Maybe a combination? I have no preference. To me, the moon is as fickle and elusive as it can be, but it still abides by the pattern of the moon phases every month. Humans are too. We all have a bottom line that we will never cross over, or else we cease to be humans. Alright, enjoy! This is NBN Audio.

[“Clair de Lune” performed by Tenny Tsang]

Music performed by Tenny Tsang.

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