Echo: The Musical Revolution

Spring ‘17 | 1

Table Of Contents Contributors Page Letter from Editor

Vibes A History of Stringed Instruments 2 | Echo: The Music Revolution

4 7 8 12

14

s 20 24 26 30

The Digital Age

18

Guitar Effects

The Feel Generations of Musical Notation

The Writing Process A History of Hip-Hop Spring ‘17 | 3

4 | Echo: The Music Revolution

Jamie

n o C

Jamie likes visual arts as well as writing music. In her free time she goes for bike rides and is currently also writing a novel. She loves photography and reading, and making this magazine has been a learning experience for her.

Nathan

s r o t u b i r t Nathan plays guitar, drums, and keyboard (a little bit). He enjoys making and recording music with his band, First Thursday. When he’s not making music, he’s either relaxing with friends, partying, or sleeping.

Marco enjoys all forms of arts.

He loves to draw and more than anything he loves music. He listens to many different genres although he mainly listens to rap and hiphop.

Marco

Arien, when not busy with school work, enjoys reading books, rowing, playing guitar, writing software, and producing music.

He has played violin for a large majority of his life.

Arien

Because of their shared love for music, the group decided to interview local Austin musicians, musicians from across the country, and other people involved in the music industry. The team worked hard on this magazine and hope you enjoy reading their articles and graphics.

Spring ‘17 | 5

if music be the food of love, play on William Shakespeare

6 | Echo: The Music Revolution

Letter from the

Dear Reader,

Editor

From before birth music has been an element of influence to myself and those around me. When my mother was pregnant with me, her friend made her a series of 6 Mix CD’s, “Music to Birth Babies To”, and as I was growing up, from about age 6 my father started making me my own Mix CD’s for my birthday every year. I also attended ACL for nearly 10 straight years and have attended two other music festivals annually since the 5th grade. My point is, music is part of me, as it is part of everyone.

Music has been around for thousands of years, but it’s influence on people has spiked in the past century, and today music is something we as a country, a world, have integrated quite deeply into ourselves. In the twenty first century, which has brought about so many changes from every aspect of past generations, music has been a revolutionary art form. Exploring the way that new technology and human connection has developed music as well as how it connects to writing and other arts will be the focus of this magazine.

Making Echo has been a learning experience like no other, one for the team to learn from each other about how music affects everyone differently; the way it connects to other parts of our individual lives as well as how it connects us to each other. We had such fun making it, we hope your experience reading it will be every bit as enjoyable.

All we ask in return is a smile on your face the next time you listen to your favorite song!

Sincerely,

Jamie Corum, Editor

Spring ‘17 | 7

By Marco Zavaleta

What a typical professional recording studio might look like.

Photo source; Pexels

Vibes

The Impact, Unity, And Effect Behind The Notes

8 | Echo: The Music Revolution

What a typical home recording studio might look like.

Photo Source; _RGN5959_Snapseed

H

ip-hop has always been music of the youth and it has always spoken on issues that plague various communities” said Nick Malkiewicz on the impact of music.

Music has been a release for many people that allows them to enter a reality that may or may not reflect their very own for over forty-five thousand years. Hip-Hop has been a part of it for over 45 years, and it is constantly changing.

It affects everyone differently, whether you’re making it, or just tuning in.

For some people, music has transformed their lives to a point where they wouldn’t be who they are today without it. It has been known to keep people tethered to a more free and creative space that just isn’t available anywhere else. To some people it may just be annoying songs that they hear over the radio or in videos on w, but to others it is so much more than that. It could be a place where people can become their true selves, whether it’s who they really are, or who they want to be, it allows them to express that.

Malkiewicz expresses how music has affected his

life, “Music has had a profound impact on me.

From a young age I would play on my parents piano and listen to my dad play guitar to me.

That sorta translated into a love of music as a young teen which lead to me DJ-ing then later producing. It’s a form of escapism for me a release.”

Music can also become a place to invest their time into, especially if the environment around you isn’t a very great one. It can keep people off of the streets and give them an opportunity to be something without crime or violence.

Clinton Davis does this with his record label, Above All Entertainment, and he stated, “I helped teenagers become something keeping them in the studio rather than the streets.

Taught them business, put out CD’s, performed, and got them deals. Most went to college and graduated. Some are amazing fathers now and musicians still.”

Spring ‘17 | 9

South by South West is a music - film festival that brings people from all around the world together.

Photo Source; Vimeo

Music is found around the world and no matter where you are, you will find some form of music integrated within its society. Music brings people together. Whether you are all working together to create and put out content, dancing to it, or just sitting around listening to music, it has brought all of them closer together.

“My father was deep into karaoke back then. In his little time off he would have so many folks at my mom’s singing. Neighbors were in the hallway everywhere. I grew up listening and watching music give life to those without much to enjoy in it...Music has been my outlet since a child and all I could do is utilize my company to uplift others thru it. My life would not be what it has become without music”

10 | Echo: The Music Revolution

¤ Davis Clinton ¤

Music has been around for decades, so naturally as society and culture changed, music has changed too. Music has gone through so many different types of sub genres within music and hip-hop, and it will go through countless more. “It will definitely change. How? Shoot, anyone’s guess … it’s bound to happen. Hip-Hop music is the voice of the disenfranchised youth. I imagine it will continue down that path for a while. What will it sound like?

I know it will reinvent itself. It ALWAYS does. It will be something that we can’t imagine right now,” believes Malkiewicz.

Music has been the biggest form of entertainment for decades. Music allows people to truly express themselves, show others their musical talent, lets them be creative, keeps kids off of the street and allows people to do all of those things while making a career out of it. Hip-hop has been the face of the music industry for over 40 years, and it is constantly changing, even if that face has changed over and over. It has just recently put on a new face, and that face has brought light to many, and already we are starting to see a new mask begin to form. ¤

Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre performing live at a concert.

Photo Source; Wikimedia Commons

Spring ‘17 | 11

12 || Echo: Echo:The TheMusic Music Revolution Revolution

Spring ‘17 | 13

“

If it’s not a great song on a piece of paper and a guitar, then it’s not going to be a great song even with fancy amplifiers and other technology.

” Jeffrey Lewis Photo Credit: Joe Mabel

Jeffrey Lewis

The Digital Age How Technology has Affected the Musical Process

By: Nathan Carlson

14 | Echo: The Music Revolution

M

usic has changed in the past few years. It sounds different, is made differently, and is more easily accessible than it has ever been.

Whether these changes are for better or worse, however, is topic for discussion.

every element of the musical process has been changed -- in at least some way -- by the technology that has become available to us in the past few decades. This change has affected people in different ways.

For a singer-songwriter who needs little more than an acoustic guitar, these changes may not matter much.

Technology has completely uprooted However, to an electronic artist or DJ, the way music is created, recorded, they may not even be able to make and published. From start to finish, their music without technology.

s

“I just need a pen and a piece of paper,” says Anti-Folk Musician and comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis when asked about what he uses to create his music.

“Maybe a guitar too.” Lewis is an indie artist who was a big part of the New York underground music scene in it’s infancy. Most of his music is acoustic, though he has experimented with other styles.

Regardless, his point of view stays the same, “If it’s not a great song just on a piece of paper and a guitar, then it’s not going to be a great song even with fancy amplifiers and other

technology allows him to show himself through music more than ever, and he feels the same way about any musician. “There are more ways to express yourself than ever before.

Technology facilitates artistic expression in an unprecedented way. Before, if someone wanted to record an album, they had to hope that they could catch the attention of

can compose your own stuff, and you can do pretty much anything with it. Sometimes

“

someone at a record label.

Now, anyone with a laptop and the right DAW could possibly create the next hit single.

They wouldn’t even need a label to release.”

This idea is furthered

by Ethan Oroshiba, a high-school student who’s been playing music for years.

David Sikabwe Photo Credit: David Sikabwe “When technology.”

I started, it was just me This perspective, however, thinking of something… I just doesn’t work for Electronic had the idea in my head. But musician David Sikabwe, a now, you can use music writing local artist known as Going programs, like Noteflight Spaceward. For Sikabwe, and MuseScore, where you

Anyone with a laptop and the right DAW could possible create the next hit single. They wouldn’t even need a label to release.

”

David Sikabwe what I do when I’m writing, is I come up with a chord progression, write [it] down on a piece of paper and write lyrics to it that way. So sometimes I still go old school, and sometimes I use new stuff.”

It’s clear that different musicians rely on technology in different ways. Lewis simply doesn’t need it to create his music, Sikabwe does, and the way Oroshiba creates his music changes. Despite all this, creation isn’t the only thing that has changed through technology. Distribution and booking, for example, are Spring ‘17 | 15

platforms through which all three artists have relied on the internet.

“Technology has allowed me to have a music career because of the way I’ve been able to book my own tour dates with email;” says Lewis, who has put together countless concerts over the years.

“When I first started booking tours it was 2002, it was relatively easy to email clubs, even clubs overseas. I can’t imagine how much harder and more expensive it would have been in the 1980s or 90s to try to contact all these clubs just by phone calls or postcards, trying to put together a whole tour.”

websites to distribute their music.

Sikabwe explains that “Free platforms like Bandcamp and SoundCloud allow independent musicians like myself to express themselves without a middleman.

Granted, that means there are hundreds of other nobodies with acoustic guitars yelling ‘Listen to me!’ I don’t think that’s a bad thing. More voices to hear. The difficult thing as a musician is finding a way to stand out.”

they all like their own thing. I don’t think it’s become hard for people to distribute their music, [and] whatever you do, there’s always a fan base waiting for you,” he said.

Free distribution does have some downsides, however. Putting music on the internet means that while it’s accessible, it’s also free to listen to. “The whole idea of being able to make a living from selling recordings of your music, This last line is also echoed that’s a sort of new idea, just from from Oroshiba’s perspective, in a few decades ago, it’s just a weird a slightly more positive manner, part of the 20th century. It didn’t “[Technology] has added color exist in the 19th century or any to the music industry,” he says, time before that, and I suppose it Sikabwe and Oroshiba aren’t quite “The thing you have to take into doesn’t exist in the 21st century, up to that level of performing, account is [that] there’s a lot of and won’t exist any time in the although they both use online different people in the world, and future either” says Lewis, who has never made it huge, but has managed to stay afloat by selling his music and comic books.

“Just a very brief time in history when there was this weird new idea that you could make money just from selling a Jeffrey Lewis

16 | Echo: The Music Revolution

Photo Credit: Aurelien Guichard

recording of a performance.”

Regardless of how one views technology and the music industry, there has certainly been an evolution. The way music is created and the way media is consumed has changed, maybe even been taken for granted. It’s hard to say whether these changes have helped or hurt the industry, but the next time you download or purchase a song or album, step back a moment and think about how the music you’re about to listen to ended up in your headphones. ¤

Spring ‘17 | 17

Equalization is a filter effect that allows adjustment of the volume of a number of different frequency ranges of the guitar signal.

Overdrive is a distortion effect that mimics the sound of a guitar playing through a mildly overdriven tube amplifier.

Fuzz is an extreme distortion effect that produces an unnatural yet popular sound using transistors.

Tremolo is a dynamic effect that varies the amplitude or volume of the guitar signal in a wavelike fashion, creating a shimmering of the sound.

Octave is an pitch shifting effect that changes the octave of the guitar signal, moving the pitch up or down a multiple of 12 half steps.

Pitch shifting effects change the frequency or pitch of the guitar signal.

Sources: https://reverb.com/news/beginners-guide-to-guitar-effects-understanding-the-basics http://tightmixblog.com/how-to-order-your-guitar-pedals-for-killer-tone/ http://www.gibson.com/news-lifestyle/features/en-us/effects-explained-modulation.aspx http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/effects-explained-overdrive-di.aspx

Distortion is a distortion effect that operates by boosting and clipping the guitar signal.

Compression is a dynamic effect that kills dynamic contrast; this means that it makes loud signals quieter and quiet signals louder.

Wah is a filter effect that alters the tone and frequencies of the sound signal to create a distinctive noise that mimics the sound of a human saying “wah.�

18 | Echo: The Music Revolution

Distortion effects distort the guitar signal by clipping, boosting, or coloring the sound wave of the instrument.

Filter effects filter out frequencies of the guitar

Guitar

Chorus is a modulation effect that plays a series of copies of the guitar signal, multiplying and wavering the overall signal.

Phaser is a modulation effect that splits a signal and shifts one half in and out of phase with the other.

Vibrato is a modulation effect that changes the pitch of a signal back and forth.

This effect is achievable through a pedal or a whammy bar.

Modulation effects modulate the guitar signal, adding depth, movement, and dimension.

Flanger is a modulation effect that replays the guitar signal out of sync with the original. The signal sync changes, creating a wavelike effect.

Volume is a dynamic effect that allows adjustment of the output volume of the guitar signal after the signal has gone through a number of effects.

Delay is an effect that stores and replays the signal that is passed through the pedal after some amount of time.

Dynamic effects change the amplitude or volume of the guitar signal.

Reverb is an effect that makes the guitar signal persist, mimicking playing into a room where sound bounces off walls.

Effects

Spring ‘17 | 19

The Feel

Emotion Behind the Music Everyone Listens To

By Arien Wagen

Above: Lee DeWyze performing. Image Source: wikipedia.org Below: NYC band Anamanaguchi plays at a venue. Image Source: wikipedia.org

20 | Echo: The Music Revolution

Many guitarists arrange their effects pedals on pedalboards.. Image Source: wikipedia.org

M

usic can be very emotional. Singer/songwriter Mike Congdon said, “Songwriting is a very personal art, and allowing somebody to listen to what you have written opens up this side of your heart to either be uplifted or crushed. Or you can just choose to not pay attention to that and say, ‘Here’s my music everybody, I’m gonna not read the comments.’”

Musicians will often tell stories or communicate emotions through their music. They do this by using different techniques and processes in their music and by using preconceived notions of how music normally sounds and either conforming with or breaking those notions. Musicians convey emotion through their songs using lots of different tools and techniques.

Music can greatly affect the way we feel, and different people listen to different moods of music depending on the mood they’re in. Regardless of one’s preference, everyone has a sense of what music is happy and what music is sad. Congdon said, “If a song is happy, it would be through a rhythmic, upbeat major that I conveyed emotion. If a song is sad, it would be either downbeat or maybe it’s still upbeat, but on a back beat like a ska, but I would pay attention to my minors and diminisheds when running scales in a solo and in chord choice.”

“Most of the time, the songs that I write are because I have a story to tell and most of the times those stories are founded in this mistakes that I’ve made that I wish I could go back and fix. Sometimes, it’s a mistake that I didn’t make that I’m writing a story about as if I did make it and still need to go back and fix it,” Congdon said about his music.

“Often times the songs are unapologetic apologies like, ‘I wish I could say I was sorry this didn’t work out, but it’s actually for the better for everyone.’ I write musically to convey the emotion that I’m feeling regardless of if that emotion has any effect on the nature of the lyrics.”

Mike Congdon playing an acoustic guitar. Image Source: Mike Congdon

Spring ‘17 | 21

The way a song is recorded is also very important to the emotion it conveys to the listener. Artists will sometimes record background noise or sound to create an atmosphere or feel in their music. This can add realism to the piece of music and make it sound more human.

everything I do is acoustic guitar based, but I will often throw in some electric guitar with volume swell and electric bass guitar with chorus just to kinda make it sound bigger than it actually is because really, my songs are just me on three different instruments.”

“If you want to convey emotion in a straightforward manner, you do it through progressions, a solid beat, and a careful melody line. If you want it to be done more by the sound rather than ‘in your face,’ you do it with the nature of how you record things and how open and spacious it feels,” Congdon said. “You do it more with EQ and voicings of your chords rather than the chords themselves or rather than instruments that you choose themselves.”

Artists use varying amounts and kinds of effects in their music. Ishaq, from the band Brother Sports, explained his experience with effects, saying, “I think the bass lines play a really huge part in our songs and there’s never a song that we have that just has a clean bass track. There’s always some sort of drive or some sort of reverb. There’s obviously a balance between doing too much and then you’re just drowning all of your sounds in stupid effects, but I think that what we try to do is try to just boost each individual part to make it sound cooler and better.”

A faster or more upbeat song will tend to seem happier and a slower, downtempo song will generally seem sadder. Producer Tobe Chanow explained his process and experience with the topic, saying, “I often use chords and scales to express emotion. I find that long minor chords give the feeling of sad and faster chords make things more happy and exciting. I often make fast drum beats and rhythms at a high tempo to get the energy I like.”

Musicians use effects to transform the way their instrument or voice sounds. Congdon said, “Almost

Bass lines anchor music and can be painfully challenging to make just right. While describing his experience with one song’s bass lines and effects pedals, Anthony from Brother Sports said, “We knew that we wanted the bass to sound rather clean so we added a pedal first and then started tweaking little by little and added another pedal. I think it’s just a lot of trial and error and working to get closer to what we really want.” Effects and instrumentation and recording can be stressful, but it’s important to never lose perspective.

Hardware slider and knobs aid the playing of effects, mixing, mastering, and recording. Image Source: wikipedia.org

22 | Echo: The Music Revolution

Guitarist plays through an effects pedalboard; next to the pedalboard sits a mic stand and set list. Image Source: pexels.com

“The most exciting part of making music is the learning and the creative technique you can use.

The best songs are always the most creative and expressive.”

¤ Tobe Chanow

Musicians use different instruments, recording techniques, and effects to make their music convey emotion. There is a balance that every musician finds between digital and analog sounds, electronic and acoustic instruments; a balance that every musician finds between too many and too few effects. Different tempos, beats, and bass lines can change the way a song sounds, but in the end, what matters is creativity and expressing emotion. ¤ Electric guitars are a staple of modern music.

Image Source: Fender

Spring ‘17 | 23

24 | Echo: The Music Revolution

Sources • phoenicia.org • www.mfiles.co.uk • musicofyesterday.com • www.britannica.com Spring ‘17 | 25

“The more you create, the more is given to you to create” ¤ Naomi Shihab Nye ¤

The Writing Process

Suggestions and Connections from Lyrics to Literature

By Jamie Corum

S

hakespeare and David Bowie, Stephen King and Robert Frost, all writers have in their time reached out to their audience, with the intent to express, to move, to inspire. The ways in which these geniuses have gone about their various art forms seems like it couldn’t be more different, but from the perspective of different writers, their minds are more alike than one could’ve imagined.

Over the years writing has changed, and different careers have surfaced, gone under and resurfaced. However, consistently the emotions stirred by these different writing forms have always been similar; people get chills from hearing an opera

26 | Echo: The Music Revolution

singer the same way they do from reading one of Stephen King’s horror stories. The very process of writing a story, versus a song or a poem, it seems, is connected.

From start to finish, there are similarities to be found and advice to be had for artists of any field.

These connections come out quickly in almost any analyzing, but especially when different types of writers speak of and give advice about their own work. For example, local Austin singer/ songwriter Matt Sever started by saying, “I kind of like to let stuff flow,” a surprisingly simplistic piece of advice one may not expect from a career writer, even one practicing songwriting.

However Sever is not alone in this way of thinking.

“The process is organic and hard to describe... I often feel a sense of panic at the end of a chapter when I’m facing a blank page and have no idea what’s going to happen next.” This humanizing statement from author Elizabeth Crook shows a bit of her own feelings about the unpredictability of writing a new piece.

Starting this process, according to both Crook and Sever is “organic”, and the natural flow of inspiration isn’t just in the content of a sentence. It also is in the way a line sounds, as spoken of by Naomi Shihab Nye,

Missouri born poet, songwriter and novelist who’s spent many years at her writing desk. “When I wrote songs, I wrote the music at the same time as the words. Just because of that, it’d be different.

When I was writing a poem I wasn’t hearing music of that kind, only word music.”

This brings us to the rhythm of writing, which, in most people’s minds conjures at first the thought of music, where organization of instruments and time signatures can convey meaning to no end. However, “Music and sounds are very much a part of the [novel] writing,” said Crook, “because sentences need to carry a certain sound in order

Matt the Electrician, Musician

to convey the correct emotion.

I read aloud as I write, so that I can hear the sentences.” This idea of rhythm and hearing the lines seems to weave through each line of work

“The process is organic and hard to describe” ¤ Elizabeth Crook Often times even when the writer considers pacing and the sounds

Photo by Jamie Corum

of a sentence or line of poetry, there is still some difficulty coming up with the perfect piece.

Conventionally, we consider editing to be a part of the traditional novel writing process: a first draft, revision, a new draft, and eventually a final. In a more artistic sense, “It’s easy with poetry, or songwriting to [say] Like ‘Whoa that there is art, it’s kind of different and I shouldn’t touch it’ But I, there is a craft to it, and so I think it’s perfectly fine to go back and tear stuff apart,” said Sever. Editing as we see is in fact quite influential outside of the traditional writing of a novel, and can make or break any piece of writing.

Elizabeth Crook, Author

Photo by Christine Crook McDonald

Spring ‘17 | 27

“One thing that I really love about creative process is how it’s different for you, and your ten best friends who love to write” ¤ Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye, Poet, Author, Musician

28 | Echo: The Music Revolution

Photo by Shevaun Williams

However, in the beginning of a writer’s career, musician or not, there is a bit of a push against editing. As Sever said we tend to see things like poetry and songs as sacred, we’re afraid to change the lines for fear of taking away that magic. Nye addresses this by saying “I think many young people are excellent editors, and the more, the more you participate in doing it, you know the more stuff you have to work with, it’s like it’s easier to edit too because it’s not as precious to you.”

We see too the same thing from Crook, “Being successful is never about getting things right the first time. It’s about getting them right eventually. For me, this involves a lot of trial and error, a lot of rewriting.” As you go from piece to piece, over the years and months of your career as a writer the process of editing becomes easier, the stress of it leaves a little. “It’s like the ten thousand hours idea, it’s just, it’s just the more hours you put into something, the less pressure it is anyway,” Sever adds.

A continual practice in fact is something that not only makes writing easier, but improves your quality. The more time you put into anything, be it painting, singing, instruments or writing, the more you can find yourself improving. “I have a friend, who I tour with a lot, and she’s been really inspirational, because she’d get up at seven, go down to the hotel lobby, and just sit, and you know she does three hours of writing every morning.”

For all the young writers out there, those hoping to break through the music industry or create the next New York Times best seller, advice from all three of our writers is consistent with practice and time. Crook herself said “I started out by writing very bad poetry at a very young age. Then I kept at it by writing a journal—every night, without fail, for years on end. Really tedious boring stuff that contained not one interesting insight, not one memorable line, but that at least perfected my discipline.”

Though this sense of discipline is something hard to instill, in the long run it can greatly assist your work. Nye puts this into words well, “I think that a process of creating is very self nurturing, like the more you create, the more is given to you to create.” The more we have to create, especially early in the process, the farther we can go, the more we have to expand on.

Differences begin to emerge here in how people take these tools and develop their songs or poems into finished works.

This however isn’t uncommon, Crook finds that “Writers usually have—or discover at some point in their career—a ‘voice’, which is basically just a certain way of expressing themselves.” You’re told from a young age that you have something to differentiate yourself from others, and as cliche as it sounds, Nye seems to agree with Crook on it’s positive influence.

“One thing that I really love about creative process is how it’s different for you, and your ten best friends who love to write … I love that aspect about creativity because it would have to be that way. It would really have to be that way.”

Lines blur it seems, when discussing the writing process as it differentiates between different careers. Poets, songwriters and novelists alike have had similar experiences, and all seem to offer similar views on how they go about their work. No matter what advice there is to offer and to follow, in the end it seems the defining characteristic of writing a song, a poem, or a novel, is the way you choose to express yourself.

“Being successful is never about getting things right the first time. It’s about getting them right eventually” ¤ Elizabeth Crook

Spring ‘17 | 29

A H i s t o r y of

1970

Hip-Hop is created in the Bronx of New York and it births a new genre of music.

1970’s - 1980’s

East Coast dominates the hip-hop scene, setting the example for the rest of the world to follow.

1980’s - 1990’s

West Coast dominates the hip-hop scene with “gangsta rap” and rappers such as Tupac.

1990’s - 2000’s

The South dominates the hip-hop scene with a new sound that was unheard of before thanks to artists like DJ Screw and the S.U.C.

2016 - Present

“The New Wave Rap” dominates the hip-hop scene around the U.S. with artists like Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Yahty leading them.

Hip-Hop Spring ‘17 | 31

Published 2017