ARTSEDGE: The Kitchen Sink

There’s a question every good jazz musician can answer just by listening to a song: “Does it Swing?” In this episode, we introduce several kinds of vintage and modern swing music: Swing Jazz, Western Swing, Gypsy Swing, and New Jack Swing and learn what music needs to have in order to “Swing.”

OK Go returns to the stage in the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center to perform “Here It Goes Again.” But this time, audience participation isn’t limited to the camera crew. This time, Damian brings an audience member onstage to play guitar with the band! In SD.

In the third part of our interview with OK Go, frontman Damian Kulash talks about how the accessibility of his musical idols influenced how OK Go interacts with their fans.

In the second part of our interview with OK Go, frontman Damian Kulash talks about how experiencing a New Orleans second line parade helped him rethink his place in the music industry.

Arriving at the final stop on our tour, let’s look back at all the composers we’ve met and recall the music we’ve heard. In this episode, we’ll listen to excerpts from the concert program, and you will use what you learned about pitch, rhythm, mood and dynamics to tell us what you think each composer was trying to say. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please be sure to let us know, and try our other classical music podcasts, like Classical Music in America, or Beethoven Rocks!

In the first part of our interview with OK Go, frontman Damian Kulash discusses the importance of arts education.

In the furthest destination in our journey, we travel to Russia. Dmitri Shostakovich used his music to paint a picture of his war-torn homeland. His Symphony No. 10 recalls his memories of the tanks and soldiers, and he composed music that sounded as if you were living through a war. Examine what happens when sound changes its dynamic (from soft to loud--and from loud to louder) while listening to Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10. Our journey's not over yet!

Kitchen cabinets? A plastic bag? A baking sheet? Using everyday objects found around your house, learn how to make spooky sound effects for your very own Halloween radio show!

Everyone knows what it feels like to be sad, but what if you wanted to write music that expressed emotions without using words? On this stop in our tour, we’ll listen how Benjamin Britten used melodies sketched in his childhood notebooks to capture emotion in the “Sentimental Saraband” from his Simple Symphony. The final stop on out tour is Russia. Better bring a jacket!

From old-time radio to movies and video games, sound, and the use of sound effects, can play a huge role in helping bring stories to life. In this episode, we’ll examine how sound is used to tell stories, and create our own old-time radio show, without ever leaving the house.