Cynthia Gengler's blog

   Russian folk music has a very unique sound that portrays their culture in a way that's hard to describe. When I hear Russian folk music it puts a picture of a winter scene with a babushka walking down a road holding wood or children practicing their native dance. What really makes their music unique is the instruments they play. Russian folk music mostly has instruments like Russian Spoons, Treshchotka, Zhaleika, Balalaika, and Dorma. Each instrument brings a different element to the music. The Balalaika brings a warm, rounded sound; the Zhaleika has a piercing, nasal, sad, and compassionate sound. While the Treshochotka has a crackling, thundering, racket sound, the Dorma has toner vocal sounds, and the Russian Spoons bring the clacking, slapper, and rattles element.     Russian folk music typically uses Octatonic scales, with whistling or harmonization in the background of the main lead. The instruments also blend together insanely well, which doesn't make sense. The melod

                                                                    The Kalimba Introduction and Background:     I first learned about the kalimba from a girl I met in a native camp held one hour down the river from Manley, Alaska. The girl I met, my bunkmate, brought her kalimba to the camp and would play it every night. She would play breathtaking music every time. What intrigued me the most was the warm sound which made any chords sound like a lullaby. It is also a straightforward instrument to play, which I found to be one night when the girl allowed me to play her "thumb piano". Later for my eighteenth birthday I bought my own kalimba and have been playing it along with my ukulele and piano practice.      The kalimba's evolution primarily involved the transition from purely plant-based materials like bamboo to metal tines, with the most significant innovation being the adaption by ethnomusicologist High Tracey who modified the traditional African 'mbira' to c

"It's a Good Day" by Ice Cube is at the top of my playlist along with many other songs from him when I am having a bad day. The song has been described as bittersweet, soothing, atmospheric, hypnotic, peaceful, and melancholic.  @mr.moseby2456  -2021  stated in the comment section of  YouTube   " This sampling is one of the best of all time. The beat is steady and relatively calm, and it can invoke both a feeling of genuine joy but also at other times melancholic feelings similar to a passed memory."   Ice Cube has been a successful artist since the 1980s. He has dealt with many hardships of life from growing up in Los Angeles California. Dealing with crime, and not the best home life he knows what hardship is very well, but he still chooses to keep his head up and give it his best shot in life, which we see in this song. Thomas Galindo stated in his article   "Sometimes it just feels good to have a good day. While surrounded by violence and injust