Title- Ciocarlia

Link-  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBuB4CdJDxc

Performers- The Ferenc Santa Jr. Band

Culture- While we tend to have trouble performing upbeats, in gypsy music they are used constantly as seen in this video.

Instrumentation- Violin, (viola?) bass, and hammered dulcimer.

This class seems to always remind me of the improvisation class I took last semester. Our teacher was very insistent on us being able to improvise or alter melodies in a style outside of the typical jazz improv. One style we spent a lot of time studying was Gypsy and I personally had trouble grasping it. For homework we would be assigned to find examples of the style, (such as this video) and incorporate what we learned into our own improvising.

The major trouble I had in this style was playing constant upbeats. After spending a few weeks in this course, I am fairly confident that there is a cultural reason as to why I have trouble with this and the performers can do it with ease. My guess is that they grew up playing music similar to this and upbeats are embedded in their mind just as down beats are embedded in the mind of a tuba player.