Tisha is Treble!

Umm Kulthum: After watching a video of Umm Kulthum in class, I was really captivated by the richness of her voice and fell in love! I was curious to know more about Umm Kulthum and decided to delve further into her life to see what an impact she was on the Arab community. Umm Kulthum’s career started through her father who was an imam ( The leader of prayers in a mosque). Besides being an imam, he also had other jobs such as singing religious songs at weddings and holidays in order to keep a roof over his family’s head. Umm Kulthum would often hear her father sing and mimic his singing. After her father realized the potential her voice had, he took Umm with him to perform in the family’s ensemble but because she was a girl, she had to be disguised in a boy’s coat and a headdress, leaving her mouth and eyes visible. Over time, her career started to skyrocket and paved the way for the Arab community. Below are two videos: One is a recording of Umm Kulthum singing "Alf Leila We Leila...

What happens when you mix American, European, and Mexican musical styles together? You birth a new musical evolution: Tejano Music History on Tejano Music: The evolution of Tejano music began in N orthern Mexico (also known as norte ño) and Texas around the mid 19th century. The name Tejano, is actually the same name that's given to Mexican-Americans living in Texas. Tejano music actually originated from Europeans of Germany, Poland, and Czech Republic when they migrated to Mexico and Texas. On the way to their migration, they brought along dances like polka and waltz and introduced the accordion. When the Mexican Revolution arose, the Europeans fled and left everything behind, including their musical impact on the Tejanos. How is Tejano Music Played: Tejano has three forms of music and you can distinguish which group is which based on instrumentation and orchestration.  The original form, conjunto , featured the accordion that played the melodic line and it is accompanied by a tw...

  Hi guys! Today I’ll be going on a trip (virtually.. We’re going to have many virtual trips this semester so please bear with me) around Sub Saharan Africa and see what we’ll discover. Let’s go! The story of the Balafon: When learning about the different types of instruments used in West and South Africa, I was really curious to know what other instruments there were and discovered the Balafon . The balafon is a xylophone and it is usually associated with the Griots. It’s made up of a bamboo frame with wooden keys which is usually kiln baked so that there is no moisture left and has gourds underneath to add more resonance to the instrument. The gourds are also cut out and have to be tuned to the wooden keys which is a huge skill because most balafon players depend on electronic tuning. Below is a video of a balafon solo performed by Naby Camara. Toumani Diabate:  I was fascinated by the beautiful performance on the kora by Toumani Diabate and knew I had to add him onto t...

I wasn't a really big fan of K-pop until my sophomore year of high school. One day, I randomly decided to look up K-pop music videos and I came across a group called BTS (Any Army fans in the house?!) and I became highly obsessed to say the least. I would stay up and watch all of their music videos (sometimes one too many), look up the lyrics and practice so I could sing along, and I even managed to learn all seven of their names in one day - like I said I was obsessed - and I still am, haha!  When I was watching their music videos, I noticed that they wore makeup but they weren't wearing a full set of makeup, just eyeliner. This necessarily didn’t imply that they were gay but as a way of showing that men can be confident and wear makeup too! I didn't think anything of it because I thought it was pretty cool to see a boy group break the social norms and wear eyeliner and given the fact it was 2016, I thought everyone normalized men wearing makeup by then. Well, was I WRONG....

When learning about the culture of Native Americans, I was mesmerized and fell in love with the Powwow ceremony because there’s many aspects of their culture that relates to my own culture and it made me feel like I was at home (Disclaimer: I was born in Charleston but, still). I was fascinated by the dancing and was curious to learn more about the different types of dances in Native American culture. I took on my own curiosity to explore the many dances and discovered a dance that intrigued me: the Grass Dance . The Grass Dance is actually one of the oldest dances to exist in Native American culture. The dancers imitate the swaying of the grass when the wind blows and they dance purposefully to make the grass flat, as a preparation for a ceremony. The video below is a Grass Dance performance that took place in North Dakota. As you are watching the video, you can see that they have jingles on their regalias, which acts as an idiophone.  Music is the heart of the Native Americans. T...

Hi everyone! My name is Tisha Kosmas and I am a junior, majoring in music education along with a performance certificate. My passion for music started when I picked up a violin for the first time at eleven years old. I didn't know what it meant to me at the time, but I definitely wasn't expecting the violin to become, what it would be, the rest of my life (I wanted to be a doctor at one point.. yeah too late for that).  I'll be the first to admit, I never had any musical experience until I got to middle school. I never had piano lessons, never been apart of a church choir, nor did I like singing as much as I do today (Crazy how life works).  Thanks to my first encounter with the violin, I appreciate music much more than I ever did as child. Music has a way of making an impact on people and I'd like to take you on my musical journey! An example of music that's important to me: 2019 was one of the darkest years I've lived. My mental state was at its downfall, I de...