Inspiration With a Beat

Music is Inspirational

Music is inspiration with a beat; there’s much more to music than people think.  It’s not just a time signature with instruments flowing. There’s also a message to be sent to the listener, whether it’s for that special girl, or maybe a person lost a grandparent and he needs to vent.

In the song “Poppy” by: Mac Miller, Miller explains his relationship with his grandpa and how he lost his grandpa, and he wrote a song about it. According to Jay Casteel’s ballerstatus.com video, Forbes interview with Mac Miller they recognize that he is a big name in the rap industry and it proves that rap in particular isn’t just about drugs, gangs and money. Because Mac Miller is a white rapper, he feels that he needs to “step his game up” in the industry. So therefore he puts more time and effort into his music than other rappers do.

Danny Seraphine is the drummer for the band Chicago. He’s so good when it comes to fills and soloing. But he grew up homeless, so he had a dream to make it big, and he did. In Drummer Cafe’s interview with Danny Seraphine they talk about his dream and how he achieved it, also his technique and style that go him where he is today. This goes to show that when you have a dream you can reach it no matter what stands in your way.

Machine Gun Kelly is another up and coming rapper and when I was surfing YouTube I found a video of him and a guy with cerebral palsy on stage. When M.G.K. was finished with that song, he invited the man with cerebral palsy to the right of the stage. M.G.K. walked to the right and kneeled down next to him and handed the microphone to the man with cerebral palsy and the man talked for about a minute or two about how he struggles everyday with not being able to walk and not being able to function like a normal person. So he handed M.G.K. the microphone and the man with cerebral palsy calls his brother to the sage and he lifts him up and he takes 4 steps. That was the first time he had walked by himself outside of therapy. M.G.K had a group hug with the man with cerebral palsy, his brother and himself and then the man sat back in his chair and was on stage for the rest of the time. And later that week he took about 67 steps by himself in therapy.

Another famous drummer is Ricky Ficarelli. He is an independent drummer on YouTube and does multiple drum covers to multiple songs. And when the band blink-182 was doing a weekly shout out to those on YouTube, they mentioned his name and one of his videos. And that’s when he really started to get a lot of twitter followers and Facebook shares. And now he is traveling with his newly formed band “Wellington”.  And he has made a lot of money over the 3 years he has been on YouTube. And he uses all of that profit to market himself so not only the drumming community knows who he is, but everybody knows who he is.

This just goes to show that music is and can be inspirational and life changing. So if a person has a dream he needs to strive to reach it and he just might.

Works Cited Page

Casteel. Jay. “Mac Miller Interview for Forbes’ 30 Under 30 (video)” Ballerstatus.com

            12/20/2011

Drummercafe, Elliot, Bart “Danny Seraphine” June 6^th, 2011, 2/29/2012

You tube Dec. 5^th, 2011, 2/29.2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfQ69JYO4FM

You tube Aug.4, 2011, 2/29/2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC6gjjPkbtc

Alcoholism Proven disease or mythical disease?

            In the article “You Can Cut Back” Shari roan informs the reader about people and drinking. Her viewpoint on the subject is neutral. She is not slanted toward one of the sides of the issue but clearly states both sides very clearly and does not have a bias.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-alcohol16-2009nov16,0,474959.story

            In the article “Alcoholism as a Disease, But It Doesn’t Act Like one.”  Buddy T. is against the fact that some people think Alcoholism is not a disease. He thinks it is a very serious disease and persuades the reader in the article to believe him and his statistics.

 http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/info2/a/aa022697.htm

            In the Article “Why Alcoholism Is Not a Disease” Heather N. is against the fact that people think Alcoholism is a disease. She states many facts about how it can cause other diseases or physical problems. She explains she has a clear viewpoint on the topic and she states her bias against the issue.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1545723

Were going to Webster University right?” “Yes, of course”

            As we pull out of the driveway, I can’t stop tapping on my leg. My dad blasting the band chicago doesn’t help at all. While the music was blasting, I couldn’t believe I was going to meet my idol, Danny Seraphine. Once my dad told me the story how he met his idol and he said you have to believe or you won’t ever meet your goal. And my goal for this situation is to meet Danny Seraphine and to se him play drums and to learn how he does it so well.

            As we are driving to Webster University, I ask my dad if he has ever met his idol, he said that when he met Whitey Herzog, he was amazed at how nice he was, my dad shares this story with everyone but I love hearing it. So my dad thought he would never meet Whitey Herzog, but his father told him to believe or you won’t ever meet your goal, so he did and then he met his idol, and I met mine. Too bad my dad met his idol when he was 42 and I met mine when I was 13, but all is fair in love and war so it all evened out.

            As we get closer to the entrance at Webster University, we see people at the door to take our tickets, which is typical, so when we finally enter through the double doors we travel down a long hallway and see two tables set up and they have all of this ligature on Danny Seraphine, so I pick it up and walk through another set of double doors almost tripping because I’m reading about his style of drumming and then … I laid my eyes on the most amazing piece of DW magic I have ever seen. It was an off-white DW, 3000, with 3.4 mega hoop rimming and zildjan A’ custom cymbals. The way it glistened in the light gave me chills. The only thing that could make this any better was if Danny Seraphine was behind it. Then suddenly before my eyes I see him walking towards the drums. “Holy cow” I think to myself. This could possibly be the most exciting moment of my drummer life. Well, as we take our seats, so does he. When all of the clinic participants are seated, he grabs a microphone and says how is everybody doing tonight, and of course we say “great how about you?” so when he picks up the two drum sticks, I get chills once again. And then he puts them down. My chills go away, and he picks the drumsticks up again and starts playing on one of his many DW drum sets. My family and I are in awe. My dad especially is speechless; he turns to me and gives me a knuckle touch as if his dad did with him.

As the clinic goes on, we get more in tune and then we see him starting to slow down then he comes to a halt and talks some more about how he drums and things of that nature. As he is elaborating on the style of “jazz-rock” drumming, I notice that what he is doing is simple in a form of complicity to the extent of practice makes perfect. Practice makes perfect, such simple words with such deep meaning. My parents don’t speak drum, so I have to interpret for them. Which I don’t mind, but when they finally understand what he is talking about, they are some what following the discussion. As the clinic goes on, the way he plays those drums is so elegant, in a way that he is a one man symphony. All I wanted to see during the clinic was to see him hit things, but now he is hitting things, playing music, making music and is teaching his style and type of music. My dream is to be some what like him but fulfill my on type and style of drumming.

After the clinic, all of us followed Danny out of the auditorium for autographs and pictures. I was at least 5^th in line and still was in awe from his playing, and also I didn’t know what to say so I let my dad do all of the talking and I just posed and smiled. But my mom hit me so I could say thank you and I did but it came out as th-th-th-thank yyyyouu MMMMrrrrrr. Seraphineee. But after I was walking to the car, I had just thought to myself. “Wow, what the heck just happened” and apparently I said it out lid and my dad said “you believed and you met your goal.”