Jams with Julianne

       This weeks blog is going to dive deeper into the music cultures of the Middle East and Asia. For this blog I want to talk specifically about Japan and its music culture. The three main things I am going ton focus on is instruments, dances, and traditional music in Japan. Japan is a country with a very rich music culture.       There are 6 main traditional instruments in the Japanese music culture, which are the shakuhachi, the koto, the sanshin, the shamisen, the biwa, and the taiko. The shakuhachi is one of the most popular wind instruments in Japan. It is traditionally made of bamboo and has four holes in the front and one in the back. It is known as the Japanese flute. Shakuhachi music was originally used for personal spiritual enlightenment rather than public performance. Another one of the most popular instruments in Japan is Shamisen. The Shamisen is a chordophone; its neck is similar to the length of a guitar, however it does not hav...

 For this blog, I decided to interview my mom. As I have said before, I do not come from a very musical family but still thought it would be interesting to hear about the music that my mom grew up around.  Before I get started with the interview, I wanted to share a little bit about my moms background. My mom's name is Elizabeth Outlaw. She is a hospice nurse, which means she is constantly driving and visiting her patients in their homes. She is originally from Louisiana, but constantly moved around as a kid. She has lived in Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Maine, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and now South Carolina.  Me "Who was your favorite artist as a kid?" Mom "My favorite artist was Alabama which is a band that sung Country music." Me "What was your favorite genre/style of music when you were a kid?" Mom "I am not sure that I really had a favorite genre/style. We did not listen to music much as kids, we were always playing outside....