The Practice--Indigenous Music Exchange and Exploration

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the ruins of Machu Pichu
In a world saturated with western pop music or westernized pop music in the East, we have forgotten how to connect to the natural world via music.  We have also lost our listening and appreciation skills for sound vibrations in the same way that people who consume junk food lose their ability to taste real food.

Couple that scenario with the fact that we are losing languages and musical traditions in the same way that animals are becoming extinct on the planet.  Our collective heritages and lineages are encoded in these musical traditions, not to mention our personal identities.  When this happens we stumble over our own roots, that is if we have enough roots to keep us grounded and centered in the natural world or our natural place on the planet.

With this in mind, I have visited YouTube (yes, the irony of using technology to connect us back to nature) to bring you these indigenous music treasures.  Once you explore these videos, you'll want to delve further and I hope you pursue those desires.  Let's start off with Native American Peyote Songs, then head over to the Cook Islands, and then to Mali to visit the Dogon People, finally we will land in Samiland where we will listen to a Saami yoik in the traditional way.  And I included a few extras.

Bon voyage!

Peyote Song (Sacred Ceremony)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKF4r88raIc

Listening to this song doesn't give you license to ingest peyote

Traditional Music from the Cook Islands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gdeRQlBaEo 

Let's have fun and contrast this video with Native American Pow-Wow dancing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF_BA8e14Bw
And here is the Dance of the Jaguar (Aztec Tribal Dance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCEBL2vy0gk  


Song from the Dogon Tribe of Mali 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whAY9R-_7ac 

 Sami Traditional Yoik

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COJrjvp6JIM

 Let's contrast this with Inuit throat-singing  (Sami also perform throat-singing, but it doesn't resemble the Inuits performing here).

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8QuNdfb-Yw

If you enjoy this type of post, then buy my book Whole Music, available on August 20 on Synclectic Media.  I'll add the link as soon as I receive it.

 









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