Topics

Nov

Culture Smart: The Musical Scale Across Cultures

by Your friends at OIC on November 24, 2013

Children learning to play the violin, symbolizing the different musical scales across cultures

Learning to play different styles of music

Tonal Patterns and Changing Intervals

When you first learn to play an instrument, the first series of notes taught is called a scale. A scale is a series of ascending pitches, usually ending on the octave, the same note, at a higher pitch. Music from different cultures uses different intervals between the notes of an octave.

If you’ve seen The Sound of Music, you know the Western music major scale: do, re, mi, fa, so la, ti, do. It consists of 7 unique notes, with the 8^th note being the octave. Listen to a C Major Scale: Read more...

Your friends at OIC Comments

China/Cultural Diversity/Middle East/The World's Music

Nov

Aha Moment Maker: Julia Child Flubs the Flip

by Your friends at OIC on November 23, 2013

BOSTON, 1963—On an episode of “The French Chef,” Julia Child spoke to the fact that flipping food items in a pan requires courage in one’s convictions. She set the stage perfectly for what would happen next.

That day, she was demonstrating a lesson in how to make potato pancakes. Just as she was deftly performing the outward-and-back motion necessary to flip a pancake, clumps of the potato mixture missed the pan and plopped onto the counter. Read more...

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Your Own Aha Moments

Nov

C is for Cyclops, S is for Sicily

by Sheron Long on November 21, 2013

Cyclops' face on a boat in Aci Trezza, Sicily, recalls the country's Greek cultural heritage. Image © Robert Long.

Stories Speak of Cultural Heritage

Under the watchful eye of my high school English teacher, I learned about the 10-year voyage of Odysseus (aka Ulysses) and his encounter with the cyclops, never imagining that I would one day see evidence of their fight.

Yet, here I am on the Cyclops Riviera where the encounter occurred. Before my eyes, stories—old and new—engage me in the cultural heritage of Sicily. Read more...

Sheron Long Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Italy/Literary World

World Views: