Canadian Aboriginal Music

Hello, my name is Katherine McKay. My Tumblr is about Canadian Aboriginal Music. On here you'll see my thoughts about Canadian Aboriginal Music, who my favourite artists are, reviews and some videos about Aboriginal Artists across Turtle Island.

[kattymckay]

Hand Drum

You’ll need raw hide. If you are making a 20 inch diameter drum the hide must have no holes and you’ll need 2 square foot pieces. Elk hide is the best option because it’ll create a rich mellow sound

Make a drum frame. Use a hollowed out log that is about two-thirds the length of the diameter of the drum. For a 20-inch diameter drum, your frame will be about 13 1/2 inches tall. Hollow out your log so the shell is 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick. The thicker the shell, the deeper the pitch of your drum. Clean your hollowed log so that no rot or loose wood remains.

You’ll need to gather wood to make the hoop frames. You can cut branches from a willow tree because it’s easier to bend. They’ll have to be about 36 inches long and the same thickness as your thumb.

You’ll want to boil some water when you are making the hoop frame because you will have to pass the branch through the steam and then slowly begin to bend it the circle size of your drum. If you bend the branch after its freshly cut you wont have to boil it as much. Listen to the sound of the wood as you bend it. If it creaks, it means you're close to breaking it. Keep steaming the wood as you bend it, giving the wood five minutes of steam for every one minute of bending. Once the branch is bent into as perfect a circle as you can get it, tie the two ends together, overlapping the ends, and place the hoop around the top of the drum frame.

You’ll have to make a second hoop so just repeat step 4. Make sure you measure your second hoop with the first one so that they’ll both be the same size. After you do this place the hoop at the bottom of the drum frame, opposite of the first hoop.

Place spacers onto the drum frame. Cut another branch into about a dozen pieces 2 to 2 1/2 inches long. Use small headless nails and wood glue to attach the pieces between the two hoops about 2 inches apart from each other. Go back around your drum head with a small nail punch and sink the heads of the nails below the surface of the wood to keep them from snagging or wearing down the drum head.

Let your drum frame dry. Put some weight on it to prevent it from warping in. Make sure you put somewhere that’s warm and has plenty air circulation.

Prepare the rawhide to make a drum head. If starting with a dried rawhide, soaking it in a bathtub or a large bucket of water for 24 hours will soften it enough for it be stretchable and easy to work with. Cut the rawhide into a circle 2 inches larger in diameter than the frame of your drum. Cut the remaining scrap of rawhide into one long strip 1/2 inch wide, starting on the inner edge where you cut the circle. Keep cutting around until you run out of rawhide. Cut off three sections a foot long and braid them together to form a circle 2 to 3 inches in diameter. Weave the tails of the braid into the beginning of the braid to form this circle. Take the remaining long strip of rawhide and cut it into four even pieces.

Attach the rawhide to the drum to make a drum head. Use a leather punch or leather needle to make the holes, fold the drum head (the circular piece of rawhide you cut earlier) into quarters and insert one of the strips of rawhide through the head at each fold of the head. Doing one loop at a time from each strip, bring the ends over the bottom hoop of your drum frame and through the ring of braided rawhide 1/2 inch apart and back up to the head and through it 2 inches over on each side of the first stitch. Repeat this process around the hoop, alternating strips and pulling the head tight until the entire head is secured to the frame. Weave the leftover ends back through the braided ring.

      10. Allow your rawhide to dry for 24 hours.  

[kattymckay]

Derek Miller is  an Aboriginal Canadian singer/songwriter. He is from Six Nations.

[kattymckay]

Edward Gamblin was a Canadian Cree country/rock singer and songwriter. He was from Cross Lake, Manitoba.

[kattymckay]

Deepening Review

I have listened to Don Amero’s album “Deepening”. I am a huge fan of Don Amero and his work never seizes to surprise me. I think that Don Amero’s voice is a mixture of John Mayer meets Keith Urban, which is why I am such a huge fan of his. Although I thought that his voice was inconsistent on a couple songs. On “Life” and “My Lovely” I didn’t think that his voice was as strong and expressive as they were on the other songs like “This Old Road,” where his voice was so strong and expressive that I was able to connect with the song. That was my only issue but over all I loved the laid back tempo of this album and I enjoyed listening to his lyrics and his voice.  I purchased this album awhile back and I have been fairly busy with my school work so I thought if anyone can relax me it’d be Don Amero and I’m not sure if you can tell but I am fairly relaxed. This album has everything that I could possibly want in an album.

[kattymckay]

I got Crystle Lightning's autograph. If you don't know who she is, Crystle Lightning is from the group Lightning Cloud. She is a plains Cree/First Nation women from Edmonton Alberta, Canada.

[kattymckay]

The Album I got from Don Amero awhile back. The album is titled "Deepening." I even got his autograph!

[kattymckay]

As a teenager I started painting and playing guitar.

[kattymckay]

Manitoba Music’s Aboriginal Music Program (AMP) was launched in 2004 to help First Nation, Métis, and Inuit people develop sustainable careers in Manitoba’s music industry. The program delivers projects and services that respond to the needs of the industry as identified by a steering committee.

[kattymckay]

Two sisters from Canada. They are both Inuit throat singers and drum dancers. Very interesting video, It makes me happy to see them keeping their tradition alive. Enjoy!

[the-weeknd-ovo-xo-blog]

Currently listening to this #JoeyStylez #Indian #Outlaw #GoodMusic (Taken with instagram)

[kattymckay]

One of my favourite albums. I love Joey Stylez. He's an awesome musician. I love all his albums and all his songs but the "Black Star" is my favourite album of his. My favourite song on this album is "Sugar Cane" feature Big Sav. His music certainly does reflect him, at least I think so. He's a very creative musician and I think that's why so many people adore him. I hope he keeps up the good work!

[kattymckay]

Aboriginal Musicians

              I am a female aboriginal teenager. I have my ups and downs like every other living being. I listen to music all the time. I love all genres and I respect all musicians but I have a great respect for the Aboriginal Canadian musicians, not because I’m an Aboriginal but because of what the aboriginal people have been through and we still go through similar problems to this day. In my eyes, when I see an Aboriginal Musician getting out there and braving through the storm it brings so much pride to my heart.

                Some of my favourite musicians include Don Amero, Buffy Sainte Marie, Wab Kinew, Joey Stylez and the list goes on. Every single one of these artists are huge inspirations to me, in more ways than one. They have all had a huge impact on me and so has their music. Whenever I’m in any mood I usually listen to their songs because they uplift me, and make me proud.  I have met some of these artists in person and they are just as nice in person as they are on camera. It’s also nice to see that their fame does not change who they are.

                I have so much respect for the Aboriginal youth who are currently working on getting into the music industry. I happen to know some of those youth and I am very happy to know them. Each of those youth all face a certain struggle and I think it’s amazing that they’re not letting that stop them. I think that they are all very talented in many ways. They all have their own unique style and sound. Although I hope that they also continue on with their education because personally I believe education is a powerful thing. So when they mention about making a change within the Aboriginal community they will always have their education no matter where they go. Wherever their career takes them I will always support them.

              I love to sing. I do not sing in front of crowds though because I am too shy, which is why I have so much respect for those in the industry and those working towards it. As a child I loved to sing, I used to sing to “Standing Still” by Jewel. My parents loved to listen to me sing, and they still do. Now that I have grown up I have chosen a different career path but apart of me still want to sing. I love singing along to country songs and I also write my own songs. I do not know how to play an instrument though, I have tried and tried but playing is not my thing, and I enjoy singing way more. I hope that one day I’ll be able to overcome my shyness and sing in front of a crowd or in front of anyone for that matter.

                As I am writing this post I am listening to Don Amero. Listening to Aboriginal musicians gave me inspiration to write this post. As I typed about each musician, many people came to my mind and it brought pride to my heart. I thought about how hard they worked or working now for what they want and about the struggles they have faced or will face. I know that they do not just bring pride to me but to all Aboriginals across Turtle Island. I hope they continue with what they are doing and for the youth, I hope that they do not let the fame get them and that they always remember where they came from.  I will always until the very end support each artist and respect them for what they do and who they are.

[womenwhokickass]

Buffy Sainte-Marie: Why she kicks ass

She is a Canadian-American Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

She founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project, an educational curriculum devoted to raising self-identity and self-esteem in present and future generations of Indian children by introducing them to enriching, accurate information about Native American people and cultures. She has won recognition and many awards and honours for both her music and her work in education and social activism.

By 1962, in her early twenties, Sainte-Marie was touring alone, developing her craft and performing in various concert halls, folk music festivals and Native Americans reservations across the United States, Canada and abroad. She spent a considerable amount of time in the coffeehouses of downtown Toronto’s old Yorkville district, and New York City’s Greenwich Village as part of the early to mid-1960s folk scene, often alongside other emerging Canadian contemporaries, such as Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell (including introducing her to manager Eliot Roberts), and Neil Young.

One of her most popular songs, “Until It’s Time for You to Go”, has been recorded by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Michael Nesmith, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra, Roberta Flack, Françoise Hardy, Cher, Maureen McGovern, and Bobby Darin, while “Piney Wood Hills” was made into a country music hit by Bobby Bare. Her vocal style features a frequently recurring, insistent, unusually sustained vibrato, one more prominent than can be found in the music of any other well-known popular music performer.

In late 1975, Sainte Marie received a phone call from Dulcy Singer, then Associate Producer of Sesame Street, to appear on the show. According to Sainte-Marie, Singer wanted her to count and recite the alphabet like everyone else, but instead, she wanted to teach the show’s young viewers that “Indians still exist”.  She regularly appeared on Sesame Street over a five-year period from 1976 to 1981, along with her first son, Dakota Starblanket Wolfchild, whom she breast-fed in one episode. Sesame Street even aired a week of shows from her home in Hawaii in December 1977.

In 1969 she started a philanthropic non-profit fund Nihewan Foundation for American Indian Education devoted to improving Native American students participation in learning. 

She founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project in October 1996 using funds from her Nihewan Foundation and with a two-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan. With projects across Mohawk, Cree, Ojibwe, Menominee, Coeur D’Alene, Navajo, Quinault,Hawaiian, and Apache communities in eleven states, partnered with a non-native class of the same grade level for Elementary, Middle, and High School grades in the disciplines of Geography, History, Social Studies, Music and Science and produced a multimedia curriculum CD, Science: Through Native American Eyes.

In 1996 she received an honorary Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa degree from the University of Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. She then gave the convocation address to the administration, education, and engineering graduates. As part of the address, she sang a song about the Canadian Indian residential school system.

In 2007 she received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. On 13 June 2008, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada, an honorary Doctor of Music from The University of Western Ontario on June 10, 2009, in London, Ontario, and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art & Design on June 4, 2010, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. On May 23, 2012 she received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia.

She spoke out in a 2008 interview at the National Museum of the American Indian that she had been blacklisted and that she, along with Native Americans and other native people in the Red Power movements, were put out of business in the 1970s. In a 1999 interview at Diné College given to a staff writer with Indian Country Today, she said "I found out 10 years later, in the 1980s, that President Lyndon B. Johnson had been writing letters on White House stationery praising radio stations for suppressing my music, In the 1970s, not only was the protest movement put out of business, but the Native American movement was attacked.”

[kattymckay]

I am a huge fan of Buffy Sainte Marie. She is an amazing woman and the fact that she is an aboriginal canadian, wait an aboriginal canadian woman, well I think that, that is pretty awesome. As a female aboriginal youth it makes me so proud to see her succeed. She is an inspiration to all aboriginal woman across turtle island. All her success and everything she earned is well deserved. I hope one day I'll be as successful as her but until then I will learn from her and all the other inspirational women in my life

[kattymckay]

Connections

                  There are many different tribes in many areas across Turtle Island. In each of these areas the tribes will have different teachings but that is not the only difference, each tribe has their own way of music. The history, the stories, and their instruments are all a little different in comparison to the other tribes.  They will also have different ways of doing their music. Although one thing that remains the same is that our music is way to connect us with one another, ourselves, to Mother Earth and to our creator.

            The plains music is one of the more familiar Aboriginal music to non-aboriginal peoples. This is because of the representation through television and movies. The instruments that are used is the Drum, which can vary in different sizes, shapes and materials. A small drum, also know as a hand drum is about 12-18 inches in circumference and is played by one person, it is also covered on one or both sides of the drum. The larger drum can be compared to a marching band bass drum in size. This drum is played by several drummers and is most often played at powwows. The drum beats represent the heart beat of Mother Earth. Another instrument is the rattle. The rattle displays great inventiveness with natural materials. Flutes and whistles are also instruments that are used. They are the primary melodic instruments. The Northern Plains tribes vocal range is high where as the Southern plains is medium. The music style is described as tense, tight, and strained vocals.

            In the Northwest Coast their music usually has a slow tempo and is accompanied by a drum. The singing is community based, there are some solo parts but they are not long. The solo parts are usually in the first round of the song. Some of the instruments used are hand drums that are made of animal hides, plank drums, log drums, box drums, wood clappers, rattles, and whistlers. The majority of the instruments were used mostly at the potlatch and also carried over into the festivities throughout the year. The main function of the music is spiritual, it honours the earth, creator and the ancestors.

            The Inuit traditionally, have three basic forms of music. These forms include throat singing, the drum dance and A-ja-ja songs which is singing with drums. Throat singing is an ancient form of music and it has many names: katajjait (Ungava region), kataksatuk (Iglulik), and pirkusiarartuq (Netsilik and Caribou). The katajjait are duets performed by two women who stand face to face, it can also be performed in groups of four. The women make rhythmic or guttural sounds through vocal manipulation and also through breathing techniques. Their songs can reach 240 beats a minute. The katajjait was usually performed during the spring equinox, winter and summer solstices or when the men were away hunting. The drum (qillat) is oval and is 10-20 centimeters, the handle was short and fitted on the long side. Traditionally the drum was made of walrus skin and the bone frame was from a narwhal tendon. Modern drums are now made with synthetic materials. Drum songs known as the A-ja-ja use both vocables and words. The drum is known as a handle drum. The drum is about 45 centimeters across. It is struck from side to side with a drumstick.

            In most regions across Canada the forms of music within each tribe is different. There are some similarities though, as you see the drum is a particular one. The reason why I think that it is, is because the drum is important because it represents the heartbeat of our Mother Earth and that is very powerful. Singing is the other major similarity within the tribes. One thing that will never change though is that our music is what connects each of us to all living things on turtle island and to the ones in the spirit world.

[kattymckay]

More than just an Art

          In the Aboriginal culture music plays a powerful role. It is a part of everyday life and it is a vital part of sacred ceremonies. Traditional music is still practised and performed widely. Some musicians use music as a way of telling stories, sharing their emotions and as a way to escape from reality.

            For years aboriginal artists have used music as a way of telling stories. They’re stories vary from tragedies, to heartbreaks and to some of the best memories of their life. Although some choose to tell stories of the past, history about their tribes or even the history of the country.  I find that you can tell how that person felt at the time by the tune of their song, if its an upbeat song then I put myself in that time and I feel either excited or really happy or when the song is slow or hard sounding it usually makes feel angry or sad. The story songs always help especially when you feel what they felt, and the tune just matches your emotions.

            Aboriginal musicians, both young and old will sometimes use music as a way of therapy. Personally I think that its one of the best ways because you write how you feel at the moment on to paper and then you turn them into lyrics. As an aboriginal youth listening to someone sing about something similar to what has happened to me, it makes feel like there is someone out there who understands me and what I’m going through. For youth we all go through stuff and our emotions are strong so wither you rap, sing or play an instrument they are all ways of letting out your feelings, so when you rap your rhymes will be more fluent and fast and if you sing you’ll sing your heart out and hit the highest notes possible or if you play an instrument you’ll play like you have never played before because you are putting your heart and soul into it.

            The gift of song, prayer and poetry are very important to Aboriginal people because it links us with our Mother Earth and the creator. We have been using music for many years because it’s a major part of our culture. Aboriginal people will sometimes put their prayers into a song and they will sing it at sacred ceremonies. Our songs and our dances will come from nature or perhaps in a dream. The songs we sing and the instruments we play are all sacred to us. We are now working on preserving and regaining our musical traditions.

          In the past we were not allowed to practice our traditional ways, which involved our songs. Our songs were and still a huge part of our lives. We are slowly regaining back and preserving our way through teachings and learning from our leaders and our elders. Many people think that music is just an art and in some cases it is depending on how you use it and why. For us Aboriginal people music will never just be an art, it is a lifestyle.

[kattymckay]

Healing Through Music

           Throughout time the Aboriginal people of Turtle Island have struggled and suffered. To this very day we still face those problems. Although now the younger generations are now finding ways to escape and help heal the darkness from our past. It is because of these ways we now have more leaders and more role models for us to look up to. One of these ways I believe is through music.

            As the years have come and gone I have noticed that a vast majority of the aboriginal youth are turning to music. You see it within schools, and you see it through the internet. Even some of my friends and family are involved through music, some have already been noticed and got their name out and some are just beginning. When I asked some of them why they chose to go into music they had mentioned that it was a way of therapy and they wanted to be able to help uplift some of the stereotypes that are still around to this day.

            In the past I think it would’ve been difficult for the youth to do what we are able to accomplish today because of the lack of role models. Because of everything that had happened in the past I think that it would’ve been hard for a young person to find someone to look up to and that it would’ve been difficult for the older people to try and be a role model as well. Since then we now have a lot more leaders to look to and learn from, especially through the music industry. I see a lot of Aboriginal artists and groups that are now known across the world because of their music.

            Even though being known across seas sounds pretty awesome I assume that there are also troubles that they must face too. These troubles must involve stuff like racism, doubt, and many other things that are not good for a person’s health.  Although this kind of stuff hurts you, it is also a good way to motivate you. Being able to push through these problems will help you become a stronger a person, so knowing that if they are able to push through that makes me feel strong about myself and confident. It truly does bring pride to my heart to see this happening and that we are facing these issues head on.

            As an aboriginal youth myself I do face these issues and sometimes it’ll bring me down but when I do I always turn to my music. Not only does listening to music help but when you sing or play an instrument it’s a good way to let out those feelings. Of course there are many other ways to help let out your feelings either it’s writing it down, or reading a good book, but music is my way of helping to get stuff of my back.

[blightyboo]

Visit Original Link

Wab Kinew, Our Home and Native Land

[kattymckay]

Dare I say that I like this version of “Oh Canada” more than the original? I love how he incorporates First Nation history into this song. Not only is it entertaining but it’s also educating people on some of the major parts and darkest parts in the history of Canada. This remix of “Oh Canada” is hands down the best one I’ve heard. I hope you enjoy listening to this just as much as I did!

[decolonizingmedia]

"The Best Indigenous Music of 2013" | Revolutions Per Minute

#DecolonizeYourPlaylist

[rpmfm]

:)

[kattymckay]

Awesome! Each of the artists on this list deserve it. I love the varieties between them too. I think 2013 was a successful year for all Aboriginal musicians I hope they keep it up and continue to make us proud!