Show Notes
Let's travel through time to learn how people use improvisation to liven up their music.
More from The Music Box
Kiana and Fiona interview electric piano technician Matt Blocher of the Chicago Electric Piano Company to learn all about his work. Find out about Matt’s day to day work, the differences and similarities between a Fender Rhodes and a Wurlitzer, advice for becoming a technician, and all the tricks of the trade. Although The Music Box is for everyone of all ages, we would recommend our Behind the Music episode for career-oriented high school-aged students and older, as it’s jam packed with lots of information.
Kiana and Fiona dig into the music and language of the Gullah Geechee people including the incredible true story of one song, one recording, a decades-later discovery thousands of miles away, and the history of some of the music we still sing today!
A wild night time traveling lands Kiana and Fiona somewhere they definitely weren't supposed to be, and they realize something huge: nobody around them knows the Happy Birthday song. That sends them chasing its real history, starting right here in Louisville, and a legal fight you won't believe.
Fiona is nowhere to be found on recording day, and Kiana tracks her down at a vinyl factory where things get weird fast! This episode is a zany adventure into how a song goes from a recording to a record you can actually play.
Kiana and Fiona hit the racetrack to help their friend Lightning Larry prep for a big race, and end up on a musical trip spanning the Kentucky Derby, an opera about a Swiss folk hero, a Lakota horse song, and Tuvan throat singers imitating a gallop. Turns out horses might have more in common with those singers than you'd think.